Essays

The end of the strongman era in Iraq has led to the rise of paramilitaries representing sects and ethnicities. Popular Mobilization Units have become part of the state’s official security structure. Although the PMUs have been instrumental in the fight against ISIS, their more powerful militias pose a stark challenge to the country’s future stability.

Scramble for Syria

Summer 2017

Iran’s support for the Al-Assad regime in Damascus has long provided it with a foothold in Lebanon, Palestine, and the rest of the region. But with its deepening role in the Syrian civil war, Tehran is losing hearts and minds in the Arab World.

Fury in the Philippines

By Richard Javad Heydarian

Summer 2017

When President Rodrigo Duterte unleashed a deadly war on drug traffickers, criticism by the Obama administration highlighted growing tensions in the century-old U.S.-Philippine alliance. Will Duterte’s budding friendship with a new American president head off Manila’s tilt to China?

Palestinian protester during clashes with Israeli troops in West Bank, Kofr Qadom, Feb. 10, 2017. Mohamad Torokman/Reuters

Ripples of the 1967 War

By Ahmad Samih Khalidi

Spring 2017

By crushing the Arab armies, Israel paradoxically resurrected the Palestinian national movement. But fifty years after Israeli forces captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the bitter struggle over Palestine continues, and continues . . .

Jewish settlement near West Bank city of Ramallah, Givat Zeev, February 7, 2017. Ammar Awad/Reuters

Myths of the Six-Day War

By Ilan Pappé

Spring 2017

Were Arab leaders determined to launch an attack on Israel? Were Israeli leaders willing to seek peace after their stunning military victory? New scholarship easily challenges the falsehoods long prevalent in Western circles.

Leaders pose for group photo at Arab League summit, Dead Sea, Jordan, March 29, 2017. Raad Adayleh/ Associated Press

Winds of Change

By Nabil Fahmy

Spring 2017

The Middle East is reeling from domestic battles between progressive and repressive visions, the impact of globalization, and an exploding youth bulge. Now the reemergence of Russia, the rise of China, and the election of a nonconformist American president also require the Arab World’s urgent attention.

Tunisians rallying for Nidaa Tounes party, Tunis, Dec. 21, 2014. Anis Mili/Reuters

Inside Tunisia’s Power Struggle

By David B. Ottaway

Spring 2017

Given the domestic upheavals that accompanied the Arab uprisings of 2011, how did Tunisia become the Arab Spring’s success story? Part of the answer is the pragmatism of the Islamist Ennahda movement, which formed a troika coalition with two secular parties after the ouster of the country’s dictator.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Presidential Palace, Ankara, Oct. 26, 2016. Yasin Bulbul/ Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s Authoritarian Legacy

By Halil Karaveli

Spring 2017

It’s tempting to blame the country’s recent slide into repression on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s thirst for personal power. But did the ruling Islamist party ever really abandon the country’s long tradition of state authoritarianism?

Modi at the Parliament House, New Delhi, Jan. 31, 2017. Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Modi’s Bold New World

By Michael Kugelman

Spring 2017

Narendra Modi was a global pariah only a few years ago, a Hindu nationalist vilified for anti-Muslim riots that left hundreds dead in Gujarat state. Halfway into his term as India’s prime minister, his swashbuckling foreign policy is scoring military and economic deals from Washington to Beijing.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen aboard the FGS Bonn in the Aegean Sea, April 20, 2016. John MacDougall/Reuters

Holding the Center

By Tobias Bunde

Spring 2017

The specter of a revisionist Russia, disintegrating European Union, and isolationist America has Berlin rethinking its foreign policy. One important sign of the shift: Germany is assuming a crucial military role within NATO’s new strategic posture.

LGBTQ groups and allies protest outside Trump Tower, New York, July 18, 2016. Pacific Press/Alamy

The New Battle Over LGBTQ

By Lillian Faderman

Winter 2017

Donald Trump has expressed sympathy for gay rights in the past, but his conservative supporters are out to reverse the hard-won gains made by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. Activists are ready for a fight.

Demonstration on International Women’s Day, Cairo, March 8, 2013. Romain Beurrier/Wostok Press/Newscom

Women of Egypt

By Miwa Kato

Winter 2017

The Tahrir uprising in 2011 was quickly followed by a backlash against women’s rights. Under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi the government is once again championing the role of women, but is gender equality possible without a change in public attitudes?

A couple strolls through a market, Cairo, Dec. 15, 2012. Khaled Abdullah/ Reuters

Story of an Egyptian Man

By Farha Ghannam

Winter 2017

Especially in the West, Arab men are often stereotyped as violent fanatics or oppressors of women. The truth is that Arab men, too, experience daunting political, economic, and social challenges related to their gender roles.

Protest against abduction of Yazidi women and girls by Islamic State group, Brussels, Sept. 8, 2014. Dursun Aydemir/ Anadolu Agency

Acts of Annihilation

By Sareta Ashraph

Winter 2017

Perceptions of the Islamic State’s attack on the Yazidis focus on the enslavement of women and girls, but the barbarous gender-based assaults on women as well as men are an integral part of the group’s campaign of genocide to eradicate a religious minority.

Scale model of proposed new Egyptian capital is displayed for investors, Sharm El- Sheikh, March 28, 2015. Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

Egypt, Rebranded

By Jack Shenker

Winter 2017

The “Egypt The Future” economic development conference reaffirmed the primacy of the strongman in Egyptian politics. That may win the hearts and minds of some global capitalists, but will Tahrir Square revolutionaries buy it?

Donald Trump speaks in Ladd-Peebles Stadium during “Thank You” tour, Mobile, Dec. 17, 2016. Dan Anderson/ZUMA Wire

The Year of Living Dangerously

By Stein Ringen

Winter 2017

In the United States and Britain, the Trump and Brexit campaigns in 2016 embraced and encouraged voices of xenophobia, fear of the other, racism, and divisiveness that we thought had been marginalized in the modern era. To understand the democratic crisis, pay attention to the social conditions of democracy.

Aftermath of Syrian airstrikes, Aleppo, Dec. 4, 2016. Ibrahim Ebu Leys/Anadolu Images

Picking Up the Middle East Pieces

By Perry Cammack

Winter 2017

Donald Trump’s tough talk of defeating Islamic terrorists, ripping up the Iran nuclear deal, and barring Muslims from entering the U.S. suggests a sharp pivot in Middle East policy, but could be surprising continuity with Barack Obama’s approach to the region.

U.S. Navy ships steaming in formation during a drill in the South China Sea, Oct. 13, 2016. Will Gaskill/United States Navy

Uncharted Waters

By David Bell Mislan

Winter 2017

Judging from his campaign rhetoric, Donald Trump aims to radically alter American foreign policy, but broad political and social forces constrain any American president’s foreign policy agenda.

The Meaning of Trump

By Donald T. Critchlow

Fall 2016

Donald Trump’s anti-establishment campaign confounded the Republican Party, foreign policy experts, and the news media. His mobilization of an angry electorate has reshaped the contours of American politics for years to come.

Hillary Clinton’s Imperial Feminism

By Zillah Eisenstein

Fall 2016

Does the gender of a world leader matter? Having a female U.S. president might break a glass ceiling, but the policies of the woman holding the office could still leave women in the basement.