The Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) presents: Will the Monarchs Reform? Challenges to Democracy in the Gulf  Wednesday, September 26, 2012 SEIU Headquarters, First Floor Conference Room (1800 Massachusetts Ave. NW) 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm (A light lunch will be available at noon.) While 2011 and 2012 have witnessed unprecedented changes across the Middle East and North Africa, the Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and ...

On Tuesday, the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations cohosted an event with the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies called “Crisis Yemen: Going Where?” Dr. John Duke Anthony moderated the panel discussion that featured former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine, author Gregory Johnsen, President of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies Dr. Charles Schmitz, and Professor Robert Sharp of the Department of Defense National Defense University For full ...

A report by Frederic Wehrey of the Carnegie Endowment describes how the use of arrests, media censorship, warnings to Shia clerics, and increasingly aggressive counter-demonstration tactics against opposition groups is leading to an increasingly militarized and rejectionist movement against the Bahraini government. Discussions about transforming the GCC, a move that would lead to closer ties between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and Washington's decision to restart arms sales to the island ...

In POMED's latest policy brief, Atiaf Alwazir argues that the United States should be utilizing this historic moment in Yemeni politics to shift its policy from a narrow focus on counterterrorism to a wider range of economic and political support. With a new president in power, Yemen has the opportunity to fundamentally restructure its political and military system, but multiple obstacles stand in its path. The Yemeni military remains a disjointed ...

Former Ambassador to Bahrain Ronald E. Neumann wrote in the Congress Blog that effective American diplomacy toward Bahrain necessitates blending both interest and principle. According to Neumann, doing so requires “acknowledging that our base is critical, understanding the island’s communal divisions, and recognizing how support for the monarchy coincides with reform.” Neumann, who served as ambassador to Bahrain from 2001 to 2004, writes that Bahrain’s uprising is more complex than “just ...

In the biggest U.S. drone attack since newly elected Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi ascended to presidency, at least 25 al Qaeda-linked fighters were killed in Southern Yemen. Residents reported planes bombarding the Jebel Khanafar mountain regions which al Qaeda –linked militant captured and has controlled for over a year. The Islamist movement Ansar Al Shariah, an al-Qaeda afiilliate, has turned the police station in Azzan into its regional headquarters and claimed that the region would join ...

Emirati authorities have cancelled dozens of Syrians' residency permits after they partook in a non-sanctioned protest in front of the Syrian consulate on February 10. More than 2,000 people protested against the Syrian regime in front of the consulate located in the emirate of Dubai. The Syrian National Council has been in negotiations with U.A.E. officials in order to have the residency permits of those arrested reinstated. Reportedly, Dubai police had asked the ...