International Relations and Globalization

US presidential elections: foreign policy candidate’s program Analysis

Introduction: Presidential elections in the United States come at a critical time for foreign policy. The next American Administration will be facing a number of international crises, many of which associated with the Middle East. US-Russian relations have gone sour since the annexation of Crimea, which constitutes a threat to US NATO allies, and most recently over the Syrian conflict. Added to this are the remarkable escalation of terrorist operations and the unprecedented influx of refugees mostly from regions in which the US has been intervening in one way or another. The upcoming elections, due to be held on November…

US presidential elections: Domestic affairs candidate’s program Analysis

Introduction: The 2016 US presidential elections are quite unique whether in terms of the candidates or the domestic context in which the elections are held. This paper focuses on the most significant domestic challenges that will face the future president of the United States, on top of which are economic issues such as growth rates, international trade, social security, taxes, and unequal pay. This is followed by the issue of citizenship, which has lately been jeopardized following police violations against African American citizens, as well as immigration and woman rights. The two candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, differ in…

The Colombian Peace Process and the new role of Civil Society

In Colombia, only the very elderly can answer the question of how the country was when it was at peace. The remainder of the population has to resort to their imagination, literary descriptions, theoretical projections, or travel experiences in other countries to try to understand how it is live and move about in peace at any given time and place.  The vast majority of contemporary civil society in Colombia has been living in contexts of fear and insecurity on a daily basis. Many have faced a series of tragedies while others have had to accustom themselves to the constant misfortunes…

Euro-Mediterranean relations: What went wrong? Towards a long-term relation and the role of think tanks in this process

[1] This intervention focuses on tackling the methodology of the Euro-Med relations process rather than discussing particular events and incidents. First, I can describe the approach to this issue as problematic since it is based on a short-term view built on risk and interest assessment and measured mainly on trade balances. With the US/Russia current hegemony, like in the case of the current crisis in Syria, wise relations should target the long term and be based on opportunities and challenges’ assessments and measured on the capacity of cooperation and conducting dialogue between different stakeholders (not risk and interest). Measuring this indicator…

Policy recommendations to the European Union: Towards a positive role to achieve social justice in the Arab world

  Arab revolutions have shown in the past years that the followed economic models that was backed by the European Union has failed to achieve the promised development goals, and resulted in a clear reduction in citizens’ access to economic and social rights. In spite of the endorsement of the European Union on that, it still adopts policies in the course of the Deauville partnership, which goes in line with international financial institutions, which are still promoting more liberalization of trade and finance, privatization and attracting foreign direct investment, as well as austerity in spending to meet the State budget…

Egypt& the E.U. Normalization or Crisis?

Egypt heading towards normalization The Egyptian regime is determined to signal its credibility to the West. Its government, specifically as far as economic policy is concerned, is composed of the best technocrats the country can boast.The paying off of the 25% in arrears, owed to predominantly European, international energy companies, will commence by the end of this year. This is a meagre start, given that the 25% would merely revert the situation to what it was in July 2013 rather than improve beyond it. However,  it does signal the Egyptian regime’s credibility,a gradually normalizing domestic situation, and a commitment to…

Conference Report on the future of Iranian-Egyptian relations, September 10, 2012

The Arab Forum for Alternatives (AFA) organized a conference entitled “The future of Iranian- Egyptian Relations”, which was held at the AFA premises on the 10th of September 2012. The session was presided by Dr. Amr ElShobaki, AFA’s president; and had as main speakers: Dr, Nevine Mossad, Political Science Professor at Cairo University, and H.E Ambassador Khaled Emara, the head of the Egyptian Diplomatic Mission to Iran. First Speaker: Dr. Nevine Mossaad (Political Science Professor, Cairo University) On July 30, 2012, Egypt moved to a second transitional stage. Will this stage represent a qualitative difference to what was before the…

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