by Giorgio Cafiero | Jan 20, 2015 | Human Rights, Redev
Last October, Saudi Arabia’s Special Criminal Court sentenced Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr — a popular Shi’ite cleric and outspoken political dissident — to death. This was not an ordinary criminal trial, even considering Saudi Arabia’s liberal use of capital...
by Amanda Ufheil-Somers | Jan 13, 2015 | Democracy & Governance, Human Rights, Redev, War & Peace
This commentary is a joint publication of Foreign Policy In Focus and OtherWords. For a moment, four years ago, it seemed that dictators in the Middle East would soon be a thing of the past. Back then, it looked like the United States would have to make good on its...
by Russ Wellen | Jan 13, 2015 | Redev, War & Peace
It is indeed the time of the assassins, and they are, for now, unopposed by their own people. Fairly controversial, though it won’t get you attacked like Charlie Hebdo (though maybe by the PC police). That’s Hisham Melhem, the Washington bureau chief of Al-Arabiya,...
by John Feffer | Jan 12, 2015 | Democracy & Governance, Redev, War & Peace
The recent attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which left a dozen editors and cartoonists dead, has renewed concerns that blowback from the latest round of fighting in Syria and Iraq is finally reaching Europe. In a September 2014 video, the Islamic...
by Rob Prince | Dec 26, 2014 | Democracy & Governance, Redev
Cross-posted from View from the Left Bank. Tunisian Elections: An IMF Austerity Victory? Beja Caid Essebsi was elected president of Tunisia in the country’s first free presidential elections since its 1956 independence. He won a clear majority, some 55% of the vote...