Author Archive

Saudi Arabia is surrounded by some of the most unstable and dangerous countries in the Middle East, as the Kingdom shares a 814-kilometer boundary with Iraq, 1,458-kilometer boundary with Yemen, 2,510-kilometer coastline on the Gulf and the Red Sea with Iran — which is only a five-minute jet fighter flight away. So, Saudi...
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Book Discussion of Murder in the Name of Honour by Rana Husseini (Winter 2009/2010, at the Soros Foundation in New York City). Rana Husseini is a senior reporter at the Jordan Times. Honor killing is an international phenomena happening mainly in impoverished and uneducated areas. In most of the cases, the crime of honor killing...
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Iran is trying to become the indispensable power in the region,1 but has not been able to translate its geopolitical assets — from being at crossroads between the Caspian, the Gulf, the Arab world and the subcontinent2 — into political advantages leading to regional hegemony. The Iranian nuclear program unites most countries in the...
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Turkey enjoys a privileged geographical position, at crossroads between South-East Asia, Europe and the Middle East, which she has been able over the past decade to translate into geopolitical advantages1. In regards to her economy, Turkey is the world’s seventeenth largest economy, Europe’s sixth largest economy2, and from 2005 to 2008 she doubled her trade...
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Human Rights violations: A recent report by Yemeni human rights organizations presented to the United Nations Committee Against Torture reveals serious human rights violations by the Yemeni National Security Agency against Yemeni jurists and human rights activists. Moreover, Amnesty International recently reported police brutality and torture of detainees held in connection with politically motivated...
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On January 12, the Palestinian-owned daily Al-Quds al-Arabi carried the following lead editorial (original source in Arabic, translated into English by MidEastWire): “The treatment of Muslims in American airports” The United States of America has adopted stricter security measures in its airports and border passageways, following the uncovering of the failed attempt to detonate a civilian...
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Until 1990, Yemen was a divided country between the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen). The two states unified in 1990 after decades of conflict. However, as of today, Yemen faces three separate crises: - the newly intensified Huthis rebellion in the north - the increasingly violent secession...
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Since accessing power in 2003, the Justice and Development party (AKP – an Islamist party) has gained tremendous control over the media in Turkey. In 2003, one third of the media were controlled by “friends” of the AKP party. Today, it is over half of them. Nevertheless, this is not enough for the AKP...
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