The New Arab Revolt

Political Development September/October 1995 Essay

The Sorrows of Egypt: A Tale of Two Men

Egyptians are nostalgic for their bourgeois past, still wanting to believe that their country is not just a state but an idea and a historical movement. But in their...

Fouad Ajami

Terrorism & Counterterrorism January/February 2002 Essay

Back to the Bazaar

The United States has an opportunity to set new terms for its alliances in the Middle East. The bargain struck with Egypt and Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War seemed...

Martin Indyk

Politics & Society May/June 2005 Essay

Freedom and Justice in the Modern Middle East

To speak of dictatorship as being the immemorial way of doing things in the Middle East is simply untrue. It shows ignorance of the Arab past, contempt for the Arab...

Bernard Lewis

Civil Society March/April 2009 Review Essay

Adrift on the Nile

Bruce Rutherford’s Egypt After Mubarak is an ambitious effort to explain how the Muslim Brotherhood, the judiciary, and the business sector can work in...

Steven A. Cook

Politics & Society Mar 26, 2010 Postscript

Is El Baradei Egypt's Hero?

The return of Mohamed El Baradei to Egypt has raised questions about the country's political system and the rule of President Hosni Mubarak. Is reform possible, and if...

Steven A. Cook

Politics & Society Jan 16, 2011 Snapshot

Morning in Tunisia

Last week's mass protests in Tunisia were less a symptom of economic malaise than of a society fed up with its broken dictatorship. Should the other autocratic regimes...

Michele Penner Angrist

North Africa Jan 30, 2011 Letter From

Letter From Cairo

As protests continue in Egypt, both sides -- the protesters in the streets and the Mubarak regime -- are wondering exactly which side the Egyptian military is...

Eric Trager

Political Development Feb 2, 2011 Snapshot

The U.S.-Egyptian Breakup

With the political era of Hosni Mubarak coming to an end, is the strategic relationship between Cairo and Washington similarly finished? The Obama administration must...

Steven A. Cook

Politics & Society Feb 3, 2011 Snapshot

The Muslim Brotherhood After Mubarak

Portraying the Muslim Brotherhood as eager and able to seize power and impose its version of sharia on an unwilling citizenry is a caricature that exaggerates certain...

Carrie Rosefsky Wickham

North Africa Feb 7, 2011 Snapshot

Egypt's Democratic Mirage

By playing the role of both arsonist and firefighter, the Egyptian government has forced protesters fleeing the regime to seek refuge with the regime. In so doing, has...

Joshua Stacher

Strategy & Conflict Feb 8, 2011 Snapshot

Overcoming Fear and Anxiety in Tel Aviv

Aluf Benn

Political Development Feb 11, 2011 Snapshot

Mubarakism Without Mubarak

Now that Mubarak has stepped down, the army may step in as a transitional power, recognizing that it must turn power over to the people quickly. More likely, however,...

Ellis Goldberg

Political Development Feb 14, 2011 Snapshot

Postcolonial Time Disorder

Hosni Mubarak came of age at a time when leaders in the postcolonial world saw a strong, repressive state as necessary to secure national liberty. That era, however,...

James D. Le Sueur

Political Development Feb 15, 2011 Snapshot

Egypt's Constitutional Ghosts

Egypt has a long constitutional history -- some of it liberal, some of it authoritarian. As Egypt's reformers look to create a new political order after Mubarak, what...

Nathan J. Brown

Civil & Military Relations Feb 21, 2011 Snapshot

A Tunisian Solution for Egypt’s Military

Egypt’s military does not have the stranglehold on power that many think, and a real Tunisian solution -- a civilian government free of military involvement -- could...

Clement M. Henry and Robert Springborg

Political Development May/June 2011 Comment

The Fall of the Pharaoh

Mubarak's ouster was the natural outgrowth of his regime's corruption and economic exclusion, the alienation of Egypt's youth, and divisions among the country's elites...

Dina Shehata

Economics May/June 2011 Comment

The Black Swan of Cairo

The upheavals in the Middle East have much in common with the recent global financial crisis: both were plausible worst-case scenarios whose probability was...

Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Mark Blyth

Political Development Feb 18, 2011 Snapshot

Green Movement 2.0?

Taking a cue from the Egyptian revolution, opposition activists in Iran reinvigorated their beleaguered protest movement on Monday. Could Washington's public support...

Geneive Abdo

Politics & Society Feb 25, 2011 Letter From

Letter From Sana’a

Inspired by uprisings throughout the Middle East, opposition activists in Yemen have begun confronting the regime in the streets. Can the country's disparate...

Abdullah al-Qubati

Politics & Society Mar 2, 2011 Snapshot

Bahrain’s Shia Question

The democratic uprising taking place in Bahrain has been accompanied by concerns of Shia insurrection and resurgent Iranian influence. The United States should not buy...

Kristin Smith Diwan

Politics & Society Mar 3, 2011 Snapshot

Rage Comes to Baghdad

Although the current protests in Iraq are unlikely to lead to the country's collapse, Iraqis’ patience with their government’s inadequacies is wearing thin. Should...

Raad Alkadiri

Political Development Mar 7, 2011 Snapshot

The Sturdy House That Assad Built

Despite various parallels with Tunisia and Egypt, a close look at Syria reveals that the Assad regime is unlikely to fall....

Michael Bröning

Politics & Society Mar 16, 2011 Snapshot

Rageless in Riyadh

The Saudi Arabian opposition's recent calls for a “day of rage” met with almost no response. So what makes the Saudi case so different from others across the Arab...

F. Gregory Gause III

Strategy & Conflict Mar 25, 2011 Snapshot

Syria's Assad No Longer in Vogue

According to many observers, Syria's Bashar al-Assad was supposed to be immune to the kind of popular protest that swept the country today. Ironically, the basis was...

Tony Badran

Politics & Society Mar 31, 2011 Snapshot

Meanwhile in the Maghreb

North Africa is where the Arab world's recent political upheaval began and where it has reached its most violent climax. Beyond Tunisia and Libya, how nervous should...

Azzedine Layachi

Democratization Apr 5, 2011 Snapshot

Bahrain's Base Politics

For years, Pentagon officials took comfort in the relative stability of Bahrain, which serves as a major base for the U.S. military. But the protests in the country...

Alexander Cooley and Daniel H. Nexon

Economic Development Mar 23, 2011 Snapshot

Let Them Eat Bread

For years, Arab dictators used food subsidies -- and cheap bread -- to keep their subjects quiet. But when prices rose, the very thing that regimes used to ensure...

Annia Ciezadlo

Political Development Feb 28, 2011 Snapshot

Libya's Terra Incognita

For decades, the outsized personality of Muammar al-Qaddafi has obscured the many rivalries among Libya's domestic groups, from the tribes to the military. With the...

Frederic Wehrey

Humanitarian Intervention Mar 16, 2011 Snapshot

What Intervention Looks Like

With the Libyan rebels now facing a last stand against forces loyal to Muammar al-Qaddafi, now is the time for the West to intervene. What can Washington and its...

Robert E. Hunter

Law & Institutions Mar 20, 2011 Snapshot

The Folly of Protection

The UN authorization of a no-fly zone in Libya gives teeth to the much-heralded “responsibility to protect." But the intervention poses legal and ethical dilemmas that...

Michael W. Doyle

Strategy & Conflict Mar 21, 2011 Snapshot

To the Shores of Tripoli

If the hurried diplomatic negotiations leading up to Resolution 1973 seemed a Herculean task, they may pale in comparison to the challenge that comes next: keeping...

Dirk Vandewalle

Peacekeeping Mar 24, 2011 Snapshot

A New Lease on Life for Humanitarianism

The United States and its coalition partners’ decision to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya seemed to be a vindication of the fragile “responsibility to protect” norm....

Stewart Patrick

Strategy & Conflict Mar 28, 2011 Snapshot

The Mythology of Intervention

In the debate over whether -- and how -- to intervene in Libya, many commentators and policymakers have relied on a number of garbled lessons from history. Believing...

Micah Zenko

Gender Mar 28, 2011 Snapshot

Flight of the Valkyries?

Commentators are falling over themselves to explain the “gender divide” among Obama’s staff. But these discussions reveal far more about gender misconceptions among...

Charli Carpenter

War & Military Strategy Mar 30, 2011 Snapshot

Winning Ugly in Libya

Although the Libya mission has been effective in averting a humanitarian debacle so far, it has been ugly in some ways. But as Ivo Daalder and I argued about the...

Michael O'Hanlon

Democratization May/June 2011 Comment

Demystifying the Arab Spring

Why have the upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya followed such different paths? Because of the countries' vastly different cultures and histories, writes the...

Lisa Anderson

Democratization May/June 2011 Comment

Understanding the Revolutions of 2011

Revolutions rarely succeed, writes one of the world's leading experts on the subject -- except for revolutions against corrupt and personalist "sultanistic" regimes....

Jack A. Goldstone

Democratization May/June 2011 Comment

The Heirs of Nasser

Not since the Suez crisis and the Nasser-fueled uprisings of the 1950s has the Middle East seen so much unrest. Understanding those earlier events can help the United...

Michael Scott Doran

Terrorism & Counterterrorism May/June 2011 Comment

The Rise of the Islamists

The recent turmoil in the Middle East may lead to the Arab world's first sustained experiment in Islamist government. But the West need not fear. For all their anti...

Shadi Hamid

Terrorism & Counterterrorism May/June 2011 Comment

Terrorism After the Revolutions

Although last winter's peaceful popular uprisings damaged the jihadist brand, they also gave terrorist groups greater operational freedom. To prevent those groups from...

Daniel Byman

Foreign Affairs Anthology Series

The New Arab Revolt

What Happened, What It Means, and What Comes Next

Table of Contents

The Past as Prologue

The Ice Breaks Up

The Cracks Spread

Intervention in Libya

What It Means and What Comes Next

Must-Read Anthologies