Current Analysis Appointing Abu Mazen: A Drama with Two Enactments The Palestinian Legislative Council's approval of the cabinet of newly appointed Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on April 29, 2003 completed a political drama with two enactments: one received with cheers by the international community and the other watched warily by a sober audience at home. Charmaine Seitz • 11 min read
Current Analysis Hizballah in the Firing Line The overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and Washington's recent pressure on Syria have placed Lebanon's Hizballah organization firmly in the firing line in the next phase of George W. Bush's war on terrorism. But Hizballah is confident that its strategic Nicholas Blanford • 10 min read
Current Analysis Shiite Religious Parties Fill Vacuum in Southern Iraq Religious Shiite parties and militias in Iraq have recently stepped into the gap resulting from the collapse of the Baath Party, especially in the sacred shrine cities. This development must have come as a shock to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who in early March preferred Iraqis as US Juan Cole • 9 min read
Current Analysis On Settlement Trade, Europe Doesn't Stand Tall The transatlantic rift over the war in Iraq, and now post-war reconstruction, builds on growing European disenchantment with muscular US unilateralism. French and German opposition to the war—echoing the sentiments of a majority of the European Union's member states—highlighted seemingly growing dif Peter Lagerquist • 10 min read
Current Analysis Pro-Israel Hawks and the Second Gulf War On the eve of the Second Gulf War, Rep. James Moran (D-VA) told a meeting of his constituents that "if it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this." Leaders of the organized Jewish community Joel Beinin • 10 min read
Current Analysis Egypt Struggles to Control Anti-War Protests For the second consecutive Friday, thousands of Egyptians gathered at Cairo's al-Azhar mosque on March 28, 2003 to voice their opposition to the US-led invasion and bombing of Iraq. But it was immediately apparent upon arrival at al-Azhar that the March 28 demonstration would be very different from Paul Schemm • 8 min read
Current Analysis Turkey's Dangerous Game During his diplomatic attempts to avert the war now underway in Iraq, Abdullah Gul, until recently prime minister of Turkey and now foreign minister, said that he was suffering from sleepless nights. Today Gul's body language signals his distress at the deadlock faced by his neo-Islamist Justice and Yuksel Taskin, Koray Caliskan • 10 min read
Current Analysis Irrelevance Lost As the United States and its small band of supporters begin a war against Iraq without Security Council authorization or even a majority show of support, questions about the future of the United Nations seem ever more urgent. For the last several months, Bush administration officials have issued dire warnings Marc Lynch • 8 min read
Current Analysis "Free People Will Set the Course of History" As the Bush administration struggled to find a justification for launching an attack on Iraq, churning out sketchy intelligence reports about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and links with al-Qaeda, Washington wordsmiths produced their own grist for the war mill: the prospect of a democratic pax Robert Blecher • 22 min read
Current Analysis Targeting Muslims, at Ashcroft's Discretion On September 11, 2002, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), then part of the Department of Justice, began implementing a broad program of "special registration" for certain "non-immigrant aliens" resident in the United States to facilitate the "monitoring" of people so registered "in Louise Cainkar • 10 min read
Current Analysis Sanctions and the "Moral Case" for War Economic sanctions have suddenly resurfaced in the international debate about Iraq, after months of near silence on the issue. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in particular, has advanced the notion that one of the benefits of a war with Iraq would be the prospect of lifting the punitive economic sanctions Per Oskar Klevnas • 10 min read
Current Analysis A Saudi Dissident's Agenda for Democratic Reform From Washington to the Arab summit, there has been much discussion lately of reformism in Saudi Arabia, but few have heard from grassroots voices within the pro-democracy movement itself. The United States has acted as though it were introducing reform notions where they previously did not exist. B Mohammed AlMohaissen • 2 min read
