Democracy & Reform

The Obama administration's announcement yesterday specifically sanctioning Syrian President Bashar al-Asad begins to clear the fog that has clouded policy toward this pivotal country since the outbreak of mass protests weeks ago. As U.S. and international leaders have grappled with popular uprisings across the Middle East, the tension between moral

After appropriately exulting in the daring raid against Usama bin Laden, President Obama will connect that success to a broader theme -- the Arab "winds of change" -- whose prospects for success are certainly no greater than the 50/50 odds originally given for the Abbottabad mission. In so doing, the

In anticipation of its victory in the June 12 general parliamentary elections, the AKP has promised to draft a new constitution for the country.

On May 13, 2011, Hisham Kassem, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, and Amb. James Larocco addressed The Washington Institute's 2011 Soref Symposium. Mr. Kassem, former publisher of al-Masry al-Youm, is an independent journalist and one of Egypt's most prominent democracy activists. Maj. Gen. Yadlin is the Kay fellow at The Washington

The Syrian government has stepped up its campaign to quash a seven-week uprising, reportedly using tanks to fire on cities. At least twenty people and two Syrian soldiers died in the latest clashes. Larisa Epatko of PBS NewsHour asked Andrew J. Tabler, a Next Generation fellow in The Washington Institute's

If recent trends hold during Turkey's upcoming elections, as many as a quarter of all voters will not have representation in the parliament.

On May 4, Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas is slated to sign a reconciliation agreement with Hamas leaders in Cairo, a development first announced last week. The move will mark an end to the period of estrangement between the two factions, which began in summer 2007 when Hamas expelled

Top U.S. officials are now offering praise for Aljazeera, a Qatar-owned and -based news network that broadcasts in both Arabic and English-language versions. Aljazeera, not carried by any U.S. cable networks and broadcast locally in only a few cities, depends on its English-language website to reach an increasingly large U.S

The Arab Spring may well produce a few more strong, reliable, democratic, pro-American allies in the Middle East, but until that moment arrives, Washington would be wise to strengthen and protect the only such ally it has in the region.