Latest in Opinion Highlight
Latest in Opinion
Egypt’s broken economy
By Mohsin Khan WASHINGTON, DC: Egyptians’ political aspirations have dominated the country’s public life since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak last year. Unfortunately, as those aspirations are addressed, the economy has entered a steep decline, jeopardizing one of the revolution’s main goals, namely improvement in Egyptians’ living standards and welfare. Indeed, the populist rhetoric of …
Leaders go AWOL
By Philip Whitfield CAIRO: Famously, Field Marshall Montgomery, who turned World War II on its head defeating the Desert Fox, Erwin Rommel in Egypt, described leadership as the capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character that inspires confidence. A study unearths the qualities. Three different types of …
Nightmare scenario: change in Syria may be detrimental to Iraq
By Hamid Alkifaey Syria and Iraq have been at odds for the last 50 years. Since the early 1960s, both countries have been ruled by two rival wings of the Baath Party. Both wings seized power in their respective countries via a military coup. This inter-party rivalry caused the two countries to be at each other’s …
New languages democratizing social media in the Middle East
By Nada Akl BEIRUT: On March 6 micro-blogging service Twitter announced the launch of its Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu versions. It all started with the grassroots #LetsTweetInArabic campaign by a handful of users who wanted Twitter to be available in more languages. While many communities are still disadvantaged when it comes to digital resources, translation …
Spillover from the Syrian uprising: three scenarios
By Akeel Abbas How the uprising in Syria will effect Iraq depends largely on how events unfold in Syria — and on whom you ask in Iraq. So far, one sure effect of the Syrian uprising on Iraq has been its “clarifying” quality on the nature of politics in the new Iraq. Prior to the uprising, …
Breakthrough leadership for the World Bank
By Jeffrey Sachs NEW YORK: Last month, I called for the World Bank to be led by a global development leader rather than a banker or political insider. “The Bank needs an accomplished professional who is ready to tackle the great challenges of sustainable development from day one,” I wrote. Now that US President Barack Obama …
A PALESTINIAN VIEW: Learning the lessons
By Ghassan Khatib Violence has always been a prominent characteristic of how Israel handles its relationships in the neighborhood. The state was created through violence wielded against the indigenous Palestinian population, resulting in the exile of 800,000 Palestinian refugees to surrounding countries. Afterwards, the use of force became a doctrine in Israel, used to intimidate its …
AN ISRAELI VIEW: Not only violence has failed
By Yossi Alpher In reviewing more than six decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a cost/benefit analysis of the two sides’ reliance on violence produces a very mixed record. Whereas Israel has generally triumphed in its conventional wars against neighboring Arab states, success in fighting non-state actors — primarily the Palestinians but also Hezbollah — has been much …
The key is youth participation
By Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni STRASBOURG: When the Secretary General of the United Nations recently said that failing to invest in the one billion young people of the world “is a false economy,” he certainly had more in mind than just a useful business idea. In fact, Mr. Ban Ki-moon fully acknowledged the legitimate demands of young people …
Forging Syria’s opposition
By Itamar Rabinovich TEL AVIV: Syria’s crisis is now a year old, with close to 10,000 people, mostly civilians, dead — and no end in sight. The country is at a stalemate: the opposition is unable to topple President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, and Assad’s forces are unable to quash the resistance. Both sides are adamant: the …
The summit of muted intentions
By Jorge G. Castañeda MEXICO CITY: The Summit of the Americas, which takes place roughly every three years, could be viewed as the sort of Latin American boondoggle that convenes heads of state for a few days, either south or north of the Rio Grande, to make endless speeches that lead nowhere. But every now and …
The ICC: Is Africa on trial?
By Rachael Akidi Is the International Criminal Court a valid court of last resort or another example of the West flexing its muscles in Africa? About two weeks ago, the court delivered its first verdict after nearly a decade of work. The conviction of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga, who was found guilty of using child soldiers, …
I kill, therefore I am
By Dominique Moisi PARIS: “One must fight both terrorists and the causes of terrorism with the same determination.” That formula, coined ten years ago in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, by leaders as diverse as Javier Solana, then Secretary General of NATO, and US President George W. Bush, is as valid …
Iraq and the unpredictable Syrian trajectory
By Safa A. Hussein Iraqis celebrated the “Arab spring” that changed the regimes of Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. But they are divided about the protests and uprisings in Bahrain and Syria. On the surface, it seems that this is merely a reflection of the sectarian divide in Iraq’s society and politics, or of external influence on …
Turkey, Syria, Iraq and the Kurdish issue
By Soli Ozel Syria, as always, is more than just Syria. The outcome of the deepening civil war or the violent fragmentation of the country will have a bearing on developments in the region, particularly for neighboring states. The strategies chosen by the regime to fight off the challenge against it have intensified sectarian divisions. A …
Football now a game of inclusion for Muslim women
By Jens Juul Petersen BEIRUT: Many female Muslim football players are celebrating a recent decision by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), football’s international governing body, to allow them to test a specially designed headscarf. The decision will be reviewed after a four-month test period. FIFA has prohibited headscarves since 2007, but this new decision, …
Commentary: Seeing the elephants in the room
By Richard Banks Two weeks ago, in London, Euromoney held its annual Bond Investor’s Congress. We gathered some 300 major investors in the global bond markets — as well as government debt management officials, bankers and analysts. Top of the discussion topic list was the — then pending — Greek debt deal. We asked our audience …
A new platform of hope for Arab youth
By Ramakant Vempati and Justin Sykes DOHA: The Arab world today is home to millions of young people with hopes, plans and the desire to work. With more than 100 million young people between 15 and 29, representing 30 percent of the total population, the region is facing an unprecedented “youth bulge”. This reality has led …
Crucifixion double-cross
By Philip Whitfield CAIRO: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely — Lord Acton in 1887 reflecting on Europe’s descent into despotism. Keeping stumm, only blurting out objections to mixed bathing beaches and gin and tonics, hid the Egyptian Islamists’ intentions: to erect gibbets to crucify killers and chopping blocks to amputate an arm and a …
The American recovery
By Mohamed A. El-Erian NEWPORT BEACH: The United States has gone through an arduous period of intervention and rehabilitation since the global financial crisis in 2008 sent it to the economic equivalent of the emergency room. It moved from the intensive-care unit to the recovery room and, just recently, was discharged from the hospital. The question …
The cracks in the BRICS
By Brahma Chellaney NEW DELHI: As it prepares to hold its latest annual summit in New Delhi on March 28-29, the BRICS grouping — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — remains a concept in search of a common identity and institutionalized cooperation. That is hardly surprising, given that these countries have very different political …
Libya is free if we believe it’s free
By Khalid Al-Badawi, Muhammad Al-Taip and Mohannad Awn TRIPOLI: As natives of Tripoli in our mid-twenties, we are part of the second generation of Libyans to have known no other authority than Moammar Qaddafi’s. When the Qaddafi regime collapsed, the world saw rebels fighting for control of the streets — while we felt chaos in our …
People live here
By Salil Shetty When I was in Egypt in June 2011, I met with Zamzam Mohamed Abdel Nabi, a 36-year-old mother of two, in Manshiyet Nasser slum, in Cairo. Living in a home in Al-Me’adessa Street under a rocky cliff classified by the government as imminently dangerous to life, she told me how she and her …
The advent of ‘informal’ Islamists
By Khalil al-Anani The gray-bearded sheikh has appealed to his presidential candidate counterparts to join him at a press conference to be held in his regular mosque. While his contenders eluded, the sheikh stood amid hundreds of his followers and supporters to protest and chant against the referral of a group of civilians to the military …
Foreign policy forgotten
By Christopher R. Hill DENVER: For many foreign audiences, the United States’ primary elections for the 2012 presidential vote — which will, alas, continue to rage into the summer — must be a frightening display of what Americans and their leaders do not know about foreign policy. Debate after debate reveals the fact that none of …
The Greek tragedy, act II
By Luigi Zingales CHICAGO: A Greek tragedy is typically composed of three acts. The first sets the scene. It is only with the second that the plot reaches its climax. For current-day Greece, the imposition of “voluntary” losses on the country’s private creditors represents just the end of the beginning. The real tragedy has still to …
City water for all
By Peter Brabeck-Letmathe and Asit K. Biswas VEVEY, SWITZERLAND: How many people in the world’s towns and cities can drink the water in their tap without risking their health? The answer is probably impossible to determine. Indeed, the United Nations uses the term “improved” sources of water to describe what is supplied in many urban areas …
New broom sweeps vacuum cleaner
By Philip Whitfield CAIRO: Now that the lesser leagues are sorted, it’s time for the big boys to make hay. As Charles de Gaulle put it: In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant. The nation’s political wanabes are clamoring. Who’d wanabe big? As of now, 800 aspirants are carting around the …
Iraqi Libya
By Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou GENEVA: As post-revolution Libya looks ahead, Iraq looms as a perilous example. After 42 years of dictatorship, Libya, like Iraq in 2003 after the fall of Saddam Hussein, needs more than wishful thinking to become a vibrant democracy. It needs organized state-building in Tripoli — and realistic policymaking in Western capitals. Successful …
Captured Europe
By Daron Acemoğlu WASHINGTON, DC: Europe’s policy elite — the people who call the shots at the national and eurozone level — are in serious trouble. They have mismanaged their way into a deep crisis, betraying all of the lofty promises of unity and prosperity issued when the euro was created. The currency union may survive, …