On January 30, 2013, the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) hosted an event entitled “Moving beyond Rhetoric: How Should President Obama Change U.S. Policy in the Middle East?” The event launched POMED’s new publication, which highlights recommendations from leading voices in the field on how President Obama should adjust his policies toward the Middle East in his second term. The event featured a panel discussion with Larry Diamond, Director ...

On Wednesday (1/30) the McCain institute for International Leadership held its first debate, “Should the United States Save Syria?” in its Debate and Decision series at the U.S. Navy Memorial Theater.  Robert Kagan, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor of the New Republic, Dr. Joshua Landis, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and Aaron David Miller, Distinguished Scholar at ...

On Tuesday, January 29, Dr. Joseph Kéchichian, whose book Legal and Political Reforms in Saudi Arabia was published in December, spoke at the Middle East Institute on gender reform and legal reform (he did not discuss Saudi petitions, which he said was the longest and best chapter in his book).   Dr. Kéchichian described King Abdullah as a reformer who has been leveraging constructive public dialogue to push the conservative clerical ...

On Tuesday, January 29, 2013, The International Institute for Strategic Studies hosted a book launch for the IISS Consulting Senior Fellow on the Middle East Toby Dodge, with Steven Simon, Executive Director of IISS-US, as moderator. Dodge’s new book, “Iraq: From War to a New Authoritarianism,” follows Iraq’s path from the 2003 invasion to its present political system, which Dodge suggests bears a strong resemblance to the authoritarian regime that ...

On Tuesday (1/29), the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center and the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) held an event entitled “Global Authoritarianism and the Arab Spring: New Challenges for U.S. Diplomacy.” Steven Heydemann of USIP and Daniel Brumberg of USIP and Georgetown University presented the paper they authored of the same name and Tamara Cofman Wittes of the Brookings Institution offered comments. Haleh Esfandiari of the ...

POMED is excited to announce the release of its new report, "Moving Beyond Rhetoric: How Should President Obama Change U.S. Policy in the Middle East?" When President Barack Obama took office four years ago, we at the Project on Middle East Democracy urged him to speak clearly to the people of the Middle East in order to signal meaningful changes to the policy approach of the United States toward that region.  Early ...

Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs held a panel discussion entitled “Civil Rights in Muslim Democracies” with Jocelyne Cesari, Senior Research Fellow at the Berkley Center, Daniel Brumberg, Associate Professor of Government and Co-Director of Democracy and Governance Studies at Georgetown University, Jose Casanova, Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, and Nader Hashemi, Assistant Professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at the Josef Korbel School ...

POMED's Weekly Wire for the week of January 28 is now available. This week's edition covers these and other highlights: Jordan Election Turnout Exceeds 50 Percent, MB Boycotts Sec. Clinton Testifies on Benghazi, Kerry Confirmation Hearing Commences Protests Mark Egypt Revolution Anniversary; State of Emergency Declared World Bank Approves $500m Loan to Tunisia Iraq: Seven Protesters, Two Police Killed in Protests To continue reading the full Weekly Wire, click here.