In The News

Foreign Policy Challenges for the New US President – Part I

Imtiaz Ali October 31, 2008
States that ignore the aspirations of their people and neglect festering pockets of poverty, paying little heed to the need for education, health, jobs or fair wages, years later may discover a changed country, with new motivations and goals. This YaleGlobal series explores how poverty and demography can undermine democratic governments and bring security challenges not only to the government in...

Gulf to the US: Thanks, But No Thanks

Dilip Hiro October 22, 2008
Some financial analysts anticipated the cash-rich sovereign wealth funds of the Middle East to swoop down on giants in the financial and industrial world struggling with a global credit crisis – a notion arousing both fear and hope throughout Europe and the US. But such rescue investments have not materialized, explains author and Middle East analyst Dilip Hiro. Hiro reports that operations of...

Generation Faithful

Michael Slackman October 6, 2008
The city of Dubai is has been in a storm of transformation in recent years, going from oil- and gas-based growth to a real estate, trade and financial hub in the Middle East, meshing a population consisting of 80 percent emigrants from more than 200 ethnicities. Such tremendous growth and diversity have led to a "socially freewheeling yet unmistakably Muslim state" that raises...

Turkish Soap Star Sparks Divorces in Arab World

October 2, 2008
A male lead in a Turkish television show, “Noor,” has demonstrated that husbands can be good looking, charming and attentive to the ambitions of their wives. Muslim clerics criticize the show, but female viewers in Palestine, Saudia Arabia and other Muslim nations are fascinated by an idealized relationship, albeit an arranged marriage, with both man and woman striving for equality and...

Egypt: Will the Dam Burst?

September 15, 2008
Poverty and bitterness seethe in Egypt: “The fact is that most of Egypt’s 75m people struggle to get by, their ambitions thwarted by rising prices, appalling state schools, capricious judges, a plodding and corrupt bureaucracy and a cronyist regime that pretends democracy but in fact crushes all challengers and excludes all participation,” the Economist reports. Pent-up frustration contributes to...

High-Tech Ties Bridge Mideast Divide

Robert W. Gee September 8, 2008
With any lull in the violence, Palestinian and Israeli representatives reach out to each other for business and trade opportunities. One example is Israeli high-tech executive, Jonathan Levy, president and general manager of Nuvoton, who did not hesitate in outsourcing some software engineering work to seven recent graduates from West Bank universities. More than 2000 Palestinian students...

Islamic Bond Decree Cripples Sukuk, Imperils Projects

Haris Anwar September 5, 2008
Strict interpretation of Islamic law discourages interest payments associated with debt. Banks in fast-growing areas of the Middle East, like Dubai, created a special group of bonds – or sukuk market – described as Shariah-compliant, which allow payment through the exchange of assets rather than money. Bonds, as instruments of debt, raise capital and spur development of property, and unlike...