Arab World

Give Us the Weapons We Need to Beat Assad

The chief of staff of the opposition Syrian Military Joint Command calls on the United States to provide arms, not just non-lethal aid.

BY SALIM IDRIS | MARCH 1, 2013

Tribes With Flags

How the Arab Spring has exposed the myth of Arab statehood.

BY AARON DAVID MILLER | FEBRUARY 27, 2013

It's Not About Us

Forget about the “war on terror.” The next few decades will be dominated by the bitter divide within Islam itself.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | FEBRUARY 20, 2013

The Terrible Twos

Can Washington prevent the turbulent Arab Spring countries from going the way of the post-Soviet states?

BY JAMES TRAUB | FEBRUARY 15, 2013

Forget the Flowers and Candy

Images from the women's rights rallies that have been taking place around the world this week.

BY NEHA PALIWAL | FEBRUARY 14, 2013

Syria's Battle Royale

The struggle for Damascus looks poised to transform this bloody conflict.

BY EMILE HOKAYEM | FEBRUARY 11, 2013

Arm the Syrian Rebels. Now.

Obama's cabinet had a plan to take down Bashar al-Assad. What went wrong?

BY MICHAEL DORAN, SALMAN SHAIKH | FEBRUARY 8, 2013

A Murder in Tunis

The assassination of a leftist politician has thrown the poster child for the Arab Spring into chaos.

BY FADIL ALIRIZA | FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Martyrs of the Revolution

If history is any guide, today’s assassination in Tunisia could set off a dangerous revolutionary dynamic.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | FEBRUARY 6, 2013

Marching Through the Monarchies

Two years after the Arab Spring awoke demons and democracy in the Middle East, I went to see whether changes had roiled the lands of royals.

BY EMMA SKY | FEBRUARY 1, 2013

The U.N.'s Deal With the Devil

The United Nations needs to work with President Bashar al-Assad's regime to provide aid to the Syrian people. But is it inadvertently funding the government's killing machine?

BY SAKHR AL-MAKHADHI | FEBRUARY 1, 2013

The Egyptian Treadmill

Why Washington isn’t panicking about Egypt’s latest crisis.

BY MARC LYNCH | JANUARY 31, 2013

The First Lab Results Are In

Democracy Lab is celebrating its first anniversary. Here are some of the things we've learned over the past year -- and where we're headed in year two.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | JANUARY 31, 2013

The Republic of Port Said

An insurrection along the Suez Canal represents the greatest threat yet to the Muslim Brotherhood's rule in Egypt.

BY EVAN C. HILL | JANUARY 30, 2013

Saving Syrians, One Blanket at a Time

How I became a one-man aid worker in the world's deadliest war zone.

BY WIJBE ABMA | JANUARY 29, 2013

Think Again: The Muslim Brotherhood

How did so many Western analysts get Egypt's Islamist movement so wrong?

BY ERIC TRAGER | JANUARY 28, 2013

Mali's 2.5 Percent Problem

The real reason the Sahel is awash with terrorists? Rapid population growth.

BY ROGER HOWARD | JANUARY 28, 2013

Nation-Building in the Classroom

Has President Obama given up too soon on hopes for fixing Afghanistan?

BY JAMES TRAUB | JANUARY 25, 2013

Why the Killing in Syria Is Just the Beginning

The international community’s failure on Syria limits its power to act against the even bigger bloodletting that’s likely to happen down the road.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | JANUARY 25, 2013

The Egyptian Revolution Through Mubarak's Eyes

Insider accounts are shedding new light on the 18 days that brought down a pharaoh.

BY DAVID KENNER | JANUARY 24, 2013

Fund Syria’s Moderates

We can’t say that helping the Syrian rebels didn’t work, because it has never really been tried.

BY ROBIN YASSIN-KASSAB | JANUARY 23, 2013

Party in the KSA

Behind high walls, the kingdom's restrictive Islamic laws don't apply.

BY AHMED AL OMRAN | JANUARY 14, 2013

Syrian Purgatory

As winter clutches northern Syria, thousands displaced by the civil war take cold comfort in a temporary tent city.

BY STEVEN SOTLOFF | JANUARY 14, 2013

There's No App for Syria

Why did Apple ban a game on the Syrian civil war?

BY MICHAEL PECK | JANUARY 11, 2013

Responsibility to Object

It's time for the U.N. Security Council to do something about war crimes in Syria.  

BY DAVID KAYE | JANUARY 10, 2013

Does Obama Have a Middle East Strategy?

If not, what should it be?

BY MARC LYNCH | JANUARY 10, 2013

No Surrender

The Syrian president’s speech at the Damascus Opera House shows that he still thinks he can win this war.

BY EMILE HOKAYEM | JANUARY 7, 2013

The Year in Unfreedom

An encouraging number of the world's people voted in 2012. But voting does not a democracy make.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | JANUARY 4, 2013

The Palestinian Implosion

Salam Fayyad's bold effort to build Palestinian institutions could soon collapse -- unless Israel and the United States spring to action.

BY ZIAD ASALI, GHAITH AL-OMARI | JANUARY 3, 2013

The Year the Arab Spring Went Bad

Hopes for a democratic Middle East have faltered amid sectarian animosities and ideological divisions. Did it have to be this way?

BY F. GREGORY GAUSE, III | DECEMBER 31, 2012