Copyright 2012 Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:40:03 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi :: Writings http://www.aymennjawad.org aaj892@hotmail.com (Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi) webmaster@pundicity.com en-us http://www.aymennjawad.org/11206/bashar-assad-iron-fist Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST The iron fist against "terrorist gangs" as promised by Bashar Assad got off to a fairly impressive start two weeks ago. Homs -- the Benghazi of the Syrian rebels -- has been subjected to massive and sustained shelling for days, causing hundreds of... http://www.aymennjawad.org/11189/chaos-status-quo Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST One year after the ousting of Hosni Mubarak as president of Egypt, what conclusions can we draw regarding the ongoing wave of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa? Around this time last year at the Herzliya Conference, the Israeli historian Prof.... http://www.aymennjawad.org/11130/syria-demography Mon, 6 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST Among the second wave of Arab Spring uprisings that followed Tunisia, Syria was the most spectacular "out of the blue" that suddenly arose in the face of the media and analytic community. Just days before Deraa exploded with protests last March, some... http://www.aymennjawad.org/11026/the-dead-man-and-his-long-shadow Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST Muammar Gaddafi was certainly more than prophetic during the summit of the Arab League (AL) in 2008 when he inquired about the fate of his Iraqi predecessor for Western military interventions: Saddam Hussein. "The ruler and head of an AL member has been... http://www.aymennjawad.org/10986/middle-east-christians-identity Thu, 5 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST In the course of the present unrest across the Middle East and North Africa, it has become clear that questions of identity are going to be extremely important in deciding the future paths of the various countries in turmoil, not only as regards the... http://www.aymennjawad.org/11025/us-strategy-afghanistan Sat, 1 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST As U.S. military operations in Afghanistan drag on inconclusively, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Taliban insurgency is gaining ground. In the first six months of 2010, for example, there was a 31 percent rise in civilian casualties while... http://www.aymennjawad.org/10951/kim-jong-il-death Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST At Kim Jong-Il's death in North Korea, some commentators now see an "opportunity to advance freedom and American interests. Writing on the site The Future of Capitalism, Ira Stoll criticized the Obama administration on the grounds that it is "simply... http://www.aymennjawad.org/10958/iraq-political-crisis Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST Immediately after the full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Iraq's political crisis has deepened considerably. The Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab who previously served as general secretary... http://www.aymennjawad.org/10939/yemen-collapse Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST Recently, Tawakkol Karman -- a member of the Islah party in Yemen, a women's rights activist and a recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize -- warned that her country could be facing a civil war, unless the West begins taking financial and legal action... http://www.aymennjawad.org/10941/afp-falls-for-assad-propaganda Sun, 25 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST Recently the French news agency AFP reported that the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) claimed responsibility for the bomb attacks in Damascus on its website. The only trouble is, that this claim was taken from a fake Ikhwan site (now deleted) cloned by... http://www.aymennjawad.org/10919/assessing-iraq-surge Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST INTRODUCTION Adopted at the end of 2006–by far Iraq's bloodiest year–the troop "surge" marked a major shift in the George W. Bush administration's Iraq strategy. Indeed, the Iraq Body Count (IBC) project, which prefers to rely on confirmed media reports... http://www.aymennjawad.org/10881/secular-liberal-egyptians Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST Contrary to the expectations of many analysts, both the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist al-Nour coalition trounced the secular Egyptian Bloc and the Wafd Party in the first stage of voting for the parliamentary elections.... http://www.aymennjawad.org/10877/iraq-violence Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST In light of a series of attacks in Iraq at the end of November and the start of this month, there have been numerous warnings of an upsurge in violence in the country. Numerous media outlets have tied the incidents to the withdrawal of U.S. troops, which... http://www.aymennjawad.org/10858/sunni-realignments Fri, 9 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST Despite threats from Iran to withdraw financial aid and training for militants, Hamas has now reportedly ordered the majority of its staff in Damascus to evacuate the organization's headquarters by next week, aiming to leave behind only a "nominal... http://www.aymennjawad.org/10805/shia-sunni-conflicts Fri, 2 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST As we approach the end of the first year of what has been called the "Arab Spring," it is worth examining the nature of Shi'a (Shiite) -Sunni relations in the Middle East. Indeed, commentators such as Patrick Cockburn have been warning that "since the...