Current Analysis Urban Violence in France Dorénavant la rue ne pardonne plus From now on the street will not forgive Nous n’avons rien à perdre car nous n’avons jamais rien eu We have nothing to lose for we have nothing Chantal Tetreault, Paul Silverstein • 18 min read
Current Analysis Iran’s Nuclear File After almost a week of contentious meetings, on September 24, 2005, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution without precedent in its lengthy file on the Islamic Republic of Iran. In a split vote, the agency’s Board of Governors found that Iran’s “failures and breaches…constitute Farideh Farhi • 19 min read
Current Analysis The Ceasefire This Time “The aim of the Turkish armed forces is to ensure that the separatist terrorist organization bows down to the law and the mercy of the nation.” Thus did the Turkish chief of staff, Gen. Hilmi Ozkok, brusquely dismiss the one-month ceasefire announced on August 19, 2005 by the Kurdistan People’s Cong Evren Balta • 12 min read
MER Article Europe, the US and the Strategic Triangle Oil is by its very nature a finite commodity. The question has always been not whether it would run out, but when it would. The doomsday scenarios that some predict --mass blackouts and the imminent demise of suburbia -- may be far-fetched, but the era of “peak oil” is here. Saad Rahim • 13 min read
MER Article Reluctant Partners Turkey passed a milestone in its long and arduous journey toward acceptance into the exclusive club of the European Union when the EU gave Turkey a date for the start of accession talks. But major obstacles remain -- chiefly resurgent anti-Muslim feeling in Europe and resurgent ethnic nationalism in Hilal Elver • 14 min read
MER Article The Republic's "Second Religion" The 2004 law banning "conspicuous" religious symbols (read, headscarves) in French public schools cast France as an intolerant and radically secular state hostile to the manifestation of difference, especially Muslim difference, in the public sphere. During debates about the new law, a clear distinc Mayanthi Fernando • 16 min read
MER Article Lions of Tawhid in the Polder The murder of the controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a radical Islamist youth induced a deep national trauma in the Netherlands. Very quickly, debate about the murder and the subsequent outbreak of anti-Muslim violence led to a larger and disturbing debate about the place of Muslims and Islam Fadi Hirzalla, Paul Aarts • 15 min read
Current Analysis An Ironic Result in Cyprus The April 24, 2004 referendum on a plan to reunite Cyprus marks a turning point in the island's history. While 65 percent of Turkish Cypriots voted in favor of the plan, Greek Cypriots rejected it by a resounding majority of 76 percent. European observers were shocked by the Rebecca Bryant • 14 min read
Current Analysis False Resolution Looms in EU-Israeli Settlement Trade Dispute George W. Bush's ever more one-sided interventions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, most recently his uncritical backing for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's desired "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip, elicit thinly veiled declarations of dissent from the chanceries of the European Union. "No number Peter Lagerquist • 11 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
MER Article Euro-Med Most Americans and many Arabs, Israelis, Turks and Europeans think of Uncle Sam as the superpower in the Middle East -- an avuncular hegemon, waging peace and war, picking favorites and ostracizing errants, disbursing guns here and butter there. Certainly, this image of a Goliath casting a shadow from the Sheila Carapico • 12 min read
MER Article Risking the Strait Men who had never wanted anything very much saw the flare of want in the eyes of the migrants. And the men of the towns and of the soft suburban country gathered to defend themselves; and they reassured themselves that they were good and the invaders bad, as a man Gregory White • 12 min read
