arab spring

Frontline's "The Facebook Dilemma" documents the social media giant's habit of cloaking a devil-may-care quest for profits in naive idealism.

By David Zurawik

Oct 28, 2018

Secretary of State Colin Powell used to talk about the Pottery Barn Rule: If you break something, such as a foreign government, you’ve bought it. Unfortunately, the U.S. has a long history of intervening and leaving chaos behind. This is what I call the Blowback Rule of unintended consequences.

People from the arts and literary world are organizing a host of events to generate support for immigrants and refugees within their communities.

By Brittany Britto

Feb 17, 2017

As Easter dawns Sunday, Catholic Relief Services and other humanitarian relief agencies in Baltimore and across the U.S. are reaching out to Christians and other religious minorities facing persecution in the Middle East. This month Secretary of State John Kerry declared that Islamic State attacks on Christians and other minorities constitute genocide.

By Jonathan M. Pitts

Mar 26, 2016

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is the guy the Occupy Wall Streeters have been waiting for.

While the rival gangs battle for supremacy in the Middle East, the only sure prediction is that the flood of refugees will grow.

Thursday column following up on dirt bike controversy

By Dan Rodricks

Aug 27, 2015

Conflict in Iraq and Syria has driven millions from their homes, and Baltimore's international aid community is doing what it can to help.

By Ian Duncan

Apr 14, 2015

Matthew Van Dyke, the native Baltimorean, self-made freedom fighter and film documentarian, emerged from the shadows last week to report his latest adventure with a Tweet: "I am in #Iraq helping to raise a Christian army to fight #ISIS

By Dan Rodricks

Feb 23, 2015

President Barack Obama's latest foray into the Middle East is unfortunately reactive and uninformed, and shows how very little he seems to take into account our bloody history in the region.

The term "Al Jazeera effect" was coined to describe the way the Qatar-based channel and new media were changing politics and power dynamics in the Middle East the last decade. But I believe we have been seeing a variation of it in Ferguson, Mo., the past week with a similar shift in American perception as a result.

The recent alignment of American and Iranian strategic interests, which last significantly occurred with the unseating of the Taliban in 2001, should not merely be viewed as a fleeting moment in which coordination — or even cooperation — between the two countries is possible. Rather, it should be taken as an opportunity to re-evaluate Iran's behavior as a state more generally and juxtapose it with the type of threat posed by ISIS.

The lack of a substantive foreign policy has left us no good options regarding Iraq.

As expected, former Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi won the latest Egyptian election for president by a landslide, giving the military establishment total control of all governmental instruments of power. He won 92 percent of the votes with 46 percent turnout. President-elect el-Sissi now has an historic chance to usher in a new democratic Egypt. Unfortunately, the last 10 months of his rule have indicated a far different future for his struggling country.

A musician who has pioneered the use of the bass clarinet as a solo instrument and two sculptors were named Thursday as the winners of the 2014 Baker Artist Awards

— As the prime minster of Tunisia visits the White House today to discuss his nation's move toward democracy Maryland officials are pressing him to resolve a years-old international kidnapping case they say speaks directly to whether the country will honor rule of law.

The country is poised between continuing its transition to democracy or a reversion to authoritarian rule

As the world's most powerful democracy and a large aid donor, the United States was uniquely positioned to support the Egyptian people's quest for freedom and a better future. Instead, our response has been remarkably short-sighted and always a step behind.

If we can build international pressure to stop the use of chemical weapons in Syria, why not to end the war?

Mideast powder keg

America's continued support of Egypt's military is strategically and morally untenable after Wednesday's violence that left hundreds dead.

With the generals back in charge, Egypt's transition to democracy just got a lot harder

After months watching the uprising in Syria, spreading support through social media and raising money for the suffering, Dr. Hassan Masri thought he understood the devastation that has sundered his parents' homeland.

The country's fledgling democracy is imperiled anew by the generals now calling the shots

With mass protests in the streets against President Morsi, time is running out for a political solution to the crisis

Unrest raises questions about role of Islam in Middle East politics

In a military hearing for Pfc. Bradley Manning that has unfolded over the past two weeks, the reams of classified documents he is accused of leaking to the website WikiLeaks have barely come up.

Aside from rhetorical flourishes, Romney's foreign policy prescriptions differed little from those of the president