Blogs
Unconventional and sometimes provocative insight from critical voices in online analysis.
on :
Wednesday, 4 May, 2011
Increasingly today, beyond the checkpoints and barbed wired fences, national borders are little more than imaginary lines, vulnerable to traveling ideas and images, over which states and governments have little control.
That explains much of what happened after Mohammed Bouazizi's act of self-immolation on 17 December last year. Boauzizi set himself on fire to protest against the treatment he received by a local policeman, and news about that act sparked a chain reaction that quickly reac...
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on :
Wednesday, 4 May, 2011
Al-Qaeda in particular has been at the top of this agenda. While many have argued that politically, Al-Qaeda and similar groups do not stand a chance in the region considering the focus protestors have given to democratic values, the most recent bombing in Marrakesh’s busy tourist center suggests that terrorist organizations may not need a political venue to seriously endanger the political progress the region has achieved in recent months. (Though Al-Qaeda’s North African branch has yet...
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on :
Tuesday, 3 May, 2011
President Obama’s speech announcing Osama bin Laden’s death and the subsequent jubilation seen in the streets of New York and elsewhere are a sure sign that Americans have ...
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on :
Tuesday, 3 May, 2011
The images and display of people power in the Middle East have shocked and inspired the world over—in ways regional and political science experts never dreamt possible. The t...
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DAMASCUS - In one week the unleashing of the Syrian regime’s weaponry has devastated the cities of Dera’a and Douma. In a dawn raid on Monday the tanks swept into the south...
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on :
Thursday, 28 Apr, 2011
Istanbul’s Christian community used to consist of urban and westernized Greeks and Armenians. The elites lived in large mansions in the cobbled, Parisian streets of the Pera ...
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on :
Wednesday, 27 Apr, 2011
Three Cups of Tea is a truly inspirational story that has motivated many to donate money to Greg Mortenson’s cause, particularly to the organization he runs, which overse...
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on :
Tuesday, 26 Apr, 2011
Turkish Middle East policy entered a new phase in earnest in the early 1990s because Turkey, unlike its NATO allies, found itself exposed to increasing threats emanating from t...
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on :
Tuesday, 26 Apr, 2011
KABUL: There is no name outside and no frills inside, aside from two rows of hulking games machines stacked up against peeling walls.
In Kabul’s Old City, shoot-em-ups, be...
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on :
Thursday, 21 Apr, 2011
In Libya the civil war continues to take its toll, particularly among the civilian opposition. In Syria, and despite President Bashar’s declarations that the emergency laws (...
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