Current Analysis Hope Canal A truck cruising down Qasr al-‘Ayni Street dressed as a blue papier-mâché boat. A belly dancer clad in a silver lycra dress and a blonde wig, upper body undulating out of the window of a white sedan. Tahrir Square, lit up like a local wedding, crowded with thousands, their faces painted red, white a Heba Gowayed, Mona Oraby • 5 min read
Current Analysis Sisi and Suez On July 26, 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. With this action, the young Egyptian president was catapulted to world prominence as a recognized leader of the Arab nationalist and Non-Aligned movements of the time. The nationalization secured for Nasser a reputation for resolute a Timothy Kaldas • 3 min read
Current Analysis An Extraordinary Feat of Diplomacy The nuclear agreement with Iran is an extraordinary feat of diplomacy. First and foremost, non-proliferation experts agree that the deal blocks all of the routes to making an atomic bomb. There are provisions for rigorous inspections—so if Iran cheats, the world will know. Second, it isn’t just Wa Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Yemen's Imposed Federal Boundaries With the war in Yemen well past its hundredth day, confusion persists as to the underlying causes of the conflict. Far from a sectarian proxy war [http://www.merip.org/mer/mer273/breakdown-gcc-initiative] between Shafi‘is under the patronage of Saudi Arabia and Zaydis backed by Iran, as the mainstre Tobias Thiel • 4 min read
Current Analysis Tunisia's Rotten Compromise Since the 2011 Arab uprisings gave way to the dreadful combination of civil war and terrorism that has spread from Syria to Libya and Yemen, analysts and political actors from both the Arab world and West have felt an acute need for at least one success story in the region. Tunisia has provided such Nadia Marzouki • 18 min read
Current Analysis Yemen Is Starving, and We're Partly to Blame Twenty million people in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, are at risk of dying from hunger or thirst. That’s 80 percent of the country’s population, which according to UN agencies badly needs emergency supplies of food and water, along with fuel and medicine. This almost unimaginable c Chris Toensing • 2 min read
MER Article Murray and Woods, The Iran-Iraq War Williamson Murray and Kevin M. Woods, The Iran-Iraq War: A Military and Strategic History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). Nida Alahmad • 3 min read
MER Article Slahi, Guantanamo Diary Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Guantánamo Diary is a powerful indictment of the cruel regime of torture at the heart of darkness that is the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay. Lisa Hajjar • 4 min read
Current Analysis Youth in Turkey’s 2015 Elections On June 7, Turkish citizens went to the polls [http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/election/default.htmlhttp://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/election/default.html] to elect the 550 members of the Grand National Assembly. Although the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won 41 percent of the vote, it Aydin Özipek • 3 min read
Current Analysis The Multiple Wars in Yemen With UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva involving the usual suspects and only a few new faces, it is time to raise the question of Yemen’s future as a state. The talks involve exiled President ‘Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the Houthi movement Ansar Allah and minor figures from the long-time ruling Gener Anne-Linda Amira Augustin, Susanne Dahlgren • 5 min read
Current Analysis Yemen Talks in Geneva On June 8, Yemen’s (self-)exiled president, ‘Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, conveyed his ideas about UN-sponsored talks in Geneva, due to start on June 15, and downplayed their scope. The conversations are to take place mainly between politicians handpicked by him and his Saudi hosts, on the one hand, and Gabriele vom Bruck • 4 min read
Current Analysis Conflict, Forced Migration and Property Claims Amidst widespread fighting in Iraq and Syria, millions of distressed civilians have fled their homes. In Yemen as well, war has led to mass displacement as people try to escape threats to their lives and livelihoods. These instances of forced migration create overwhelming immediate problems such as Sandra Joireman, Jon Unruh • 3 min read
