Research Library

Middle East fellow A.Kadir Yildirim reviews the varied responses of Islamist groups in the Middle East to the Biden presidency and suggests that, in most cases, their reactions were crafted to further their political — not religious — objectives.

This brief explores pressing issues the Biden administration should address in developing a strategy for the Middle East. It provides analysis and policy recommendations related to the GCC states, U.S.-Iran relations, Islamist groups, and refugees and migration. Further CME publications will address issues such as the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace and the crisis in Lebanon.

This compilation is based on the “Women’s Grassroots Mobilization in the MENA Region Post-2011” workshops held in Rabat, Morocco and Amman, Jordan in February and March 2020. The following briefs address many facets of women’s mobilization in the second decade of the 2000s. Using detailed case studies of specific countries and movements, the contributing authors — who include scholars and activists from Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Turkey, Palestine, and Jordan — examine which spaces for women’s mobilization have opened and which have closed off.

By Colton Cox On March 17, 2019, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a conference entitled “Religious Authority in the Middle East: Implications for U.S. Policy.” The conference, organized by the Baker Institute Center for the Middle East, was the culmination of a survey-based project of the Middle East and North African region funded by the Henry R. Luce Foundation and led by the Baker Institute’s A.Kadir Yildirim. This report highlights key findings and themes from the conference.

In late November, Hong Kong's high court ruled that a government ban on face masks was unconstitutional. This brief analyzes Beijing's subsequent response that, if enforced, may signal the extension of unchecked central dictatorship over Hong Kong’s political apparatus.

Based on their combined research on migration in Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia, the authors argue that states and international organizations are actively transforming the international refugee regime from within through policy “conversion,” blurring the legal distinction between the categories of refugees and migrants. European Journal of International Relations: http://bit.ly/34uwBny

To what extent do Moroccans view state leadership in religion favorably, or see head of state King Mohammed VI as a source of religious authority? The author examines these questions in this issue brief, produced as part of a two-year Center for the Middle East study on religious authority in the Middle East.

Fellow for the Middle East A.Kadir Yildirim and undergraduate intern Meredith McCain explore survey data on the goals, outcomes and beneficiaries of the Arab Spring protests.

Who speaks for Islam and who holds religious authority in the Middle East? These questions strike at the heart of the relationship between religion and politics in the Muslim world, for whoever can legitimately claim religious authority has an opportunity to shape the extent to which religion is politicized in the region. Our study examines this issue by identifying the channels of influence between religious leaders who claim to hold Islamic authority and individual Muslims across the region. The findings depict a complex religious space in the Middle East that reflects its citizens’ nuanced approach toward religion and the religion-politics relationship.

On Sept. 13, 2018, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and George Washington University’s Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) co-hosted the conference “Building Inclusive and Pluralistic States Post-Arab Spring.” The conference was the culmination of a two-year project funded by the Carnegie Corporation and showcased research by leading scholars of the Middle East on political, economic and socio-religious inclusion in Arab states since 2011. This report addresses some of the conference’s key conclusions and policy recommendations for U.S. policymakers concerned with the future stability of the Middle East.