Fouad Ajami

Political Development   March/April 2012 Essay

The Arab Spring at One

Terrible rulers, sullen populations, a terrorist fringe -- the Arabs' exceptionalism was becoming not just a human disaster but a moral one. Then, a frustrated...

Fouad Ajami

Economics   Nov 1, 2010 Review Essay

Fouad Ajami

Fouad Ajami considers Michael Mandelbaum's The Frugal Superpower.

Fouad Ajami

Syria   May/June 2009 Review Essay

The Ways of Syria

As Washington considers a rapprochement with Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, Itamar Rabinovich’s commanding new book makes clear that change will not come quickly or easily -...

Fouad Ajami

Security   May/June 2005 Essay

The Autumn of the Autocrats

If the assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri sought to make an example of him for his defiance of Syria, the aftermath of the crime has mocked them....

Fouad Ajami

Post-Conflict Reconstruction   January/February 2003 Essay

Iraq and the Arabs' Future

The driving motivation behind a new U.S. endeavor in Iraq should be modernizing the Arab world. Most Arabs will see such an expedition as an imperial reach into their...

Fouad Ajami

Terrorism & Counterterrorism   November/December 2001 Comment

The Sentry's Solitude

The American imperium in the Arab-Muslim world has hatched a monster; primacy has begotten its nemesis. Pax Americana is here to stay -- but so too is the resistance...

Fouad Ajami

Economics   September/October 1997 Essay

The Arab Inheritance

The Arab world has squandered its political inheritance of secular nationalism. In the 1980s, autocracy and young theocratic brigades overtook and exiled the older...

Fouad Ajami

Globalization   May/June 1996 Response

The Mark of Bosnia: Boutros-Ghali's Reign of Indifference

U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's clearest statement yet of his bid for reelection conveniently glosses over the greatest stain on his record: his failure...

Fouad Ajami

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

Political Development   September/October 1993 Comment

The Summoning

In the "Clash of Civilizations," Huntington gives too much weight to cultural differences while underestimating the tenacity of modernity and secularism and the power...

Fouad Ajami

War & Military Strategy   Winter 1990/91 Essay

The Summer of Arab Discontent

Assesses the effects of Iraq's annexation of Kuwait on the unity of the Arab world, and the recognition among Arab elite opinion generally that US assistance will be...

Fouad Ajami

Political Economy   Winter 1988/89 Essay

Iran: The Impossible Revolution

Discusses the dynamics of the Iranian revolution. Argues that the traditional conflict (common to all revolutions), between consolidating the revolution at home and...

Fouad Ajami

Security   Spring 1985 Essay

Lebanon: The Prospects: Lebanon and its Inheritors

In the Shia vision of history, born of centuries of oppression and marginality, a time comes when the mighty are humbled; the lowly who kept the faith rise up and...

Fouad Ajami

Ideology   Winter 1980/81 Essay

The Third World Challenge: The Fate of Nonalignment

"The only really nonaligned countries in the world," the president of Sri Lanka once quipped, "are the United States and the Soviet Union." A quarter-century after the...

Fouad Ajami

Political Development   Winter 1978/79 Essay

The End of Pan-Arabism

Political ideas make their own realities. Often in defiance of logic, they hold men and are in turn held by them, creating a world in their own image, only to play...

Fouad Ajami

Political Development   April 1976 Essay

Between Cairo and Damascus

If the October 1973 War represented the zenith of pan-Arab solidarity, the Sinai Accord, concluded in September of 1975, must surely represent its ebb and...

Fouad Ajami