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TWI Arabic: اللغة العربية Fikra Forum

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Articles & Testimony

Time to Get Serious about Helping Iran's Opposition

On Monday and Tuesday, Iranian police raided offices connected to top opposition leaders and former presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. Many fear that the move signals that the regime's efforts to extinguish Iran's post-election unrest is moving to its next, perhaps decisive, phase: the arrest and decapitation of

After the Crackdown:

The Iran Democracy Fund

Nearly three months have passed since Iran's bloody crackdown on the mass protests over the controversial June 12 presidential election. The Obama administration, however, has yet to determine a strategy to support the first serious challenge to the regime since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Last week's statement by Iran's top

J. Scott Carpenter

Facing Homegrown Radicalization

Last month, Kamal Hassan, a Somali-American living in Minnesota, pled guilty to training and fighting with al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group in Somalia. In July, two other Somali-Americans in Minnesota pled guilty to similar charges, with the FBI continuing to investigate more than a dozen others who may have traveled

Articles & Testimony

Terrorist Dropouts:

One Way of Promoting the Counternarrative

As efforts to disrupt al-Qaeda and its affiliates continue, the U.S. government has slowly come to realize that military force alone cannot defeat radical extremism. Although al-Qaeda's ideas and those of like-minded groups must be challenged, it is clear that a single, overarching counternarrative cannot be expected to work across

Michael Jacobson

Articles & Testimony

How Ahmadinejad Stole an Election --

And How He Can Fix It

Rarely does a country have such a clear choice as Iran did on June 12. On that day, nearly 40 million people voted for a president. The incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, pledged to continue his economic policies and his anti-Western, Holocaust-denying, nuclear-confrontational approach. His main opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, promised economic

Articles & Testimony

Persistent Pest

Over the past years, some analysts have suggested that George W. Bush's unpopular administration spawned the high levels of anti-Americanism in Turkey. Referring to this phenomenon as "anti-Bushism," however, discounted the rise of anti-Americanism in Turkey and implied that the country's adverse view of the United States would change with

Articles & Testimony

Where Have All the Palestinian Moderates Gone?

In October 1999, while researching a book on Palestinian politics, I had coffee with then Palestinian minister of labor Rafik Natsheh on the patio of the InterContinental Hotel in Amman, Jordan. A member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s Fatah Central Committee, Natsheh was a consummate political insider, but he

David Schenker

Articles & Testimony

Why Is the Armed Struggle Still Part of Fatah's Bylaws?

In his July 31, 2009, column in the Palestinian Authority (PA) daily al-Ayyam, Washington Institute Lafer international fellow Mohammad Yaghi expressed reservations about Fatah's bylaws and political plan, both of which are to be presented at the movement's sixth conference opening today in Bethlehem. The following are excerpts from Yaghi's

Articles & Testimony

Syria and Hizbullah after the Lebanese Elections

Hizbullah has enjoyed an enviable run of political and military "achievements" including its "divine victory" over Israel in 2006, the "glorious day" in May 2008 when it occupied Beirut, and securing diplomatic recognition by Britain in April 2009. More recently the Lebanese Shiite militia has been dealt a series of

David Schenker

Articles & Testimony

The World is Tilted

Tom Friedman is right, the world is flat. New communication technologies and globalization have created a flat world, erasing most social and political inequalities among nations. However, in this flat world, there is a new trend: from Italy and Turkey to Russia, Iran and China, where the governments control the

Articles & Testimony

Iranian Elections Increase Middle East Proliferation

It is obvious that the current situation in Iran spells that the regime intends to continue its nuclear program. While that is the target of the Obama administration's agenda in the Middle East, the reinstitution of Mahmoud Ahmedinajad to the Iranian presidency will also cause nuclear and conventional weapons proliferation

Articles & Testimony

America and the Lebanon Issue

The following is an excerpt from "America and the Lebanon Issue," in Lebanon: Liberation, Conflict, and Crisis, ed. Barry Rubin (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). Purchase this book on Amazon.com The U.S. can protect us from another superpower but not from a regional power like Israel or Syria. The U.S

David Schenker

An Interview with Mehdi Khalaji

Born in Qom, Iran, as the son of an ayatollah, Mehdi Khalaji knows what the long path to Shiite scholarship looks like. His father dreamed that he might someday join the ranks of these high scholars as an ayatollah, and from 1986 to 2000, Khalaji studied theology and jurisprudence in

Mehdi Khalaji

Muslim Engagement:

The Obama Administration's Approach

On July 17, 2009, Farah Pandith, the State Department's first special representative to Muslim communities, addressed a special Policy Forum luncheon at The Washington Institute to discuss her new role and U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton's approach to Muslim engagement. The following is a rapporteur's summary of her remarks

Farah Pandith

Articles & Testimony

Why Turkey Must Get In

Twenty-two countries have negotiated for European Union membership in its history, and all were ultimately offered accession. But French President Nicolas Sarkozy has long blocked Turkey's entry into the EU, and his objections are no symbolic snag. France is a key EU country, and Paris's veto has frustrated Turkey's EU

New 'Arab Street' Polls:

United States Gaining Ground, Iran Losing

Several new polls suggest that the United States is gaining ground in the Arab street, and that President Barack Obama's latest overtures, specifically his June 4 speech in Cairo, were well received by some important Arab constituencies. Although a great deal of skepticism remains, students of Arab public opinion would

David Pollock

Articles & Testimony

Obama's Two Dollars and Turkey

It is a tough economy, but if President Barack Obama has $2 to invest in Turkey, I would suggest that he put one buck into consolidating Turkey's liberal democracy, and the other into moving forward the country's European Union accession, for a non-European Turkey would be a big loss for

In-Depth Reports

The Obama Administration and the Middle East:

Setting Priorities, Defining Policies

Featuring Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, Michael Herzog, Marc Lynch, Nicholas Blanford, James Glassman, John Hannah, Robert Satloff, and David Makovsky The Proceedings President Obama came to office with the promise of bringing change to U.S. Middle East policy. Within weeks of his inauguration, substantive shifts in America's Iraq and Afghanistan

Articles & Testimony

Incirlikization

Oftentimes, lecturing on Turkey to audiences across the United States, I find myself amiss, in need of a map to identify Turkey's geographic location. In such cases, I resort to a virtual map, using my fingers to sketch Turkey's surrounding regions: the Middle East, Europe, Black Sea, Mediterranean and Caucasus

Articles & Testimony

The Iranian Paradigm

Mass demonstrations in Iran protesting the election results have found a very receptive audience in Europe. European governments have said that the Iranian mullahs have stolen the elections, and voiced strong support for the demonstrators. In contrast, in the U.S, President Obama has been low key on Iran, only gradually

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Supported by the

Project Fikra: Defeating Extremism through the Power of Ideas

Fikra n. [Arabic] "Idea"

The Washington Institute's Project Fikra is a multiyear program of research, publication, and network-building designed to generate policy ideas for promoting positive change and countering the spread of extremism in the Middle East.

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Featured experts

Catherine Cleveland

Catherine Cleveland

Catherine Cleveland is The Washington Institute's Croft-Wagner Family Senior Fellow and managing editor of Fikra Forum.

Ben Fishman

Ben Fishman is the Steven D. Levy Senior Fellow in the Linda and Tony Rubin Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute, where he focuses on North Africa.

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