Current Analysis State of the Drones During his State of the Union Address last night, President Barack Obama said: We don’t need to send tens of thousands of our sons and daughters abroad, or occupy other nations. Instead, we will need to help countries like Yemen, Libya and Somalia provide for their own security, and help allies who Lisa Hajjar • 6 min read
Current Analysis The Jordanian State Buys Itself Time For months prior to Jordan’s parliamentary elections, concluded on January 23, both the state apparatus and the opposition had been building up the contests as a moment of truth. The state presented the polls as a critical juncture in the execution of its strategy of gradual political reform; the op Nicholas Seeley • 14 min read
Current Analysis Iran and the IAEA at Parchin Few foreign policy issues garner as much interest in the American press as the Iranian nuclear program [http://www.merip.org/mero/mero121612]. As illustrated by last week’s Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing for President Obama’s nominee as secretary of defense, former Republican S Aslı Bâli • 5 min read
Current Analysis Zero Dark Thirty's Losing Premise Zero Dark Thirty is a movie the CIA wants you to see. It tells a tale of the search for Osama bin Laden wherein the key lead comes from a man softened up by waterboarding, sleep deprivation, confinement in a coffin-like box and other forms of pain and humiliation. It shows CIA agents extracting sub Chris Toensing • 2 min read
Current Analysis Reverse the Exodus from Eritrea Last week, soldiers in one of Africa’s most closed and repressive nations -- Eritrea -- occupied the country’s Ministry of Information and issued demands. The pattern was a familiar one. News spread quickly that a coup was underway. But feisty little Eritrea, which got its independence from Ethiopi Dan Connell • 3 min read
Current Analysis The Many Roles of Turkey in the Syrian Crisis On October 4, 2012, the Turkish Grand National Assembly approved a motion, by a vote of 320 to 129, authorizing deployment of the armed forces in “foreign countries,” essentially where and when the government saw fit. It was an expansive, vague-sounding mandate, but in fact there was only one target Aslı Ilgıt, ROCHELLE DAVIS • 18 min read
Current Analysis Drones, US Propaganda and Imperial Hubris Pakistanis should be more supportive of having their national sovereignty violated by Americans, according to US-based political scientists who favor drone strikes in Pakistan. I am trying hard not make this sound like an Onion article, even though it does. In a January 23 article [http://www.theat Sarah Waheed • 5 min read
Current Analysis Workers, Trade Unions and Egypt's Political Future During the week of December 15-22, 2012, between the two rounds of the referendum on Egypt’s newly adopted constitution, workers struck at three large, strategic industrial enterprises. At two, the strikers quickly achieved their main demands. Joel Beinin • 16 min read
Current Analysis Weighed Down In Egypt these days [http://www.merip.org/mer/latest], there seems to be a lot less of what Egyptians call “lightness of blood,” the easygoing bonhomie for which, in one of those stereotypes with a large grain of truth, the country is renowned. The quick-witted jocularity is diminished, the laughter Jessica Winegar • 4 min read
Current Analysis Booyah! Growing Up Amidst Revolution As any parent can tell you, kids are profoundly shaped by what goes on around them that is outside the parents’ control. Witness the socialization of my daughter, 8, half-Egyptian, half-American and living in Cairo, over the last two years. If nothing else, it’s a window upon how Egypt’s political t (Author not identified) • 2 min read
Current Analysis Syrian Kurds on the Verge of Crisis With the civil war in Syria past the point of no return, the country’s economy is undergoing unprecedented shrinkage. Inflation is running rampant. Purchasing power is plummeting as the value of the Syrian pound falls against the US dollar. Damascus and Aleppo, the main economic hubs, are badly aff Sirwan Kajjo • 2 min read
Current Analysis The Walls of Tahrir In recent years, walls have proliferated in Egypt. Some, as Samuli Schielke and I write [http://www.merip.org/mer/mer265/writing-walls-egypt] in the new issue [http://www.merip.org/mer/latest] of Middle East Report, are liberally decorated [http://www.merip.org/mer/mer265/writing-walls-egypt] with p Jessica Winegar • 4 min read
