For a long time, development indicators have been linked with two important elements: the first is health, and the second is environmental health. Both of these are related to the social structure which is the basis for the development process.  Furthermore, human development is, significantly linked to the planning and […]

I was born in Gaza, a small, lovely coastal strip on the map.  I am now 28 years old so I was born when the Palestinian territory was under Israeli control, and under occupation. I was three years old when the first intifada erupted. For a child like me, it […]

Social media have amplified the power of pictures, and with this the need to ponder the meaning of such pictures. Do they allow for deeper understanding, or rather mis-inform us? A voyage through Susan Sontag, the Gaza War and Facebook.

The Arab Spring uprisings have triggered notable shifts throughout republican Arab states. The story in the Gulf monarchies, however, is starkly different. The Gulf Monarchies are, for the most part, autocratic, hydrocarbon-rich states whose regimes derive legitimacy from tradition and an inflated ability to pacify populations through the distribution of […]

On January 18, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a new foreign policy called transformational diplomacy. Challenging old assumptions that the domestic character of other countries did not matter for foreign affairs or American security, Rice argued that: [The United States must] work with our many partners around the world, […]