خلق الحوار. التأثير على السياسة.
Generating Dialogue. Impacting Policy.
A reliable new Lebanese public opinion poll, conducted in November, shows that a large majority of the country’s Shiites retain positive views of both Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons—even as major anti-government protests include many Shiite participants for the first time.
Fikra Forum
Within Algeria’s nascent and evolving political scene in the country's post-Bouteflika era, there exists a multitude of clashing ideological and political backgrounds and experiences that political parties have adopted as their reference point for how to move forward in the upcoming elections.
Fikra Forum
This is a high-stakes call, but Iraq’s ongoing protests also represent a unique opportunity. This is the first time mass protests have been launched by individual young Iraqis, not by Islamist demagogues who are themselves part of the problem.
With the AKP’s embarrassing double loss in local Istanbul elections last spring, Erdogan has since faced increasingly sharp criticism not just at the hands of leaders of the country’s two main opposition parties—the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and HDP—but from some former senior members of his own party. Notably, Ahmet Davutoglu, a former AKP prime minister and a prominent politician once known as Erdogan’s and his party’s “mastermind” has recently formally split from the AKP after carefully distancing himself for years.
Fikra Forum
Arab governments have recently made common cause not only with each other but also with the neighboring state of Israel in order to make their counterterrorism efforts more effective. In one crucial facet of counterterrorism, however, no substantial partnership between Israelis and their Arab neighbors has yet been forged.
Fikra Forum
In both Iraq and Syria, Kurds consider themselves to be American allies. This attitude is not without risks and costs in the Middle East region, where it is often popular to be hostile to the United States. However, shifting Kurdish attitudes will impact the KRG’s dealing with the United States—it makes the former hesitant, less confident, and wary of potential sudden change that might affect the balance of power in the region.
