Essays
Arab Spring Seen From TehranTrita Parsi , Reza MarashiThe geopolitical contest for the region’s hearts and minds Read More
Governing a World with HIV and AIDS Alex de WaalThe pandemic is not out of the danger zone, but apocalyptic predictions about the collapse of armies, state crises, and a vicious interaction between HIV/AIDS and violent conflict -- especially in Africa -- have not come to pass. Careful analysis gives far less cause for pessimism than many imagined would be possible even half a decade ago.Read More
Brazil and the Middle East Celso AmorimPresident Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvaa made the region a foreign policy focus in pursuit of greater South-South cooperation. An insider’s look at how the Brasília sees Arab democratization, Arab-Israeli peace, the nuclear standoff with Iran and trade and investment promotion.Read More
The Climate Change Challenge Mostafa K. TolbaThe results of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun proved once again that nations are not serious about addressing the danger posed by global warming. Non-stop consultations between developed and developing countries must achieve tangible and effective compromises before the follow-up
conference in Durban in November.Read More
Great Games, Local Rules Alexander CooleyThe big-power competition in Central Asia is not quite what it seems. More intriguing is how the region’s governments play the U.S., China and Russia off one another for political and economic gain.Read More
Nelson Mandela’s Legacy John CarlinWhat the world must learn from one of our greatest leaders
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An Emerging New World OrderPravin GordhanHow the rise of developing economies–exemplified by BRICS–
is changing the old way of doing business
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Free Speech in the Age of Twitter Jillian C. YorkThe microblogging service has become the digital tool of choice for political and social activists. But more important than Twitter’s protest-friendly architecture is the commitment of company executives to uncensored expression.Read More
The Revolution Will Be Tweeted Rasha A. AbdullaThere is no doubt that social networking helped bring Egyptians to Tahrir Square for the country’s January 25 revolution. But, equally important, services like Facebook and Twitter also prepared the ground by providing a model of horizontal communication and democratic participation.Read More
Egypt's Search for TruthMichael Wahid HannaThe effort to hold the former regime of President Hosni Mubarak to account is off to a poor start. But as the experiences of other nations in transition have shown, establishing a credible record of past abuses is essential to forming a democratic culture.Read More
The Erdoğan Effect: Turkey, Egypt and the Future of the Middle EastNuh Yilmaz, Kadir UstunTurkey has adopted a pro-active foreign policy in support of democracy in the Middle East. Together with a democratic and economically strong Egypt, Turkey can help Arab countries forge an integrated regional order.Read More
Joining HezbollahNicholas BlanfordThe militant Lebanese Shia group believes that the psychological makeup of individual fighters, rather than their weapons, is the key to their battlefield triumphs. An inside glimpse at how the Iranian-backed party sustains its war against Israel.Read More
An Online Symposium on Turkish Foreign PolicyCairo ReviewReflecting on Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s exclusive interview with The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, five leading analysts discuss whether Ankara’s regional approach is meeting the challenges of a Middle East in transformation.Read More
Losing EgyptSteven A. CookWashington’s policy of ‘authoritarian stability’ worked for thirty years in the Middle East. Strategic relations with Hosni Mubarak helped enable the U.S. to become the predominant power in the region. But domestic opposition groups used these ties as a cudgel in their struggle against dictatorship. With the fall of
Mubarak, future U.S. cooperation with Egypt must overcome a legacy of mistrust. Read More
Erdoğan's DecadeHugh Pope Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has changed the political face of Turkey, with significant results to show for it—a booming domestic economy and enhanced international prestige. The jury is still out on whether he has the political will to address shortcomings on Kurdish rights, the Armenian genocide
question, the future of Cyprus, and the rule of law, and thus elevate Turkey into a truly global player. Read More
The Turkish ModelMustafa AkyolIn the past eighty years, Turkish society has not become as secularized as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk envisioned. But rather than choosing a radical or violent path, Turkey’s Islamists have become champions of democracy. This is a lesson in how to be modern and Muslim at the same time.
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Ankara Looks EastAslı Aydıntaşbaş After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish Republic oriented itself toward Europe to catch up with 'contemporary civilization.' But in the last ten years, Turkey has sought to play a more active role in the Middle East. The dramatic policy shift now stands to yield substantial strategic, political, and economic dividends following the Arab Spring. Read More
Educating TurksEbru İlhan Turkey’s Justice and Development Party has targeted education reform as a priority—to stimulate economic growth as well as to promote conservative Islamic values. But, so far, the party has not cut loose from the authoritarian Republican legacy within the education system as much Turks had expected.Read More
Democracy's Growing PainsAshraf KhalilAs Egyptians prepare to vote in the first presidential election since the end of Hosni Mubarak’s regime, the old aphorism comes to mind: “Every nation has the government it deserves.” Egypt seems to be getting the presidential election it deserves—one reflecting the social and institutional weaknesses that have plagued the country for too long. There is confusion, suspicion, polarization. Conspiracy theories abound. And there is the mounting anxiety over the economy and public security. Increasingly, it seems, nervous citizens are pining for the stability—or at least the predictability—of Mubarak’s three decades in power. Read More
Knowledge Without BordersMichael M. Crow, William B. Dabars American research universities are the envy of the world, but they must adapt if they are to create kno wledge that responds to the ‘grand challenges’ of our epoch. Only an amalgamation of transdisciplinary, transinstitutional, and transnational frameworks has the potential to advance broader social and economic outcomes.Read More
Energy JusticeClark A. Miller In the coming fifty years, choices will be made about what kinds of energy systems to build for the future, where to build them, and how to distribute their benefits, costs, and risks. These choices will help determine which countries and communities flourish and which deteriorate. The fight is on. Read More
Quest for Water Farouk El-BazThe Middle East is among the driest areas on Earth. Actually, it has plenty of water but much of it lies underground and unexplored. Go vernments in the region must undertake serious efforts to map ground water basins and aquifers and develop regulations for their use.Read More
India's Nuclear Power ProblemMonamie BhadraThe Indian government launched an ambitious plan to expand atomic energy output seven-fold by the year 2022. But a surprising grassroots movement has sprung up to challenge the program. Rather than focusing on worries about cataclysmic accidents, it is emphasizing citizen rights and government accountability.Read More
Drone WarsMichael Burnam-Fink Meet the Predator, the unmanned attack aircraft that is defining warfare in the post-Cold War era. Initially deemed useless by the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency, it has become America’s weapon of choice in the War on Terror. With the creation of a new military bureaucr acy dependent on identifying
and striking new enemies, will Predator missions ever end?Read More
To Think, To Write, To PublishLee Gutkind, David Guston , Gwen OttingerGlobal challenges related to technology demand attention to their social and ethical aspects and not only their tec hnical ones. but Science and Innovation Policy is not easy to get across to the gener al public. A solution: communicating policy through the genre of creative nonfiction.Read More
Science Under SiegeMatthew HarshPolitical unrest after a disputed presidential election in Kenya left some eleven hundred people dead and three hundred thousand other homeless. But the turmoil also inflicted damage on the country’s knowledge system—the universities and research institutes that generate economic progress and are a key to strengthening democracy against ethnic-based politics.Read More
Policy Makers Versus PeopleNetra Chhetri , Gary M. GrossmanConventional wisdom says that the issue of climate change is too complex and technical for ordinary people to grasp but a project called World Wide Views on Global Warming brought together four thousand citizens in thirty-eight countries who demonstrated a keen ability to debate the topic and make policy recommendationsRead More