On Thursday, the State Department released a fact sheet of U.S. policy towards Syria in which it "reject the Syrian government's justification of its tactics to maintain "stability" and noted that additional sanctions have been imposed on Syrian officials, including President Bashar al-Assad,  to target the human rights abuses committed against protesters.  The statement also discussed coordination with European allies and on-going considerations for  "additional bilateral options for increasing pressure ...

On Thursday, the State Department released an overview of U.S. support for the Tunisian transition by helping lay the groundwork for responsive and accountable governance and supporting preparation for elections this summer.  In order to meet these goals, the Department is seeking to build the capacity of civil society organizations, political parties, and the media.  Additionally, in coordination with international partners and financial institutions, the U.S. is seeking to support ...

On Wednesday, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Project on Middle East Democracy co-sponsored a panel entitled "Egypt's Transition and the Challenge of Security Sector Reform." The event featured Mohamed Kadry Said, head of the Military Studies Unit at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Omar Afifi Soliman, former Egyptian police officer and Supreme Court lawyer, and Robert Perito, director of the Security Sector ...

Writing in the Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Trita Parsi and Reza Marashi discuss the regional uprisings affect on the regional power-balance.  The others note Saudi Arabia and Israel's disapproval of the Arab Spring given the strategic and political implications for their own countries.  Parsi and Marashi state that while Saudi leaders understood there was little they could do to prevent U.S. supported revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, they moved ...

Robert Satloff and Amos Yadlin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy argue that while the Obama administration's mixed approach to the Arab Spring mostly falls al0ng the traditional realist-idealist divide, such tension does not exist in Syria which is against American values and interests. Hence, they classify the debate over Syria as between the devil you know and the one you don't. The administration's recent decision to extend ...

A new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that the United States remains unpopular in key Arab and Muslim countries, as it has remained for a decade. President Barack Obama is viewed unfavorably in all countries polled with the exception of Indonesia. The Arab Spring has correctly reflected regional enthusiasm for democracy, which is generally viewed as the best form of government. However, the poll shows that people ...

On Wednesday,  House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman  Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) applauded the new Executive Order which imposes sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.  She  called on the administration to fully implement existing sanctions laws on the Syrian regime, recall the U.S. ambassador to Iran, and support Congressional efforts targeting the regime such as a new bipartisan legislation she will soon introduce that "would strengthen and increase sanctions to deny the Syrian regime the resources to threaten ...

In a new Carnegie Paper, Marwan Muasher discusses failed attempts to implement political reform in Jordan over the last decade.   Muasher argues that King Abdullah II's numerous attempts to launch political reform initiatives, since assuming the throne in 1999, have been "thwarted by a resilient class of political elites and bureaucrats" originally created by the regime to protect itself.  He highlights, in particular, elite resistance to the  Jordanian National Agenda, ...