Smuggling goods across the border between Algeria and Tunisia has created a parallel economy for marginalized border populations. Law enforcement and smugglers alike must navigate these gray zones in state authority.
Despite the fiscal and economic challenges, President Tebboune has made it clear that Algeria will not seek a loan to ease the country’s socio-economic woes.
Divisions dating to the June 2017 split among Gulf Cooperation Council states have shaped the region’s contrasting approaches to political messaging and public health in a time of observance.
Palestinian grassroots organizations are leading the response to the coronavirus pandemic. Many factors will weigh on this new activism’s longevity.
Constitutional amendments would allow Algiers to participate in peacekeeping operations and send army units abroad.
Kuwait was known as the “Pearl of the Gulf” until a major crisis hit – its 1990-91 occupation by Iraq. Now a second crisis provides a golden opportunity for Kuwait to up its game and recover its status.
The Assad regime’s instinct to survive at any cost closed off opportunities for change in Syria, yet contentious politics was possible and is still taking place.
School closures have highlighted the digital gap between those who can access remote learning and those without the basic means to do so.
As Lebanon begins negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, the two sides will have to find the least painful path to adjustment in the country.
Security assistance from the West stands to play a critical role in Tunisia’s postauthoritarian transition to democracy.
While countries worldwide have announced lockdowns to block the coronavirus, North African governments are using the opportunity to further quell freedom of expression and advance their agendas. Will civil society stand their ground?
The kingdom’s national history, geopolitical competition, and future vision have all shaped its approach to the coronavirus. The Islamic holy month will underscore how long-standing traditions have changed.
To contain the coronavirus, Arab governments are mobilizing official Islamic institutions. The most pressing goal is to shut down sites of potential contagion as Ramadan approaches.
The new coronavirus is spreading into conflict-affected states. The pandemic and efforts to contain it are much more likely to aggravate and multiply conflicts than reduce or end them.
Despite ongoing public dissatisfaction with the government, Algerians, along with much of the global population, remain confined to their homes.
The proposal to list military businesses on the Egyptian Stock Exchange may founder due to issues of transparency, profitability, unfair competition, and legal ambiguity.
The integration of women in Arab armies has been inconsistent, slow, and socially and politically problematic. Nevertheless, this situation is gradually changing.
Since 2011, borderlands in the MENA region transformed into considerable sites of contested power by a plethora of actors.
Mahra in eastern Yemen has relied on a tribal code of conduct to escape the worst excesses of the country’s civil war. Localized forms of conflict management could help the rest of Yemen too.
The Iraqi-Syrian border near Qaim and Bukamal has become a magnet for conflict, as Iraqi and Syrian state actors compete with Iranian-backed nonstate militias for influence and power.