Middle East
Middle East
Fair Observer provides inclusive, insightful and contextual analysis of the Middle East with its manifold cultures and civilizations.
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360° Analysis / Bahrain / Egypt / Israel / Pakistan / Politics / United States / US elections / Middle East / Africa / AsiaMany approach the US presidential elections seeking to choose between the "lesser of two evils". But does voting the passive voice have serious implications for American foreign policy in the Arab and Muslim world? For liberal America, it is becoming harder and harder to sell the almost painfully trite and stale cliché that one must pick “the lesser of two evils.” The simple fact is that, for advocates of human rights and equality, a vote for Barack Obama requires a number of back-peddling explanations and heartfelt apologies, not least of which regarding the broader Arab and Muslim world. In a widely-praised address from Cairo in 2009, Obama stated that the...
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360° Analysis / Israel / Palestine / Politics / United States / US elections / Middle EastShould Obama win re-election, the United States is likely to embark upon a new serious strategy to achieve peace in the Middle East. Rajai Masri illustrates a possible scenario to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Despite all appearances to the contrary, should Barack Obama get re-elected for a second term as president, the United States in tandem with Europe, is likely to embark upon a new serious initiative to impose a "a peaceful solution" to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.For some time, the European Union (EU) has appeared to have developed a consensus and a clear vision, or rather a blueprint to solve the so-called Middle East crisis. Indeed, the EU has long waited for...
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360° Analysis / Arab / Israel / Palestine / Politics / Middle EastChoosing the route of negotiating on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative with an Arab world undergoing change, would prove to be a sensible strategy for Israel. For better or worse, the public discourse in Israel has recently focused exclusively on the nuclearization of Iran. However, precisely in light of the upheavals in the Arab world, it is now worth reexamining the relevance of the Arab Peace Initiative, which surfaced in Beirut in 2002 and was reaffirmed at subsequent Arab summits, most recently six months ago in Baghdad. The earthquake that shook the region, from the Maghreb to Yemen, from Libya through Egypt to Syria, obligates Israel to study the arena carefully while proceeding...
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360° Analysis / Iraq / Jordan / Politics / Syria / Middle EastBy Siraj DavisSiraj Davis compares the lives of Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan in a report, which ultimately indicates that the UNHCR and IOM still have a lot of work to do. Download the full report here. Background The following is an executive summary from a report involving interviews with Iraqi refugees in Jaramana, Syria and Hashemi Shemali, Jordan. It is not inundated with data but instead presents personal insight into the real-life stories behind the didactic statistics that are normally accumulated to depict lives of refugees. The investigation provides a few personal accounts of the ineffable tragedy Iraqi refugees have endured while simultaneously providing a conduit for all refugees...
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As the Middle East and North Africa attempts to industrialize and modernize its economies, there are significant energy challenges ahead. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has some of the largest energy reserves in the world. Yet, while the region is attempting to industrialize and modernize its economies, there are key energy challenges ahead. The most significant regional challenge concerns natural gas, namely, how to produce and utilize it more efficiently. However, this focus must be broadened and considered against the background of a dynamic global environment, that of increasing economic competition from Asia, the US natural gas boom and the global economic crisis, all...
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United States / Europe / 360° Context / Middle East / Americas / Africa / Global Security / Asia / Oceania / Environment & SustainabilityNatural resources are becoming the new powerful key to defining geopolitics and securing economic and strategic interests. Background Global power shifts in the post Cold-War era have characteristically moved away from traditional military rivalries to economic expansion and prowess. The paradigm, in part fuelled by technological advances and the ferocious scale of globalization in recent decades, has highlighted the strategic advantages lent in particular by natural resources. Historically linked to prolonged conflicts and civil wars in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia, natural resources such as hydrocarbons, gold, uranium, diamonds, copper, zinc and rare earth minerals are now...
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360° Analysis / Afghanistan / Iran / Israel / Libya / obama / Pakistan / Politics / Romney / United States / Middle EastIn the presidential campaign, American foreign policy towards the Middle East has overshadowed other regions by far – underlining considerable differences between each candidate’s approach to this part of the world. Issues in the Middle East with global significance are developing by the day. Recent events, like the violent protests in Libya and Egypt, Iran’s growing nuclear program and massacres in Syria have brought the US presidential candidates’ respective foreign policies, a fringe issue thus far in the 2012 election, to the forefront. In the presidential campaign and debate American foreign policy towards the Middle East has overshadowed other regions by far....
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Politics / United States / Europe / Focus Article / Middle East / Americas / Africa / Asia / OceaniaFair Observer's five best articles for October. This is the season of festivals. Eid al-Adha was just celebrated, Halloween is today and Deepavali follows soon thereafter. In the northeast of the US where our hyper kinetic Editor-in-Chief is on tour, Hurricane Sandy has departed after devastating the daily lives of many millions. In Munich it is already snowing in October and winter seems to be setting in early in the northern hemisphere this year. Yet, despite all of nature’s power, the most important event on everyone’s mind is the US election. Two candidates, both Harvard graduates, are engaged in a bitter slugfest and the results are too close to call. A large section of...
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360° Analysis / Iran / Israel / Palestine / Politics / Saudi Arabia / Syria / United States / Middle EastAs the US presidential election looms, David Holdridge argues that Washington must make some fundamental changes if it is to be relevant to the new global dynamic, particularly in the Middle East. For the most part, those of us who were on the front lines of American foreign policy were excluded from the committee hearings and round tables where policy was drawn up. With the advent of new media, that is slowly changing. Soldiers and humanitarian workers are getting a voice. They are not sequestered in policy conclaves nor are they the dog or pony for those quick views usually afforded to the architects of the policy. Rather, they are the ones who have far too often lived the disappointment...