Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The current trend in U.S. and European governments to pay less attention to human rights issues in Arab countries did not develop overnight, and is unlikely to disappear quickly, as it is connected to local, regional, and global trends.
A regular survey of experts on matters relating to Middle Eastern and North African politics and security.
The KDP’s nominees for Kurdistan’s highest offices demonstrate the party’s belief that it can shape the region’s politics without regard for established power-sharing norms.
The devastating violence engulfing places buckling under gangs, drug cartels, and organized crime can seem hopeless. Yet some places—from Colombia to the Republic of Georgia—have been able to recover.
The Iraqi Islamic Party has demonstrated resilience over the last fifteen years, but unless it can increase its popularity, it is unlikely to regain a meaningful role in governing Iraq.
‘Adel ‘Abdul-Mahdi was a compromise candidate as prime minister, that’s his major problem.
Although Iraq’s political blocs have agreed on a new prime minister, the lack of a coherent coalition shows the incoming government’s inherent weakness.
Efforts to reconstitute and rebuild state security institutions in post-conflict states will require not just technical and organizational fixes, but will hinge upon a range of sweeping steps and reforms with generational scope.
Today Iraq looks like a plurality of competing but fluid centers of power linked to domestic and/or external patrons.
Defense sectors in several Arab countries have undergone significant transformation leading to the hybridization of security governance, leaving them with forms of sovereignty that are both constrained and constantly contested.