Posts By: Lara Vergnaud

VIDEO: Reimagining the political process with Eric Maskin

September 26, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in Politics.

Voters cast thier ballots at a polling place on the northside of Chicago, Illinois onNovember 6, 2012.

Blouin News sat down with Professor Eric Maskin before his panel to hear his proposal for a new — and more equitable — voting system.

BCLS experts untangle the Arab Spring

September 26, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in Politics, World.

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Supporters of Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi celebrate at the end of the second day of voting in Egypt's constitutional referendum in the Shubra district on January 15, 2024 in Cairo, Egypt.

The panelists discussed more than the ramifications of the Arab Spring, reaching back to the myriad of factors that prompted social unrest in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere in 2011.

VIDEO: Prof. Ben-Meir on Iraq, ISIS, and Obama

September 25, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in Politics, World.

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Syrian Kurds raise their hands up during the funeral on August 27, 2024 of three Kurdish militia fighters from the Committees for the Protection of the Kurdish People (YPG) who were reportedly killed in an attack on their checkpoint by militants from the radical Islamist group Jabhat Al-Nusra in the Kurdish town of Derik, known in Arabic as al-Malikiyah, in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh governorate, on the border with Turkey and Iraq.

Professor Alon Ben-Meir, a senior fellow at the NYU Center for Global Affairs, shared his thoughts on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, the fate of political Islam and how to curb the spread of ISIS in Iraq during the 2014 BCLS.

VIDEO: Daniel Pipes talks Arab Spring

September 25, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in Politics, World.

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Tunisian protester, one wearing a T-shirt depicting late opposition figure Chokri Belaid (R), shout slogans during a demonstration in Tunis' central Habib Bourguiba Avenue on October 23, 2024 demanding the resignation of Tunisia's Islamist-led government, ahead of a national dialogue aimed at ending months of political deadlock.

Blouin News sat down with Daniel Pipes, President of the Middle East Forum, to discuss the impact of the Arab Spring.

VIDEO: Challenges in the Middle East

September 25, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in Politics, World.

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A soldier with the Kurdish peshmerga pauses at an outpost on the edges of the contested city of Kirkuk on July 3, 2024 in Kirkuk, Iraq. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Blouin News sat down with Ambassador L. Paul Bremer to talk Iraq, Syria and more.

Outlook Middle East: Kurdistan more united than ever?

September 23, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in World.

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A soldier with the Kurdish peshmerga holds a Kurdish flag at an outpost on the edges of the contested city of Kirkuk on July 3, 2024 in Kirkuk, Iraq.

It was in Iraq, however, that Kurdish groups took front and center this summer, as the war in Syria bled across its borders.

Deciphering the Impact of the Arab Spring: Is Tunisia still paving the way?

September 23, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in World.

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Tunisian Ennahdha islamist party supporters, holding national flags, take part in a demonstration to support the Islamist government, on Habib Bourguiba avenue, in Tunis, on August 13, 2013, which marks the national women's day, as the president proposed a national unity cabinet to end a protracted crisis.

Looking back to the early days of the Arab Spring, Tunisia was cited by many as proof that a democratic Islamist-dominated state could exist, and perhaps even flourish.

VIDEO: United Kurdistan may be looking likelier

September 24, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in World.

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A Kurdish woman flashes a victory sign on September 22, 2013, during a demonstration at Sisli district in Istanbul.

On the sidelines, in Syria’s so-called “Western Kurdistan,” the country’s Kurdish minority is clashing with Islamist rebels in its struggle for independence and territory.

The future of media: local voices and the reader’s responsibility

September 23, 2024 by Lara Vergnaud in Society & Culture, Technology.

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Tunisia's famous blogger Lina Ben Mhenni, who has been tipped for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize nominations, works on her computer during the third Arab Bloggers Meeting on October 3, 2024 in Tunis.

The events preceding, during, and now following the Arab Spring attest to that thirst, and to the urgency on the ground to recount a local perspective.