Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Post-Qaddafi Libya faces a number of significant challenges as it struggles to rein in militias and build political, economic, and security institutions.
Following the Syrian crisis, Turkey's main role will be that of providing reconstruction aid.
Two years since the outbreak of democratic revolutions in Egypt, the economic situation in the region remains precarious. Egypt's economy struggles to grapple with high levels of unemployment, decreasing reserves, a widening fiscal deficit, and costly, yet inefficient, subsidies.
The recent NATO decision to deploy missiles along the Turkish-Syrian border has been framed in terms of a defense strategy for Turkey, but the same missiles could conceivably provide cover for refugees fleeing the violence.
Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has assumed additional presidential powers, leading to protests largely led by non-Islamic groups.
While President Putin may be in a fight for legitimacy at home, Russian foreign policy still benefits from a large consensus.
Despite rising levels of violence in Syria, the United States should focus less on intervention and more on planning for the day after the fall of the regime.
Given diminished U.S. influence in the Middle East, Washington should no longer try to pick winners and losers in the region and instead support democratic transitions to pluralistic societies.
Despite fears in the United States, Egyptian foreign policy under President Morsi has been marked by continuity rather than a fundamental paradigm shift.
Protests in Libya sparked an order to disband the country's rogue militias, but this is only the first step to security in Libya. Good governance and building an army are the long term solutions to Libya's challenges.