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How the Arab Spring Defeated al-Qaeda - Fawaz Gerges, The Daily Beast

In his newly released papers, Osama bin Laden recognized the gravity of the loss of Muslim opinion, though he was powerless and sidelined to halt the decline....

American Drones Will Not Save Yemen - Joshua Foust, The Atlantic

An attempted terrorist attack this week has been bookended by U.S. drone strikes in Yemen. Do we know they're effective?...

Yemen a Lab for Obama's Way of War - James Traub, Foreign Policy

If drones are the future of counterterrorism, Yemen is the laboratory. The country looks like a much more propitious setting for the effort than Pakistan, where Obama has also step...

West Losing Terror War in Yemen - Rodger Shanahan, The Interpreter

Despite some tactical success, things are not going well in Yemen....

Obama's Drone War May Soon Reach a Tipping Point - James Joyner, TNR

When it comes to the rapidly expanding drone war, the possibility of blowback has always been a decidedly known unknown....

Al-Qaeda Is Nation-Building - Should We Be Worried? - Will McCants, FP

Al-Qaeda's gains warrant serious attention, but they do not represent a shift away from the group's "far enemy" strategy targeting the United States to a "near enemy" strategy targ...

Barack Obama, Warrior in Chief - Peter Bergen, New York Times

The president who won the Nobel Peace Prize less than nine months after his inauguration has turned out to be one of the most militarily aggressive American leaders in decades....

Turkey Has Reasons to Fear Arab Spring - Ersin Kalaycioglu, Bitter Lemons

When the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid led to an avalanche of protests in Tunisia in January 2011, nearly the entire Arab world began to rock with popular upri...

Is America's Drone War Working? - Greg Scoblete, The Compass

The pattern we see here should give us pause: the U.S. drove al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan. They set up shop in Pakistan. We have mostly driven them out of Pakistan. They have esta...

Arab States Redraw the Map of Alliances - Jamal Khashoggi, The National

While Syria's army cruelly and stupidly shells its own people and storms its cities, the so-called "axis of resistance" stretching from Tehran to Damascus is falling apart. Said ...

America's Expanding War in Yemen - Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Covert US strikes against alleged militants in Yemen have risen steeply during the Arab spring, and are currently at the same level as the CIA’s controversial drone campaign ...

Iran Branches Out in Search for Proxies - Jonathan Tobin, Commentary

The balance in power in Yemen as well as every other country where Iran seeks to exercise influence will be thrown to the winds once the regime goes nuclear....

Policy of Proxies Works to Deepen Iran's Isolation - The National

Iran’s truculent opacity about building a nuclear-weapons capability, along with the bomb attacks and these new reports, demonstrate just how badly Tehran’s decision-...

U.S. Failing to Regulate Drone Warfare - Richard Falk, Boston Review

The Obama administration’s increasing reliance on drones for targeted killings, especially in countries far removed from active combat (e.g. Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, Pakistan),...

Obama Keeps Yemen Journalist in Prison - Jeremy Scahill, The Nation

Unlike most journalists covering Al Qaeda, Shaye risked his life to travel to areas controlled by Al Qaeda and to interview its leaders. He also conducted several interviews with t...

Al-Qaeda, Saleh Cast Long Shadows Over 'New' Yemen - Tom Finn, Time

The raging battle between al-Qaeda and government security forces in southern Yemen in recent days is a reminder that the shadow of insurgency looms large over that country's eff...

Will Saleh's Exit Save Yemen from Chaos? - Washington Post

Now at last it appears that the Arab world’s poorest country - and strongest base for al-Qaeda - will rid itself of the man who has dominated it for 33 years....

Fewer Feel Safe in Several Arab Spring Countries - Gallup

Residents in several Arab countries affected by uprisings feel less safe now than they did before those uprisings took place. Egyptians feel the least secure, with the percentage...

Washington's War in Yemen Backfires - Jeremy Scahill, The Nation

Gen. Mohammed al-Sumali sits in the passenger seat of his armored Toyota Land Cruiser as it whizzes down the deserted highway connecting the Yemeni port city of Aden to Abyan provi...

Arab Spring May Benefit Israel - Jonathan Schanzer, Jerusalem Post

To be sure, the Great Arab Revolt could still produce regimes that threaten Israel. But not yet....

Yemen Regime Change in Doubt - Alexander Smoltczyk, Der Spiegel

It wasn't so much the black banner of al-Qaida that was fluttering in the wind above the old mosque. Far more sinister was the ease with which the dozens of fighters had been able...

'Arab Spring' a Media Concoction - Jay Bushinsky, Jerusalem Post

One of the most perplexing aspects of the "Arab Spring" is that it does not relate in any way to Israel. There has been no discussion among its activists of accepting Israel's ex...

Obama's Yemeni Snake Dance - Elise Labott, CNN

Outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrives in the United States this week for medical treatment from wounds he suffered during an assassination attempt last year, or ...

Arab Troops in Syria? Probably a Bad Idea - Michael Young, The National

A look at previous Arab military actions does not encourage the idea that armed intervention in Syria would go smoothly....

Al-Qaeda in Yemen a Threat to the Persian Gulf - Gulf News

Recent developments in Yemen are alarming and could pose a serious threat to the entire Gulf region if steps are not taken to contain them. This is a goal of great urgency as stabi...

Arab World Deserves Better U.S. Candidates - The National

Domestic issues and divisive rhetoric on world affairs will shape the U.S. presidential election, which starts in earnest today. But those of us without a vote deserve better....

2012: Year of Counter-Revolution? - Leon Hadar, Singapore Business Times

The outgoing 2011 is the Year of the Protester, according to Time Magazine. The insurgency targeting the ruling political elites, first in Tunisia, and then in Egypt, Libya, Syria,...

Keeping the Arab Spring Alive - Washington Post

A year later, it's clear that the Arab revolutions are different in some fundamental ways - and may not deserve the label of "spring."...

Political Islam Poised to Dominate Arab World - Peter Beaumont, Guardian

The Muslim Brotherhood's success in the first round of Egypt's elections has added to western fears of an Islamist future for the Middle East. But this does not necessarily mean...

Yemen Could Still End in Civil War - Tom Finn & Atiaf Al-Wazir, FP

As Egyptians storm back into Tahrir Square and Libyans round up their remaining war criminals, Yemenis are praying that a power-transfer deal signed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh...

Saleh Leaves Shattered Yemen Behind Him - Brian O'Neill, The National

Ali Abdullah Saleh may not be going out on his own terms, but he will be pleased that neither is he leaving on anyone else's....

In Arab World, It's Past vs. Present - Thomas Friedman, New York Times

This is the grand drama now being played out in the Arab world - the deeply sincere youth-led quest for liberty and the deeply rooted quests for sectarian, factional, class and t...

Yemen's Dangerous Power Vacuum - Bruce Riedel, The Daily Beast

Saleh is the fourth dictator to fall this year in the tsunami of change that has swept Arabia. His departure will inspire Syrians and Bahrainis. It may inspire young Saudis too...

With Saleh Gone, Yemen Can Turn a Page - The National

On Tuesday night, Ali Abdullah Saleh landed in Riyadh to sign a GCC plan under which he will finally cede power. Mr Saleh's death grip on the presidency has blocked any movement fo...

Yemen Crumbling From Within - Gulf News

There is nothing worse for a country than to be standing on the brink of the unknown as far as its future is concerned. Having such a state of affairs not only puts it in jeopardy ...

When Will the U.S. Drone War End? - Paul Miller, Washington Post

The next president of the United States needs to answer this question: When, and under what conditions, will the U.S. government stop using drones to bomb suspected terrorists aro...

Yemen's Benghazi Becomes Proving Ground - Faisal al Yafai, The National

Yemen's third-largest city, Taiz, is a proving ground, not only for the uprising, but for the notion of a unified Yemen....

Yemenis Hopeless About the Economy - Gallup

Yemenis see their economy at a near standstill after months of violence and political instability. Fewer than 1 in 10 Yemenis described local economic conditions as good in late Ju...

Jumping to Conclusions on the Arab Spring - Hussein Ibish, NOW Lebanon

The Middle East commentariat needs to check a growing pattern of premature handwringing and jumping to conclusions about the outcome of the ongoing Arab uprisings. Here are a few...

U.S. Drones Cause Anger in Yemen - Tom Finn & Noah Browning, Time

A wave of CIA drone strikes targeting al-Qaeda figures in Yemen is stoking widespread anger here that U.S. policy is cruel and misguided, prioritizing counterterrorism over a genu...

U.S. Must Engage Yemen Power Brokers - Jeb Boone, CS Monitor

In protest-racked Yemen, the embattled president’s hold over his country has deteriorated to such an extent that he’s euphemistically known as the “mayor” of only one half...

The Killing of Awlaki's 16-Year-Old Son - Glenn Greenwald, Salon

So here we have yet again one of the most consequential acts a government can take - killing one of its own citizens, in this case a teenage boy - and the government refuses even...

Saleh Fiddles While Yemen Burns - Jonathan Ruhe, National Interest

Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh is regularly accused of fiddling as the country burns. For months he has confronted larger protests than those in Egypt as well as military and...

Obama's Awlaki Memo Furthered Bush Legacy - Noah Feldman, Bloomberg

The leaking of the basic content (but not the text) of an Obama administration memo authorizing the drone strike that killed U.S. citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki therefore calls for seriou...

Yemen: Descending Into Despair - Jennifer Steil, World Policy Journal

SANA’A—It’s 2009. Dust from the recent bombings still hangs in the warm air of Sa’dah, a city 113 miles north of Yemen’s capital, just shy of the frontier with Saudi Ara...

Yemen

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Dangerous Mission Creep in Yemen

Military Solution Not Enough for a New Yemen

Mr. President, Please Don't Kill This Terrorist

America's Escalating Drone War in Yemen

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