Tag Archives: Arab Spring

There is little hope for peace in much of West Asia five years after the advent of Arab Spring. Every country is going through its own doomsday, reflected everyday with the uncountable number of innocent deaths.

To hear Saudi leaders tell it, the kingdom is under constant threat from Iran. But graver threats of their own making lurk at home. Opinion-makers in Saudi Arabia itself have a different narrative about the growing instability in the region. Here is what they argue.

What appears to be a peaceful transference of presidential power in Nigeria -- unprecedented in the country's history -- has global significance in the fight against religious extremism.

A drought in Syria that was exacerbated by climate change helped fuel the unrest that led to the country's civil war.

A stable international order requires a hegemonic power or powers to contain conflicts. As the West has turned inwards, emerging regional powers have tried to fill the vacuum and conflicts have festered, says George Soros.

One does not have to be a revolutionary poet like Faiz Ahmad Faiz to look at events in the Muslim world and lament at being deceived by the promise of a false dawn — as he memorably did at the time of Indian independence, “Yeh woh sehar to nahin jiski arzoo le kar, chale the yaar ke mil jayegee kabhi …

Three small but grim pieces were added recently to the great Arab jigsaw puzzle — and none of them should surprise us. Last week, an Egyptian court in Alexandria sentenced 14 women to 11-year prison terms for carrying anti-government banners at a demonstration last July.   In Dubai, an American was charged with violating Internet laws. Al Jazeera reported that he …