Dear Readers,
Diwan is now one year old and I would like to take the occasion to thank you for your interest in the weblog of the Carnegie Middle East program.
In the past year, we have expanded Diwan’s features beyond analysis and interviews, to include audio-visual posts, particularly our weekly 3 Question Time feature, occasional podcasts, as well as longer videotaped interviews. We have also introduced a weekly question to specialists, along the lines of what our colleagues at Carnegie Europe do on their blog, as well as photo essays, reportage, and holiday recommendations.
With regards to our best-read articles, the top five pieces in the past year have been, in both English and Arabic: (1) “A Turning Point in Aleppo”; (2) “The Jihadi Spiral”; (3) “Survival of the Fittest”; (4) the Arabic version of “Survival of the Fittest”; and (5) “A Voice From the Shadows.”
The figures show that readers have continued to be interested in the Syrian conflict. Many had come to Diwan through the articles of Aron Lund, who brought a wide readership to the Syria in Crisis feature he developed before Diwan was launched, and which the blog integrated. Aron has since left Carnegie for the Century Foundation, but Syria in Crisis continues, with many contributors now writing on the subject.
Readers may have also noticed this past year that we have developed our website, making it more flexible and appealing. Diwan will remain an ongoing process of improvement as far as we are concerned. We want to ensure that readers continue receiving information on the Middle East, covering a wide variety of topics in the most appealing formats.
So thank you again for having followed us this past year. We hope to continue to share with you the wealth of knowledge among our scholars and delve more into a region that, despite its many problems, is also a fascinating place of change and transformation. The Middle East is being shaped by myriad undercurrents often not visible in daily news outlets. Diwan will always thrive to explain to our readers what these are.
Michael Young
Editor of Diwan
