Current Analysis War Returns to the Two Sudans After weeks of escalating border violence and heated rhetoric, war has returned to the Sudans. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) formally ended 40 years of civil war between north and south Sudan, and paved the way for the creation of the Republic of South Sudan, Africa’s newest independe Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 11 min read
Current Analysis Iranian Cyber-Struggles From the Green Movement in Iran in 2009 through the Arab revolts that began in 2011, social media have held center stage in coverage of popular protest in the Middle East. Though the first flush of overwrought enthusiasm is long past, there is consensus that Facebook, Twitter and other Web 2.0 appli Narges Bajoghli • 9 min read
Current Analysis "The AKP's 'New Kurdish Strategy' Is Nothing of the Sort" Selahattin Demirtaş is co-president of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party of Turkey (BDP), the fourth largest political party in the country. The BDP is not formally tied to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been in armed conflict with the Turkish state since 1984, but it shares th Jake Hess • 13 min read
Current Analysis Letters re: Humanitarian Drones Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Darryl Li square off re: “Some Bad Ideas Can’t Be Shot Down,” Li’s post [http://www.merip.org/some-bad-ideas-cant-be-shot-down] about Sniderman’s January 30 op-ed [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/opinion/drones-for-human-rights.html], “Drones for Human Rights,” in the Ne The Editors • 6 min read
Current Analysis Fighting Mush Among the Washington outfits that arose in the Bush years to rearm liberals in foreign policy debates is the Truman National Security Project, founded in 2005. Like its cohorts the Center for a New American Security and the National Security Network, the Truman initiative seeks to redefine the “progressive” foreign Chris Toensing • 4 min read
Current Analysis Six Questions for Aslı Bâli and Aziz Rana The world is closely -- and, for the most part, skeptically -- watching the progress of a ceasefire brokered by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Syria. More than 9,000 Syrians are dead since the start of the uprising against the regime headed by Bashar al-Asad. Amidst a general Chris Toensing • 10 min read
Current Analysis To Stop the Killing, Deal with Asad In the wake of the recent Friends of Syria conference, the United States and Middle Eastern powers that include Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are stepping up aid to armed resistance groups in Syria. Under American leadership, the conference pledged $100 million to provide salary payments to rebel f Aziz Rana, Aslı Bâli • 3 min read
Current Analysis In the Kingdom of Tear Gas The talk of Bahrain at present is talk -- the possible renewal of dialogue between the government and the opposition -- but the reality is that street protests, after simmering in outlying villages for months, have begun to heat up in the capital of Manama. Gregg Carlstrom • 14 min read
Current Analysis Lamped USA Amanda Ufheil-Somers has ably described [http://www.merip.org/mer/mer261/lampedusa] how refugee flows from the uprisings in North Africa to the Italian island of Lampedusa have pushed the strained infrastructure and the residents’ hospitality to the breaking point. The islanders aren’t the only ones David McMurray • 5 min read
Current Analysis No Clean Break Renewed conflict along the border between Sudan and South Sudan follows a predictable pattern, says MERIP editorial committee member Khalid Medani in an interview with KPFA radio. Amanda Ufheil-Somers • 1 min read
Current Analysis America's Pakistan American policymakers and their advisers are struggling with the question of Pakistan. The last ten years have produced a host of policy reviews, study group reports, congressional hearings and a few academic and more popular books, with more expected as the 2014 deadline for the end of US major com Sharon K. Weiner, Zia Mian • 21 min read
Current Analysis Despair and Continuity Actions always speak louder than words, even if words also act. Joshua Stacher • 2 min read
