Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
1 to 10 of about 13
In this Carnegie Paper, "Illusive Reform: Jordan's Stubborn Stability," Julia Choucair argues that Jordan's stability is best maintained through political reform. She contends that the United States and Europe, for short to medium-term reasons, have shied away from urging Jordan to undertake further reform, which would be in everyone's long-term interests.
Recent electoral successes by Islamist parties throughout the Arab world have shown those movements to be viable political opposition to many undemocratic regimes. Most analyses examine those movements only within their individual domestic political environments. Yet equally important is the impact of broader, regional issues on domestic politics and the resulting tensions with ruling regimes.
Nathan Brown examines how Jordan’s Islamic movement gained political legitimacy, but repackaged its strong beliefs in legal organizations that have a broad and deep reach into Jordanian society. As a consequence, the Jordanian regime and Islamic movement now find themselves debating whether or not this peaceful model is sustainable, and if confrontation is inevitable.
Political reform in the Arab world is a top priority in U.S. foreign policy and Morocco is often held up as an example of a country successfully moving toward democracy under the guidance of an enlightened monarch. The threat to a democratic transition lead by the Islamist PJD Party is not that it is too radical, but that it may be co-opted by the monarch.
Taliban insurgents and their Al Qaeda allies, once thought defeated in Afghanistan, are regaining strength. Frederic Grare examines the evolution of the situation in Afghanistan and takes a look at Afghanistan through Pakistan's eyes. In addition, Grare provides policy recommendations for regional relations in a post-U.S. Afghanistan.
The regime of Bashar al-Asad is under pressure from Syrian citizens who want a different political system and from the United States, which wants Syria to change its regional policy. As a result, it is impossible to separate completely a domestic process of political reform from the external pressures.
Recent years have witnessed unprecedented political dynamism in Saudi Arabia. Two factors—international and domestic reform demands—have injected new elements of dynamism and openness into Saudi Arabia’s political reality. They have also generated sufficient incentives for the government to embark on the road of reform.
In view of the recent victory by Hamas in Palestine and the electoral success of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, understanding the thinking of Islamist movements is more important than ever. Experts are trying to move beyond stark views of the Islamist challenge as either a democratizing force or an extreme threat to democracy, to present a nuanced view of the position of Islamist parties.