Jun 27, 2012

Rough start for Egyptian democracy

It took longer than anticipated, but there is finally a victor in Egypt’s first truly competitive presidential elections. Mr. Mohamed Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, prevailed over former Gen. Ahmed Shafik. The outcome is symbolic on many levels, but most significantly because ...

Jun 24, 2012

Taming the danger from Europe

The leaders of the Group of 20 major economies, at their June 18-19 summit in Los Gabos, Mexico, adopted a declaration emphasizing the need to resolve the European financial crisis, among other things. The declaration in part said that “Euro Area members of the ...

Jun 21, 2012

Tepid vote for Europe in Greece

Greece and Europe have gained some breathing room — but not much — after Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Greece. A victory by the conservative New Democracy (ND) party offers hope that the country will support a government that backs the existing austerity program, permitting ...

May 9, 2012

Europe turns on its leaders

It was a bitter weekend for Europe. In elections across the continent, voters expressed displeasure with their political leaders. The results were no surprise and reflected deep concern about economic policy and, especially, the impact of the austerity measures that have been adopted to ...

Feb 2, 2012

Demilitarizing Muslim politics

by Shahid Javed Burki

Can Muslim governments free themselves from their countries’ powerful militaries and establish civilian control comparable to that found in liberal democracies? This question is now paramount in countries as disparate as Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey. To predict how this struggle will play out, it ...

Jan 17, 2012

The Syrian charade

There have been 300 days of protest against the government of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad. They have made no dent in the government’s resolve. Even the presence of an Arab League observer group has had no impact on Damascus’s readiness to bring all its ...

Jan 3, 2012

Unnerving year for Northeast Asia

While 2011 was “the great unraveling,” 2012 holds out the prospect of equally consequential changes for Asia, but the inflection points are visible well ahead of time. The most notable feature of the calendar will be elections that are scheduled to be held throughout ...

Dec 17, 2010

Troubling results in Egypt

In Egypt’s parliamentary elections, held Nov. 28 and Dec. 5, the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won an overwhelming majority of seats. That victory was ordained when the two main opposition parties boycotted the second round of voting after alleging fraud in the first ...