Order From Ashes

Aya Fatima Chamseddine has been exploring the ways that Lebanese youth get indoctrinated into armed militant groups—or trapped in dead-end jobs that encourage them to join dead-end sectarian political parties, or flee the country. Her path-breaking reports for Synaps brought the voices of her research subjects to life, shedding light on thorny policy questions with a narrative flair. What is the “...

The growing power of armed groups in the Middle East has raised an old question: how do militants recruit new constituents? Researchers have long debated the relative merits of ideology versus services as drivers of militant groups (an argument dubbed “greed vs. grievance”).   Developments in Iraq and Lebanon have given us a better understanding of the interplay of ideas and material rewards for m...

As tensions flare between Iran and the United States, TCF takes a look at Iran’s record in Iraq. Some critics of American policy say that Washington “lost Iraq,” and paint Tehran as a master puppeteer controlling every development in the country. Two scholars of Iran and Iraq examine the situation, and the picture they paint is decidedly more mixed. On this podcast they discuss Iran’s missteps, as...

Another season of elections is upon the Middle East. Egypt’s presidential election appeared anything but free, as President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi renewed his authoritarian mandate and squelched even the appearance of competition. In contrast, both Lebanon and Iraq are hosting freewheeling parliamentary campaigns, with elections coming in both countries in May. How much do these electoral contests s...

There seem to be fewer and fewer opportunities to build relationships between adversarial governments in the Middle East region. Even the faint promise that briefly flared during the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program has faded. Today, the Middle East has fewer communications channels and institutional forums than any other region in the world. Dalia Dassa Kaye and David Griffiths debate som...

Women’s rights advocate AlAnoud AlSharekh is a leader in the fight to end violence against women and promote women’s political participation in the Middle East. She has worked in Kuwait and throughout the region to promote women’s rights. In this podcast, AlSharekh talks with Hindy about the challenges and opportunities for those pushing for legal reform in the the region. AlSharekh is the foundin...

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units played a pivotal role in defeating the Islamic State and are positioned to reap a greater share of power in the upcoming May elections. Fanar Haddad argues that the militias — while newly popular — are an old phenomena. Iraq has struggled to consolidate state authority and grapple with militia politics at least since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. Today’s pro...

  There have been repeated, failed efforts over the decades to assemble some kind of Middle Eastern regional security force, something like an “Arab NATO.” Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, examines those initiatives all the way to the present. Grand initiatives are impossible, he argues, but small-scale, piecemeal, and tactical efforts to build cooperation among...

From America’s vantage point, Iran is a primary source of destabilizing intervention across the Middle East. But Iran, like other states, much of the time is pursuing its own interests and trying to manage what it perceives as security threats. Dina Esfandiary, a fellow at King’s College London, talks about the view from Tehran, where the nuclear deal isn’t perceived a windfall or a free lunch. Sh...

Why does the Middle East lag behind every other region in the world in security architecture? What is security architecture? The Century Foundation has launched the results of a multi-year research project, supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, that examines the Middle East’s current regional security environment at a time of perhaps unprecedented turmoil and instability. In this podc...

It’s been a year since the dramatic siege and fall of Aleppo, and another part of Syria suffers under blockade: Eastern Ghouta, on the flank of Damascus, where an estimated 400,000 civilians languish under arguably worse conditions than Aleppo experience, but with little international attention. Syrian activist Marcell Shehwaro was at the center of the popular uprising in Aleppo, and won a reputat...

Donald Trump's presidency has brought into stark relief questions about America's role and standing in the world. Author Suzy Hansen has spent a decade investigating America's complicated relationship with the Islamic world.   She unspools some of the delusions and denials that undergird America's troubling foreign policy, and asks how it's possible to be a progressive at home and in the world in...

More than five million Syrians, over one-fifth of the country’s prewar population, have left their homeland since the uprisings began in 2011. As President Bashar al-Assad claims victory and reconstruction talks ensue, many of these exiles, refugees, and émigrés see no possibilities for return. On November 30, The Century Foundation published a report on national identity and belonging among Syria...

The Kurdish drive for independence has foundered and Iraq has reestablished control over disputed areas. Ethnic strains remain, and political divisions are flaring within Iraq’s major communities.   How much control does Iran really have over Iraq? Can Iraqi prime minister Haidar al-Abadi maintain his balancing act, keeping Iran and the United States both on his side, and avoiding dangerous strong...

As Syria’s conflict settles decisively into a new phase, much of the fight has moved to diplomatic salons. Reconstruction and normalization are the biggest questions of the day. If Syria is to be rebuilt, who will pay? If Bashar al-Assad wins the civil war outright, will the foreign governments that opposed him now change tack and reestablish full diplomatic relations?   These questions frame the...

Egypt is enduring the harshest crackdown on civil liberties and political freedom in its modern history. As media outlets, civic institutions, and political parties buckle or vanish under inordinate pressure, Mada Masr has managed to maintain a small space for free expression, publishing critical and engaging content in Arabic and English.   Founder and editor Lina Attalah, speaking in Cairo, disc...

Has Iran secured a path to the Mediterranean, as some analysts and politicians claim? What is Hezbollah doing these days inside Syria? The Century Foundation’s foreign policy team considers some of the more alarming analysis of Hezbollah and Iran’s position.   Tehran and its Lebanese partner have achieved many of their aims in Syria, changing the strategic playing field — although some of the thre...

In TCF World’s inaugural podcast episode, Century Foundation fellows Thanassis Cambanis, Michael Wahid Hanna, Aron Lund, and Sam Heller try to put to rest some of the mythology and exaggerations that have grown up around the Islamic State (also known as ISIS). After three years of power in a self-declared caliphate, ISIS is on the run from Mosul, its capital in Iraq, and is on the verge of defeat...