Photo Credit: Algerian Foreign Press

Bouteflika Remains Ill, Succession Speculation Continues

In an effort to reassure the Algerian public of his good health, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika made a television appearance last week from his hospital bed in Paris. President Bouteflika suffered a stroke in April, and an initial statement from his ...

POMED Notes: “Subcommittee on Middle East and North Africa Hearing: Elections in Iran: The Regime Cementing its Control”

On Tuesday, June 18, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing titled “Elections in Iran: The Regime Cementing its Control.” Mr. Alireza Nader, Senior International Policy Analyst at RAND Corporation, Dr. Suzanne Maloney, Senior Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, and Mr. Karim Sadjadpour, Senior Associate at the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, testified. The subcommittee’s ...

Photo Credit: Ikwhan Web.com

Senior Muslim Brotherhood Member Discusses Egyptian NGO Law

Amr Darrag, Senior Muslim Brotherhood member, professor of engineering at Cairo University, and recently appointed Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, commented on the goals of the controversial proposed NGO law in a ...

POMED Notes: Dynamic Gulf Conference-”A New Ruling Bargain- Reform and Gulf Elite Dynamics”

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) co-hosted a conference titled "Dynamic Gulf: Forces of Change in a Strategic Region." The second panel, “A New Ruling Bargain? Reform and Gulf Elite Dynamics,” was moderated by Prof. Marc Lynch, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the George Washington University, and featured panelists Andrew Hammond, former Reuters correspondent for Saudi Arabia, Ali Al Shihabi, ...

Photo Credit: AFP

Bahrain Arrests Members of February 14 Movement

The Bahrain Interior Ministry announced that it had identified members of the February 14 movement who have alleged links to "a string of crimes committed over the last few months." It named 11 arrested suspects as well as ...

POMED Notes: “The Changing Dynamics of the Syria Crisis”

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's event "The Changing Dynamics of the Syria Crisis" featured several regional experts who discussed recent developments in the conflict in Syria and their potential ramifications. The panelists included Raphael LeFevre, Gates Scholar and PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge; Paul Salem, Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut; Yezid Sayigh, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center; and Dmitri Trenin, ...

POMED Notes: “Egypt’s Draft NGO Law–Impact and Implications”

The Middle East Institute's event "Egypt's Draft NGO Law: Impact and Implications" was moderated by Kate Seelye, senior vice president of the Middle East Institute, and featured Sarah Morgan, deputy Washington Director of Human Rights Watch, and Nancy Okail, director of Freedom House' s Egypt program. The panelists outlined the potential threats Egypt's proposed NGO law poses to civil society, human rights, and democracy, and also discussed the impact the ...

“U.S. Strategy in the Middle East: An Address by Senator John McCain”

At an event hosted by the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution on June 6, 2013 at 2:15pm, Senator John McCain gave his first public remarks on the conflict in Syria and his thoughts on wider Middle East policy for the first time since he visited Syria last month. Brookings Institution Vice President and Director for Foreign Police Martin Indyk provided introductory remarks and Senior  Foreign ...

POMED Notes: “Subcommittee on Middle East and North Africa Hearing: A Crisis Mismanaged: Obama’s Failed Syria Policy”

On Tuesday, June 5, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a hearing titled “Obama’s Failed Syria Policy.” Mr. Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Ms. Danielle Pletka, Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and Dr. Jon Alterman, Director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, testified. The committee’s chairman, Rep. ...

Photo Credit: Reuters

Tunisian Opposition Vows to Challenge Draft Constitution in Court

Tunisia's draft constitution remained a subject of controversy in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA), despite finally being completed after an extensive drafting process late last week. NCA Speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar declared that the document was "a work that ...

Photo Credit: Reuters

Yemen Launches Offensive on Al-Qaeda

Government forces launched an offensive against Al-Qaeda fighters seeking to establish an Islamic state in the country's southeastern province, Hadramawt. A military official has said that three soldiers and seven militants were killed in fighting in the city of Ghail ...

POMED Notes: “The Role of Women and Islam in the New Tunisia”

An event by Freedom House, "The Role of Women and Islam in the New Tunisia," featured Tunisian activist and researcher Dr. Kedija Arfaoui. The event was held Question and Answer style and was moderated by Freedom House Egypt Program Director Nancy Okail, who began the discussion by commenting on Tunisia's role as a model for the emerging democracies in the region. She mentioned that positive developments in Tunisia are often ...

POMED Notes: CSID 14th Annual Conference Keynote Speaker Rached Ghannouchi

The Center for the Study of Democracy's event titled "Democratic Transitions in the Arab World" featured a keynote speech by Rached Ghannouchi, founder and President of the Nahda Movement in Tunisia. Ghannouchi began by emphasizing that the success of Tunisia's democratic transition was important not just for Tunisia, but for the region as a whole. Ghannouchi pointed to his party's willingness to form a broad coalition with support from across ...

POMED Notes: CSID 14th Annual Conference–”What the U.S. Can Do to Support Democratic Transitions in the Middle East”

The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy hosted a conference titled "Democratic Transitions in the Arab World."  The conference included a panel on "What the U.S. Can Do to Support Democratic Transitions in the Middle East" featured Radwan Ziadeh, founder and Director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies in Syria and cofounder and Executive Director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies; Peter Mandaville, ...

Photo Credit: Rizwan Khatik, Times of Ummah

Emirati Imprisoned Over “False” Tweets

UAE national Abdullah al-Haddidi was sentenced to 10 months in prison for sedition after losing a May 22 appeal. Al-Haddidi was convicted of sending "false news" through his Twitter account, violating the UAE's

Photo Credit: Nawfel/AP

Tunisian Government Continues Salafi Crackdown, Arrests 200

Following clashes last week in Tunisia between security forces and supporters of the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia, violence flared again over the weekend in Kairouan and Tunis leaving several injured and one dead. Police arrested 200 ...

POMED Notes: “The Rise of Islamism: Its Impact on Religious Minorities”

On Wednesday, May 15, the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom held a panel titled, “The Rise of Islamism: Its Impact on Religious Minorities” to discuss Islamist radicalization in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. Panelists included former Pakistani parliamentarian Farahnaz Ispahi; Professor of Iranian, Central Eurasian, and Islamic Studies at Indiana University Jamsheed Choksy; and Executive Director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism Stephen Schwartz. Nina Shea, Hudson ...

POMED Notes: “Egypt’s Litigious Transition”

The Atlantic Council hosted an event for the release of their new issue brief titled "Egypt's Litigious Transition." The event featured Mahmoud Hamad, author of the issue brief and Assistant Professor at Drake University, and Yussef Auf, a nonresident fellow at The Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. The event was moderated by Dr. Michele Dunne, Director of The Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle ...

Photo Credit: AFP

In Crackdown, Tunisian Government Confronts Salafists

Tunisian authorities over the weekend dispersed the public gathering of Salafists in a number of cities in an apparent push to tamp down on extremist groups in the country. Clashes erupted Saturday in southern Tunis after security ...

photo credit: REUTERS/Louafi Larbi

Bouteflika in “Good Health,” Speculation on Succession Grows

The office of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced that the president suffered a small stroke, revealing the reason for the president being airlifted to a French military hospital outside of Paris on Saturday.  The public statement, a first from ...

Next Page »

Featuring Recent Posts WordPress Widget development by YD

Extension Factory Builder