Arab & Islamic Politics

A few weeks ago, President George W. Bush called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to congratulate him on the wedding of his son and political heir apparent, Gamal. Meanwhile, Mubarak's pro-democracy opposition was protesting because it understood Gamal's nuptials as yet another step in the 79-year-old president's plan to transfer authority

The political turmoil in Turkey prompted by the April 24 nomination by Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader and Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, as his candidate for presidency is far from over. The actions of the leadership of the AKP, a party

Vice President Dick Cheney departed today on a trip to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. A bland statement issued from his office on May 3 said he was asked to travel by President Bush and would be having "discussions with the leaders of these countries on

The Middle East is abuzz with talk of ''Shiitization.'' Since the war in Lebanon last summer, newspapers, TV news channels and Web sites in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have reported that Sunnis, taken with Hezbollah's charismatic Shiite leader Hassan Nasrallah and his group's ''resistance'' to Israel, were converting to

On April 1-5, the seventeen Arab members of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) met in Jordan to discuss terrorism financing and money laundering in the region. Although the task force's record to date shows some promise, the organization can do far more to address

Turkish translation also available. Download a PDF (1.1 MB) In 2007, two crucial political developments will unfold in Turkey: the AKP-controlled parliament will select a new president, and the public will vote in nationwide legislative elections. Both events come at a time when Turkish popular sentiment toward the West has

Charley J. Levine interviewed Robert Satloff for the April 2007 issue of Hadassah Magazine. The following is the text of that interview. Robert Satloff, executive director of The Washington Institute, is a leading expert on Arab affairs and United States-Middle East relations. His recent book, Among the Righteous: Lost Stories

On March 9, 2007, Michael Oren addressed The Washington Institute's Special Policy Forum. A historian and senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, Dr. Oren authored the recent bestseller Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. The following is a rapporteur's summary of

On December 26, 2006, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak proposed a package of amendments to the Egyptian constitution with the purported aim of introducing more democratic freedom into Egypt's sclerotic political system. In effect, however, these "reforms" will serve only to strengthen the ruling party's stranglehold on Egyptian politics and send