On Thursday, the State Department released an overview of U.S. support for the Tunisian transition by helping lay the groundwork for responsive and accountable governance and supporting preparation for elections this summer.  In order to meet these goals, the Department is seeking to build the capacity of civil society organizations, political parties, and the media.  Additionally, in coordination with international partners and financial institutions, the U.S. is seeking to support ...

Writing in the Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Trita Parsi and Reza Marashi discuss the regional uprisings affect on the regional power-balance.  The others note Saudi Arabia and Israel's disapproval of the Arab Spring given the strategic and political implications for their own countries.  Parsi and Marashi state that while Saudi leaders understood there was little they could do to prevent U.S. supported revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, they moved ...

On Tuesday, the Conflict Prevention and Resolution Forum hosted a discussion on what lessons from South Africa and Indonesia can be applied to the political transitions in the Middle East and North Africa.  Leena El-Ali, Director of the Muslim-Western Relations and the Middle East and North Africa Programs at Search for Common Ground, who moderated the event, made opening remarks and introduced the following panelists: Endy Bayuni, Visiting Fellow at ...

Amnesty International has released its annual report on human rights, saying that while the uprisings across the Middle East have given rise to hope, there is serious backlash that must be dealt with if true success is to be realized.  While uprisings unseated leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, they have been halted by violence and repression in Libya, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere. Even in Egypt there are widespread fears that ...

During a Policy Forum at the Washington Institute of Near East Policy, chair of Middle East and Mediterranean Studies at Sciences Po Giles Kepel and Dr. Martin Kramer, the Washington Institute's Wexler Fromer fellow discussed the future of the Arab uprisings.  Kepel pointed tothe Arab people's economic grievances, frustrations over rampant corruption and the expiration of the Islamist threat as reasons for the revolution.  He also noted the differences between the Tunisian ...

Writing at Babylon & Beyond, Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center Paul Salem notes that the regional uprisings have not caused any shift in the region's strategic balance. He notes that rather than gaining influence, Iran's soft power has decreased as it's regime looks increasingly repressive in light of the new revolutionary models of Egypt and Tunisia. While Saudi Arabia remains worried about the effect of these transformations, it has ...

On Tuesday, the Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy and the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press held a panel discussion on the challenges facing press freedom in the 21st Century.  Carl Gershman, President of the National Endowment for Democracy made opening remarks while  David Killion, U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO moderated the event and introduced the following panelists:  Assistant Secretary  at the Bureau of ...

Former Tunisian interior minister Farhat Rajhi warned that if the Islamist group Ennahda were to win in an elections, Ben Ali loyalists would stage a coup.  He said the 'people of the coast,' referring to Ben Ali loyalists with their main power base around the coastal city of Sousse, would not allow their power to be taken away.  The Ennahda group could poll well in the conservative south of the ...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi to step down "for the future of Libya, its peace and prosperity." Turkey initially opposed military action in Libya, but led aid efforts and participated in the arms embargo as part of its NATO responsibilities. Prior to the uprising, Turkish companies had billions of dollars invested in Libya's commercial construction boom. United Nations High Commission for Refugees  spokesman Adrian ...

Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues Melanie Verveer will travel to Tunisia from May 2-6 to lead a State Department colloquium with women civil society leaders from the Middle East and North Africa.   She will also meet with Tunisian government officials and representatives from business and civil society to discuss women's issues and their participation in the political transition.

In remarks made at a World Press Freedom Day event, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale lauded the work journalists have done in the "pursuit of truth" and discussed the importance of protecting press freedom.  McHale discussed her recent trip to Tunisia where activists and citizens "are embracing the blessings of a free press, of freedom of association, and of free expression as vital components of an ...

Writing in the New York Times, Roger Cohen stated "Osama Bin Laden is dead -- and so is an old Middle East" and noted that the recent events in the Middle East demonstrate how the al-Qaeda leader had lost touch with Arab youth who have "move irrelevant....Facebook and Twitter turned out to be far more effective agents of change than any 'martyrdom' attack on apostates, crusaders and Zionists – the ...