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
Current Analysis The Syrian Heartbreak There was a distinctive sense of national pride in Syria. It flowed from the confidence of a civilization dating back to the times of the earliest alphabets and visible in the country’s wealth of archaeological sites, including some of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It came f Sarah Birke, Peter Harling • 19 min read
Current Analysis Futile Military Financing One of the more regrettable things that Uncle Sam does with your tax dollars is sending $3.1 billion in military aid to Israel every year. He’ll be doing that until 2018 -- and probably after, unless Americans decide enough is enough. When President Barack Obama traveled to Israel in March, he was Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis North African Commonalities (part two) Bill Lawrence is director of the North Africa Project for the International Crisis Group. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer (Morocco), Fulbright scholar (Tunisia), development consultant (Egypt), State Department official, Arabic translator and filmmaker (Marrakech Inshallah, Moroccans in Boston) David McMurray • 7 min read
Current Analysis North African Commonalities (part one) Bill Lawrence is director of the North Africa Project for the International Crisis Group. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer (Morocco), Fulbright scholar (Tunisia), development consultant (Egypt), State Department official, Arabic translator and filmmaker (Marrakech Inshallah, Moroccans in Boston) David McMurray • 9 min read
Current Analysis Viral Occupation When Israeli security forces arrived in the middle of the night at the Tamimi house in Nabi Salih, the occupied West Bank, the family was already in bed. The raid was not unexpected, as news had traveled around the village on that day in January 2011: Soldiers were coming to houses at night, demandi Rebecca L. Stein • 13 min read
Current Analysis The Syrian Cataclysm For obvious reasons, coverage of the uprising and internal war in Syria has been dominated by the terrible human toll. An estimated 60,000 Syrians (or more) have been killed, with tens of thousands more scarred bodily and emotionally by the violence. As of the end of February, over 3 million Syrians Omar S. Dahi • 6 min read
Current Analysis CAFMENA Letter re: Syria The Committee on Academic Freedom [http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/committees/academic-freedom/index.html] of the Middle East Studies Association of North America has published an open letter [http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/committees/academic-freedom/intervention/letters-syria.html#021913]regarding armed (Author not identified) • 3 min read
Current Analysis Inquiring Into International Commissions of Inquiry A Palestinian political prisoner, Arafat Jaradat, died in Israeli custody on February 22. The Shinbet, Israel’s internal intelligence service, claims that Jaradat, 30, died of natural causes. Palestinian authorities suspect foul play, and the Palestinian prime minister in the West Bank, Salam Fayya Lori Allen • 4 min read
