The convergence of views between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and US President Donald Trump has seemingly led Trump to turn into a facilitator of Sisi’s dreams. These dreams include banning the Muslim Brotherhood and founding a joint Arab force. Read Here – Al Monitor
It’s fine to think that the group is bad, authoritarian, or illiberal. But the debate about designating it pits facts against ideology. Read Here – The Atlantic
Trump administration officials pushing to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization face at least one significant obstacle: analysts at the Central Intelligence Agency. Read Here – Politico
For the first time since the demise of the Qajar dynasty in the early 20th century, Iran is extending its political and military reach to what it considers its rightful sphere of influence: Mesopotamia and the areas of the eastern Mediterranean and Arabian Peninsula with sizeable Shiite communities. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
Some Middle Eastern countries are showing a great deal of interest in Africa these days, and although Africa seems to welcome the attention, it can do without the drama. Read Here – Al-Monitor
Produced annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace, the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) analyses and studies the direct and indirect impact of terrorism on 163 countries. This year’s results present a juxtaposition of the dynamics of terrorism in modern society. On one hand, they show a 10% fall (since last year) in the number […]
Five years ago, Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vender with black curls, deep brown eyes, and chin fuzz, refused to pay a seven-dollar bribe, yet again, to a government inspector. For a man who supported his mother, five younger siblings, and an ailing uncle, seven dollars was a full day’s income—on a good day. This […]
Among today’s geopolitical risks, none is greater than the long arc of instability stretching from the Maghreb to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. With the Arab Spring an increasingly distant memory, the instability along this arc is deepening. Indeed, of the three initial Arab Spring countries, Libya has become a failed state, Egypt has returned to authoritarian […]
Sequels rarely match up to the original, most film buffs will tell you. But judging by the trailers and the blitz publicity campaign, Suez Canal II will be every bit as significant as its predecessor. Dubbed as Egypt’s “gift to the world“, today’s inaugural ceremony promises to “dazzle the world“. The spectacle will include an air […]
A silent revolution is taking place in the Middle East. In 2000, there were about 460,000 Internet users in Egypt; by the end of 2014 there were over 46 million, more than half of the Egyptian population. The same trend is true for most countries in the Middle East and North Africa where Internet penetration […]
looking beyond borders 