Will Arab regimes reform themselves before the genie gets out of the lamp?

Tharwa Editorial

A few months ago, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak faced his country’s parliament and made a rather surprising gesture. He called for the formulation and adoption of a new bill allowing for multi-candidate presidential elections to take place for the first time in the history of that country.

A few days later, Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad, addressed the Syrian parliament and announced the withdrawal of his country’s troops from neighboring Lebanon and promised that the Tenth Congress of the Baath Party will represent a “qualitative leap” for the country. Continue reading “Will Arab regimes reform themselves before the genie gets out of the lamp?” →

From Hama to Andijon – is dialogue with Islamists an impossibility?

Tharwa Editorial

Is dialogue with political Islam truly an impossible and futile undertaking as many “secular” regimes in the Region assert? Or does the real problem lie in the fact that authoritarian and corrupt regimes are simply unwilling to dialogue with anybody, regardless of their political affiliations?

Moreover, can such a dialogue take place between representatives of secular movements and Islamist ones? Continue reading “From Hama to Andijon – is dialogue with Islamists an impossibility?” →

New openings for Arab democracy

By Nicholas Blanford and Gretchen Peters, The Christian Science Monitor

In a surprise announcement Saturday, Egypt’s long-ruling president, Hosni Mubarak, ordered constitutional changes that would open the door for the first-ever multiparty presidential elections in the world’s most populous Arab country. The move is the latest indication of a cautious democratic shift under way in the Arab world. Continue reading “New openings for Arab democracy” →

From Nationalism to Country-Building: A Necessary Shift in Emphasis

Introduction

Observers of Middle East contemporary politics have always contended that the Palestinian cause has often been used by the various ruling Arab regimes to distract the minds of their oppressed peoples from the need for internal political, economic and social reforms. There is an urgent need, however, now that the region seems to be undergoing conditions similar to those that existed in the early twentieth century, to flesh out this argument even further. Continue reading “From Nationalism to Country-Building: A Necessary Shift in Emphasis” →