The German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, published a report entitled the “Violent Power Struggle in Syria." The report analyzes four possible scenarios and policy options for the international community; which include, regime survival, implosion, full-blown civil war, and military intervention. In the first scenario, the violent tactics of the regime eventually take its toll on the opposition who choose life over continuing oppression. The second, military ...

Dimi Reider wrote an entry in a series of posts in the New York Review of Books blog concerning the fate of democracy in Israel. The article discusses several legislative proposals, some passed and some pending ratification that are largely in opposition to basic democratic principles including freedom of assembly, speech, asylum, association and the right to an independent judiciary. Reider lists examples of such laws including a new amendment to a 50-year-old law targeting ...

  In an immediate press release, Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) called on the Bahraini government to allow the Bahrainis “to gather peaceably and express their political views,” as the Bahraini opposition plans a major demonstration this Friday. He urged both the government and opposition to refrain from the use of violence. Several months have passed since the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry issued a report documenting abuses by the Bahraini regime and ...

On Wednesday, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a panel discussing the history of the Iraqi police and the U.S. police assistance program in Iraq. The event publicly introduced a new USIP Special Report by Robert Perito on “The Iraq Federal Police: U.S. Police Building Under Fire.”  The panel featured retired U.S. Army General Jim Dubik, former deputy inspector general of the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq ...

18-year-old Jordanian Odai Abu-Issa was sentenced to two years in jail by a military court for burning the picture of King Abdullah II at a protest last week. The court found Abu-Issa guilty of “harming the king’s dignity” and has remained imprisoned since the incident two weeks ago. Additionally, there are reports that he was beaten police while in jail. In a separate occurrence, an “unidentified assailant” stabbed Inas Musallam, ...

On Tuesday, The American University International Law Review hosted a symposium discussing “The Impact of the Arab Spring throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa: Building the Rule of Law and the Role of the International Community in Domestic Conflicts.” The fourth of a series of five consecutive panels addressed legal reforms and democratization in the wake of the Arab Spring. The panel featured Simon Adams, executive director of the ...

On Wednesday, the Institute for Middle East Studies of George Washington University hosted a panel discussion on political dynamics in Yemen. The panel included Sheila Carapico, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Richmond; Stacey Philbrick Yadav, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Hobart and William Smith Colleges; Laurent Bonnefoy, Research Institute on Muslim and Arab Countries in France and French Center of Social and Archeological Sciences in Sanaa. ...