On Thursday, the Project on Middle East Political Science held a discussion with Sultan al-Qassemi, a columnist based in the U.A.E., well-known for his tracking of the events of the Arab Spring via Twitter, to explore the powers and pitfalls of social media during revolution. Marc Lynch, Director of the Middle East Studies Program at the Elliott School of International Affairs and author of the blog "Abu Aardvark," introduced al-Qassemi. ...

Al-Wefaq, Bahrain's largest Shiite group, reported on Friday that it would boycott the parliamentary elections taking place next month.  Khalil Marzooq, a leader of Al-Wefaq, said at a rally near Bahrain's capital that "if the party participates in the September elections, it will be giving the government a stamp of approval."  He added that the group disagrees with how security forces treated protesters. Anthony Mathew Jacob writes in Tehran Times that ...

The New York Times describes the "tensions beneath the surface calm of U.A.E. political life," including the opening of a trial earlier this month of five activists. And The Economist writes about how the Arab Spring is making U.A.E. "nervous," citing the growing campaign against even mild dissent. While calls for reform were met with the official announcement of plans to expand the right to vote to all U.A.E. citizens,  the government shows no ...

Human Rights Watch called for an immediate release of five pro-democracy activists, who have been detained in the United Arab Emirates since April 18 without bail.  According to Human Rights Watch, the activists were charged with "peaceful use of speech to criticize the UAE government." The UAE government said they were charged with harassment after the activists and other UAE nationals signed a petition in March that demanded constitutional and parliamentary changes in ...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will travel to the United Arab Emirates soon to meet with members of the Libyan Contact Group. Assistant Secretary of State Jeff Feltman is currently in Abu Dhabi in preparation for the Contact Group meeting. Meanwhile the Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed a planned session to discuss and possibly vote on another resolution about U.S. military involvement in Libya. NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen called on alliance members ...

On Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wished Yemenis a joyous National Unity Day, called on Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to follow through on his commitment to transfer power and declared U.S. support for  the Yemeni people.  She reiterated calls for Saleh's departure on Sunday following reports that factions loyal to the President had encircled the UAE embassy in Sana'a and refused to allow ambassadors from the United States, ...

According to Max Boot, writing at Commentary, the UAE has hired Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, to assemble a mercenary battalion for the government.  Boot argues that while the use of 'soldiers of fortune' is not inherently wrong , there can be no confusion that the UAE intends to use such mercenaries to quell internal dissent by force; with a particular focus on its large "underclass of foreign-born workers ...

On Saturday, UAE authorities dissolved the board of directors of a the Jurist Association, a prominent civil society organization in the country and replaced its members with state appointees.  Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that the action is part of a broader crackdown on peaceful dissent by the government. Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at HRW  stated that "UAE authorities have staged a hostile takeover of one of the country’s ...

Human Rights Watch reported that Ahmed Mansoor, a member of HRW's Middle East advisory committee, was released from custody after having been arrested on April 8th.  Mansoor was one of the political activists who recently called for an elected parliament in the UAE.  Two other activists are still in detention, including Nasser bin Ghaith, an economics lecturer at the Abu Dhabi branch of the Sorbonne. Bin Ghaith's arrest raises the question ...

Christopher M. Davidson, writing for Foreign Policy, details the growing oppressiveness of the Emirati government over its recent arrest of three pro-democracy activists and sending of troops into Bahrain to help Saudi Arabia quell the uprising in that country.  Davidson maintains that the UAE has been steadily morphing into a police state, carefully monitoring and censoring its population.  The UAE has generally been able to buy the political acquiescence of ...

After the arrest of  prominent blogger Ahmed Mansour last week, Emirati authorities have detained two pro-democracy activists: Nasser bin Ghaith, a professor at the Abu Dhabi branch of the Sorbonne, and Fahad Salem al-Shehhy. Political activity in the Emirates is banned as are political parties and official opposition groups.  Activists recently signed an online petition calling for an elected parliament in the country.

Dawn McCall, State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs Coordinator, concluded a trip to the Middle East during which she met with media and telecommunications industry executives and journalists as well as senior Embassy officials to discuss media trends and audience usage patterns in today's changing media environment.  McCall  traveled to the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq.

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F. Gregory Gause III, writing in Foreign Policy, discusses the difficulties of the reform process in the Gulf countries given the large number of ruling family members in important government posts.  Prior to the uprisings in Bahrain, the prime minister, three out of the four deputy prime ministers, and 10 out of the 23 cabinet ministers were from the al-Khalifa family.  Similar proportions of ruling family members can be found in the ...

Writing at Foreign Policy, Mohammed Ayoob states that while Libya is important, we should not forget about Bahrain where regime change may, in the long run, be an even more momentous event.  Bahrain is  not only located in a region with around 60 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and 40 percent of it's natural gas reserves, it is also a member of the regional security organization, the Gulf ...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet with King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon in New York City on Friday. Clinton will then travel to the Middle East from January 8th to January 13th visiting the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar. Mark Toner, acting deputy department spokesman, said the focus of the trip is to, "consult with government officials on a full range ...

The United Nations released its 2010 Human Development Report yesterday, titled "The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development." This year's report, which includes new indices to adjust for inequality, women’s disadvantage, and multidimensional poverty, found that of the countries measured, Oman's Human Development Index (HDI) score improved the most over the last 40 years. Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco also improved considerably. Overall, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and ...