Weeks of brutal Israeli strikes on the heavily-populated Gaza strip have seen a number of political actors come forward to present a cease-fire plan. The deadlock, however, seems to be between Egypt and Qatar — both of whom have considerable leverage over Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group that has ruled Gaza since 2007. The truth is that due to political bias on each side, neither country is fit to be an exclusive mediator in this situation. Read more »
CNN
The shifting soft power of the Arab world
Over the past decade the Arab world has witnessed a shifting of not only hard power — which saw the traditional armies of the Arab world in Syria, Egypt and Iraq consumed in internal turmoil — but also of what Harvard professor Joseph Nye termed “soft power,” which has moved from these countries to the resource rich Gulf states. Read more »