Scholars, advocates, and activists seeking to make the U.S. a more responsible global partner.
Yemen

U.S. Escalates War Against Al-Qaeda

by | Jun 23, 2011

“Every time civilians are killed, you almost always do more harm than good,” agreed Carnegie’s Boucek. “You turn off the Yemeni people from wanting to co-operate; you turn off the government, because it looks like they’re facilitating it. It breeds further radicalization and makes it appear that Americans only care about terrorism, which is a pretty small issue compared to the challenges that Yemen faces and that lead to state failure or collapse,” he added. 

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Bunkum and Debunk ‘Em

by | Jun 7, 2011

Scratch the surface of any story and you’ll find rumors, hoaxes, and conspiracies. The conspiracy theory is the most intriguing of them all, for it combines total skepticism with total credulity. The same person will challenge every assertion made by the government or the mass media about Roswell or the Kennedy assassination, and then proceed to embrace the most cockamamie theory without even doing a minimum of legwork to test it.

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60-Second Expert: Yemen

by | May 26, 2011

Despite major demographic and infrastructural differences, the Yemeni people face with the same fundamental problems that the successful insurgents of the Arab world have sought to eradicate through collective action this year. The 32-year-old regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh has systematically denied basic political and economic rights to the country’s majority, controlling the population through a combination of “bribe-a-tribe” cronyism and outright political repression.

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Winners and Losers in a New Middle East

Winners and Losers in a New Middle East

by | May 23, 2011

The Middle East faces a moment of truth as country after country rises up against its authoritarian leaders. No government is secure against the people-powered protest movements sweeping the region. These dramatic events will likely be the greatest U.S. foreign policy challenge over the next decade. The regional security framework — with new roles for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Israel, and the likely Palestinian state (or states) — is evolving, and Washington must reexamine how it defends its regional interests in a new way.

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Yemen on the Edge

Yemen on the Edge

by | May 13, 2011

Since Obama came to office in January 2009, U.S. security assistance to the Yemeni regime has gone up 20-fold.  Despite such large-scale unconditional support, however, the 32-year reign of autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh may finally be coming to an end. Yet the Obama administration has been ambivalent in its support for a democratic transition in this impoverished but strategically important country.

 

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An Open Letter to President Obama, Or Change I believed in

by | Nov 12, 2010

Dear President Obama,

You’re not the man I thought you were.

Most progressives have no problem finding flaws with your first years as President to criticize you about, whether it’s the whittling down of the healthcare bill, decision to ramp up military operations in Afghanistan, failure to close Guantanamo, or deal effectively with Climate Change at Copenhagen. 

For me however, it is the moments in which you have an opportunity to make a clear decision, with profound moral implications, and yet choose to act in a way that makes me ashamed to call you my President…

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