In the Wall Street Journal, Margaret Coker reports on Saudi Arabia's use of anti-terror laws to persecute political reformers and human rights activists: “The government is using its security forces to silence a growing group of Saudi political activists seeking liberal reform inside the authoritarian kingdom. Saudis who simply hold political views different from those of their rulers have been arrested and detained as security suspects under the counter-terror efforts, ...

President Barack Obama is scheduled to deliver a nationally televised address tonight marking the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq. While the drawdown is significant, a large number of troops will remain: "...Americans need to understand that our troops are needed to assist the Iraqis on security matters..." notes the Wall Street Journal, adding "It would be a tragedy if after seven years of sacrifice, the U.S. now failed ...

David Ottaway recently published a new article on the prospects for political change in Egypt as part of the Woodrow Wilson International Center’s Occasional Paper series. After spending months interviewing a wide range of Egyptian political figures, Ottaway notes the there is a complete lack of agreement about where Egypt is today and where it is going. The only thing all of the observers seem to agree on is that ...

Egypt's upcoming presidential election and the U.S. role in supporting democracy are discussed in a PolicyWatch by J.Scott Carpenter. Written after consultation with a group of experts on the region, the article lays out the path ahead: "...the prevailing assumption in both Washington and Cairo has been that...Gamal Mubarak wins the presidency in rigged elections following his father's death." However, the emergence of the "ElBaradei phenomenon" ...

According to reports out of Iran, former presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi has been surrounded in his house by a group of "plainclothes forces." The group is apparently trying to keep Karroubi from attending the Quds Day rally. Karroubi's son, Hossein, describes the men as, "...militias whom the government fully supports." In a recent meeting with reform activists, the former presidential candidate spoke of the Ahmadinejad government's fear of the opposition: ...

Writing in The New Yorker, Steve Coll suggests that for all of Pakistan’s problems, there is a way forward. According to Coll, Pakistan must first seek peace with India and then develop a stronger, export-based economy. Coll cites Indonesia’s experience as a potential model: "Indonesia, which, like Pakistan, has a large Muslim population and implausible borders left behind by imperialists, suffered badly a decade ago from separatist violence, Al Qaeda-linked ...

Responding to Kenneth Chasen’s piece last week on the success of the Fayyad administration, Ali Abunimah writes that much of what Chasen saw during his visit to Ramallah was “a mirage". Despite apparent development, the economy is still weak and institutions that Fayyad is credited with building are "hollow". Abunimah specifically takes umbrage with Chasen’s assertion that Fayyad’s authoritarian style is necessary for progress: "Chasen acknowledges that Fayyad rules in ...

As combat troops are withdrawn from Iraq, questions remain about how this will affect its emerging democracy. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Stephen Hadley argues, "The six-month stalemate in forming a new government is worrying, but virtually all Iraqi leaders accept the need for a broadly inclusive government." Mohammad Bazzi believes that Iran has been the true beneficiary of the war, which may have repercussions across the ...

CFR.org has a new interview with International Crisis Group analyst Candace Rondeaux previewing Afghanistan’s September 18th parliamentary election. According to Rondeaux, the outlook isn’t good. Candidates, campaigners, and elections officials are all targets for attack; significant fraud is expected despite the efforts of international monitors; and voter turn-out will likely be much lower than previous elections. These factors lead Rondeaux to argue that the elections should be postponed until the ...

In a continuing crackdown on opposition leaders, Bahrain has banned the media from reporting on prominent Shiite activist and spokesman for Al-Haq political movement Abduljalil al-Singace, who has been in detention since August 13 along with other activists. Al-Singace is an outspoken critic of the government and has spoken in Britain about the human rights situation in Bahrain. The government has accused  him and fellow activists of "provid funds and ...

Heather Ferguson, a Stanford University fellow, and Ty McCormick, an intern at the American University in Cairo, argue in the Huffington Post today that the Obama administration has "respectfully declined" to press for political reform in Egypt. In their view, "this policy reflects a sincere belief on the part of the Obama administration that Islamists cannot be democrats." Ferguson and McCormick criticize the view that Islamic groups like the Muslim ...

Writing at bitterlemons-international.org, Anouar Boukhars argues that Morocco and other Arab nations, "...purposefully perpetuate the political incongruence and economic 'dissonance' that is at the root of their failure...". According to Boukhars, this "incongruence" has manifested itself in the Algerian and Moroccan positions regarding the Western Sahara. "Algeria's policy has been stuck in perpetual tension between the military and the civilian branches of the government...", with the civilian branch supporting ...

In a new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Noah Feldman argues that American troops should stay in Iraq beyond 2011 to ensure stability while the country builds viable institutions and forms an identity irrespective of religious or ethnic groups. For Feldman, the U.S.’s 35-year-presence in South Korea is an example of how long-term military engagement can help incipient democracies progress in difficult neighborhoods: “No one would have predicted at the time that South ...

Writing at Black Iris, Jordanian blogger Naseem Tarawnah highlights issues with Jordan’s new cyber crimes law. According to Tarawnah, the law gives the Jordanian government new legal tools to repress free speech online including the ability to prosecute anyone sending information that “involves defamation or contempt or slander” and broad powers to search the homes and offices of those suspected of being involved in cyber crime. “Given the precedence of infringements ...

Reuters reports that 200 unemployed Saudi teachers staged a protest Sunday in front of the education ministry to demand jobs. Despite the country’s wealth, it has struggled to create employment opportunities for its burgeoning population. The article argues that the root of the issue is Saudi Arabia’s education system, which "focuses more on religion than on the job skills needed to diversify an oil-based economy weighed down by a bloated public sector.” In ...

New York Times reporter Kareem Fahim’s profile of Chavia Ali, a Syrian disability rights activist, describes a conundrum facing many civil society leaders in Syria. After years of government opposition, Ali’s organization is flourishing. She now receives funding from Syria’s first lady Asma al-Assad and is regularly featured in the government-backed press. Her success, however, comes with the implicit agreement that she will avoid controversial political issues. Fahim writes,  “In the narrow ...

Recent reports have highlighted Iraq's struggles to provide adequate social services to its citizens. For al-Jazeera yesterday, Victoria Fine profiled the troubled health care system in Iraqi Kurdistan. She describes the obstacles that patients face in getting access to doctors, surgeries, and other state-based medical services, which are officially free in Iraq. To cope, Fine writes, many citizens have turned to "a loose network of NGOs," including international humanitarian organizations, ...

Salam Kawakibi, a senior researcher at the Arab Reform Initiative and the University of Amsterdam, has a new paper examining the re-emergence of the private media in Syria. Kawakibi gives a detailed history of the media in Syria beginning with the Baathist takeover in 1963. He explains that while the Baathist constitution protected free expression, a "state of emergency" was almost immediately declared and the government began "suppressing" the publication ...

An article at the Middle East Monitor today claims that the Palestinian Authority runs the risk of "changing rapidly into a repressive, dictatorial regime in the same mold as other Arab governments". This piece was prompted by the recent breakup by Palestinian Security Forces of a symposium put together by Palestinian groups opposed to direct negotiations with Israel. While President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the incident will be investigated, ...