Policy Analysis

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  • Policy Analysis
    Media and Technology

    Mapping Digital Authoritarianism in the Arab World

    Feb 3, 2022Tamara Kharroub

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

  • Policy Analysis
    Justice, Equality, and Human Rights

    A Bleak Landscape for Democracy and Human Rights in the MENA Region in 2022

    Feb 2, 2022Charles W. Dunne

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    EgyptJustice, Equality, and Human Rights

    Sisi’s Transnational Repression: Silencing Political Dissidents in Exile

    Jan 26, 2022Khalil Al-Anani

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    North AfricaDemocracy and Governance

    The Islamists of Northwest Africa: Accommodation and Co-optation

    Jan 26, 2022Amal Ghazal

    Analyses of Islamists in Northwest Arica—from Mauritania to Libya—follow a common pattern of distinguishing militants among them from non-militants. In particu…

  • Policy Analysis
    Democracy and Governance

    The Democracy Deficit in the Arab World

    Jan 14, 2022Imad K. Harb

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    LibyaDemocracy and Governance

    Libya: Political Paralysis and Continued Uncertainty

    Jan 11, 2022Gregory Aftandilian

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

  • Policy Analysis
    TunisiaDemocracy and Governance

    Can Tunisia’s Leaders Forge a New Democratic Bargain?

    Dec 29, 2021Daniel Brumberg

    Nothing captures Tunisia’s crisis of democracy better than this act: the sentencing, in absentia, of former President Moncef Marzouki to four years in prison. …

  • Policy Analysis
    IraqDemocracy and Governance

    Iraq’s Post-Election Government Formation: Political Deadlock

    Dec 28, 2021Zeidon Alkinani

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    Education and Development

    What Future Exists for the Arab Youth of Today?

    Dec 22, 2021Yara M. Asi

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    LebanonDemocracy and Governance

    Politics, Geopolitical Conditions Pushing Lebanon into a Death Spiral

    Dec 22, 2021Imad K. Harb

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    Democracy and Governance

    Biden’s Summit for Democracy Ignored the Middle East

    Dec 15, 2021Charles W. Dunne

    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…

  • Policy Analysis
    SudanRegional Relations and Geopolitics

    Sudan Coup: The Regional Interference behind a Faltering Transition

    Dec 11, 2021Khalil Al-Anani

    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…