The Arab uprisings of 2011 can be understood as the striving for a new social contract founded on constitutional and democratic principles, says Ayman Ayoub.
In the Arab spring, new social media and the established media disseminated the voices of dissent and images of state brutality worldwide. The sheer drama of these unfolding events conveyed to us by correspondents physically embedded among the protestors, vividly conveyed the elation involved in c
For all those who are afraid or suspicious, I invite them to go to the streets of Syria. One main defect with academic writing is that it avoids bombast. Hence, it doesn’t say that those young men and women who have been protesting in the streets of Syria for more than five months are heroes.
The establishment and deepening of a democratic culture is a long-term project and is intergenerational. As divisions open up between the elites and the street as well as within the elites, the events of 2011 across the Middle East and North Africa represent a powerful first step in a larger proce
A relatively stable Egypt now has the challenge of establishing a legitimate democracy. This is a long journey, however, in a country where keeping the military and government honest has taken precedence over supporting a political party that might one day be in charge of government.
A triple diplomatic challenge to Israel from Turkey, Palestine and Egypt both reflects the region's political transformation and reveals the key flaw in Israel's attitude to its neighbours, says Khaled Hroub.
Ignoring the revolution's demands stokes up tensions that found their short-term release in the attacks on the Israeli embassy in Cairo. In the long run their consequences may be far graver for the regime.
Afghan forces, aided by ISAF have managed to end the attack on the US embassy, Nato headquarters and police buildings in Kabul. A bomb planted on a military bus in Iraq has killed 15 Iraqi soldiers and wounded 20 others. Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh has authorized his deputy to negotiate a
A focus on the violence of an Arab and Muslim minority skewed western policy for a decade. The great events of 2011 are a chance to think afresh, says Jane Kinninmont, whose life was altered by witnessing the 9/11 attacks.
The fate of Egypt across the centuries is indissolubly linked to the river which gives it life. Today, a range of problems - environmental, political, economic - threaten the provision and the quality of the Nile waters. They present another challenge for the young post-Mubarak order, says Vicken
Thoughts on the Arab revolution from an Arab nationalist.
In post-revolutionary Egypt, many activists have shifted their attentions to drafting the next constitution, which they hope will deal a coup de grâce to the nation’s vestigial ills. But such efforts seem misplaced. Constitutions everywhere are seldom panaceas, and no legal document will right the
