Perspectives - Political Analysis and Commentary from the Middle East is a publication series of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s offices in Beirut and Ramallah that seeks to provide a platform for presenting analysis and viewpoints of experts from the region.

Print and Online Publication

Perspectives #2 May 2011, Special Issue: People's Power - The Arab World in Revolt

 - The self-immolation of young and jobless Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid, being deprived of his vegetable stand and humiliated by the authorities, triggered popular movements and historic events in the Arab World completely unexpected in their magnitude… With Contributions from Mouin Rabbani, Fawaz Traboulsi, Ahmad Beydoun, Mohammed Ali Atassi, Hussein Yaakoub, Yassine Temlali, Asef Bayat, Muhammad Ali Khalidi, Terry Regier, Mansoura Ez-Eldin, Aref Hijjawi, Magda Abu-Fadil, Doreen Khoury more»

Print and Online Publication

Perspectives #1 April 2011: 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.

With contributions from Mohamed Abdel Raouf, Hamed Beheshti, Ali Darwish, Leila Ghanem, Dennis Kumentat und Nikolaus Supersberger, Najib Saab, Larbi Sadiki, und Jürgen Trittin. more»
Perspectives #3: Syria's Revolution - Society, Power, Ideology
Latest Issues
Perspectives #3 February 2012 - Syria's Revolution: Society, Power, Ideology
Perspectives #2 May 2011, Special Issue: People's Power - The Arab World in Revolt
Perspectives #1 April 2011: Nuclear Energy and the Arab World - Ambition and Peril
Upcoming Event

The Legal Agenda

Wednesday, 23 May 2012, 6pm.

Tests of Shame
(Virginity and Homosexuality Tests)

Seminar organized by the Legal Agenda in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Stiftung - Middle East Office.

Artist Residency Program
Art and Archive Koeln Teaser

Art and Archive. Open Call for Proposals

Apply for a 3-month residency in Cologne with a project inspired by archival practices related to contemporary art creation.

Reaching Boiling Point? Global Perspectives on the 2011 UN Climate Summit
Latest Articles & Publications
The Kurds and the Syrian Revolution
Despite endemic discrimination and oppression, Syria's Kurds have been hesitant to join the Syrian uprising against the Assad regime. A larger Kurdish participation would significantly impact the course of events, but the various Kurdish political actors have had diverging reactions to the revolution, the role of Turkey and the fate of Kurdish interests in a free Syria. By Bakr Sidki more»
The Syrian Shabiha and Their State

Yassin al-Haj Saleh, dissects the functioning, motivations, funding and ideology of the Syrian 'shabiha', from their appearance in the 1970s until their reemmergence during the revolution. Saleh shows their central role in maintaining a regime in power that has long lost touch with people’s interests, morality and reality.

By Yassin al-Haj Salih more»
The Discourse and Performance of the Syrian Opposition Since the Beginning of the Revolution
This study attempts to understand various issues connected with the political and media discourse, as well as the political performance and achievements, of the Syrian opposition.

Moving beyond the various flaws that plague the opposition, it seeks to sketch out possible alternatives that could allow these political forces to elevate their discourse and performance to levels that benefit the revolution.

By Dr. Hazem Nahar more»
Beneath the Liberation Monument all that is Solid Vanishes into Air
A personal account of the motives and dynamics of the Iraqi protest movement that found inspiration in the Arab revolutions. By Saad Salloum more»
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