My Spanish-speaking readers will enjoy these links to interviews about the Arab Spring I did last week in San Jose, Costa Rica, with the press there. My thanks to the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the National University for helping set up the interviews, and above all to Professor Sergio I. […]
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Arab World
Syria Veto and the Revenge of the BRICS
Russia and China jointly cast a veto Saturday in the United Nations Security Council against an Arab League-backed resolution that would have called for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to step down. The vote came in the wake of an alleged massacre in the Khalidiya neighborhood of Homs on Friday night, in which artillery shells […]
Egypt Soccer Protests Challenge Military Regime
Friday saw another day of big protests and police repression in Egypt’s major cities. The protesters, who want the military to withdraw from politics and go back to the barracks, were galvanized by the soccer tragedy at Port Said on Wednesday, where some 74 persons were crushed in a stampede after local ultras (soccer hoodlums) […]
Syria’s Crisis Deepens: Does Internationalization Loom?
The events of the past five days in Syria may be a game changer, both domestically and internationally. Last Thursday, opposition forces said, 100 people were killed. Massacres were alleged in two towns. The daily death toll has been rising. On yesterday, Monday, AFP reported another 29 persons killed, including 23 civilians and 6 members […]
Mohamed Bouazizi (d. 2011) from Tunisia to San Francisco to SOTU
Graffiti from Mission Street, San Francisco in honor of Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation kicked off the Tunisian Revolution, inspired the Tahrir Square demonstrations, and the Arab Spring: OWS San Francisco demonstration, California Street, January 20, 2012 (inspired by the Tahrir Square demonstrations of January 25, 2011, and after in Egypt): Occupy Wall Street in turn […]
Sharp-Elbowed Politics in the New Arab World
What are the big stories in the Arab world today? A newly elected parliament is being seated, and a deposed president is leaving the country. But beyond that, the remarkable thing is that there are any political stories at all. There weren’t, a year and a half ago. The political stories of today are not […]
South Carolina & Gingrich, Egypt & the Muslim Brotherhood
The election results for Egypt’s lower house have been announced, and the Muslim religious parties appear to have gained over 70% of the seats. The Muslim Brotherhood is claiming its Freedom and Justice Party took 47% of the 498 seats in the lower house of parliament. The hard line fundamentalist Nur Party won 29% of […]
Schmidt: The Freedom and Democracy Struggle in Syria
Søren Schmidt writes in a guest column for Informed Comment The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in Syria The nineneteenth-century German chancellor Otto von Bismarck is said to have remarked that the wise statesman listens to the footsteps of history. It seems that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Asad, is tone-deaf and has not understood that it […]
Elbaradei Quits Egyptian Presidential Race
Mohammad Elbaradei has withdrawn from the Egyptian presidential election. He is the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and was a thorn in the Bush administration’s eyes because of his honesty and lack of tolerance for false accusations. Elbaradei says he is afraid that the presidential election will be fixed by Egypt’s powerful […]
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