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The Food Price Crisis in the Arab Countries: Short Term Responses to a Lasting Challenge
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June 23, 2008
As food prices continue to rise across the Middle East, Arab governments have tempered public anger by increasing wages and subsidies. But their approach is not sustainable without raising taxes. In Food Price Crisis in the Arab Countries: Short Term Responses to a Lasting Challenge Ibrahim Saif emphasizes long-term initiatives that revise agricultural policies, expand social safety nets, and curb excessive energy consumption. |
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Turkey’s New Middle East Policy and its Domestic Context
30/06/2008
 “After many decades of passivity and neglect toward the Middle East, Turkey is once again becoming an active player in the region,” said Dr. Omer Taspinar at a seminar hosted by the Carnegie Middle East Center and attended by Turkey’s ambassador to Lebanon, Serdar Kiliç, as well as the Ambassador of Pakistan, Nawabzada Aminullah Raisani and other members of the diplomatic, policy and research communities. Dr. Taspinar is the Director of the Turkey Program at Brookings Institute and Professor at the US National Defense University in Washington DC.
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Food Crisis in the Arab World
26/06/2008
 Arab governments must take action to avoid social unrest across the Arab world due to the food-price crisis, which they sought to address and temper public anger at rising food prices by increasing wages and subsidies, but their approach is not sustainable without raising taxes, maintained Carnegie Middle East Center economist Ibrahim Saif and expert Kamal Hamdan at a seminar held at the Press Club.
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“How to Enhance the Lebanese National Dialogue? Lessons learnt from South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Nepal”
13/06/2008
 The Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut hosted a seminar led by Dr. Hannes Siebert, an international negotiations advisor who has worked in many of the world’s most conflict ridden societies. The seminar included members of political groups, civil society, and the diplomatic community. In his seminar, Siebert discussed three models for conflict resolution as implemented in South Africa, Sri Lanka and Nepal which he used in his approach to the on-going political crisis in Lebanon.
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Need for Inter-Arab Cooperation on Policy Research
27/05/2008
 In a meeting of the Global Development Network (GDN) in Dubai, UAE, Paul Salem, Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, underlined the need for research centers in the MENA region to have a louder voice and more visible presence in influencing agenda-setting and policy-decision-making at the regional level.
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Capitalizing on Euro-Syrian Relations: From Tensions to Cooperation
25/05/2008
 Carnegie Middle East Center Visiting Scholar Muriel Asseburg participated in a Quarterly EuroMeSCo Seminar in Damascus. Asseburg addressed the session on “Regional challenges and their impact on EU-Syrian relations” by sketching out the current regional environment, ongoing armed conflict, enormous numbers of refugees and displaced people, deep societal and political polarization as well as state weakness, fragility or failure.
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Lebanon Takes Steps to End Political Stalemate
21/05/2008
 The pro-western government in Lebanon has struck a deal with the opposition, 18 months after the Hezbollah led-leadership resigned from the cabinet. Paul Salem, the director of the Carnegie Endowment's Middle East Center in Beruit, talks with Michele Norris about key parts of the deal.
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Arab Sovereign Wealth Funds: Political Exposure and Risk Management
11/03/2008
 The Carnegie Middle East Center (CMEC) hosted a workshop chaired by Dr. Sven Behrendt, Associate Scholar and lead researcher, on the political exposure that Arab Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are currently facing in Europe and the United States. The workshop was also designed to identify useful risk mitigating strategies for Arab governments to apply.
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More News and Events |
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Hope in the Levant
Paul Salem, Marina Ottaway
27/05/2008
 The simultaneous announcement of an agreement between government and opposition in Lebanon and of the start of indirect talks between Israel and Syria in Turkey holds the possibility of a more stable and peaceful future for the region. Marina Ottaway and Paul Salem argue that while the latest developments run counter to current U.S. policy, it may have a positive influence on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
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Hizbullah Attempts a Coup
Paul Salem
12/05/2008
 After 25 years of focusing on resistance against Israel, and after repeated assurances by party leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah that Hizbullah would never use its arms domestically, Hizbullah launched a series of armed assaults in Beirut and plunged parts of the country into militia and sectarian confrontations reminiscent of the 1975-1990 Civil War.
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Algeria Under Bouteflika: Civil Strife and National Reconciliation
Rachid Tlemçani
30/03/2008
 The Algerian government’s refusal to address the legacy of its violent civil war threatens its long-term stability, argues a new paper from the Carnegie Endowment. In Algeria Under Bouteflika: Civil Strife and National Reconciliation, Algerian expert Rachid Tlemçani examines President Bouteflika's decision not to seek public input or dialogue when developing his national reconciliation plan. Tlemçani argues that this "haste merely postpones a crisis that is likely to break out in the future" as grievances remain unresolved.
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Arab Sovereign Wealth Funds: Time to Develop a Policy
Sven Behrendt
24/03/2008
 The role of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), large state-owned investment vehicles, in the global financial architecture is beginning to top the political agenda in Europe and the United States. Europeans and Americans have voiced their concerns about the economic and political influence that foreign governments could exercise through their SWFs.
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The Way to Exit from Lebanon’s Morass
Paul Salem
11/03/2008
 In March 11’s edition of The Daily Star, Carnegie Middle East Center Director Paul Salem outlines steps Lebanon and the international community should take to contend with the ongoing presidential election crisis, tensions between Israel and Hizbullah, and Syrian obstructionism. As a first step, Salem argues that the parliament should meet and elect a president without delay; the newly elected president can then preside over the formation of a national unity government.
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On Tents, Fast Trains and the Greater Mediterranean: Franco-Maghrebi Relations
Larbi Sadiki
05/03/2008
 Democracy promotion is, at least for now, dead. Long live the market! This seems to be the unwritten rule of engagement increasingly informing Franco and Euro-Maghrebi relations. ‘Smithean’ impulses of wealth-making as a potential peace-builder amongst Euro-Med nations appear to be driving Sarkozy’s vision for consolidating France’s role in this part of the Arab World. Maghrebi statesmen are being receptive for their own reasons.
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Rising Sunni Islamist Movements in Lebanon Risk Radicalization
Omayma Abdel-Latif
01/02/2008
 In Carnegie Middle East Center’s paper, Omayma Abdel-Latif identifies leading traditional Islamist and Salafist movements in Lebanon, key leaders, and their relationships with each other and external actors, including the United States, Hizbollah, Syria, and Iran. Sunni Islamist movements include those sociopolitical movements that embrace Islam as the only framework for social and political change and mobilization.
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More Commentary and Analysis |
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|  Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: Restoring Credibility 
U.S. democracy promotion efforts in the Middle East should focus on realistic political reform goals that correspond both to regional realities and the limited degree of actual U.S. influence. In her new report, Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: Restoring Credibility, Marina Ottaway identifies the most pressing issue facing Arab countries as the need for political systems that can contend with evolving socio-economic realities and provide open participation to political opposition. | |  Is a League of Democracies a Good Idea?
Influential policy experts on both sides of the U.S. political aisle are proposing a “League of Democracies” as a way for the next administration to restore the credibility of U.S. foreign policy priorities and put democracy promotion efforts back on track. However, in a policy brief, Is a League of Democracies a Good Idea?, Thomas Carothers argues that the proposal rests on a false assumption that democracies share sufficient common interests to work effectively together on a wide range of global issues.
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|  June Arab Reform Bulletin 
• An interview with Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey on internet protest activities
• rifts emerging in Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood
• why most Arab human rights commissions are ineffective
• the back story behind Morocco's new Movement for All Democrats
Plus ongoing reader debates about economic reform and trickle down, Morocco's electoral system, news developments from across the region, debates in the Arab media and new publications.
| |  Carnegie Arabic Web Portal - نافذة كارنيغي للشرق الأوسط
Carnegie’s Arabic-language resource is designed to reach new audiences and broaden access to Carnegie’s growing volume of Arabic publications.
| |  Arab Political Systems
Provides easily accessible baseline information about the political systems of Arab countries, and is frequently updated to provide information about reforms being introduced. | | |
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 Foreign Policy Magazine |
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