Middle East & North Africa

28 Items

Black Americans register to vote in the July 4 Georgia Democratic Primary in Atlanta, Ga., on May 3, 1944. Registrations are increasing in Atlanta as black schools are giving instructions to students in ballot casting procedure.

AP Photo

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

White Supremacy, Terrorism, and the Failure of Reconstruction in the United States

| Summer 2021

White Southerners opposed to Reconstruction used violence to undermine Black political power and force uncommitted white Southerners to their side. Although structural factors made it harder for the U.S. government to suppress this violence, a series of policy failures prompted Reconstruction’s failure and generations of injustice.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, Oct. 17, 2018.

(AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, Pool)

Analysis & Opinions - Foreign Affairs

To Stop Sisi, Strengthen Egypt’s Judiciary

| Oct. 22, 2018

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s Egypt is a dangerous place for dissidents. Under Sisi’s command, the military and security forces used extraordinary violence to consolidate power in the summer of 2013 that cost at least 817 lives. Security forces detained, charged, or sentenced at least 41,000 people between July 2013 and April 2014, mostly because of their alleged association with the Muslim Brotherhood. The human rights situation deteriorated even further in subsequent years. Egyptian police forcibly disappeared citizens, leaving no legal trail. 

Iraqi Army soldiers celebrate as they hold a flag of the Islamic State group they captured during a military operation to regain control of a village outside Mosul, Iraq, Nov. 29, 2016.

AP

Analysis & Opinions - Foreign Affairs

The Overloaded Prisons of Iraq

| December 1, 2016

"...[A]s disconcerting as the overcrowding and financial strain are, they are not as troubling as the prospect of the prison system becoming a breeding ground for a new insurgency, as was the case with the U.S. prison system in Iraq. There, incarcerated insurgent leaders used their time to develop strategies and recruit new fighters for radical groups."

Military and police security patrol Gare du Nord station in Paris, France.

Getty Images

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

When is the moment to ask for more effective anti-terrorism policies?

| July 16, 2016

"What happens when, after another dozen major attacks, the chain of their barbarism outpaces the chain of our human solidarity? When is the permissible moment to start asking if we can muster as much wisdom and realism to fight terror as we do to harness emotions of solidarity? The recent increasing pace and widening geographic scope of terror suggest we are dealing with a qualitatively new kinds of terrorists — but the policy responses of governments and the emotional responses of entire societies suggest we have no idea how to respond to quell this monster."

Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir announces that Saudi Arabia is conducting military air strikes in Yemen

Getty Images

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Four Active Arab Wars Stem from a Common Malaise

| March 28, 2015

"The latest active war in the Middle East, the Saudi Arabian-led assault on Yemen to prevent the Houthi movement from taking full control of the entire country by force, has triggered a fascinating legal and ideological debate about the legitimacy and efficacy of this venture. The significance of this war in Yemen is not really about the legally authorized use of force to ensure a calm Arab future. Rather, it is mainly a testament to the marginalization of the rule of law — and not its affirmation — in many Arab countries in our recent past."

Handover ceremony for the Essid's government in Tunisia

Getty Images

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt Offer Real Choices

| February 4, 2015

"The contrast this week between political decisions by the governments in Tunisia, Bahrain and Egypt capture vividly the two available pathways for Arab national development. For the first time ever in modern Arab history, Arab citizens across the region can witness how life, politics, and citizenship operate in two alternative systems based, respectively, on the rule of law and democratic pluralism, in the case of Tunisia, and on top-heavy, family-based, security-managed governance systems in most other Arab states, with Bahrain and Egypt offering the most recent unfortunate examples."

A protester waves Palestinian flag in solidarity with Gaza as Americans shout slogans and hold banners during a demonstration against the death of eighteen-year-old unarmed teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 16, 2014

Getty Images

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

The Universal Horrors of Killing with Impunity

| December 6, 2014

"The dramatic spontaneous outbreak of dozens of demonstrations across major cities in the United States protesting the police killings of black civilian men captures the best and worst of American culture. It may also allow Americans to appreciate the similar sentiments of shock, anger and vulnerability — and also sustained resistance — that define others around the world who suffer similar grotesque behavior by security forces on a regular basis."

Book Chapter

Saudi Arabia's 'Soft' Approach to Terrorist Prisoners: A Model for Others?

| 2014

Faced with an extremist prisoner population numbered in the thousands, Saudi officials developed tools intending to prevent prisoner radicalization, to mitigate the risk when an alleged or convicted terrorist was released, and to deal with domestic political concerns about prisoner treatment. What emerged was a unique and highly tailored approach that included rehabilitation-oriented programs in prisons and at prisoner rehabilitation centers, and 'aftercare' support for recently released prisoners.

Analysis & Opinions - Agence Global

Popular Legitimacy Asserts Itself in Egypt

| July 03, 2013

The dramatic developments in Egypt since June 30 will continue to unfold at a brisk pace and many outcomes are possible, but we can draw four main lessons from the events to date, related to the Muslim Brotherhood, the opposition, the armed forces, and the citizenry as a whole and its determination to complete the democratic transition that started in January 2011. This week’s events and what is to follow are the inevitable attempt by masses of ordinary Egyptians to transform the “popular legitimacy” that was born in January 2011 into institutions of participation and accountability in the public political realm.