freelance journalist and author
Freelance journalist and author of Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience and A Kingdom's Future: Saudi Arabia through the Eyes of Its Twentysomethings; former public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Obama Delegation Pays Homage to Saudi Kings, Old and New President Obama cut short his trip to India to honor the memory of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. During four and a half hours in Riyadh, the President listed common "strategic interests" despite differences on human rights and other issues. Caryle Murphy is a freelancer who spent three years in Saudi Arabia. She's author of A Kingdom's Future : Saudi Arabia through the Eyes of Its Twenty Somethings.
Violence and the Politics of Religion in the Middle East Two years of bloody violence against a brutal dictatorship in Syria have awakened the ancient rivalry between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. It's become a religious battle, pitting neighbors against each other in Syria and across the Middle East, and is accentuating hostilities between nations, including Saudi Arabia and Iran. Terrorist organizations, like Shiite Hezbollah and Sunni al Qaeda, are threatening chaos to advance their competing agendas. Is it partly an unintended consequence of America's occupation of Iraq? Is there anything the US can do to contain it?
Voting, but Not Driving in Saudi Arabia Two days ago, King Abdulla said Saudi Arabian women have the right to vote and participate in local elections, which the BBC hailed as "potentially the most important advance for women's rights in decades," underscoring Abdulla's stature as a reformist. Today came news that a woman's been sentenced to 10 lashes for driving a car. It's not illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia, but conservative religious leaders have banned it. Caryle Murphy, who just completed three years of reporting in that country, is now a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
How was the trip? President Trump's travels got less fun as he went from the Middle East to Europe.
The longest US war: Will Trump send more troops to Afghanistan? The Trump White House is divided over the Pentagon's request for more troops in Afghanistan—where the US has been fighting for the past 16 years. Is there a formula -- either for "victory" or a political settlement? Is there an end in sight for America's longest war?
