#MENA

Conceptual overview What is water scarcity? At a conceptual level, water scarcity can be defined as “the lack of access to adequate quantities of water for human and environmental uses.” Attempts to measure or quantify scarcity have taken on a variety of forms from cubic meters per person of renewable water, to water availability compared […]

Since the Egyptian military ousted former President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood government in a coup in July 2013, a stricter and an increasingly oppressive rule governs Africa’s third most populous country, but one that may not be that unwelcome with the U.S. or its allies.

by Abul-Hasanat Siddique and Casper Wuite Abul-Hasanat Siddique and Casper Wuite, co-authors of The Arab Uprisings: An Introduction, talk about the political unrest in the Middle East, the Syrian Civil War, the globalization of media, and the future prospects for the region. Is the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa homegrown or a Western-sponsored revolution for change? Abul-Hasanat Siddique: Home-grown. […]

Interview conducted by Reza Akhlaghi. One of Australia’s leading business leaders, Steve Killelea is the founder and Executive Chairman of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). Mr. Killelea is also the driving force behind the Global Peace Index (GPI), the world’s first and leading measure of global peacefulness. GPI measures ongoing domestic and international conflicts, safety, and […]

  The “Arab Spring” that began with the self-immolation of a vendor in the streets of Tunisia spread potently throughout the Middle East-North Africa (MENA). The small country of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf was also hit by the wave of the regional quest for political transformation in 2011. Due to the crisis caused by […]

A recent article by Nathan Brown in the FP (Americans, put away your quills), eloquently argues against the advocacy and promotion of “American constitutional ideas” (and ideals) in Arab countries currently in transition due to the Arab Spring.  Although the history of U.S. constitutional transplantation is mixed at best (failed in Latin America in the […]

Ever since the people of the Arab world, from Iran to Morocco, started rising up against their authoritarian and dictatorial regimes demanding accountability and representation, a lot has been said about the perils and obstacles of their undertaking.  From historical and cultural legacies, to economic and political shortcomings, nothing looms as a larger obstacle than […]

As developments unfolded in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) during the past 8 months, one thing has become abundantly clear: the political transformation will not survive without an economic transformation.  As many analyst have pointed out, an overwhelming motivation of the people who took to the streets with the ‘Arab Spring’ was the […]