Oman’s autocratic monarchy has long been one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East. And, as with authoritarian U.S. allies in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Yemen, a largely nonviolent, pro-democracy struggle has arisen in Oman as well. Oman is yet one more test of whether the Obama administration will continue to back an autocratic status quo in allied Arab countries or respect the wishes of their people, manifested through large-scale nonviolent action.
What the Army Thinks the Taliban Would Do With Data on Genitourinary Injuries
The U.S. army doesn’t put some of the dirtiest fighting ever past the Taliban.
Gaddafi’s Ace In The Hole? Algeria (Part 2)
Algeria’s leaders fear that if Gaddafi falls, their hold on power will be that much more fragile.
Neo-Con Hawks Take Flight over Libya
In a distinct echo of the tactics they pursued to encourage U.S. intervention in the Balkans and Iraq, a familiar clutch of neo-conservatives appealed Friday for the United States and NATO to “immediately” prepare military action to help bring down the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and end the violence that is believed to have killed well over a thousand people in the past week.
All-American Decline in a New World
Seeing Arabs demanding something we were convinced was the birthright and property of the West, of the United States in particular, has to send a shiver down anyone’s spine.
We’re Being Out-Democracied
Complacency about democracy doesn’t become Americans.
The Arab Awakening: The Name Changes, But Will the Song Remain the Same?
After Fernando Marcos was deposed as president, the face of Philippines’ leadership changed, but the country remains mired in debt and poverty. Will Tunisia and Egypt suffer the same fate?
How Israel Should Respond to the Arab Revolutions
Israel has reacted to these revolutionary events in its vicinity with a very understandable fear. Crisis creates crisis. But it also creates opportunity. Israel can sit passively by and let the events within its neighbor’s borders define and dictate the reality that it will face, or it can seize the moment and be part of the change. By so doing, it can create a better reality for itself, and the region
America Blows It on Bahrain
The Obama administration’s continued support of the autocratic monarchy in Bahrain, in the face of massive pro-democracy demonstrators, once again puts the United States behind the curve of the new political realities in the Middle East. For more than two weeks, a nonviolent sit-in and encampment by tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters has occupied the Pearl Roundabout. This traffic circle in Bahrain’s capital city of Manama – like Tahrir Square in Cairo – has long been the symbolic center of the city and, by extension, the center of the country. Though these demonstrations and scores of others across the country have been overwhelmingly nonviolent, they have been met by severe repression by the U.S.-backed monarchy.
The Twilight of Tyranny?
Back in 2005, Congress considered a bill to remove two dictators a year for the next 20 years. “Some people think a world without tyrants is utopian,” former U.S. ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer told me that year. “And they think it’s more utopian to have a deadline.” Palmer, whose book Breaking the Real Axis of Evil inspired the ADVANCE Democracy Act of 2005, continued: “we’re down to a limited number of dictators, and it’s entirely feasible to get the rest of them out. Most are pretty creaky and won’t even live until 2025!”