Did the Fall of Tripoli Vindicate the Intervention?
In the lead up to the decision to intervene in Libya, I was pretty skeptical. Without overstepping the UN mandate, it seemed as though there was little that the international community could do in order to protect the rebel movement. The intervention, by the end, was anything but humanitarian. It is true that foreign air … Read more
Reactions from Libya
With Qaddafi’s days pretty much limited, there has been much speculation about what comes after. What will Libya look like? Obviously, there are many challenges that remain for the country. Here are some thoughts from around the web. Issandr El Amrani believes the TNC is up to the task: Taking early stock of the Libyan … Read more
And This is What Happens
Soon I should start to just assume that a small vacation from blogging will be accompanied by a major event in the Middle East. The most recent, of course, is the events in Libya this past week: rebels have taken Qaddafi’s compound and most of Tripoli. While fighting continues sporadically throughout the capital, it seems as though … Read more
The GCC and Buying Stability
Mathew Reed has a piece up on Middle East Progress looking at the amount of money spent by the Gulf monarchies on other countries: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is busy. In March they announced a $10 billion bail-out for Oman and Bahrain, the two poorest member states suffering from upheaval. Following the Egyptian revolution, Saudi … Read more
Syrian Bloodshed Could Start Regional War, Part II
Haaretz recently offered some empty speculation concerning the rumors of a Turkish intervention in Syria should Assad not end the violence against the Syrian people: Turkey sends troops to Syria, and Iran retaliates by sending troops to Bahrain. It seems unlikely that Turkey would send its military into Syria and there is nothing to … Read more
Dear Mahmoud Abbas, Here is a Better Plan for September
Mahmoud Abbas in his infinite wisdom is still due to ask the United Nations and its member states to recognize Palestine as its 194th country. As has been said before, this is not the platform at this present time to discuss exactly what legally should happen. Instead I wish to dwell on something Mahmoud Abbas … Read more
Syria Bloodshed Could Start Regional War?
Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Damascus to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and to reportedly deliver a letter from Turkish President Abdullah Gul strongly encouraging the Syrian leader to make real changed in both his treatment of the Syrian protesters and in regards to the demands of the Syrian people. Turkish presidential advisor … Read more
How to Determine if the Syrian Uprising is Successful
The editors of the Middle East Research and Information Project have a great article up about the uprisings in the Middle East (and how the uprisings are framed) and, specifically, in Syria. Two seemingly contradictory passages caught my eye that describe a Syrian uprising in pessimistic terms, but also as inevitably successful. Consider passage one: … Read more
Quote of the Day: How to Analyse the Middle East
From the editors of the Middle East Research and Information Project: There are two political-intellectual prisms through which the recurrent conflagrations of the modern Middle East are conventionally seen. One casts the region’s stubborn ills as internally caused — by the outsize role of religion in public life, the persistence of primordial identities like sect … Read more
