The Escalating Shi’a-Sunni Conflict: Is It About Religion Or Politics?
In the first of four conferences on an increasing Shi’a-Shia divide in the middle east, from Iraq to Syria, Lebanon and even Egypt, violence between Shi’a and Sunni Muslims is on the rise. While some Western scholars and experts identify collapsing states and a grab for power as the chief causes for escalating sectarianism, many […]
The UAE and Egypt’s New Frontier in Libya
The surprising news that Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have carried out airstrikes against various Islamist rebels in Libya is yet another example of the scope and extent of change in the Middle East. It reminds us that many of the time-tested assumptions about how states behave have to be checked and challenged. The fact […]
Geneive Abdo’s op-ed in The National Interest on Iran Deal
BEIRUT—The extension of nuclear negotiations between Shi’a Iran and world powers over Tehran’s illicit nuclear program and the prospect of a permanent deal are fueling fear among Sunni naysayers that extends far beyond nukes. A thawing of relations with the West through continued diplomacy may well go far in uniting minority groups in the Middle East with […]
Ellen Laipson’s op-ed on recent political developments in Afghanistan and Iraq published in The Hill
There’s been a brief break in the storm clouds over Baghdad and Kabul this week; both countries’ struggles to form governments after elections achieved minor progress with the election of a parliament speaker in Iraq and an agreement to audit election results in Afghanistan. But the domestic dysfunction is deep, and cannot be easily resolved. […]
Stimson’s Task Force on U.S. Drone Policy cited in Al Jazeera op-ed
Echoing Jabar, a report released on June 26th by the Stimson Center, a Washington DC think tank, concludes that extremist groups have only grown in influence. Indeed, the “blowback” from drones is “a potent recruiting tool for terrorist organisations” in places like Yemen and Pakistan. Naturally, the death and destruction left by the strikes provide […]
Geneive Abdo comments on the Sunni-Shia divide
An ancient religious divide is helping fuel a resurgence of conflicts in the Middle East and Muslim countries. Struggles between Sunni and Shia forces have fed a Syrian civil war that threatens to transform the map of the Middle East, spurred violence that is fracturing Iraq, and widened fissures in a number of tense Gulf […]
Stimson Task Force on U.S. Drone Policy cited in New York Times op-ed
For all the slick technology, there are grave moral and legal questions going unanswered in the government’s use of armed drones to kill people considered terrorist threats. The problems involving these secretive executions are ably underlined by a bipartisan panel of military and intelligence veterans who warn in a new report that without adequate controls and public […]
Lessons Learned for Stabilization in Syria
Syria’s complex conflict poses a significant set of challenges for the United States. The Stimson Center, in cooperation with the US Institute of Peace, gathered a group of experts over the past six months to identify some “lessons learned” from previous US experiences with conflict stabilization. Understanding both the successes and failures in Afghanistan, Iraq […]