Middle East

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Program(s): Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies , Peace and Security

Topic(s): Arab Awakening, Fragile States

Staff

Bruce Jones

Richard Gowan

Emily O'Brien

WPS Sidhu

How Aleppo, Once the Center of U.N. Diplomacy, Became an Afterthought

Who remembers Aleppo? A year ago, the Syrian city appeared tragically central to international diplomacy. Yet, Syria has slid into the category of persistent conflicts that worry U.N. diplomats but seem irresolvable.

Publication Date: Oct 27, 2017

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Richard Gowan

Region/Country: Middle East, Syria

Program(s): Peace and Security

Topic(s): Humanitarian Crises, International Security, Peace Operations, United Nations

CIC's Hanny Megally Appointed to Commission of Inquiry on Syria

The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli of El Salvador, has announced the appointment of CIC Senior Fellow Hanny Megally of Egypt to serve as a member of the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.

Publication Date: Oct 18, 2017

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Hanny Megally

Region/Country: Middle East, Syria

Program(s): Peace and Security

Will Russia Apply Its ‘Syria Model’ to U.N. Diplomacy Over North Korea?

Russia is flexing its diplomatic muscles at the United Nations again. Moscow appears intent on using the U.N. to complicate American efforts to put pressure on North Korea and sow confusion over its own intentions toward Ukraine. Western diplomats should be alert, because Russia is a fine player of the U.N. game.

Publication Date: Sep 11, 2017

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Richard Gowan

Region/Country: Middle East, Syria

Program(s): Peace and Security

Topic(s): Transnational Threats

The Hazards of Giving Shelter

A refugee crisis is what happens when large numbers of people fleeing poor, violent countries seek asylum in rich, peaceful countries, raising agonizing moral and political questions. This of course is what occurred in 2015, when a million refugees from Syria and elsewhere poured across Europe’s borders, provoking a backlash that brought nationalist parties to the verge of power and threatened the Continent’s liberal order. The refugees were the cause, rather than the victims, of the crisis in question.

Publication Date: Sep 11, 2017

Author(s) / Contributor(s): James Traub

Region/Country: Europe, Middle East, Syria

Program(s): Peace and Security

Topic(s): Humanitarian Crises

Diplomacy in Action: Expanding the UN Security Council’s Role in Crisis and Conflict Prevention

The UN Security Council has the potential to play a greater direct role in crisis response and mediation not only in New York, but in the field. It has done so sporadically in the past. In its early years, the Council experimented with inter-governmental missions to investigate potential conflicts and undertake mediation in cases including the Balkans and Indonesia. In the post-Cold War period, Council missions engaged directly in crisis diplomacy in multip=le conflicts, playing an important peacemaking role in East Timor in 1999.

Publication Date: May 31, 2017

Region/Country: Middle East, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa

Topic(s): Peace Operations, United Nations

Program(s): Peace and Security

The "Graveyard Of Empires"

CNN's Fareed Zakaria in a recent report on the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan highlights Barnett Rubin's War on the Rocks article "It's much bigger than Afghanistan: U.S. strategy for a transformed Region".

Publication Date: May 02, 2017

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Barnett Rubin

Region/Country: China, Middle East, South Asia, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Topic(s): Afghanistan, Crises, Humanitarian Crises

The Tunisia Conundrum: Sowing dictatorship, harvesting terrorism

Why is Tunisia producing the world’s largest numbers of jihadi foreign fighters when the country is seemingly the one success story emerging from the 2011 Arab uprisings? It is a conundrum that has confounded analysts not least because the answers have been very contradictory. Delving back into Tunisia’s modern history may help in contextualizing the answer to this question. It points to decades of heavy-handed top down secularization policies, oppressive human rights practices, a mismanaged economy that privileged the few and neglected large parts of the country, and bad neighbors.

Publication Date: Jun 28, 2016

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Hanny Megally

Region/Country: Middle East

Program(s): Peace and Security

Topic(s): Humanitarian Crises

Preventing Violent Extremism by Protecting Rights And Addressing Root Causes

The eagerly-awaited United Nations Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism (PVE) is an ambitious and much-needed shift toward tackling the root causes that lead to radicalization. It is a bold strategy that combines a UN system-wide response with an “all of government approach” to violent extremism.

Publication Date: Feb 09, 2017

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Hanny Megally

Region/Country: Middle East

Program(s): Peace and Security

Topic(s): Humanitarian Crises

Analysis: Trump’s ‘America First’ Vision Could Upend Postwar Consensus

In his first two weeks in office, President Donald Trump's "America First" pledge has proven more than an idle slogan. In word and deed, the White House has signaled an aggressive unilateral stance toward the world that's antagonized allies abroad and divided supporters at home.

Publication Date: Feb 01, 2017

Author(s) / Contributor(s): Benjy Sarlin, Barnett Rubin

Region/Country: Europe, Middle East, United States, South Asia, Afghanistan

Program(s): Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Project

Topic(s): Global Governance

GPOR Annual Compilation 2015

For almost a decade, the Annual Review of Global Peace Operations (ARGPO) was the flagship publication of the Center on International Cooperation (CIC). During that time, CIC also released three editions of the Review of Political Missions.

Publication Date: Jan 29, 2016