Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, a renowned advocate for democracy and human rights in Iran, discusses the state of civil society and ways the U.S. can engage Iran.

Iraq and Afghanistan are the main battle grounds for the clash of two great narratives: the Global War on Terror narrative, and the Jihad through Martyrdom narrative. Not only does the failure of those two narratives pose new challenges to the Obama administration, but it also brings to light Europe’s role in today’s discussion on democratization.

The May 21, 2003 earthquake that took some 2200 souls, wounded 10,000, and left 150,000 homeless has failed to jolt Algeria's political system out of its paralysis. The state's slow reaction to the disaster has further eroded President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's authority, with the result that a growing list of rivals may contest his bid for reelection in April 2004.

On March 29, 2007, Rachid Tlemcani, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, argued that since the civil war of the 1990s, violence in Algeria has decreased and the economic and political situations are stabilizing. Daniel Brumberg, professor of government at Georgetown, served as discussant and Marina Ottaway, Carnegie Endowment, moderated.

The so-called Seven Sisters—the major western oil firms that divided up world oil after WWII—now control only a small proportion of international reserves. Rather, state monopolies and emerging partially privatized firms now control the lion’s share of world oil. The Baker institute’s study is the first to look at how national oil companies affect the development of the global oil market.