Good to the Last Drop

By Thomas L. Crisman and Zachary S. Winters / Spring 2023

Why nature-based solutions and adaptive management may hold the key to water conservation in the MENA region

Why Climate Journalism Must be Mainstreamed in the Arab World

By Sarah El-Shaarawi / Summer 2022

While the issue of climate change journalism is particularly relevant to the Arab World today, as the upcoming COP27 and COP28 will be hosted in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates respectively, climate reporting in the region still lacks a critical lens that reflects the issue’s urgency

Social Change Will Be Tweeted—By a Select Few

By Nadine El Sayed / Summer 2022

While social media has had a drastic impact on social and political movements in the region, the dynamics of its algorithms and the financing models of the media still pose limitations on who is heard online

Red Lines in Global Media

By Khaled Ezzelarab / Summer 2022

Whether in liberal democracies or across the Arab World, journalists today are struggling to navigate a difficult route amid government restrictions, ambiguous red lines, and non-state actors affecting how the media is run

From Borno to Aswan: Where Development, Climate and Conflict are Interlinked

By Omar Auf / August 23, 2022

The Aswan Forum, hosted on June 21-22 in Cairo, discussed topics related to African peace and development, including climate change, confronting terrorism, regional security, youth and women empowerment, and more.

The Changing Middle East Regional Order

By Paul Salem / Winter 2022

A history of the Arab state system starting from the second half of the twentieth century to the present

Managing Crises, the Least-Bad Option

By Joost Hiltermann / Winter 2022

Conflict management in the MENA region has little chance of succeeding as conflicts increasingly intersect and tensions driven by larger, regional triggers become even more unpredictable

From Political Islam to the Politics of Islam

By Nathan Brown / Winter 2022

With electoral paths blocked or unpromising, the Islamist project is now being transformed from what it was at the beginning of the last decade

Shifting Patterns of Arab Politics

By Lisa Anderson / Winter 2022

Over the last seventy-five years, the endlessly shifting coalitions on the chessboard of Arab regional politics seem to have played by the same rules of the game. Yet, as private interests have become a major source of political power, there have been major changes in the powers and purposes of the players

Prepping for COP27

By David Dumke and Thomas L. Crisman and Zachary S. Winters / Winter 2022

Egypt is a microcosm for the impacts of climate change being felt across the MENA region, with water loss at the very top. It should likewise be high on the agenda when Cairo hosts this year’s UN climate summit

Young People Are Leading Climate Activism in the Middle East

By Neeshad Shafi / Fall 2021

Across the Arab World and the Middle East, young people are mobilizing to raise climate change awareness.

Saving a Water-Stressed Middle East

By Neda Zawahri / Fall 2021

Inefficient water management exacerbates water insecurity in the MENA region, already the area most vulnerable to the catastrophic impact of the climate crisis. Building adaptive capacity is critical to ensure national and individual water security.

The Rise of the United Arab Emirates

By Abdulkhaleq Abdulla / Spring 2021

By harnessing national confidence, proactively dealing with regional security concerns and exercising geopolitical cooperation, the UAE is positioning itself as a regional powerhouse.

Can the Arab Region meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030?

By Mourad Wahba / Winter 2021

There are multiple challenges which need to be confronted in both data collection and public policy so that the SDGs can be attained.

Why the Phrase “Arab Spring” Should be Retired

By Sean David Hobbs / Winter 2021

It’s time to stop using a Western-based concept ten years on from the events that began the Arab Uprisings.

Learning from a Diplomatic Trailblazer to Tackle Global Inequalities

By Sean David Hobbs /

Guest speaker at the 16th Nadia Younes Memorial Lecture, Dutch Minister Sigrid Kaag, presented ideas for geopolitical challenges in the Middle East and North Africa during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

What Should Arabs Expect from a Biden Win?

By Mahmoud El Shabba /

Suspended between feelings of hope and anxiety, the region will watch on as a Biden administration either continues or breaks with past policies and alliances

Short perspectives on the United States’ foreign policy in the Middle East after the November 2020 presidential election

By Nabil Fahmy / Fall 2020

How will a Trump or Biden presidency shape the future of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East?

Embracing Change: U.S. Foreign Policy Shifts

By Sean David Hobbs / Fall 2020

Former U.S. diplomat and American University in Cairo President Francis Ricciardone discusses whether a Biden win will see a return to a rules based international order.

Political Narratives in the Middle East and North Africa: Conceptions of Order and Perceptions of Instability

By Helen Rizzo / Fall 2020

The volume edited by Wolfgang Mühlberger and Toni Alaranta highlights the importance of political narratives in making sense of the complexities of the MENA countries.

Turkey’s Energy Geopolitics

By Meliha Benli Altunışık / Summer 2020

Turkey is at one end of competing geostrategic visions in the Eastern Mediterranean, but are there avenues for reconciliation with countries at the opposite pole?

Reluctant Power Europe

By Kevin Koehler / Summer 2020

Will Europe’s approach of principled pragmatism toward the Mediterranean succeed in creating stability where previous approaches have failed?

COVID-19 Heightens Stakes for Migrants in the Mediterranean

By Omar Auf /

COVID-19 has exacerbated anti-migration trends in the Mediterranean region, leaving migrants and refugees in increasingly vulnerable positions.

Re-Engineering Regional Security

By Sydney Wise / Summer 2020

In the last half-century, Egypt has had to negotiate its way through the Arab–Israeli peace process, regional nuclear proliferation, and domestic political transition. What has it taught us?

Challenges to Migration Governance in the Arab Region

By Amina Abdel-Halim / June 3, 2020

Since its endorsement in 2018, a wealth of challenges have delayed the full implementation of the Global Compact for Migration in the Arab region.

Deconstructing Fukuyama

By Ibrahim Awad / Spring 2020

Taking apart the arguments of division that underscore the populist movements emerging in today’s liberal democracies

Women and Education in the Arab World

By Sean David Hobbs /

Malak Zaalouk, education expert, discusses the position of women and access to education in the Arab World with the Cairo Review’s Senior Editor Sean David Hobbs in a special podcast recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic lock-down.

A Surplus of Deficits

By Amr Adly / Spring 2020

From a political economy perspective, there are four key forces working against the peace and prosperity of Middle Eastern and North African states. To defeat them, robust institutions are essential.

Can Arab Cities Be Eco-Sustainable?

By David Sims / Spring 2020

Separating fiction from reality, and corporate interests from true innovation in the new “eco-cities” of the Middle East.

A Message From The Editors

By The Editors /

Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Toward Arab Food Security

By M. Anis Salem and Natasha Banks / Winter 2020

A roadmap for a sustainable future without wasteful subsidies and mismanagement

Edge of Survival

By Peter J. Jacques / Winter 2020

The interaction of food, energy, and water in North Africa is complex and building into a cascade of trouble. It is time to listen to the rural communities facing it on the frontline

Myths about Food Security and Water

By Eckart Woertz / Winter 2020

Will water be the cause of the next war in the Middle East? Is water important for regional food security? Can economic diversification really work? Time to bust the myths around questions of food and water security in the region

Averting a Total Collapse

By Thomas L. Crisman / Winter 2020

How is the water-energy-food nexus impacting ecological, social, and political systems in the Middle East and North Africa?

Striving for Water and Food Security

By Omer Karasapan / Winter 2020

The focus for MENA countries should not be to achieve self-sufficiency, but rather food security

The Most Severe Threat Facing MENA

By Nabil Fahmy / Winter 2020

Water scarcity is one of the most pressing issues facing the international community today and has gained widespread attention recently due to the rise in global temperatures and the increase in water consumption in a number of countries, especially those in the Middle East. Despite these concerns, many nations remain unprepared to confront water scarcity and continue to fail to make the issue a political priority.
The shortage of water in the Middle East has worsened in the modern era due to high population growth rates, » Read more about: The Most Severe Threat Facing MENA »

Mobilizing Against Trump’s “Vision”

By Sean David Hobbs /

Former Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Alkidwa explains the ways Palestinians are contesting the Trump plan for peace and how the Trump deal caters only to extremists on the Israeli and American right

The Middle East Reacts to Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’

By Sydney Wise / January 30, 2020

Hours after U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, the reactions of key regional figures ranged from hopeful to enraged.

The Country to City Continuum

By Audrey Lodes /

Government leaders and public policy experts attended the Regional Workshop on Strengthening Migration Governance Across the Rural Urban Continuum.

Libya’s Dangerous Political Stalemate

By Riccardo Redaelli / October 8, 2019

Until now, most of the external actors involved in Libya relied on a Cold-War “zero sum game theory”, based on the dichotomic vision amicus/hostis (friend/enemy) of classical realpolitik. It is time this changes.

The End for Netanyahu?

By Dan Perry / September 19, 2019

After a murky election Netanyahu might be out and Gantz might be in, but it is Lieberman who is set to be kingmaker.

Reconstruction as a political-economy issue: The case of Syria

By Samir Aita / September 18, 2019

There can be no meaningful separation between state-building, peace-building, and revival at the end of a conflict, especially as post-conflict state institutions are the only apparatus which can be somewhat directly or indirectly accountable toward their populations for the management of the country.