While Egypt’s transition will necessarily be driven by local actors, foreign states can play a supportive role by “encouraging the institutional and social underpinnings of democratic process and market reform,” writes Olin Wethington, in this guest post. But non-profit …

Check out this debate on Strengthening Arab Democracy: U.S. Assistance after the Uprisings. Details from the Project on Middle East Democracy:

Amid a turbulent yet inspiring year of historic changes in the Middle East and North Africa, it …

With the battle for Tripoli effectively over, Libya’s rebels have given a 4-day ultimatum to forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi before launching an assault on Sirte, the deposed dictator’s hometown stronghold. Having learned the lessons of botched transitions in …

The European Union must shift from a top-down technocratic approach to promoting democracy if it is to help sustain transitions in the Arab world, according to leading opinion-formers.

The EU can support political reform through election-monitoring, political party assistance …

Hundreds of Egyptian activists today staged “an unprecedented show of online defiance” to highlight the ruling military’s human rights abuses and mishandling of the political transition process. The pro-democracy groups behind Jasmine revolution are calling for a new …

The activists who drove Egypt’s Jasmine revolution are suffering from a syndrome familiar from earlier democratic transitions, says a leading democracy advocate.

“The opposition has what I call ‘prolonged opposition trauma’ – difficulty making the switch from the politics of …

The pro-democracy protests across the Arab world demonstrate that the regional status quo is unsustainable, writes Egyptian political scientist Emad El-Din Shahin. President Obama’s keynote speech should outline a radical shift in strategy that reflects and reinforces the upsurge …

President Barack Obama will use tomorrow’s major speech to announce a raft of economic and trade initiatives for Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab states committed to reform.

The package will be “far bolder than previous American economic assistance to the …

President Obama is expected to use tomorrow’s speech on the Middle East to outline his administration’s strategy for the region. But any strategy must prioritize and the single most important thing that the administration can do right now …

President Obama should seize the opportunity that history presents and use tomorrow’s speech on the Middle East to make a decisive break with the sterile politics of the regional status quo, writes Will Marshall (right).  

The Arab revolt is history’s …