Asia

The Fletcher School’s Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies had the pleasure of hosting Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Representative to the United States, this past week. Her father, Sami Abdul Rahman, was a former deputy prime minister of the KRG and a leader in the Kurdish struggle against Saddam Hussein. Ms. […]

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has operated in Yemen since 2006, when it was called al-Qaeda in Yemen (AQY). While al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been dubbed “al-Qaeda’s greatest direct threat to the United States” and is responsible for numerous attempted attacks on the U.S., the al-Qaeda branch has only expanded in the […]

Seeking the highest office in the land, then-governor Ronald Reagan launched his candidacy for the Presidency by declaring that the United States of America “will become that shining city on a hill”, by “uphold(ing) the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality and, above all, responsible liberty.” Earlier this year Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke of […]

Israel has experienced tremendous natural gas findings over the past 6 years, and there is currently debate over its future as an exporter, with an expressed desire by the government to export 40% of its offshore finds. While contracts have been signed with Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, Israel has begun a campaign to encourage […]

Ashes of Hama by Raphael Lefevre provides a chronological description of the progression of the Syrian Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood). The book discusses the establishment of the Brotherhood and its evolution in Syrian politics. Lefevre does a fascinating job analyzing the Muslim Brotherhood institutionally and organizationally, provoking the reader to move beyond stereotypes about the Syrian […]

Time and again, experts have warned that oil and gas deposits will soon be depleted. Although the jury is still out on whose opinion regarding when this may happen will eventually prevail, the inevitability of this event is not in question. In any case, coal supplies will last humanity for centuries. It thus appears that […]

In mid-September, 2015, JMEPP Co-Editor-in-Chief Kristin Wagner interviewed Mahmoud Jibril, Former Prime Minister of Libya and president of the National Forces Alliance (تحالف القوى الوطنية) political party. Watch the discussion of Libya’s post-Gaddafi transition, reflections on leadership, and the role of external actors and foreign assistance in Libya during and since the revolution, below:

BY JESSICA ZUCKER Standing side-by-side in the White House rose garden on September 25, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that they had reached a “common understanding” to combat “cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property.” In a widely anticipated announcement, the two leaders also agreed to respond to requests for law enforcement […]

BY ORGA CADET This week, more than 150 heads of state will convene at the UN’s headquarters in New York for the 70th session of the General Assembly. The theme? “The United Nations at 70: the road ahead for peace, security and human rights.” One of the session’s objectives is to “draw lessons from the […]

BY PAUL CHEN This piece appeared in our 2015 print journal. You can order your copy here.  Seven-hundred million Chinese have grown out of poverty since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched economic reform programs in 1979. Harvard’s Tony Saich summarizes the reform efforts as introducing economic liberalization while retaining political control, a governance model that […]

The Central Provident Fund (CPF) has come under scrutiny in recent months. Former Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin attempted to allay fears about retirement adequacy by unveiling a bright path for young Singaporeans. According to him, a polytechnic graduate with a monthly salary of $2,200 until age 65 can purchase a four-room flat and still […]

BY ZACH MONTAGUE Close to a decade into Beijing’s global soft power campaign, not much about the plan has worked. As devised by former President Hu Jintao back in 2007, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has invested billions annually in initiatives worldwide designed to complement China’s economic and military power with renown for its […]