Arab & Islamic Politics

In times of crisis, individuals rise up to act as their society’s conscience. These individuals work to alert the international community to human rights violations or work tirelessly to help their community recover from major obstacles, natural or man-made. These protectors are civil society activists, community mobilizers, and independent journalists

Explore the roles of Salafism, jihadism, nationalism, and other movements as drivers of conflict and alliance post-Arab Spring.

Riyadh's offer to deploy ground troops in Syria and reestablish air operations comes while its forces are still heavily committed in Yemen and a huge military exercise begins in the kingdom's north.

The Assad regime's Russian-aided military campaign and the onset of spring augur another mass refugee flow into the EU, and the only surefire way to stop it is by addressing the root of the crisis inside Syria.

Successive White House administrations have tried to weaken the Iranian mullahs’ grip on the country through war, sanctions, and diplomatic isolation. Each policy has failed eminently, and a considerable list of U.S. officials expects more of the same from President Obama’s new strategy of ‘veiled’ diplomacy, which attempts to foster

While many believe that Riyadh's Yemen campaign and oil policy are sowing the seeds of domestic instability, the kingdom's activist approach is likely to endure for the foreseeable future given Washington's recent track record.

The establishment of jihadi governance projects is becoming the new normal as ISIS and al-Qaida learn from past mistakes, but the long-term sustainability of these efforts remains unclear.

Washington lacks the voice and vocabulary to rhetorically challenge the group's theology, so it should focus on making better use of other potent tools that can actually stop jihadist goals from becoming a reality.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt can be characterized as an intellectual and political movement distinguished by its relationship with the ruling regimes. After Gamal Abdel Nasser and his comrades swept away the Egyptian constitutional monarchy in 1952, the Brotherhood cemented its place in Egypt’s political arena, regarded as the most