With little else they deem important, U.S. diplomats in Armenia pass the time by speculating about laws covering cell phone use while driving.
The unarmed insurrection that overthrew the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia has opened up debate regarding prospects for democratization in Arab and other predominately Muslim countries. Many in the West are familiar with the way unarmed pro-democracy insurrections have helped bring democracy to Eastern Europe, Latin America, and parts of Asia and Africa. But they discount the chances of such movements in Islamic countries, despite Tunisia being far from the first. Meanwhile, the United States — despite giving lip service in support for democracy – continues to actively support authoritarian governments in Islamic countries.
The new Republican chair of the powerful House Committee on Foreign Affairs plans to seek sanctions against Venezuela for its purported ties to Middle East terrorist groups and Iran’s nuclear program.
Liberals in Pakistan are struggling to stand their ground in the face of religious extremism and terrorist violence that, on January 4, claimed the life of one of their leaders, Salman Taseer. As the governor of Pakistan’s largest province of Punjab, Taseer campaigned against the abuse of the country’s blasphemy laws. The biased application of these laws have upended the lives of hundreds of innocent people.
The campaign against dictatorship in the Arab world has brought together some strange bedfellows. The Bush administration’s neoconservatives darkly dreamed of democracy promotion in the Middle East before the Iraq and Afghanistan quagmires became the stuff of nightmares. Sharing the same bed, but dreaming different dreams, have been the Muslim Brotherhood and its fellow Islamists who have long railed against the injustices of authoritarian regimes in locales such as Egypt, Syria, and the Gulf States. And now, of course, the predominantly young protestors of Tunisia have turned dream into reality by ousting their dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years at the helm.
When western governments focus on political Islam, the debate gravitates toward the national security domain. Western governments and policy analysts routinely portray the role of Islam within Arab political life as a danger to western interests. In reality, Islam is an integral component of contemporary Muslim politics. With some innovative thinking, the United States and its western allies can use the power of Islam to their advantage as well as the advantage of people in the region.
Did Defense Department general counsel Jeh C. Johnson really think invoking Martin Luther King, Jr.’s name in the service of our presence in Afghanistan would fly?
The U.S. State Department needs to know whether a post-Ben Ali government would maintain Tunisia’s commitments to AFRICOM and support for extraordinary rendition.
Apparently Washington fears that even a modest change to a 1961 convention could call into the question its drug control regime.
Return to Haifa, an Israeli’s adaptation of a Palestinian’s novella, is playing in Washington.