Perspectives Middle East & North Africa

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa is a publication series of the Middle East & North African offices of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. With this series, we intend to let experts from Southeastern Europe express their views about current political issues in their region. The series will provide political analyses and assessments that are well-founded, concise and relevant.

Our aim is to make a contribution to a highly diversified debate - in which people from Southeastern Europe with a special insight into what is happening in their part of the world can express their thoughts. We intend publishing contributions from think tanks and universities, from journalists, politicians, as well as civil society representatives.

All issues

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #10: Borders - Lines in the Sand or in the Mind?

While the privileged few may cross legitimately by simply presenting their passport, for most, borders present difficult if not insurmountable hurdles. Furthermore there are plenty of other lines of division: social, ethnic, religious and ideological. Any border is a painful memory of the fact that it is not an individual’s choice to define which side he or she is on.

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #9 - A Region Heating Up: Climate Change Activism in the Middle East and North Africa

The Middle Eastern and Northern African (MENA) region, faced with tumultuous changes in the last five years, shows a picture of shrinking spaces for civil society activism. In contrast, ecological activism is growing and connecting the fight for climate justice to other demands for community and indigenous rights, gender equality, democracy and transparency.

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #8: Corruption - Between discourse and reality

The fight against corruption in the Middle East and North Africa has gone through several ups and downs. Four years after the “Arab Spring”, when demands to eradicate corruption took center stage, we thought it is time to shed some light on the evolution of this issue in the MENA region.

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #7: Rumours

Rumours serve as a medium through which unfulfilled hopes or unspecific fears can be voiced. They bond and drive a wedge between people and population groups at the same time. An issue about the social function of rumours.

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #6: I do not want to be born a refugee

Millions of Syrians have fled their homes, either inside the country itself or sometimes very far from home. The magazine highlights some key aspects of the Syrian refugee problem through those affected who are living this tragedy.

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #5: 20 Years Since Oslo - Palestinian Perspectives

More than twenty years have passed since the historic handshake between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin in Washington D.C. The authors in this volume look at the Oslo years from various angles, including political, legal and economic aspects.

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #4: Qatar - aspirations and realities

In the Arab Gulf Region, one political actor, in particular, is becoming more visible, seemingly more engaged in navigating the uncertainties caused by the fast changes emerging in the region and in filling the gaps in this political scene: The state of Qatar. What is the role Qatar is trying to play in the region and is it being translated internally?

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #3: Syria's Revolution - Society, Power, Ideology

It is almost a year ago that Syrian citizens, inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, courageously took to the streets in protest against the decades-long denial of their basic rights by the Assad regime. But Syria as a topic for research has long been marginalized in cultural, social, and political studies. This publication written by authors from the region wants to give new perspectives on Syria.

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #2: People's Power - The Arab World in Revolt

The 2010–2011 Middle East and North Africa protests seemed unexpected, but were they really that unexpected? This publication addresses many questions, among them: First, what has happened? And second, what has invested these regimes with such long-lasting resilience?

Perspectives Middle East & North Africa #1: Nuclear Energy and the Arab World - Ambition and Peril

In the first edition of Perspectives Middle East, activists and decision-makers from the Arab world and Europe critically discuss the transfer and use of civilian nuclear energy in the region.

More on the MENA region

Division Middle East/North Africa

The Heinrich Böll Foundation operates in the Middle East and North Africa with offices in Beirut, Ramallah, Tel Aviv and Tunis and has partner projects in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, Egypt and Tunisia. From Berlin, work is being done on Iran.

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