Nathan Field

Over the course of the two-week-old protests in Egypt, the American media has been consumed with debate over how the U.S. should react. An emerging consensus argues that Washington should support the protesters' demand that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resign immediately. Such a step would not clearly serve American interests and has too many potential negative repercussions. more

Is the long-predicted decline of Political Islam about to occur? Several French scholars, such as Gilles Keppel and Olivier Roy, have been making this argument since the early 1990s. The only trouble was a subsequent string of Islamist electoral victories that seemed to undermine their thesis. But in light of Islamist losses in recent elections throughout the Middle East, talk of the decline of Political Islam is reemerging. more

Yesterday, President Barack Obama traveled to Cairo to give his long-awaited speech to the Islamic world. Judging by U.S. reactions, the speech was a huge success. But will the president's Arab and Muslim target audience follow the White House's carefully crafted script? Though it is still too early to say with certainty, early Egyptian reaction suggests the U.S. could be in for a disappointment.
more

The success of a Saudi re-education program for jihadists and a recent tactical "revision" by a  notoriously radical Egyptian Islamist have led many Americans to believe that al-Qaida and the threat it posed might be on the verge of self-inflicted implosion, a victim of its own extremism. But is their optimism justified? more

Israel's attack on Hamas continued through the weekend, despite Egyptian and French efforts to broker a ceasefire. But according to several American experts on Arab politics, while Israel might very well succeed -- at least temporarily -- in depleting Hamas' military wing, so long as Hamas is still in a position to reassert its control over Gaza following the operation the conflict is likely to have the opposite impact politically. more

In trying to determine whether al-Qaida is stronger or weaker today than it was seven years ago, analysts tend to view the group exclusively through the theoretical lens of counterterrorism, an approach that essentially ignores the many social, cultural and historical factors that effect al-Qaida's relation to its principle constituency. An examination of the organization's socio-cultural and historical context reveals that despite posing a short-term tactical threat, al-Qaida's long-term strategic prospects are relatively bleak.
more