Current Analysis

Egypt in Year Three

Was the gathering of millions in Egypt on June 30 the continuation of a revolution or the occasion for a coup d’état? The answer is “both,” but the question is not the right one to ask.

The Editors • 8 min read

Current Analysis

Connecting Dots

The life history of typographical and other errors is sometimes interesting, especially when it comes to “terrorism studies” and the panic of the national security state. For example: On June 27, a federal grand jury indicted [/content/files/multimedia/2013/06/27indictment/tsarnaev.pdf] Dz

Darryl Li • 3 min read

Current Analysis

In Guantanamo, Offshoring Prisoners and Workers Alike

When I traveled to the US military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba in 2009 to visit a client imprisoned there, the daily routine was straightforward: Every morning, legal teams representing detainees would leave the Combined Bachelor Quarters that also housed civilian guests on the base and meet our mi

• 3 min read

Current Analysis

Of Bodies and Blank Notebooks

A man walks into a library and asks the librarian for a book on human rights in Saudi Arabia. The librarian hands him a blank notebook. A woman walks into a bookstore and asks for a tourist guide to Saudi Arabia. The bookseller hands her a blank notebook. A reporter walks into the Saudi embassy an

Al Miskin • 2 min read

Current Analysis

Football Matters in Jordan

Celebrations rocked Gaza and the West Bank when Muhammad ‘Assaf, who grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, won the region-wide singing competition [http://www.mbc.net/ar/programs/arab-idol-s2/videos/live-performance/finals/articles/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%81-%D9%8A%

Curtis Ryan • 4 min read

Current Analysis

The Syrian Crisis in Jordan

An hour and a quarter north of Amman the rural highway rolls through the remote desert hamlet of Zaatari without slowing. The town’s lone intersection is too sleepy to need a stop sign.

Matthew Hall • 23 min read

Current Analysis

'Assaf, Palestine and the "Forgotten Palestinians"

For months Arab television watchers have been engrossed in the phenomenon of Muhammad ‘Assaf, the 23-year old Gazan singer who has now been crowned the winner [http://www.mbc.net/ar/programs/arab-idol-s2/videos/live-performance/finals/articles/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%81-%D9%8A

Leena Dallasheh • 3 min read

Current Analysis

Power Corrupts

Secretary of State John Kerry has staked his credibility on reviving the Middle East peace process. Supporting this effort on the world stage will be high on Samantha Power’s agenda, should her nomination as US ambassador to the United Nations be confirmed. But though she will urge Israelis, Palesti

Jamie Stern-Weiner • 4 min read

Current Analysis

Wrapped in Surprise, Stuffed with Politics

Many Iranians are pinching themselves and smiling uncontrollably after Hassan Rowhani’s victory in the June 14 presidential election. The purple-clad campaigners for Rowhani (or Mohammad Reza Aref, who stepped aside for Rowhani a few days before the balloting) still taste the bitterness of 2009, whe

Arang Keshavarzian • 3 min read

Current Analysis

In Search of the Building Blocks of Opposition in Turkey

In early May, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan -- flush with a decade of electoral triumphs and a track record of economic growth dwarfing that of the European Union he once vowed to join -- had the luxury of being magnanimous.

Joseph Logan • 9 min read

Current Analysis

How to Help Syria Now

The appalling civil war in Syria is well into its third year. With upwards of 70,000 dead, countless numbers maimed and injured, and millions of refugees, there are recurrent calls for the United States to “do something” to end the mayhem. That “something” is usually defined as military intervention

Chris Toensing • 2 min read

Current Analysis

Syria's Disabled Future

Jamal is not yet a teenager. His school closed in 2011, soon after the Syrian revolution turned into an armed conflict, and his father found him a factory job. One day in 2012 as he returned from work there was a battle going on in the main street near his home. Jamal immediately started carrying wo

Edward Thomas • 11 min read