Al Nakhlah Journal on Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization

15/07/2014

As Iran and Western powers work on the last details of a potential nuclear deal, a useful insight into the usefulness and limitations of secret negotiations

This paper aims to show the role that secret back-channels can play in negotiations. After a theoretical analysis of back-channel negotiations, it will examine what factors contribute to the failur...

16/04/2014

What role do patrons, and the US in particular, play in the democratization of Arab states? Elissar Harati reviews a key contribution to the argument that, in fact, they prevent bottom-up democratization and political liberalization.

The entrenchment of authoritarianism in the Arab world is usually attributed to cultural, religious, or economic factors. Most experts look to the political economy of rentier states, partic...

04/04/2014

His Highness The Aga Khan reflects on the challenges of developing a cosmopolitan and pluralistic society in the information age. “…to remain empathetically open to the Other in a diversifyi...

20/03/2014

During the EPIIC Conference on the Future of the Middle East and North Africa at Tufts University, co-editor Jack Berger sat down with Inger Andersen, the Vice President of the Middle East and Nort...

17/01/2014

Dalia Ziada, an influential Egyptian human and women’s rights advocate, argues that while the ouster of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi by the military may have been a point of regression ...

24/11/2013

American inconsistent policy has only exacerbated the problems of Egypt’s transition and adversely affected US interests. The US stands a much better chance of serving its interests by articulating...

18/11/2013

While focus on the Arab uprisings centers on the democratic setbacks that have followed the bursts of change in Egypt, Tunisia, and Syria – among other countries – the current discussion largely mi...

03/06/2013

A government led by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) provides a unique opportunity for the promotion of women's rights in Egypt. To mark a successful chapter in the struggle for greater rights for women...

03/06/2013

Demystifying the Green Revolution would illuminate the actual impact of the uprising on Western-Iranian relations, which was limited. Joel Hernandez, Fletcher MALD 2013, is a first-year Master’s st...

03/06/2013

What accounts for the judicial similarities on capital punishment between the United States and Saudi Arabia? Julia Brooks is a first-year master's candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplo...

03/06/2013

While Iraq’s Sunni and Shi’a were hardly on equal footing in 1920, it was not inevitable that the inequality would persist. Failed political and social institutions are to be blamed. Natalie Bowlus...

03/06/2013

Is Pakistan undergoing an armed conflict as defined by International Humanitarian Law and are the CIA-operated drone attacks in compliance with the legal regime? Neha Ansari, Fletcher MALD 2013, is...

31/05/2013

Is Central Asia at risk of falling under the control of anti-Western Islamists, or are these authoritarian regimes exploiting the War on Terror to garner international support for further repressio...

30/05/2013

This analysis argues that internal conditions in Iran – specifically the marginalization of ethnic and religious minorities, the authoritarian nature of the regime, and its hostility to any ideolog...

30/05/2013

Despite the deterioration of U.S.-Egyptian relations following the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the U.S. maintains significant strategic interests in Egypt that necessitate the continuation of a major...