Upcoming Events
February 9, 2010
Israel, the Palestinians, and the One-State Agenda
Hussein Ibish, Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) and Executive Director of the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab-American Leadership
Recent Publications
Middle East Brief
The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Arab Countries: A Year-End Assessment
Nader Habibi
Middle East Brief
The Obama Presidency and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
Shai Feldman and Khalil Shikaki
Middle East Brief
The Curious Case of Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani
Naghmeh Sohrabi
In the News
Shai Feldman
August 18, 2009
Financial Times
Opinion Comment: The grand bargain that is the Mideast’s best hope
With Gilead Sher
June 4, 2009
WGBH Greater Boston
Analysis of President Obama's speech to the Muslim World
Video Available
Nader Habibi
January 26, 2010
Bloomberg
"Abu Dhabi, the most powerful of the emirates by virtue of about $45 billion in oil exports in 2009, may flex its muscles to try to break up the Iran-Dubai connection"
December 12, 2009
Gulf Times
Op-ed "The survival and success of Dubai crucial for Mideast"
Abdel Monem Said Aly
August 22, 2009
Asharq Alawsat
Op-Ed "The Policy of All General Policies"
August 18, 2009
The Washington Post
Op-Ed "Egypt's Essential Partnership"
Yezid Sayigh
November 3, 2009
Daily Star
"The security sector [in Lebanon] has not yet overcome the legacy of the 15-year Civil War that ended in 1990, nor the subsequent 15 years of Syrian domination"
Khalil Shikaki
October 5, 2009
IPS
"Palestinians are still not convinced that Obama is the real thing. They need to hear from him clearer positions on the border and on the future of East Jerusalem, that they will be properly addressed in the negotiations. If that were to happen, the leadership would be in a much better position vis-à-vis its domestic opponents."
August 12, 2009
Los Angeles Times
"Abbas realized how serious the challenges were and how fragmented and discredited his movement had become...He gave Fayyad the power he needed to restore his own credibility and control of the West Bank."
Crown Center
New Middle East Brief
The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on Arab Countries: A Year-End Assessment
Prof. Nader Habibi
The financial meltdown in the United States and Europe in early 2008 sparked a wave of crises around the world. Of the emerging-market regions, the Middle East is among the least integrated in the global financial market. Under normal circumstances, this would have protected the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region when the global economy sank into a severe financial crisis. In this case, however, MENA states have been affected by global economic conditions through fluctuations in the oil market, strong trade and investment relations with Europe, and large portfolios of financial and equity investments in advanced economies. All these factors increased the MENA economies’ vulnerability to the global economic downturn. This Middle East Brief explores how Arab countries have been affected by the global economic crisis that began in the summer of 2008 and traces the responses of the MENA governments to this crisis.
Prof. Nader Habibi is the Henry J. Leir Professor of the Economics of the Middle East at Brandeis University.