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The Arab world is facing a vacuum of leadership. It is a new era, one that still has unknown repercussions.
The steady decline of global oil prices since June 2014 is shifting economic, political, and strategic calculations of key Middle East actors, and adding a new element of uncertainty at a time of increased regional conflict and polarization.
As the Arab Spring approaches its fourth anniversary, the Arab world generally is at risk of heading towards a future without politics.
The question is whether Egypt can stabilize the country and attract foreign investment needed to enliven the economy, while repressing all criticism of government policies from inside or outside and abandoning any semblance of the rule of law.
The Church is trying to revive its former role as the sole political voice of Egypt’s Copts. But that position carries real risks for the Church and the country’s Christians.
Like everything else in the country, the jihadist field in Libya is highly fragmented and hyper-localized. And the rise of the Islamic State has stirred significant debates within this fractured community about how to respond.
The recent Senate report about the CIA’s use of torture against suspected terrorists renews important questions about the most effective and ethical means to counter the threat of global jihadism.
While the tribal, sectarian, and ethnic mosaic of the region is one aspect of why democracy has not taken hold in the Arab world, more important is the lack of experience in governing institutions.
Universal human rights can provide a framework through which the indivisibility of social, economic, political, and cultural rights may be argued and the struggle for these rights may take place.
The civil-military relationship has proven central to the politics of many Arab countries, both those that underwent transition in 2011 and those that did not.