MIDDLE EAST
January, 2003
State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror
Book
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution, Nasrin Dadmehr, Former Research Fellow, Intrastate Conflict Program/International Security Program, 2000-2001 and Erin Jenne, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program and Intrastate Conflict Program, 2000-2002
The threat of terror has given the problem of failed states an unprecedented immediacy and importance. In the past, failure had a primarily humanitarian dimension, with fewer implications for peace and security. Now nation-states that fail, or may do so, pose dangers to themselves, to their neighbors, and to people around the globe. The contributors to this volume develop an innovative theory of state failure that classifies and categorizes states along a continuum from weak to failed to collapsed.
October 21, 2002
Why Stop With Iraq?
Op-Ed, Christian Science Monitor
By Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution
If the US persists in enforcing regime change in Iraq, why not do so in every country where the ruler is odious and grossly mistreats his or her people?
June 11, 2013
"Qusayr Portends Great Danger, Waste and Stupidity for All"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
"Pro- and anti-Syria/Hezbollah groups in Lebanon have been quarreling and shooting each other for decades. That dynamic now will expand, as the Syrian and Lebanese arenas merge into a single battleground, fuelled by the active determination to fight for their survival by both Hezbollah and by Lebanese Salafists and others who see Hezbollah’s bold new militarism as spearheading Shiite-Iranian-Syrian domination of Lebanon. It remains unclear if Lebanon’s heightened tensions and shootouts will remain confined to traditional arenas in the north, northeast and south, or expand into Beirut and other regions."
May 2013
"From Power-Sharing to Majoritarianism: Iraq's Transitioning Political System"
Report Chapter
By Nussaibah Younis, Research Fellow, International Security Program
"The greatest political challenge facing Iraq today is its transition from a power-sharing to a majoritarian form of government without a concomitant depoliticization of ethno-sectarian identities."
Associated Press
June 5, 2013
"US is Syria’s only hope"
Op-Ed, Boston Globe
By Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
Given the recent surge of assistance being given to the Assad regime by Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia, Professor Burns sees this as a call to action for US intervention, which, he argues, may be Syria's only hope at this point.
May 22, 2013
"Hezbollah's Moment of Reckoning in Qusayr"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
The battle for Qusayr is only the haphazard spark within the larger Syrian war that could ignite this fire. The real causes of this combustible condition of the Arab region remain the dysfunction of modern Arab states and central governments, the ascendancy of police states and military regimes, the repercussions of the century-long Zionism-Arabism conflict, and the continuing status of the Middle East as a proxy battleground for regional and foreign powers.
May 14, 2013
"New Rules of the Evolving Arab Order"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
The uprisings that erupted across the region as of December 2010 have been the single most important sign of a region-wide malaise that was gnawing at the core of Arab countries for decades, signaled in its earlier stages in the 1980s-90s by the rise of mass Islamist movements that reflected widespread citizen discontent and challenged autocratic governments. The evolving regional order is now entering its most dynamic stage of change, with every component element transforming into something new.
Summer 2013
"Nussaibah Younis: Foreign Policies of Weak States Matter"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
The invasion of Iraq prompted a deluge of work written on the country from a U.S. perspective, but Nussaibah Younis, a fellow with the Belfer Center's International Security Program, wants people to start considering Iraq as an actor in its own right. While at the Center, Younis is working on a project that seeks to understand internal Iraqi foreign policymaking dynamics since 2003.
Summer 2013
"Marisa Porges’ Journey from Naval Flight Officer to Counterterror Expert"
Newsletter Article, Belfer Center Newsletter
By Wesley Nord
"Belfer Center Fellow Marisa Porges’ career has already spanned the worlds of academia and policymaking, the government and the military. As an undergraduate at Harvard, Porges earned honors with a degree in geophysics and, during senior year, commanded her Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps unit. After graduation, she commissioned as a naval flight officer in the U.S. Navy and managed the weapons systems aboard EA-6B Prowlers, a carrier-based electronic warfare jet.... [now] as a doctoral candidate in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London and a research fellow with the Belfer Center’s International Security Program, she now combines scholarship and practice."
May 13, 2013
Podcast: Syria's "Endless" Nightmare: Humanitarian and Political Consequences
News
On Monday, May 6, the Middle East Initiative hosted a panel discussion addressing the most pressing concerns in the deepening, unabated Syrian crisis that has plagued the country since March of 2011. Moderated by Hilary Rantisi, Director of the Middle East Initiative, the panelists addressed the political, economic and humanitarian consequences of the violence in Syria, as well as the responses and responsibilities of the global community.
