Democracy & Reform

In its eighty-page report Changing Minds, Winning Peace, issued earlier today, the State Department's Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World -- chaired by Edward Djerejian -- delivered a refreshingly blunt assessment of many of the failures in Washington's efforts to deliver its message to Muslims

Hayet Laouani, Tunisian National Federation of Transport: The Arab world is diverse. There are individual Arab countries, not just a single entity, that you can strictly call the "Arab world." Is there a deficit of democracy in those countries? Yes, but not a complete absence. What is missing is an

Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security INTRODUCTION Well into the war on terrorism, Saudi Arabia continues to serve as the capital of international terrorist financing. Through groups like the Muslim World League (MWL), the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), the al Haramain Islamic Foundation

President George W. Bush will be holding three summits next week that will have a strong Middle East orientation. A G-8 summit will followed by a meeting with Arab leaders in Sharm al-Shaykh, Egypt, and a summit of Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Aqaba, Jordan, representing a new phase in

Kuwait has endured difficulties with regard to the war in Iraq. Kuwait took a unique position by supporting U.S. action to change the regime of Saddam Husayn. The Kuwaiti position reflected its belief that the people of Iraq deserve a better life. Kuwait's seven months of Iraqi occupation made its

To combat what is widely viewed as the slanted news coverage of Arab satellite stations, the White House and Congress are joining forces to spend tens -- perhaps hundreds -- of millions of dollars to launch an official Arabic-language U.S. government competitor. Unfortunately, it has a chance of turning out

Last week the Bush administration decided to reject the recommendation of an independent federal agency to designate Saudi Arabia as a "country of particular concern" under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom had heard evidence that the Saudi religious police raided the homes

A recent State Department security warning urged all Americans abroad to make sure their cars have a full tank of gas. The message itself was odd: Is there really a Foggy Bottom office responsible for the level of petrol in every expatriate's gas tank? But the emphasis on prevention was

From the downfall of Saddam Husayn's regime to the failure of the Abu Mazen government and the growing conflict over Iranian nuclear ambitions, the year 2003 was an especially eventful one in the Middle East. For the first time, the annual compendium of flagship Washington Institute analysis has been compiled