The eruption of civil conflict in Syria in 2011 very quickly provoked a deep split in the international community over which side to back and what outcome to see
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shared by mharcour on 21 Feb 15
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Israel and Palestinians need a one-state solution - 1 views
america.aljazeera.com/...ednationsonestatesolution.html
Israel Israeli-Palestinian conflict Palestine Single State
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U.S. commander in Africa says Libya is a failed state - 1 views
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Yet another doom and gloom article that discusses how bad the Libyan state is in the eyes of the American military. General David Rodriguez, head of American military forces in Africa, called Libya a "failed state," probably one of the starkest declarations in the 5 years since the fall of the Qaddafi regime.
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Syria crisis: Where key countries stand - BBC News - 0 views
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Syria regarded as the world's most pressing crisis, the US and Russia, along with other permanent members of the UN Security Council, Turkey and Arab states, have attempted to resolve their differences.
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Their Geneva Communique, which calls for a transitional government based on "mutual consent", has become the basis for peace talks in the Swiss city. But it is clear the sides have different interpretations of the plan, and have so far failed to achieve a breakthroug
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US wants Bashar al-Assad out of power, and is pushing for the transitional government called for in the Geneva communique.
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President Barack Obama sought Congressional support for military action but postponed the vote - which was not certain to pass - when Syria indicated it would surrender its chemical stockpile
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United States has been one of the most prominent advocates of firm action against the Syrian government, which it has accused of using chemical weapons and other atrocities.
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It is backing Syria's "moderate opposition" with "non-lethal" assistance, including communications equipment, generators, and office supplies - but is also believed to be supplying light weapon
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Russia is one of Mr Assad's most important international backers and has warned the US and its allies against taking one-sided action against Syria
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Russia was key to Syria agreeing to give up chemical weapons, and backs the Geneva Communique. But it has repeatedly said Syria's future should be decided by Syrians and blocked anti-Assad resolutions at the UN Security Council. It continues to supply Syria with arms, including missile systems and aircraft
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Britain has been a big critic of the Assad government and signed a statement in 2013 calling for a "strong international respons
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supported military action but had to rule out Britain's involvement when he failed to secure the backing of parliament in August 2013.
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UK, along with France, successfully lobbied for the EU's arms embargo to be lifted so as to allow further supplies to Syrian rebels
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France has been among the most hawkish Western countries and was the first to stop recognising the Syrian government and deal with the main opposition coalition instead.
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France up to join US military action until plans were put on hold. The president acknowledged that France could not, and would not, act on its own
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China has joined Russia in blocking resolutions critical of Syria at the UN Security Council. It has criticised the prospect of strikes against Syria, insisting any military action without UN approval would be illegal.
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Turkish government has been one of the most vocal critics of Syrian President Assad since early on in the uprising and signalled its willingness to join international action even without UN approval
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Saudi Arabia has been a rival of the Syrian government for years. It has been particularly active in pushing for action against Mr Assad, and called for "all legal means possible" to be used to stop the bloodshed
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Qatar is thought to be one of the main suppliers of weapons to Syrian rebels and says outside military intervention has become a necessity to protect the Syrian people.
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ebanon there is deep division between supporters and opponents of President Assad. The country has suffered from an overspill of violence, including bomb attacks, as well as a huge flood of refugees. It has said it thinks military intervention might make the situation worse.
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Jordan has also received hundreds of thousands of refugees and has called for a political solution to the conflic
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Israel regards President Assad as an enemy, but has refrained from publicly backing military action against him. It fears its backing could alienate the Arab world,
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shared by ralph0 on 17 Feb 16
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If the Syria ceasefire fails, Isis will be the least of the west's problems | Michael C... - 0 views
www.theguardian.com/...an-saudi-arabia-vengeful-assad
Russia Iran Syria war regime opinion the guardian
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Where are the youth of the Egyptian revolution? - 0 views
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youth do not see the dangers of politicising the military and are calling for military intervention to resolve their political differences with the Muslim Brotherhood
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advice of experts in situations where there is a shortage of expertise on a particular subject pertaining to state
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This author gives an analysis of where the Egyptian youth failed and succeeded in their revolution. He applauds their original motivation: overthrowing the oppressive regime and seeking political freedom. However, he criticizes the movement for not having organized goals with practical implications. Their focus was so set on overthrowing Mubarak that they did not have a plan once that was achieved. As a result, the youth allowed the military to become politicized and enforce their political ideas. The author claims this move set a dangerous precedent for the future and took away the attention of the military from places it was needed. The author claims that by endorsing the army to act militarily against the first civilian elected president of the country, the youth is undermining their original goals. He goes on to explain his suggestions for the Egyptian youth to get back on track and follow through in the remaining phases of the revolution.
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23 nations blacklisted for human trafficking - 0 views
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The U.S. State Department has blacklisted 23 countries for failing to even try to meet minimum standards in fighting human trafficking
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Blacklisted by the State Department are Algeria, Belarus, Belize, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, North Korea, Kuwait, Libya, the Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Russia, South Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Yemen, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
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shared by allieggg on 28 Sep 14
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Islamists Aren't the Obstacle | Foreign Affairs - 0 views
www.foreignaffairs.com/...islamists-arent-the-obstacle
middle east democracy Islamists institutions egypt politics tunisia
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micklethwait liked it
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A minority of the population -- 26 percent of Tunisians and 28 percent of Egyptians -- believes that Islam should play a large role in government.
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Islamist parties received considerable support in both countries' recent elections -- not only because there is a broad ideological affinity for Islamism among the population but also because of Islamist parties' effective campaigning.
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When asked about the most important feature of a democracy, 69 percent of Egyptians and 32 percent of Tunisians put providing people with basic necessities or narrowing the gap between rich and poor at the top of their lists.
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Tunisia has fared better than Egypt so far in the post-Arab Spring transition, with less violence, fewer demonstrations, and greater political stability. This is in part because challenges are easier to confront in a country of only 11 million, 98 percent of whom are Sunni Muslim, compared to the more diverse and populous Egypt. But Tunisia's success is primarily a result of its stronger institutions, which provide a conduit for political debate.
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Many onlookers claim that Egypt's more tumultuous post-revolution trajectory is because of the country's legacy of religiosity and Islamism.
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Egypt's institutions are weak and have been routinely undermined by entrenched interests. The countries' different geopolitical situations play a role here. Tunisia's minimal strategic importance means that foreign countries have less reason to intervene. But Egypt's proximity to Israel and the Palestinian territories, its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, and its role as an intermediary between Israel and Hamas make its political developments important to Israel and the United States. Consequently, Egypt is vulnerable to foreign interference, particularly to attempts to prop up its military. Furthermore, beyond serving as a pillar to Egypt's authoritarian regimes, the Egyptian military has significant business interests and accounts for ten to 30 percent of Egypt's gross domestic product.
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Egypt's judicial branch, which is also more powerful than Tunisia's, has at times undermined democratic processes.
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Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that the Islamist-dominated parliament and the Constituent Assembly it elected were unconstitutional, because Islamist parties contested seats intended for independent candidates. The move polarized the country and pushed the executive branch to take extreme measures.
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Egyptian democracy is undermined by the inability of institutions to address citizens' demands and the impulse of powerful actors to interfere, not by the divide between Islamists and secularists. Institutions in Egypt fail to provide a meaningful forum for debate. As a result, violent street protesters and extremist sheiks are gaining power.
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U.S. policy must support institutions rather than actors, and processes rather than outcomes, in order to help Egypt and Tunisia achieve their democratic potential.
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The Council on Foreign Relations published an article about democratization in the middle east and the major obstacles that are present in the process. While most assume Islamists and Islamic embedded institutions are the root of the delayed democratic transition, the problems are much bigger than that. While Islamist regimes do indeed stunt the growth of democratic progress in terms of creating a stable government, Arab countries struggle with economic and social factors as well. The Arab Spring Revolutions have caused economic and social degradation across the region, resulting in a road block of political leadership. Without a reliable and capable government structure, the states are unable to progress economically. However, in order to have a stable government, social and economic institutions must be in place to create this capitalist economy that they strive for. Because most wealth resides in oil, the revenue that the states bring in isn't distributed properly throughout society and is concentrated within few business elites. The article stresses that instead of foreign aid going into the hands of an unstable leader or regime, it should be invested in institutions in order to spur economic growth and eliminate corruption. Rather than focusing on the Islamist-secularist divide, the world should be working towards the strengthening of institutions to create a stable foundation for governance.
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Islamic State gains Libya foothold - BBC News - 0 views
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"It is a failed state. Unlike other countries in the region, it does not have a semblance of government. This makes it the most vulnerable,"
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Moreover, Libya is rich in oil and, earlier this month, gunmen claiming to represent IS raided a French-run oil facility in al-Mabruk, south of Sirte city,
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many IS-aligned fighters collect salaries from the Libyan state," Jason Pack, a researcher in Libyan history at the UK's Cambridge University, told the BBC.
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Mr Pack points out that the country has three main power blocks: Libya Dawn (a mixture of Islamist and non-Islamist militias allied with the Tripoli-based government), Operation Dignity (led by forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar and allied with the internationally recognised government based in the eastern city of Tobruk) and Jihadist groups (which include IS, al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sharia - the most powerful of them). "There is a civil war between the two main groups [Libya Dawn and Operation Dignity]. The jihadists act as spoilers," Mr Pack says.
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France, Britain dismiss calls to renew relations with Syria's Assad | Reuters - 0 views
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France and Britain dismissed on Friday any suggestion of restoring relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying this would likely end all hope of a political transition and push moderates into the arms of radical Islamist groups.
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With the rise of Islamic State insurgents, some European |Union member states are critical of the position in Paris and London and say it might be time to re-establish communication with Damascus given that a four-year-old revolt has failed to overthrow Assad
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"In reality, Bashar represents injustice, chaos and terror. We, France and Britain, say no to all three
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the French and British foreign ministers hit back at those who sought a rapprochement with Assad by saying he was using the fear of Islamic State, which has seized wide areas of northern and eastern Syria, to win back international support
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This week a four-man cross-party delegation of French parliamentarians traveled to Syria and some met with Assad, and triggering a national debate on the issue
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countries would have to work with Assad to defeat Islamic State, while the U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said earlier this month that Assad must be part of the solution for defusing the conflict in Syria
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An initially peaceful street uprising against Assad has spiraled into a civil war that has seen a level of suffering some diplomats see as justifying contacts with Damascus in pursuit of a political solution
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Britain and France see Assad's departure as a precondition of peace negotiations but the collapse of his government has become less likely as the war grinds on inconclusively
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For our own security, we must defeat Islamic State in Syria. We need a partner that can act against extremists. We need a negotiated political settlement
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compromise would be needed between elements of the existing government and relatively moderate opponents of Assad.
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UK security 'failed' to stop girls from going to Syria, family says - 0 views
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The Isis economy: Meet the new boss - FT.com - 0 views
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Iraq’s second city of Mosul looks like a model of success for its new rulers from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
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But in the back alleys, litter fills the streets. The lights stay on, but only because locals rigged up generators themselves. And under the blare of café televisions, old men grumble about life under Isis’s self-proclaimed caliphate.
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Sunni Muslims in both countries have long felt discriminated against by regimes dominated by rival sects
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without an economy that gives people a chance to make a living, many say Isis has little more to offer
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“Compared to past rulers, Isis is a lot easier to deal with. Just don’t piss them off and they leave you alone,” says Mohammed, a trader from Mosul. “If they could only maintain services — then people would support them until the last second.”
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“They’re operating like something between a mafia, an insurgency and a terror group. Maybe they thought six months ago they were going to function as a state. But they don’t have the personnel or manpower.”
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volunteers handing out sacks of wheat stamped with their black and white seal. They even announced plans to issue a currency,
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In some cases they say Isis takes credit for systems in place before it seized power. In others, locals say it is stealing the resources of the region it seeks to rule
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Travellers must stock up on Iraqi dinars to use in Iraq, US dollars for the road and Syrian pounds once they arrive.
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services continue to function because of the money Baghdad still pays to former civil servants in Mosul. Isis taxes those employees at up to 50 per cent of their salaries.
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It is as if Isis is financing itself partly through a pyramid scheme, and this has begun to falter.”
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Though many now question Isis’s economic management, its military prowess and organisational skills are clear.
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Isis allows easy movement through its territories to facilitate trade. Trucks passing through are taxed about 10 per cent of the value of their cargo.
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shared by allieggg on 18 Nov 14
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Benghazi declared 'Islamic emirate' by militants - 0 views
english.alarabiya.net/...Islamic-state-in-Benghazi.html
ISIL militias armed groups syria Iraq Jihad Benghazi
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Libya’s Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia has said that it seized complete control of Benghazi late on Wednesday, declaring the city an “Islamic emirate,”
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Ansar al-Sharia is blacklisted by the United States over its alleged role in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, eastern Libya.
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Khalifa Haftar, a retired, renegade former army general who earlier this year launched a self-declared campaign to clear the city of Islamist militants, denied the group’s claims.
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“The national Libyan army is in control of Benghazi and only withdrew from certain positions for tactical reasons,” Haftar told Al Arabiya News Channel.
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Ansar al-Sharia’s declaration comes a month after jihadist militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) announced an “Islamic caliphate” over their territory.
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The extent of recent hostilities has increased Western worries that Libya is sliding toward becoming a failed state and may once again go to war.
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shared by sheldonmer on 17 Nov 14
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How State Failure Is Deepening Class Tensions in Egypt | Sara Khorshid - 0 views
www.huffingtonpost.com/...failure-has-ign_b_6107904.html
egypt egyptian revolution social classes social structure
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I wanted to share this article because it is a story about the aftermath of the Egyptian Revolution. It talks about how tensions between classes is are becoming stronger due to the failing state. It discusses how many middle class Egyptians are forced to pay fees for things they do not want. One example it gives is that a mother who goes to the hospital for birth must pay tips to all people working at the hospital at time of birth, regardless if they helped you give birth or not. This article goes on to discuss many socioeconomic structure problems and how they are adding strain to Egypt.
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Understanding Syria: From Pre-Civil War to Post-Assad - The Atlantic - 0 views
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So it is important to understand how their “social contract”—their view of their relationship with one another and with the government—evolved and then shattered.
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Nationalists took this diversity as a primary cause of weakness and adopted as their primary task integrating the population into a single political and social structure.
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or Hafez al-Assad, the secular, nationalist Baath Party was a natural choice: it offered, or seemed to offer, the means to overcome his origins in a minority community and to point toward a solution to the disunity of Syrian politics
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small group gathered in the southwestern town of Daraa to protest against government failure to help them
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All observers agree that the foreign-controlled and foreign-constituted insurgent groups are the most coherent, organized, and effective
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a whole generation of Syrians have been subjected to either or both the loss of their homes and their trust in fellow human beings.
Stop Drinking the Weak Sauce | Foreign Policy - 0 views
foreignpolicy.com/...-cold-war-weak-states-strategy
foreign policy political realism failed state weak state
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The U.S. Is Giving Up on Middle East Democracy-and That's a Mistake - The Atlantic - 0 views
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Today’s Middle East is a product, at least in part, of failed democratization, and one of the reasons it failed was the timid, half-hearted support of the Obama administration.
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“it was an externally driven shift in the cost of suppression, not changes in domestic conditions, that contributed most centrally to the demise of authoritarianism in the 1980s and 1990s.” They find that “states’ vulnerability to Western democratization pressure… was often decisive.”
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it is also worth noting that President Bush acknowledged the existence of a “tyranny-terror” link—the notion that the root causes of extremism and terrorism can be found in the region’s enduring lack of democracy.
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the administration’s approach to the region is characterized almost entirely by ad-hoc crisis management and traditional counterterrorism approaches. Its one larger-scale reform initiative—a half-hearted proposal for a
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We argue that the U.S. and its partners now need to consider a very different approach to Middle East democracy assistance.
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Conventional democracy promotion activities tend to focus on the process and “retail” aspects of democratic politics—things like elections, political party training, get-out-the-vote (GOTV) campaigns, and civil society enhancement. While these are undoubtedly important, they are insufficient to deliver lasting reforms. Authoritarianism in the Arab world has proven time and time again—even in supposedly post-revolutionary settings such as Egypt today—that it can weather the annoyances of elections and civil society.
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What is needed are more systematic reforms focused on fundamental institutions. These include things like constraining the military’s role in civilian domains of governance, deep reform in the security and justice sectors including law enforcement and policing, and comprehensive “renovation” of the civil service sector. These are large-scale, long-term, and expensive undertakings that far transcend the modest parameters of most U.S. democracy promotion programs.
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we make the case for a new Multilateral Endowment for Reform (MER) that would tie significant levels of financial assistance—in the billions of dollars—to reform commitments and benchmarked implementation performance by partner nations.
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provide a real incentive for countries to embark down a path to deeper and more enduring political reforms while retaining the ability to pull back funding if they do not deliver.
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This article begins by illuminating the regional democracy assistance cuts that are dropping from $459.2 million to $298.3 million It explains that the Bush Administration began the quest for democracy in the Middle East, and the Obama administration has only continued in his footsteps. The author presents the viewpoint that the U.S. approach to Arab democratization has been in the form of "ad-hoc crisis management" rather than "large scale reform initiatives." Promoting democracy in the form of democratic politics are insufficient, elections and political parties have consistently proved to weather away and fester further civil strife. Consequently, the article proposes a new approach to the region conflict. This approach calls for "systematic reforms" focusing on basic institutions such as the civil service sector, justice and law enforcement, and the military's role in governance. The idea is that addressing these lacking departments in the arab world will eventually pave the way to a smoother democratic transition.
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Revisiting the Libyan War | The American Conservative - 0 views
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I do not in any way regret my support for that intervention, which saved many thousands of lives and helped to bring an end to a brutal regime. Still, it is impossible to look at Libya’s failed state and civil war, its proxy conflict and regional destabilization, and not conclude that the intervention’s negative effects over the long term outweigh the short-term benefits.
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left Libya without a functioning state and little solid ground upon which to build a new political order. The likelihood of such an outcome should have weighed more heavily in my analysis.
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My hope had been that the intervention would act to restrain other autocrats from unleashing deadly force against protesters and encourage wavering activists to push forward in their demands for change. Unfortunately, this only partially panned out and had unintended negative effects.
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No government that bordered on Libya wanted outside intervention, presumably because they feared that they would be adversely affected by it. The Arab governments that most wanted the war were the ones least likely to suffer from its ill effects. The fact that authoritarian GCC governments supported this “humanitarian” intervention should have been a reason to be very wary of military action instead of being an argument in its favor.
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The worst effects were on Syria. The Libya intervention may have imposed a certain level of caution on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, leading him to search for just the right level of repression to stay beneath the threshold for international action.
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Libya intervention almost certainly encouraged Syrian activists and rebels – and their backers in the Gulf and Turkey – in their hopes for a similar international campaign on their own behalf. That unintended moral hazard probably contributed to the escalation of Syria’s civil war.
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Intervention in Libya was always likely to give protesters and rebels in other countries false hope that their plight would trigger outside intervention as well. The moral hazard may not have been intended, but it was there for all to see.
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Russia's Putin, Egypt's Sisi say committed to fighting terrorism | Reuters - 0 views
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United by a deep hostility toward Islamists, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Russia's Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday they were both committed to fighting the threat of terrorism.
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Sisi, who is fighting a raging Islamist insurgency in the Sinai region, said Putin had agreed with him that "the challenge of terrorism that faces Egypt, and which Russia also faces, does not stop at any borders
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utin, making his first state visit to Egypt in a decade, said they agreed on "reinforcing our efforts in combating terrorism
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The Kremlin chief was the first leader of a major power to visit Egypt since former army chief Sisi became president in 2014
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Sisi has repeatedly called for concerted counter-terrorism efforts in the Middle East and the West. Egypt has fought Islamist militancy for decades, mostly through security crackdowns that have weakened, but failed to eliminate, radical group
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Putin has also resorted to force against Islamists, sending troops to quell a separatist rebellion in Chechnya, but still confronts insurgents in parts of the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region
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Putin, facing Western isolation and sanctions over his support for pro-Russian separatists in neighboring Ukraine, received a grand welcome in Cair
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Egypt and the Soviet Union were close allies until the 1970s when Cairo moved closer to the United States, which brokered its 1979 peace deal with Israel.
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Putin said he expected a new round of talks on the Syrian conflict, following on from a meeting of some opposition figures and the Damascus government in Moscow last month
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The Moscow talks, which ended on Jan. 29, were not seen as yielding a breakthrough as they were shunned by the key political opposition in Syria and did not involve the main insurgent groups fighting on the ground
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Daniel Byman | Why Drones Work | Foreign Affairs - 0 views
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Whereas President George W. Bush oversaw fewer than 50 drone strikes during his tenure, Obama has signed off on over 400 of them in the last four years
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And they have done so at little financial cost, at no risk to U.S. forces, and with fewer civilian casualties than many alternative methods would have caused.
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So drone warfare is here to stay, and it is likely to expand in the years to come as other countries’ capabilities catch up with those of the United States.
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Critics of drone strikes often fail to take into account the fact that the alternatives are either too risky or unrealistic.
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Even the most unfavorable estimates of drone casualties reveal that the ratio of civilian to militant deaths is lower than it would be for other forms of strikes.
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signature strikes,” which target not specific individuals but instead groups engaged in suspicious activities.
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After a strike in Pakistan, militants often cordon off the area, remove their dead, and admit only local reporters sympathetic to their cause or decide on a body count themselves. The U.S. media often then draw on such faulty reporting to give the illusion of having used multiple sources. As a result, statistics on civilians killed by drones are often inflated.
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Yemen’s former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, also at times allowed drone strikes in his country and even covered for them by telling the public that they were conducted by the Yemeni air force.
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As officials in both Pakistan and Yemen realize, U.S. drone strikes help their governments by targeting common enemies.
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A 2012 poll found that 74 percent of Pakistanis viewed the United States as their enemy, likely in part because of the ongoing drone campaign. Similarly, in Yemen, as the scholar Gregory Johnsen has pointed out, drone strikes can win the enmity of entire tribes.
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Many surveys of public opinion related to drones are conducted by anti-drone organizations, which results in biased samples.
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And for most Pakistanis and Yemenis, the most important problems they struggle with are corruption, weak representative institutions, and poor economic growth; the drone program is only a small part of their overall anger, most of which is directed toward their own governments.