With the Free Syrian Army being supplied aid by the West and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, the endgame for the Syrian regime has begun. Does Assad's exit guarantee the replacement of autocracy with democracy? What implications will it have on regional politics?
Courtesy: gr33ndata/Flickr
The involvement of Islamists in democratic movements is usually dismissed as a mere ruse to attain political power. However, evidence suggests that people in Muslim-majority democracies support Islamist groups which challenge a dishonest government, rather than those who seek to establish Islamic autocracy.
Courtesy: FreedomHouse2/Flickr
Simultaneous efforts to resolve the problem in Syria remain stymied even as more and more high level meetings and consultations take place. The more countries treat the situation as a proxy for political differences, the more it creates the conditions for a wider conflagration with an unpredictable outcome.
Courtesy: nazeah/Wikimediacommons - Ramesh Lalwani/Flickr
The year 2011 saw various events - the Arab Spring, anti- corruption protests, Europe's sovereign debt crisis - transform countries and reshape the world order. Gateway House takes a look at what these events mean for India, and presents India's top foreign policy cheers and jeers for the year.
Courtesy: UN Photo/Paul Banks
After the crass misuse of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in Libya, the broader question is: where is R2P headed? Do the events in Libya herald a more explicit assertion of this doctrine in other parts of the world? And should India rethink its viewpoint towards this ambiguous doctrine?
Courtesy: WTCTributeinLight/WikimediaCommons
A change has come about after 9/11: the ideologies grouped as “Al Qaeda” has morphed, from a group directed by a few individuals, it is now disaggregated. Due to this change, NATO is empowering it's future foes in the Arab world by its continued belief in the camouflaged jihadis.
Courtesy: JonathanRashad/Flickr
As the Arab world remains engulfed in protests, there may be lessons to be learned from other recent democratic converts. Latin America’s growth story may provide the Arab world with some recommendations on how to address socio-economic issues in the post-revolution scenario.
Courtesy: UNPhoto/MarcoDormino
A new United Nations doctrine is revolutionising the manner in which Western powers achieve regime change. Under the pretext of “Responsibility to Protect” –as the doctrine is named –armed intervention does not depend on the aspirations of a populace but the facilitation of existing power equations
Frank Wisner, the legendary US diplomat who was not only President Barack Obama's special envoy to Egypt but also a former ambassador to India, discusses the outlook for Egypt, resolving the mayhem in the Middle East and India-Pakistan relations in a Gateway House exclusive.
Courtesy: CrethiPlethi/Flickr
As the Arab world reinvents itself in real time, the rest of the world must begin to understand the region as something more than a source for oil and a market for armaments and consumer goods.
