Publications

Lebanon has experienced a long presidential vacuum three times in its history: from September 1988 to November 1989, from November 2007 to May 2008, and from M…

In recent years, movements toward “decolonization” have taken hold throughout multiple disciplines, including cultural studies, health, economics, and educatio…

Twelve months of high drama in Iraqi politics finally ended on October 27, with the investiture of a new government headed by Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani. Two wee…

With final election results having been announced by Israel’s Central Elections Committee, Haaretz declared that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Lik…

Since the October 2021 military coup that derailed Sudan’s political transition to a much hoped-for democracy, Sudan has been plagued by civil strife, deterior…

Voters in Kuwait went to the polls on September 29 to elect a new National Assembly in what was the country’s ninth general election in 16 years and the sixth …

Once again, and for the fifth time in four years, Israel is on the brink of an election, and is facing the all-too-familiar prospect of political deadlock—even…

Iraqi politicians have repeatedly failed to form a government in the eleven months that have passed since the country’s October 2021 elections, in large part d…

Iraq’s political deadlock has grown more intense and complex in recent months. The stalemate that has reigned since the re-election of Speaker of Parliament Mo…

Gregory Aftandilian examines the latest developments in Libya following the derailment of parliamentary and presidential elections and the ongoing division and…

Khalil al-Anani writes that President Biden’s recent meetings with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE sent a clear message to the world’s authorit…

Rend Al-Rahim discusses the latest events in Iraqi politics, including the Sadrist Movement’s political maneuvering and its incitement of street protests that …

Daniel Brumberg offers three potential political scenarios for Tunisia following the country's July 25 referendum on a new constitution that President Kais Sai…

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s health has been the subject of speculation for some time, especially since he has been afflicted by both prostate cancer …

Amid political chaos, economic collapse, a dearth of public services, and shortages of basic foods and medications, Lebanon is nonetheless slated to hold anoth…

Once again, Libya is falling victim to its political elites’ failure to agree on a long-awaited election mechanism and constitutional provisions that would sec…

The Israeli Knesset once again voted to dissolve itself, setting the stage for new elections this fall, which will be the country’s fifth in just three years. …

The international community was largely unprepared to deal with the fallout of Sudan’s October 2021 coup, organized by the country’s military with the support …

In December 2021, Egyptian activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah was sentenced to prison for five years after being convicted of “spreading false news.” Alaa …

Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, held on May 15, 2022, were the first chance to understand where Lebanese voters stand on a number of important issues since …

On May 15, resident Lebanese go to the polls to elect a new 128-member parliament to replace the one elected four years ago. Given the right to vote in 2018, e…

Zeidon Alkinani argues that the current political deadlock in Iraq in choosing a president and a prime minister is fueled by intra-group competitions in the Sh…

In Iraq’s parliamentary elections last October, the Sadrist Movement led by the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr emerged as the largest bloc with 73 seats. Its clos…

Jordan’s former crown prince, Hamza bin Al Hussein, posted a rare message on social media in early April 2022, announcing that he was relinquishing his royal t…

It appears that all bets are off in Libya. Elections that were scheduled for last December were postponed as competing institutions and individuals interpret p…

After a two-year experiment in civilian-military power-sharing, Sudan’s military took over on October 25, 2021 in another bid to govern the country alone. Afte…

The meeting of the Palestinian Central Council (PCC), held in Ramallah on February 6, received more attention in the news media than was warranted for a number…

Zeidon Alkinani discusses the rivalry between Iraq’s main Kurdish parties—the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)—and i…

Yousef Munayyer evaluates the prospects of survival of Israel’s current governing coalition, whose partners have little in common except that they coalesced ar…

The Arab uprisings of 2011 gave rise to a utopian vision of information and communication technologies (ICTs), highlighting their abilities to bypass governmen…

Any survey of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa at the start of 2022 has to open with the bad news.Promising protest movements that began in 201…

On January 6, the FBI arrested Pierre Girgis, an Egyptian American, for spying on critics of Egypt’s president in the United States. According to the US Depart…

Imad K. Harb examines the democracy deficit in the Arab world and the associated widespread violations of human rights, probing possible explanations of what h…

Gregory Aftandilian writes that the postponement of Libya’s presidential and parliamentary elections has helped plunge the country into another crisis that thr…

In a move that reflected his failure to garner the support of the Sudanese public, Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok submitted his resignation on January 2…

Major changes to the Iraqi political scene are awaiting the formation of a new government following the results of the early parliamentary election that took p…

In December 2021, an unprecedented event happened in Saudi Arabia: a rave just north of Riyadh. Men and women danced in mixed company, alcohol and marijuana we…

Conditions in Lebanon today betray a slide toward the total failure of state institutions amid a precipitous downturn of the country’s economic and social indi…

The Biden Administration’s recent Summit for Democracy should be regarded as a modest success, fulfilling a campaign promise by President Joe Biden and decisiv…

On October 25, 2021, Sudan’s General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan staged a coup, declared a state of emergency, dissolved the power-sharing Sovereign Council, sacked…

Since his inauguration on January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden has been hinting at a renewed focus on democracy by his administration to reverse the dismal re…

The agreement governing Libya’s advancement toward presidential and legislative elections, which are slated to be held in December, ran into serious trouble th…

In October 2019, Iraq witnessed its most significant anti-government protests since the US-led invasion and occupation in 2003. The demonstrations blasted the …

Having invested time, effort, and treasure in helping to sustain the 2019 political agreement between the Sudanese military and the civilian Forces of Freedom …

We have seen this before: military officers in the Arab world not quite enamored with sharing power with civilians—let alone ceding it to them peacefully—show …

Jordan’s latest reform committee completed its work this month on modernizing the Jordanian political system. As with the many earlier reform committees and ca…

Iraq’s fifth parliamentary election since the 2003 US invasion is procedurally over. The polling stations have closed, but the fight over the results has just …

Revelations in the so-called Pandora Papers about King Abdullah II’s substantial real estate acquisitions of luxury homes in the United States and United Kingd…

For the third time in 16 years, Prime Minister Najib Miqati comes to office as a consensus candidate in a country with deep divisions within the Lebanese polit…

Iraq’s parliamentary elections, set for October 10, 2021, represent the sixth national poll since 2003. Iraqi President Barham Salih described them1 as “critic…

Najib Miqati, the billionaire tasked over a year ago with forming the Lebanese government, has finally finished putting it together, but not before President M…

In June, Jordan’s King Abdullah II appointed a 92-member commission, headed by former Prime Minister Samir Rifai, and charged it with creating a plan to modern…

Nearly a year has passed since the death, on September 29, 2020, of Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabah, the respected elder statesman of Gu…

The recent agreement on Somali presidential and parliamentary elections is a good but insufficient sign that Somalia’s many antagonists will allow the credible…

IntroductionAs Lebanon is undergoing one of the worst economic and financial collapses in the world, one that was caused by the deliberate inaction1 of its rul…

After the uprising against former strongman Muammar Qadhafi in 2011, Libya’s road to stability and order—let alone to full democratic governance—has not been s…

On May 26, Iraqi security forces arrested General Qasim Muslih, commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Anbar province, basing their action on…

Recently, Tunisia has witnessed a political dynamic that is all too rare in the Arab world: Islamists have joined forces with some secularly oriented Members o…