From 2004 to 2006, Abdulrahman worked as a special assistant to the representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (one of Iraq’s leading Kurdish political parties) in D.C., and later as the Deputy KRG Representative and PUK deputy representative from 2004 to 2009. He is currently working as a political commentator and has written extensively on … Read more
This post is in response to a letter to the editor found in today’s Harvard Crimson. In response to our recent Crimson editorial, “Reclaiming Goldstone’s Missed Opportunity,” Abdelnasser Rashid writes today that “[i]n fact, Goldstone did not retract the most damning accusations of the more than 500-page report.” He dubs our characterization of Goldstone’s op-ed … Read more
Hakary Dzayi, an educator at Salahaddin University in Kurdistan and currently doing work with the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC), on sex trafficking in the Middle East. This interview was conducted via email. Harvard Political Review: What do you see as the major causes of sex trafficking in the Middle East today? What … Read more
Conflict in Libya reveals flaws in the European Union’s coordination capacity. In the chorus of countries and international organizations calling for immediate action and an end to the violence in Libya, one of the strongest voices has been notably absent – that of the European Union. While individual countries within the union have independently condemned Muammar el-Qaddafi’s … Read more
Many things made possible the recent Egyptian Reformation—Facebook, the spread of information, plain courage—and many have been rightly celebrated. But one has remained more or less a parenthesis: the Egyptian Army’s clemency. When he enlisted, each member of the army, from private to general, swore fealty to his government. The protestors’ aim was to dissolve … Read more
After thirty years of autocratic rule in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak has yielded to the dictates of a democratic revolution. In living up to the political ideal held most sacred by Americans, the Egyptian people deserve our congratulations and well-wishes. But with Egypt’s fate unresolved, it is too early to discount bleaker possibilities: a military … Read more
For democracy to prevail in Egypt, deposing Murbarak will not be enough. What is needed is an overhaul of state-military relations. For supporters of democracy around the world, there was something inspiring about the sight of protestors gathered around Tahrir Square at Cairo. In his 1994 book, The End of History, Francis Fukuyama posited that … Read more
In the high-powered, well-researched world of Middle Eastern border politics, everyone knows about the Golan Heights, the Litani River, and the Sinai Peninsula. But nobody’s ever heard of Ghajar. A bucolic riverside village of 2,000 in the Galilee’s far north, Ghajar could fit inconspicuously anywhere on the Syrian, Lebanese, or Israeli landscape. Until regional tumult … Read more