Another season of elections is upon the Middle East. Egypt’s presidential election appeared anything but free, as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi renewed his authoritarian mandate and squelched even the appearance of competition. In contrast, both Lebanon and Iraq are hosting freewheeling parliamentary campaigns, with elections coming in both countries in May.
How much do these electoral contests serve to bring more democracy? Status-quo players have learned how to navigate the electoral process without engaging in any significant reform or opening—whether outright authoritarians like Egypt’s Sisi, or more complex but profoundly undemocratic warlords and demagogues like many of the sectarian leaders in Iraq and Lebanon.
Our guests examine the connections between elections and democracy in this latest cycle of voting in the Middle East, in a global context where basic political propositions about the viability of electoral democracy are being called into question.
Participants include:
America’s Blind Spot on Palestine
Contesting Sectarian Identity in Iraq
[Arabic] LGBTQ Rights in Egypt
Kurdish Nationalism at an Impasse
[Arabic] Universal and Minority Rights in the Middle East
Universal and Minority Rights in the Middle East
The Caliphate’s Last Stand
Israel’s Global Security Industry
Syrian Voices
A New Progressive International?
Iran after the Broken Deal
The Difficulty of Reporting from Assad’s Syria
The Challenges of Defending Human Rights in U.S. Foreign Policy
The Overlapping Wars in Yemen—and U.S. Complicity in Catastrophe
Iraq’s New Government, and Rebuilding Syria
Basra Protests Shake Iraqi Status Quo
How Germany Is Integrating One Million Syrian Refugees
New thinking about American liberal foreign policy
How to Research Lebanon’s Youth Problem (and Other Questions)
Recruiting militants: Greed or grievance?
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