Ennahda's attempts to institutionalise its power and silence its opposition cannot be condoned. Nevertheless, Tunisia’s stymied liberalisation process must be understood within the broader context of domestic power dynamics, rather than solely through the lens of an ‘anti-democratic’ Islamist regi
Together, distorted understanding and flawed policy have compounded the problems of weak states in the global south. A different approach to state-building is needed, says Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou
These attacks have been both violent and destructive. But they are being interpreted by many as the death throes of militias who have suddenly realised that they are no longer wanted in Libya.
For many Egyptians, the last and yet the only year of the nation's first democratically elected president in office has been a failure.
In the wake of this episode, the Lebanese are well aware of the aphorism attributed to Trotsky, “you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you”.
The '30-June', (or 'talateen seta' as it is in Arabic), is a password that you can depend on every time to discharge an endless volley of complaints and political theories and speculations. Not everybody is against Morsi and the Brotherhood...
Erdogan’s peace process is no longer the only one. The real reconciliation has already happened. It's in the streets of Turkey. It's among the people.
Here are five things that I imagine were on his mind (they would have been on mine) as that plane took off.
If the claims of the opposition activists are true, why don’t they use this 'massive electoral strength' in trying to win parliamentary elections, only a few months away?
The new pope, Pope Tawadros, realizes that his base has awakened and that he needs to establish his rule. Both the church and its Pope will be much more active and demanding in Egyptian politics.
The impending collision of the Morsi government with its opponents and (perhaps) the military broadly fits a cyclical pattern of Islamist collaboration with state forces observed over the previous six decades of Egyptian politics.
