Arab & Islamic Politics

Egypt is now effectively under military control and will likely remain so for some months. The Supreme Military Council (SMC) holds effective decisionmaking authority, although a civilian cabinet remains in place. The SMC has pledged to make a swift transition to a new civilian government, but to date it has

On February 16, Bahraini security forces used brute force to clear democracy protestors from Manama's Pearl Square, on orders from a regime seemingly undaunted by international media coverage and the near-instantaneous self-reporting of Twitter-generation demonstrators. Although the relatively small size of the crowds (compared to recent protests in Egypt and

This week marked the sixth anniversary of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, killed in a Beirut bombing on February 14, 2005. Noting the solemn occasion, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon issued a statement paying tribute to Hariri and the other twenty-two people killed that day and reaffirming

In Egypt's war of attrition, only continued mobilization will compel the military to reassess its current calculation that a September exit for Mubarak is the only solution.

What seemed at first to be the beginning of an orderly transition in Egypt is starting to look more like a war of attrition.

The New York Times convened an online panel of six Middle East experts to discuss the Obama administration's cautious approach to Egypt: aiming for stability and holding off on a rapid ouster of Mr. Mubarak. David Makovsky contributes.

Egypt's transition toward a post-Hosni Mubarak era, as incremental and painful as it might be, has sparked interest in the "Turkish model" of democracy-craft, i.e. the art of conducting democratic affairs, which in Turkey involves the military playing a stabilizing role during the transition process while Islamist parties moderate through

The Obama administration and Congress should seek to protect a democratic transition in Egypt -- not stand in its way out of exaggerated fear.

On February 2, 2011, Robert Satloff, J. Scott Carpenter, Dina Guirguis, and David Schenker addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute. The following is an edited version of Dr. Satloff's opening remarks and responses to questions; a summary of the other presentations was published separately as PolicyWatch