
U.S. policy toward moderate Islamist movements has been inconsistent. The hope for a tangible change often clashes with a complex legacy. This in turn gives the impression that all options have been exhausted, and thus strengthens the choice of avoiding dealing with the Islamist movements. However, U.S. progress in the Middle East hinges on abandoning this uncertainty.

What inspired the political enthusiasm for Obama, especially among the youth? In order to understand Obama’s rise to power, we have to view it in two contexts. The first?the disastrous policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The second context is the resurrection of the centrist liberal trend in the Democratic Party.

On the heels of their landslide victory in the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party will face major challenges, particularly in the Middle East, which will test the President-elect’s ability to bypass his predecessor’s disastrous policies, the worst the region has ever seen.

In reassessing how to secure U. S. interests while stabilizing the Middle East, the new U.S. administration might well decide to postpone or even repudiate democracy promotion. The new administration should incorporate lessons from less publicized cases to help support democracy in the Middle East more effectively.

Just as Guantánamo's legal and geographic isolation from the United States denies its prisoners recourse to the American judicial system, it also denies its military administrators the benefits of the most current research on how to de-radicalize prisoners and reintegrate them into society.

The National Solidarity Fund has succeeded in reducing poverty and building a culture of solidarity, despite limited political participation.

The new Party for Authenticity and Modernity presents itself as an innovative alternative to the Islamist Party of Justice and Development, but its modus operandi is far from new.

Qaddafi's recent calls to dismantle most of the Libyan government are stretching his 1970s ideology farther than ever before.

A new plan to privatize state enterprises and distribute shares to citizens reflects little awareness of the problems of mass privatization.

One of President-elect Barack Obama's top priorities will be to rethink the "war on terror" from the ground up. That means following through on his campaign promises to close the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo, which would be a major symbolic achievement. Transparency, due process, and legality are some of the strongest weapons in the struggle against violent extremism.