Articles

5 Items

Photo of protesters taking part in a march denouncing heavy sentences against Hirak activists, in Rabat, Morocco, Sunday, July 15, 2018.

(AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Journal Article - Middle East Journal

How Do Liberalized Autocracies Repress Dissent?

| Summer 2021

The Moroccan regime has used repression to successfully contain numerous types of opposition. Although research on its repressive policies is now extensive, impartial scholarly work that systematically examines its rational use of repression remains limited. This article addresses this gap by investigating the causal mechanisms behind the regime's repression of opposition actors between 1956 and 2018. Examining these mechanisms sheds light on the multilevel games between ruling actors and opposition groups during various opposition events and shows that liberalization does not ensure the reduced use of repression. Rather, repression remains a strategic policy employed by the regime to pursue important political objectives such as maintaining power.

Supporters (background) of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi clash with anti-government protesters following demonstrations in Cairo on January 25, 2015, marking the fourth anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ousted veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Getty Images (Mohamed El-Shahed)

Journal Article - Perspectives on Politics

The Politics of Ignoring: Protest Dynamics in Late Mubarak Egypt

| December 2015

The concept of "ignoring" refers not only to actions by regime officials but also captures protesters’ perceptions of those actions. Examples of ignoring include not communicating with protesters, issuing condescending statements, physically evading protesters, or acting with contempt toward popular mobilization. Existing conceptual tools do not adequately capture these dynamics. By integrating protesters’ perceptions of the behavior of the targets of mobilization, not just of the security forces, the concept of “ignoring” helps explain protesters’ reactions and their future mobilization, in a way that conventional concepts such as tolerance cannot capture.

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Magazine Article - GlobalPost

Iran nuclear deal: 3 Questions with Ambassador Nick Burns

| November 24, 2013

Iran and six world powers clinched a deal on Sunday curbing the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for initial sanctions relief. Sounds pretty good, but of course nothing is that simple and already Israel has called it a "historic mistake." Which is it? And what's going to happen next? Harvard Kennedy School professor and GlobalPost senior foreign affairs columnist, Nicholas Burns, weighs in.

An Institute of Politics forum asked its panel of policy experts if Syria should be attacked. It also allowed audience participation. With clickers in hand, 45 percent of the audience cast their vote in favor of military action and 55 percent voted no.

Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

Magazine Article - Harvard Gazette

Volatile Syria

| September 12, 2013

Read about the Harvard Kennedy School’s JFK Jr. Forum event that drew more than 700 people on Wednesday night to listen to an expert panel discuss Syria. The panel of Graham Allison, Joseph Nye, Nicholas Burns, Marisa Porges, and Niall Ferguson, debated on whether or not the U.S. should intervene militarily in Syria. At the end of the Forum, the audience was polled for their take, with 55 percent voting against military action.

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Magazine Article - Harvard Gazette

The Syria saga, explained

| September 6, 2013

As Congress was considering whether the United States should take military action in Syria against the regime of President Bashar Assad for allegedly using chemical weapons against civilians, Gazette staff writer Christina Pazzanese spoke with R. Nicholas Burns, the Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School, about the unsettled situation and the military, political, and humanitarian actions that the United States and some allies might undertake in a Mideast nation torn by civil war.