Domestic Politics Archive

U.S. President Donald Trump’s team of neophyte Middle East peacemakers is reportedly shifting to “a new phase” in its effort to solve one of the world’s most intractable disputes, by starting to draft a peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s lawyer and Middle East envoy, was quoted by The New York Times as saying the team is “not going to put an artificial timeline on the development or presentation of any specific ideas and will also never impose a deal.” Instead, he said, the goal “is to facilitate, not dictate, a lasting peace agreement to improve the […]

During her visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo last month, Nikki Haley, the U.S ambassador to the United Nations, appeared to have a singular goal in mind: getting a firm commitment on a new deadline for the country’s long-delayed elections. “The president must say that we’re going to have elections in 2018,” she said before her meeting with President Joseph Kabila. “We will not support with funding, resources, anything, if the calendar does not specifically specify no later than 2018 for these elections to happen.” Nine days later, Congo’s election commission announced a new timeline that seemed to align […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series on the Islamic State after the fall of Raqqa and the outlook for Syria and its neighbors. In Syria, the self-proclaimed Islamic State, or ISIS, was always treated as a problem with an essentially military solution. At least for the U.S.-led international coalition, there was no positive end state or program of political change that could be joined to the military campaign against the jihadi group. The general repulsiveness of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad meant that, unlike in neighboring Iraq, Washington and its allies could not simply invest […]

While talks between the United Kingdom and the European Union over the terms of Brexit are ongoing, the question of how to sever Northern Ireland from the EU has emerged as a major point of contention. If talks fail, the U.K. will likely exit the EU without a smooth transitional framework in place. That would raise several border issues in Ireland and Northern Ireland and could even threaten the Good Friday peace agreement that ended 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s. In an email interview, Frank Barry, a professor of international business and economic development […]

In what appeared to have all the makings of a coup, Zimbabwe’s military took control of the capital, Harare, early Wednesday and was said to be holding 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe in custody. The move comes one week after Mugabe fired Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had previously been seen as a potential successor, in what was widely viewed as an attempt to ease the path to power for his wife, Grace. To help put the takeover in context, WPR has collected eight articles tracing the recent evolution of power dynamics in Zimbabwe. The following eight articles are free to […]

In late September, the Kurds of Iraq seemed to have moved one step closer to realizing their historic goal of gaining independence, when nearly 93 percent of voters backed a referendum to formally secede from Baghdad. Masoud Barzani, the former guerrilla leader who had served as president of the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, since 2005, went ahead with the poll despite fierce opposition from the governments of Iraq, Iran and Turkey, and mild opposition from the United States. When the results came in, Kurds took to the streets of Irbil, the regional capital, in celebration. It soon became […]

As a political solution to Libya’s civil war remains elusive, with rival governments operating in Tripoli in the west and Tobruk in the east, running a fully functioning economy has been all but impossible. Once a major oil exporter, the war-torn country has had to make do with less production and, given the collapse in global prices, less revenue. In an email interview, Mohamed Eljarh, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, discusses what remains of Libya’s non-hydrocarbon economy and the toll that the deteriorating economic situation is taking on the country’s people […]

Editor’s note: This article is the first in an ongoing WPR series about workers’ rights in various countries around the world. On Oct. 23, leaders of European Union member states agreed to revise the legal statute regulating the bloc’s system of “posted workers,” which are employees sent by their companies on temporary assignment from one member state to another. As populist sentiment within the EU has risen, reforming the posted workers system has increasingly become a hot-button issue, as countries seek to protect their workers from what many consider to be unfair competition. In an email interview, Matthias Busse, an […]

Late last month, in an unexpected political maneuver after Iraqi Kurdish officials went ahead with their controversial referendum on independence, Iraq’s central government restored its dominance over most of the so-called disputed territories in the north of the country. Even though they fall outside the jurisdiction of the semiautonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, these areas had effectively been controlled by the KRG for the past three years, amid the chaos created by the self-proclaimed Islamic State and the retreat of Iraqi forces. Iraqi forces swept through the key, oil-rich city of Kirkuk, as well as Sinjar and much of the Nineveh […]

Bolivian President Evo Morales is forging ahead with a plan to get around constitutional limits to stand for a fourth term in 2019, despite losing a February 2016 referendum on whether he could run again. His party, the Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, presented a petition to Bolivia’s elected constitutional tribunal in late September requesting that four articles of the country’s constitution be declared “inapplicable,” allowing Morales to stand for president indefinitely. The MAS also wants the court to scrap term limits for other elected officials, including governors, mayors and members of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, Bolivia’s legislature. A decision […]

Last month, embattled South African President Jacob Zuma removed his higher education minister, Blade Nzimande, who is also the general secretary of the South African Communist Party. It was more than a Cabinet reshuffle. By sacking Nzimande, Zuma poisoned his relationship with the African National Congress’ alliance partner. The move, and its outcome, was rich in irony. In its desire to be rid of then-President Thabo Mbeki from the early 2000s onward, the SACP, led by Nzimande, fatally tied its fortunes to Zuma’s candidacy. It sought to convince itself that he represented a progressive alternative to the neoliberal economics, excessive […]

Since Nawaz Sharif’s ouster as prime minister in August, Pakistan has been abuzz with talk of strained civil-military relations. The situation materially worsened when Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, the army’s chief of staff, publicly lectured the government last month on expanding tax collection to improve the economy. A very public war of words between the government and military ensued, with the interior minister even suggesting on Facebook that Pakistan was on the cusp of another coup d’état, before walking back his comments. While ties between the elected civilian government and the armed forces have frayed recently, Sharif’s removal itself did […]

NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania—Maatalla Mboirick’s home sits a few hundred meters off the main road of this desert city, past high mounds of orange sand. It is little more than a collection of tarps affixed to wooden beams and scrap metal. Thin mattresses and sturdy pillows line the interior of a tent at the back of the property, one of several spots where as many as a dozen people sleep on any given night. While the home may be modest, even by Mauritanian standards, its most important feature is that it belongs indisputably to Mboirick and his family. For a man who […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series on LGBT rights and discrimination in various countries around the world. Since a September concert in Cairo during which a few concertgoers waved rainbow pride flags, the Egyptian government has initiated a severe crackdown on the country’s LGBT community. Dozens have been arrested, while much of the Egyptian media and conservative religious figures have stoked widespread homophobia. In an email interview, Neela Ghoshal, a senior researcher on LGBT rights at Human Rights Watch, discusses the unprecedented scale of the crackdown, how the government justifies it, and how responsive Egypt is […]

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series about workers’ rights in various countries around the world. With an aging population and an extremely low birthrate, Japan is facing its most acute labor shortage in more than 40 years. But it has also come to rely increasingly on a “nonregular” labor force, such as part-time and temporary workers from staffing agencies, who are easier to hire and fire and paid less. This has meant poorer working conditions for most Japanese workers, including for full-time employees who are working longer hours. In an email interview, Hiro Watanabe, a […]

BRATISLAVA—The landslide electoral victory of a party founded by a brash billionaire in the Czech Republic last month seemed like just the latest sign of Central European politics becoming the domain of oligarchs. In nearby Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose illiberalism has rattled Europe for several years, has surrounded himself with friendly tycoons, doling out contracts to coddle government-friendly big business and consolidate his own political power. But for all the attention on Hungary and now the Czech Republic, where many fear what Andrej Babis will do if he is able to form a government and take power, the […]

On Monday, Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, accepted the resignation of the country’s entire Cabinet, dissolving it amid political infighting but with no official explanation. The move reflects Kuwait’s contentious political system, which has jeopardized the country’s recent efforts to stave off a financial crisis through needed economic reforms. In an email interview, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Middle East fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute and an associate fellow at Chatham House in London, explains what was behind the Cabinet’s resignation and what it means for Kuwait’s political and economic future. WPR: What led Kuwait’s emir to dissolve the […]