By Bernard Haykel As I write this, gun battles are raging in Sanaa between military units loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and other units that have joined the opposition. Yemen now teeters on the verge of civil war. During the last nine months, a significant populist movement has formed and has demonstrated peacefully in Sanaa …

By Bernard Haykel PRINCETON: Saudi Arabia is widely perceived as leading the counter-revolution against the Arab Spring uprisings. In reality, the Kingdom’s response is centered, as its foreign and domestic policy has long been, on “stability.” The Saudis don’t want anti-Saudi forces, including such enemies as Iran and Al Qaeda, to increase their influence in the …

By Bernard Haykel Many pundits have rushed to the conclusion that the death of Osama Bin Laden and the uprisings of the “Arab spring” spell the end of Islamism and the dawn of a new era of democratic politics in the Arab world. The Arab spring revolutions have certainly proved Bin Laden wrong on a number …

By Bernard Haykel PRINCETON: The Arab world has entered the most dramatic period in its modern history. Oppressive regimes are being swept away, as Arab people finally take their fate into their own hands. The excitement of the moment, however, does not tell us what the future holds. At best, democracy is still off in the …