دمکراسی و اصلاح

Two regional political experts join a former U.S. ambassador to discuss how the final campaign push is shaping up and what the outcome could hold for U.S. interests.

Beijing’s latest policy initiative is vague, but this same quality could yield diplomatic clout and unite countries whose interests may otherwise diverge from China’s.

Pursuing even incremental steps will be difficult in a country long dominated by Iran’s chief regional proxy, but the two countries’ leaders have cracked the door open for future diplomacy.

To ensure the U.S. peace plan meets the long-term goal of a Gaza that is not ruled by Hamas and does not pose a threat to its neighbors, authorities need to combine realistic and measurable achievements with efforts toward disarmament, civilian reconstruction, and changing the public agenda.

Facing an uncertain economic future and fed up with corruption and mismanagement, young people in countries from Morocco to Iran have begun voicing demands for more responsive leadership and a more open society.

Ongoing delays in implementing their integration agreements threaten to derail the entire post-Assad national project, but the Kurds and Damascus don’t need to solve all of their core issues right away—they just need to take a well-defined set of urgent confidence-building steps.

Although top-down change seems increasingly unlikely, elected Libyans may stand a better chance of challenging the national status quo by pushing from the local level.

The government and military’s decision to seize the group’s weapons is unprecedented and welcome—but it won’t mean anything without a clear and viable timeline for implementation, especially as political maneuvering for next year’s election begins.

Existing programs are plagued by a broken tenure system, suspect foreign donors, Hamas apologists, and other ailments, but new programs at up-and-coming universities can help the field return to practical, non-ideological scholarship and respect for civil discourse.