Current Analysis Protesting Clerical Welfarism in Iran’s Pious City Protests in Iran's holy city of Qom reveal that social fragmentation in Iran runs so deep that even within a community as intimately related to religious learning and the state as Qom, the divisions and boundaries go beyond easy distinctions between regime and opposition, hardliner and reformer or s Mehdi Faraji • 13 min read
mundy_map Current Analysis Business as Usual in Western Sahara? The end of 2018 witnessed potentially promising peace talks in Geneva between the Polisario Front liberation movement of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco in an effort to kickstart the stalled peace process for the nearly 45-year conflict over this North African territory. Nevertheless, the Alice Wilson, Jacob Mundy • 12 min read
Current Analysis Trump’s Full Spectrum Assault on Palestinian Politics The attack on UNWRA is part of a full-spectrum assault on the Palestinian people’s rights and capacity to engage in politics undertaken by the Trump administration since entering office in 2016. While the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is reportedly developing a Middle East peace plan, dubbed Ilana Feldman • 9 min read
Current Analysis Overstating Climate Change in Egypt’s Uprising Although climate change is a major issue of global consequence, blaming climate change for the 2011 uprising in Egypt fails to account for the political and economic issues that were behind the uprisings across the region and distracts from the factors that produced bread shortages in Egypt. Jessica Barnes • 7 min read
Current Analysis From the War of National Liberation to Gentrification Demonstrations about gentrification in Oran, Algeria are linked to a broader tension over collective versus individual rights to colonial-era properties abandoned by the French, occupied by citizens, nationalized by the state and now subject to varying strategies of individual appropriation in the w Robert P. Parks • 19 min read
Current Analysis Is the Rojava Dream at Risk? An Interview with Dilar Dirik In April 2018 Giuseppe Acconica spoke with Dilar Dirik, an activist with the Kurdish women’s movement in the Rojava region of Northern Syria. Giuseppe Acconcia • 6 min read
Current Analysis From Gaza to Jerusalem to Iran By forging a regional alliance aimed at confronting Iran and its allies, the new coalition of the US, Israel and allied Sunni Arab regimes intend to relegate the Palestinian issue to collateral damage in order to succeed. Joel Beinin • 9 min read
Current Analysis “Do You Know Who Governs Us? The Damned Monetary Fund” What had started as protests over a taxation draft law and an increase in gas prices quickly led to a popular uprising against the neoliberal path on which the state has embarked. Sara Ababneh • 16 min read
Current Analysis The Fiscal Politics of Rebellious Jordan Activism in the modern Arab world saw its peak in the Spring of 2011, but Jordanians have returned to the streets in a new round of protests triggered by recent economic policies and long standing grievances. How should we understand these protests? Pete Moore • 10 min read
Current Analysis Crackdowns and Coalitions in Kuwait The Arab Gulf has seen sweeping arrests of political figures to quell corruption. Even Kuwait has not been immune. Alex Boodrookas • 15 min read
Current Analysis The Lebanese Elections and Their Consequences Nine years since the last national parliamentary election, many in the country expected the emerging civil society groups to challenge the tradition sectarian-based parties. Despite the rumblings for change, the status quo prevailed. Rayan El-Amine • 10 min read
Current Analysis A Brief History of a Teacher's Strike In early 2016, nearly 35,000 Palestinian teachers initiated a series of strike actions across the West Bank. Classes were dismissed and students sent home as teachers marched through Ramallah’s streets and organized sit-ins in front of Ministry of Education field offices. What was behind the strike? Mai Abu Moghli, Mezna Qato • 11 min read
