Chris Cassidy

When I wrote my first guest-post at the Prospect two weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was cautioning against a speedy exit for then-President Hosni Mubarak, and no one was predicting a broader regional uprising. Today, Mubarak is deposed and autocratic states are bloodying protesters across the Middle East and North Africa. Stay tuned. […]

“There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too,” Kurt Vonnegut wrote in Mother Night. It’s a maxim that South Dakotan extremists would be wise to remember. South Dakota’s speaker of the house has shelved a notorious […]

Shortly after being appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman warned protesters that there would be no democracy until Egypt embraced a “culture of democracy.” Here, in the capital of one of the world’s longest standing democracies, our culture is marked by power struggles, posturing, and alarmingly focused smartphone fondlers. Welcome to the club, Egypt. After Mubarak‘s […]

Two protesters dead in Iran; violent clashes in Yemen; and at least two deaths in Bahrain. It’s another day in the new Middle East, as people-powered revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt continue reverberating across the region. The Internet certainly didn’t deliver Tunisians and Egyptians from from their rulers. It was a tool utilized by savvy […]

The New York Times humanizes the ongoing Pan-Arabian revolution with uncharacteristically poetic prose that describes two years of collaboration between Tunisian and Egyptian youth: The exchange on Facebook was part of a remarkable two-year collaboration that has given birth to a new force in the Arab world — a pan-Arab youth movement dedicated to spreading […]

Nothing since Israel’s birth has sparked demonstrations of pan-Arabian identity like the self-immolation of a 26-year-old street vendor in Tunisia. When Mohamed Bouazizi doused himself with paint thinner and struck a match on December 17, 2010, it ignited a shared sense of indignity among those living under the thumb of autocratic rulers across North Africa […]

“Constitutional crisis” is an understatement. The revolution in Egypt appears to have left the country’s constitution in tatters, with military commanders apparently operating outside the legal framework to restore order, protect Egyptians’ natural rights, and heed protesters’ demands. Hosni Mubarak‘s rule has certainly lapsed, but whether he resigned is questionable. Mubarak, the only person empowered […]

Egypt’s military dictatorship, which began after a 1952 coup, retains official control of the country as its third dictator makes for the door. Hosni Mubarak‘s resignation is a huge success for the Egyptian people, but their demands for political reforms remain unheeded. Tonight, the Egyptian people revel in their success. Tomorrow, no doubt, they shift […]