A groundswell of Syrian refugees pouring into Jordan threatens to increase social and political tension as a result of greater claims to limited resources and differing perceptions of refugees’ rights and obligations. The risk for Jordan is heightened by the fact that it could upset King Abdullah’s cautious reform policy aimed at preventing widespread discontent from morphing...
Despite facing serious political and economic problems, Jordan is not on the verge of regime change. Divisions within the opposition and an interest in reforming the current political system prevent a fundamental challenge to Amman's Hashemite monarchy.
Many observers comment that Jordan may be about to experience the same popular upheaval that swept away ruling regimes in...
Despite the political upheaval in the Middle East, it is too soon to determine whether King Abdullah will be toppled. However, there seems every reason to believe that once the Syrian conflict reaches a conclusion, Jordan could be next in the crosshairs.
Calls for change have returned to Jordan, with large crowds demanding social, economic and political reform and objecting to...
Jordan is one of the few monarchies in the Arab world to retain control of its government, but the boycott of elections may be the beginning of the end for King Abdullah. A considerable concession of power to his legislature will be necessary in order for the king to remain on his throne.
While political change courses through the region, Jordanian King Abdullah II finds...
In the long wake of the Oslo Accords, adherence to the status quo is eroding the chances for a just and feasible solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The year 2013 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Oslo Accords – two decades of a frozen peace process mired in transitional limbo. Long gone are the heady days of the 1990s, when peace seemed possible and a two-...
In the Middle East, nothing ever stands still, and this is particularly true regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On November 29, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of according Palestine non-member state status in the UN. The vote saw 138 in favor to 9 against (Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia,...
There is one conventional wisdom regarding the Middle East Peace Process, which has already become axiomatic: There can be no peace without active American involvement. As conventional wisdoms go, so is the case with this one, argues Josef Olmert, former Israeli peace negotiator.
Somewhat true, somewhat exaggerated, altogether an oversimplification of an otherwise complicated...
The essentiality of US mediation in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations is an unchallenged axiom in most Washington policy circles. US leadership has been central to negotiations in the past, and the US may continue to be the only actor that can bring both parties to the table and enforce concessions once they get there.
A negotiated peace settlement between the Israelis and...
In his first term, Obama had indicated that Washington was serious about its pivot to Asia. However, much remains to be seen in order to prove that the US means business.
The world has seen a shift in the international system over the last few decades. The world’s attention is focused on China, ASEAN states are becoming more assertive — encouraged by...
Obama's reelection provides the president with an opportunity to adapt to the changed environment in the Middle East and North Africa.
On November 6, 2012, Barack Obama was reelected for a second term as President of the United States of America. Congress remains divided with Democrats controlling the Senate and Republicans presiding over a majority in the House of...
As Obama prepares for another four years in the White House, questions arise as to which issues will define the president’s domestic agenda during his second term in office.
Since his first electoral victory in 2009, die-hard Obama supporters have become a rare breed in the US. Barack Obama came to power amidst a flurry of elation and hope for a radically different...
Obama’s second term will be eventful: another financial crisis might occur, Reaganism could die and America will be more assertive abroad.
In the words of Justice Scalia, the American government was designed for obstruction. Fleeing authoritarian governments, Americans brought to life Montesquieu’s ideas about the separation of powers...
The status quo of fractious relations will continue as a right-wing Israel clashes with the United States over a changing Middle East.
On January 22, 2013, two days after President Barack Obama was sworn in for his second term, Israel held parliamentary elections for the Knesset. The current Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu right-wing bloc maintained its hold with a slim majority, while...
The real winner of the recent parliamentary elections is the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, argues Bilal Ahmed.
The Israeli elections on January 22, 2013 have surprised many analysts. Results point to a polarized electorate, with the Knesset split between centre-left and right-wing parties. Far-right politician Naftali Bennett's The Jewish Home had predictably...
Following Israel's elections, Josef Olmert, former Israeli peace negotiator and advisor to Yitzhak Shamir, discusses the role of Israeli-Arabs, right and left wing parties, Netanyahu, and Yair Lapid.
It is arguably the case that Israeli politics, including Israeli parliamentary elections, arouse world-wide interest and gets much greater press coverage than that given to...
The Israeli people voted for change and a normal life. An end to the occupation over the Palestinians and peace with their neighbors is a key to the possibility of living that normal life, argues Hillel Schenker.
There is definitely an atmosphere of hope and possible change in the Israeli air, just after the surprising outcome of the 2013 elections.
We know that Benjamin...
The Internet’s impact on politics in the 21st century seems to be unquestionable. Political campaigns, social movements and web revolutions indicate that the Internet not only bolstered popular reaction and mobilization, but also degraded state sovereignty.
The emergence of the Internet at the beginning of the 21st century significantly influenced...
An approach to how technology evolves having internet as its main driver
The (number of) technological breakthroughs that we have witnessed in the last thirty years is impressive, to say the least. The rate of the development is rising constantly; not only we advance more and more in shorter periods of time, but the impact of new technology in our daily lives is also greater...
The technological age, where ink has been substituted by software, has brought literature to a crossroads.
The era of digital omniscience – the precepts of its zeitgeist – has changed literature. The technological component, its praxis, has deeply transformed the way we create, communicate and read literature. It is the hostile takeover by the electronic...
Daniel Miller provides an anthropological insight which negates the premiss that there is something as "The" internet.
You can either study the internet or you can study culture. What you can’t do is both. Why not? Because, at least from the perspective of the anthropology which I inhabit, the internet cannot be considered to be a material or immaterial...
Abul-Hasanat Siddique and Casper Wuite, co-authors of The Arab Uprisings: An Introduction, talk about the political unrest in the Middle East, the Syrian Civil War, the globalisation of media, and the future prospects for the region. [Note: This...
The following is the last of a series of excerpts that Fair Observer will be featuring from its first book, The Arab Uprisings: An Introduction. Read the first excerpt here.
As the Arab Uprisings enter their third...
The following is the fourth of a series of excerpts that Fair Observer will be featuring from its first book, The Arab Uprisings: An Introduction. Read the first excerpt here.
The Arab Uprisings have changed the...
The following is the third of a series of excerpts that Fair Observer will be featuring from its first book, The Arab Uprisings: An Introduction. Read the first excerpt here.
For decades, elites have captured the state to serve...
The recent public outcry against the treatment of women in India is a song we’ve heard too many times before.
Karl Marx once famously said that history repeats itself “first as tragedy, then as farce”. The gang-rape atrocity of a 23-year old woman in Delhi on 16 December 2012 for the most part appears nothing but a “tragedy”. The brutality of the...
Laws on rape do not usually refer to the “moral character” of the victim, presumably because it is generally not relevant to the crime. Moreover, the phrase itself is an anachronism, besides being vague and hard to pin down. But it is time that rape laws did refer to a woman's moral character – specifically to prohibit references to it in court during prosecution of...
The traditional feudal society behind the façade of a modern liberal democracy has been revealed after the Delhi rape. It has also highlighted the increasingly bitter clash of civilisations within a civilisation. Although column inches, candles and slogans have been liberally expended over yet another tragic case, it is far from a turning point in India’s inexorable slide...
The gang rape case in New Delhi unveils the government's incapability to impose law and order.
The gang rape of a hapless girl in a bus on busy roads of India’s capital city New Delhi on December 16 is just another slap on the face of Indian democracy. Crime in the city has become a way of life leaving citizens to fend for themselves. Before we are able to recover...
Fair Observer's five best China articles of 2012.
1: Islands’ Dispute Recasts China-Taiwan-Japan Relations — Malcolm Cook
Domestic politics in China, Japan and Taiwan are intensifying the territorial dispute over the Senkaku/...
Fair Observer's five best India articles of 2012.
1: Manmohan – Ever a Courtier, Never the King — Atul Singh
Fair Observer’s Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Atul Singh, analyzes Manmohan Singh’s performance as Prime Minister and argues...
Fair Observer's five best Arts & Culture articles of 2012.
1: The Poet as the Journalist of the Spirit — Yahia Lababidi
Can poetry help us through times of political upheaval?
2:...
Fair Observer's five best North America articles of 2012.
1: Taking a Step Forward for Canadian Nationhood — Michael Morgenthau
Queen Elizabeth II may be a valuable symbol for Britain, but as a Canadian figurehead she contributes little to the...
Efforts to destroy Colombia’s powerful cartels have only succeeded in fragmenting these once mammoth criminal organizations.
Medellín and Cali are Colombian cities that ring familiar for their association with two of the most powerful drug cartels that once provided the vast majority of cocaine across the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
However,...
The FARC rebels emerged from decades as minor insurgency into a major threat. But over the last ten years, a Colombian military offensive has beaten them along the war path and forced them to the negotiation table.
For nearly 50 years, a revolutionary movement has been pulsing through the heart of the Colombian Amazon. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s...
Though the near half century of conflict with Colombia’s longest running guerilla insurgency may soon come to an end, the FARC are just one player in a much larger field of violent actors.
A New Dialogue with a Long Past
After two months of negotiations between the Colombian Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the...
© Fairobserver ™ 2012 / Contact Us / Disclaimer / Terms of Use / Privacy Policy / Imprint | Powered by Windows Azure
