Articles

What are the drivers of citizens’ support for electoral gender quotas in transitioning and authoritarian states? Despite extensive research examining public support for women in politics in democracies, we know little about how the public perceives them in less democratic settings. To address this shortcoming, we use original survey data from authoritarian Morocco and transitioning Tunisia – two Arab countries hailed for their progressive gender policies. We argue that in these countries where citizens lack political information, they instead rely on their assessment of the government’s performance to form attitudes toward gender quotas. Furthermore, electoral legitimacy plays an important role in shaping citizens’ support for quotas, which are closely linked to how elections and legislatures operate. The findings offer strong support for our theoretical expectations and uncover important gender differences.

Tarek Masoud, who questioned Iriqat’s views of Oct. 7 and how a two-state solution could be achieved during the event, said in an interview later on Thursday that he was “reasonably confident and hopeful” the discussion was an opportunity for learning, and added he appreciated that Iriqat “did not deny the atrocities of Oct. 7.” Understanding the Palestinian perspective is critical for moving toward peace and a two-state solution, Masoud said. Masoud and Iriqat agreed to discuss her controversial social media posts during the dialogue. Iriqat said that she did not intend to justify the violence on Oct. 7, which included kidnappings of children and elderly, beheadings, and massacres of civilians, but meant to place the attack in the context of a decades-long conflict. She was intensely critical of Israel throughout the conversation, saying the “settler-colonial project started 76 years ago.”

Over the past few months, much has been said about the relationship between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, some of it strikingly shallow and misinformed, with recent op-eds characterising it as a “rivalry” or a “rift”, and one going as far as calling it a “theatre of confrontation” as though their relations are a zero-sum game. Such alarmism led me to wonder if we were even discussing the same two countries.

In an interview with Nada Ramadan Ahmed, North Africa Analyst with MEES magazine, she quotes Marina Lorenzini on the topic of the El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant in Egypt: "Putin has used the Russian nuclear energy industry, through Rosatom, as a strategic export to build deep dependencies with geopolitically significant countries, such as Bangladesh, Egypt, and Turkey. So, even as times get tough in Moscow, Rosatom's foreign projects may not receive an immediate axe."

Other companies cannot necessarily replace Rosatom if needed, leaving Cairo "in a bind to negotiate with Moscow on a point-by-point basis on how to purchase and integrate new equipment. Moscow will likely not welcome such a move, and Cairo may not have a strong enough bargaining position, especially if it's not paying its bills on time, in order to introduce non-Russian supplies on site."

The story we often hear of how the Tunisian Revolution succeeded goes as follows: After weeks of protests, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ordered the head of the army, Gen. Rachid Ammar, to fire on the protesters. Ammar, however, refused, and without the military to defend him Ben Ali fled the country. Ammar was therefore lionized as a hero of the revolution, with the press calling him “the man who said no." But in reality, none of this actually happened. Ammar himself, in his official testimony in April 2011, called it “a false rumor,” explaining that he was never asked to fire on protesters and thus never refused.

This study introduces the Significant Incidents Against Americans Abroad (SIAAA) Dataset, the foremost systematic data compilation capturing antagonistic actions directed toward American nationals, entities, and interests across the globe from 1987 to 2015. Primarily derived from the US Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security reports, the SIAAA assembles 5,272 events targeting American citizens and interests, encompassing both violent and non-violent actions across military, diplomatic, business, and civilian dimensions. In this article, we examine the general trend of incidents and introduce key variables including target typology, geographic dispersion, type of the incident, and perpetrator ideology. As an illustrative example of its potential research application, we focus on NATO's aerial bombing of Yugoslavia, highlighting how the SIAAA can be employed effectively. We conclude with propositions for future research, underscoring the dataset’s potential for both academic and policy analysis.

Americans want to know more about the Middle East, and they are taking matters into their own hands. Literally. Last week, two of the five best-selling books on The New York Times' nonfiction paperback bestseller list were about the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The surge in interest highlights a paradox in American politics: Despite the enormous significance of the Middle East, and of the American role there, we tend to learn very little about it. High school world history classes often barely touch on the modern Middle East.

Schools need to do better. But in the meantime, if you're one of those Americans seeking a broader understanding of the conflict, where should you turn? The Globe asked scholars of the region — including Tarek Masoud, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government; Lior Sternfeld, associate professor at Penn State University; and Susannah Heschel, professor at Dartmouth College — for book recommendations. 

A conversation with Israeli and Palestinian activists

For the past decade, it has been clear that the “peace process” between Israelis and Palestinians long ago devolved into little more than an extended exercise in kicking the can down the road. Still, in recent years, the absence of sustained large-scale violence produced the illusion of stability. Even those who had not been lulled into complacency were shocked, however, by the outbreak of the devastating war that has been raging since Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7.

The past three weeks have seen a loss of life on a horrific scale. For Israel, it is the most devastating civilian toll in its 75 years of existence. And more Palestinians were killed in the first 15 days of this war than during the second intifada, which lasted for more than five years, and all the rounds of violence since then, combined. Worse, it appears likely that many more thousands of Palestinian civilians will perish if Israel pursues its declared (though unattainable) objective of eliminating Hamas. The same outcome would follow even from the less ambitious goal of eradicating Hamas’s infrastructure.

Salam Fayyad believes that even now there is a route to greater unity—and eventual peace