March 19, 2025
EVs and Batteries in the Gulf: Industrial Policy amid Tariff Wars and the Battle for Market Access
As the Gulf states set their national strategies for digital and green transitions, electric vehicles are flooding into the traditionally fossil fuel-driven auto markets of the Gulf — especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
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February 24, 2025
USAID in MENA: A Requiem
The Trump Administration began the morning of February 3, 2025, by telling staff and contractors of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to stay home. Elon Musk and his team at the newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) spent the day digging through staff computers, digital records, and accounts seeking information on programs they felt were wasteful or not aligned with the new administration’s priorities.
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January 16, 2025
Carbon Emissions Reduction Strategies for Qatar
Climate change is high on the agenda of countries around the world. Efforts to limit the average global temperature increase to less than 1.5°C – an amount that scientist say would limit the most dire consequences of climate change – have so far faltered. Recent United Nations Climate Change Conferences have focused on exploring ways to substantially cut carbon emissions and scale up financing for emissions reductions.
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December 23, 2024
How Effective Are Arab Anticorruption Agencies? Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?
Concerns about corruption have been at the center of public dissatisfaction over the quality of governance in many Arab countries. Anger over bureaucratic indifference and malfeasance was one of the main drivers behind the Arab Spring in 2010 and 2011. In 2019, corruption concerns animated the unrest in Lebanon, Iraq and Sudan. Polling data from… Continue reading Governance and Development Program
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August 22, 2024
Division and Disaster: Libya’s Political Fragmentation and Response to the Derna Flood
A devastating flood hit the Libyan city of Derna on September 10 and 11, 2023. It resulted from the collapse of two dams after heavy rainfall pounded the eastern coastline of Libya due to Storm Daniel’s passage through the Mediterranean.
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