A Bilingual Bourgeois: The Class Politics behind Morocco’s Language Debate
“Je ne connais pas l’arabe”—I don’t speak Arabic. While the former Moroccan education minister didn’t realize it at the time, these seemingly innocuous words wo...
Category: Middle East
Our Middle East North Africa desk (MENA) covers the region of the Mediterranean from Morocco up to and including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Allies First, Deals Second: An Analysis of the Iran Deal
From the onset of the Biden presidency, the administration has promised the American people a renewed agreement, or “Iran Deal,” to cull nuclear proliferation b...
A Precarious Situation: The Taliban’s Uyghur Dilemma
Since the Taliban’s return to power, the U.S. Federal Reserve has frozen just under $10 billion of Afghanistan’s assets. With a harsh winter about to settle in,...
An Emerging Catastrophe: Implications of Climate Change on the MENA region
In recent years, the state of countries in the Middle East and Northern African (MENA) region have painted a disturbing picture of the world ragged with em...
“Our Art is Global”: Sultan Al-Qassemi on Art and Protest in the Middle East
On February 15th, the Yale Arab Students Association hosted Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, Emirati columnist, researcher and the Founder of Barjeel Art Foundation, to...
Queer Biopolitics in Authoritarian Iran
This piece was published in the Spring Issue Print Edition (Volume 11) As photographer Laurence Rasti depicts above, queer life in Iran is fraught with tension....
The Atomic Bomb is What States Make of it: A Constructivist Approach to Sanctioning Iran
This piece was published in the Spring Issue Print Edition (Volume 11) “There is no “logic” of anarchy apart from the practices that create and inst...
Revisiting Lebanon: Dual Crises Linger Long After Beirut Explosion
On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion shook Beirut, Lebanon. Viral videos of the blast circulated around the world, triggering a global outpouring of sympathy ...
A Means to End Nuclear Proliferation: An Argument for U.S. Recommitment to an Iran Nuclear Deal
The City of Music is set to host a round of negotiations on a potential return to the magnum opus of nuclear agreements next week. Vienna, Austria’s capital cit...
Seeking like a State: Hamas’ Relationship with its Government Sponsors
Introduction Why do some terror organizations seek state sponsorship? Although the risks of cooperation for both terror organizations and states ar...