Policy Analysis

April 28, 2016 Yazidism is a separate religion. It is not “Umayyad Islam,” and neither is it an off-shoot of Sufism. Islam, notably in its ecstatic rituals, is evidently part of the Yazidi universe ― to which Yazidism has contributed, and from which it has adapted. Still, Yazidism is not

April 26, 2016 When most analysts evaluate the Arab Spring uprisings, they point to Tunisia as the single Arab state to have made a relatively peaceful transition to democracy. But this path has been neither linear nor smooth. Tunisia has experienced a slew of both achievements and setbacks since ousting

April 22, 2016 Following a number of nationalist, independent and partisan Egyptian newspapers, including: Al-Ahram, Al Gomhuria, Al Akhbar, Al Youm Al Sabeh, Al-Masry Al-Youm, Al Wafd, Sawt al-Ummah and Al Shorouk in the past weeks reveals a surprising lack of discrepancy in their rhetoric towards events related to the

April 22, 2016 In the 1990s and early 2000s, American media referred to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the “Middle East Peace Process,” a testament to the positive political developments achieved in Wye River and Oslo under the stewardship of former President Bill Clinton. President Clinton, a self-declared “honest-broker,” took calculated

April 22, 2016 In a statement issued in early March in by the headquarters of State Security in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City, Egyptian Ministry of Interior General Magdy Abdel Ghaffar announced that Hamas was responsible for the June 2015 assassination of Egyptian Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat. Abdel Ghaffar

April 21, 2016 German philosopher and political scientist Hannah Arendt stated in one of her lectures that it is a problem when politicians make wrong decisions, but a catastrophe when they do not know how to present their decisions to the people. This saying perfectly encapsulates the Egyptian president’s latest

April 17, 2016 On the periphery of international concern, the situation in Libya continues to disintegrate. Yet Libya’s eastern neighbor Egypt has consistently exercised its influence in determining the diplomatic outcomes of the five year-long crisis. Recently, Cairo hosted talks between U.N. special representative to Libya Martin Kobler and Libyan

April 15, 2016 The last few weeks have witnessed increased tensions over the Sahara conflict – a more than forty year long dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backed separatist group Polisario Front, which seeks independence for Morocco’s southern provinces. Although a ceasefire between sides has held since 1991, subsequent attempts

April 14, 2016 The journey from London to the French coastal city of Calais was quick and comfortable . I nearly forgot I was traveling between two different countries until I was greeted by high fences and endless spirals of barbed wire, which marked the boundaries of the refugee camp

April 11, 2016 The “Declaration” presumably issued by Alawite notables and broadly covered by international media is a historic statement, irrespective of its political implications. While it commands international engagement, both to highlight its positive aspects and to invite its authors to expand on the less positive, it particularly ought

April 8, 2016 On the afternoon of this past January 24th, while Egypt was preparing for the fifth anniversary of the January 25 Revolution, the young Italian academic researcher Giulio Regeni disappeared in the middle of Cairo. His body turned up several days later, tossed near a security outpost on

April 8, 2016 Future relations between the Palestinians and the Israelis will likely be hamstrung by issues of the past. Namely, Israel continues to illegally occupy and support settlements in Palestinian territory, among other restrictive activities. As a result, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has warned Israel of its readiness to

April 8, 2016 Language plays a key role in the lives – and deaths – of humans. Great speeches have stirred many nations and religions into terrible wars. Conversely, language has also given voice to peace talks and anti-violence rallies. In other words, it has consistently been a mutable force

March 31, 2016 President Erdogan’s approach to securing the loyalties of Turkey’s Kurdish populace has taken many forms: granting Kurds stronger civil rights, extending the olive branch to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) insurgency, and permitting the first pro-Kurdish party to gain Parliament seats in a country where political organizations

March 31, 2016 The Iranian Shura Council and Assembly of Experts elections in February have resulted in gains for moderate reformists in a peaceful political contest. The elections’ contrast to the region’s political turmoil brings to mind the ironic words of British Parliamentarian Jock Bruce-Gardyne. In 1966, the politician described

March 31, 2016 The recent attack in Ankara, killing 34 people and injuring dozens more, has been quickly blamed on the PKK, even as a few days later the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) a break-away faction of PKK, claimed responsibility. The attack was only the latest in a series of

March 31, 2016 In the aftermath of the P5+1 agreement with Iran, the Arab Middle East has been processing two widely conflicting messages from Tehran. The first message is a soft appeal for friendship directed at the global community as a whole, which is built on promise and good intentions

For the first weeks of 2016, the imminent “Geneva 3” conference was hyped as the best chance to a find a political solution to the seemingly indefinite Syrian civil war. Despite the buzz and high expectations for diplomacy, violence marked the eve of the negotiations. Syrian soldiers, the YPG, Afghan

In Iraq, the menace of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Sadrist Movement, has reared its head again, posing serious challenges to Prime Minister Abadi and his plans for government reform. For several months, Abadi’s efforts to fight corruption and replace incompetent ministers with technocrats have faced resistance

Five months ago Nawshirwan Mustafa, general organizer of the Change Movement (Gorran) party in Kurdistan, left Iraq for London under the pretext of receiving medical treatment for chronic back pain. His extended stay has puzzled not only his rivals, but also his supporters. Silence over Mustafa’s condition, as well as