As I try to grasp the full meaning of the Tunisian Revolution and to gauge its future, I am looking at my desk where I have spread two issues of The New York Times, both featuring Tunisia on their front pages. The two issues are dated 23 years apart.
How does the United States reach the other end of the tightrope it’s supposedly walking with Egypt?
We are a facing a new phase in world history — the age of the Multitude.
Twitter has been aflutter about the very visible presence of women among the protests that have taken Egypt by storm over the last few weeks. But images of women have remained sparse amid the digital slideshows strung together by major media outlets, which portray mainly dense crowds of the manly. Egyptian Organization for Human Rights activist Ghada Shahbandar estimates that the crowd in downtown Cairo is up to 20 percent female. Others have put the number much higher, at 50 percent.
It will be a while before the Obama Administration can assess the damage to its interests done by Egyptian and Tunisian protests.
The shift in Congressional Medal of Honor emphasis may reflect a national ambiguity about our wars.
Egypt is as rife with rival factions as Iran.
Juan Cole is a professor history at the University of Michigan and the author of Engaging the Muslim World. His blog, Informed Comment, is a go-to resource for analysis of U.S. and Middle Eastern policy. Here he talks with FPIF’s John Feffer about Egypt, Islamofascism, and “America anxiety” in the Muslim world.
TV news fails to take advantage of citizen journalism; plan to replace Mubarak with Suleiman ominous.
As the Mubarak regime turns to violence in a vain attempt to repress the peaceful protests that have swept Egypt’s streets for over ten days, the risks associated with current U.S. strategy for Egypt and the wider region continue to grow. In its response to the events, the Obama administration has subtly shifted its message, incrementally increasing pressure on the regime over the last week. But the more important story is the remarkable continuities reflected in the administration’s approach.