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Possible Future of The Arab Spring During the Cold War, conflicts in the Middle East tended to be localized. Despite the Arab-Israeli Wars and inter-Arab rivalries, the region as a whole, from Morocco to Iran, remained relatively stable. This changed on December 17, 2010 in Tunisia, when Mohamed Bouazizi committed suicide ...
... authority will likely be chaotic and unpredictable, the authors surmised. Whether this scenario is true or not, a large number of experts and foreign policy scholars opined on the Obama Administration’s handling of foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, as lacking leverage, resolve, and long-haul strategy. Moreover, President Obama’s complex relationship with the GOP in Congress compounds his task of implementing the Affordable Care Act. Will America, following decades of foreign interventions ...
... and settling the conflict peacefully through negotiations. The first option is that of preventive diplomacy, and it is no longer an option for Syria. For decades, the so called international community has been calmly eyeing the despotic regimes in the Middle East, aware of the grapes of wrath maturing, but has not stirred a finger to prevent conflict. This shows their real “concern” for democracy. They only started to come to their senses with the advent of the “Arab spring.” ...
According to European and Russian experts on the Middle East, use of force against Syria is fraught with dire consequences. On September 23, Russian International Affairs Council held a meeting of analysts from European Council of Foreign Relations and Russian Middle East experts. According to Daniel ...
Two-and-a-half-years into the Syrian conflict, the balance of power in the embattled state continues to evolve between the government of Bashar al-Assad and the opposition groups, composed of secularists, islamists, and Al Qaeda-trained jihadists. Since the beginning of the Damascus spring in March 2011, more than 100,000 Syrians fell victim to brutal violence, and more than 2 million fled the country. Western powers and the Arab world have, by and large, refrained from getting their feet entangled...
In light of the recent developments in Syria and the apparently imminent US military intervention, the blog will take a short break from its relatively academic style and its thematic focus in order to brainstorm and share some thoughts on the broader picture of what is happening in the geopolitical arena of the region. Dangerous Double Standards Bashar al-Assad has reportedly used chemical weapons to attack, essentially, his own people. The first, logically obvious question is why would Assad essentially...
... Member Vitaly Naumkin , Director of the RAS Institute for Oriental Studies, to talk about the probability of a military strike and its likely consequences. The media is increasingly anxious that a military attack on Syria may be the harbinger of a big Middle Eastern war. How would you assess the scale of the crisis, and what are your predictions for further developments? The forecast should be split into two portions. The first part concerns the situation around Syria in terms of the possibility of ...
... Maxim Bratersky , Head of the World Politics Department at the Higher School of Economics, about the U.S. position on Syria and the prospects for an attack on the country. Some pundits expect the Syria situation to escalate into a large-scale war in the Middle East. How would you assess the dimensions of the crisis? The crisis is clearly quite apparent. However, I would disagree with the experts you cite for two reasons. First, the civil war in Syria has been going on for over two years, and U.S. interference ...
In early 2011, the world witnessed a hitherto unseen and largely unexpected course of events in the Middle East. Following the eruption of protests ignited by Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Tunis, the entrenched dictatorships of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen collapsed in domino fashion. Whereas Tunisia and Libya have made considerable ...
One year after the utter failure of the U.S.-Russia “Reset,” the relationship between the two countries is gradually nearing its nadir. Beginning with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s message of encouragement to Russia’s opposition movement and democracy scholar Michael McFaul’s nomination as U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, the climate in U.S.-Russia relations started to deteriorate leading to USAID’s closure, open confrontation on the Syrian issue, and exchange...
| U.S. wants to establish partnership relations with Russia on condition that it meets the U.S. requirements |
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| U.S. wants to deter Russia’s military and political activity |
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| U.S. wants to dissolve Russia |
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| U.S. wants to establish alliance relations with Russia under the US conditions to rival China |
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