شمال أفريقيا

On November 30, 2011, Mr. Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia's an-Nahda movement, visited the offices of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy to address a seminar of the Institute's senior research staff and several select, invited guests. This was an on-the-record session, with a tape recorder sitting in the

The Middle East begins 2012 much as it began 1949, 1968, and 1980: confident only that uncertainty is the new norm.

The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in the 2012 Foreign Policy compilation Islamists in a Changing Middle East. To read the rest of the article, download the PDF. In addition, the full multiauthor compilation is available from the Foreign Policy website. On November 13, 2011, the

Although Washington has no interest in an Islamist-dominated Egyptian parliament, a brittle and indefinite military regime that lacks legitimacy is not a formula for stability either.

A moderate Islamist party governing in coalition with secularists will offer Tunisia a reasonable chance at real democracy.

Despite Qadhafi's fall, the Obama administration's initial reluctance to become involved in Libya sends a negative signal to Iran and others regarding Washington's stomach for confrontation.

The terrorist attack in the Negev threatens to escalate into both a wider Israel-Gaza conflict and an Egyptian-Israeli diplomatic crisis.

Washington must find the leverage needed to ensure that Egypt's military-supervised transition does not intentionally strengthen Islamists at the expense of revolutionary forces.

The more that liberals concede to Islamist demands, the more they will be marginalized in the struggle for Egypt's future.