Making Sense of the Middle East

What is Salafi Islam? Are all Salafi Muslims global Jihadis? Is Salafism an insurmountable problem that keeps the Muslim world down, or is it part of a solution to the difficult questions arising from Islamic identity and its intertwinement with modernity? And, is there a way to make Salafi Muslims accept peaceful coexistence and equality with non-Muslims (and with Muslims who rejected Salafism)? Or, does their creed itself lock them into conflict - immediate or delayed - with others?I took this and other questions about Salafi movements, Arab liberals and democracy to Bernard Haykal, professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.  Here is our conversation.

We hear conflicting reports about the status of women in Saudi Arabia. On one hand, MBS, its de facto ruler, has introduced reforms that seemed impossible a decade ago. On the other hand, he is harshly repressing women's rights advocates.What sense should we make of these contradictory trends? And what would be the best strategy to improve women's conditions in such a conservative society?I took these and other questions to Hala Dosary, a prominent Saudi activist, a writer and a scholar. She has worked for a long time on advancing women's issues inside and outside Saudi Arabia. 

Palestinians today seem stuck . Their struggle for statehood led nowhere. If anyone maintained hope that a two-state solution could actually materialize, the latest Israeli election results disabuse them from that notion. Palestinian President is 87 and there is no mechanism to ensure democratic or smooth transition after him. The division between Fateh and Hamas is deep and all attempts to reconcile them have failed. Is the Palestinian national dream disintegrating? and what would it leave behind? I invited Omar Dajani to help me make sense of all that. He is a professor of law at the University of the Pacific, a former adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team, and to the UN Envoy to the Middle East.

Should the US accommodate its authoritarian allies in the Middle East to protect its national security interests? Is American support for democracy and human rights in the ME anything other than rhetoric - didn't the US support friendly dictators for decades? Or is ME democracy a longterm American goal that gets sacrificed to protect immediate interests like oil and security? Can the US pursue a longterm strategy in the ME or is it condemned - by its electoral cycle - to focus exclusively on short term goals?I take these questions to Tess McEnery, Executive Director of "Project on Middle East Democracy",  Washington, DC.  Ms. McEnery served two tours as a Director for Democracy and Human Rights at the White House National Security Council. At the State Department, she led a Global Democracy and Human Rights Policy Team and served as a Senior Conflict Prevention Advisor. She also worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

What is MBS after? Is he, as he once said, a new Alexander the Great? Is his brutal repression the price of reforming this old kingdom? Has he really defeated the royal family, the religious authorities and the business community and secured his rule, or is this another case of fake stability?  I take these questions to Khalid Aljabri, the Saudi cardiologist and writer whose family is at the heart of all this.

The UAE has puzzling policies. It has a strong alliance with the US but often challenges it – including by aligning its oil policy with that of Russia. It is a traditional Arab country and yet violates Arab taboos - including by building a security alliance with Israel. It antagonizes Iran but tries its best to avoid conflict with it. It has a modernizing profile in the Arab World but fights its democratization. What is the UAE up to exactly?I take these and other questions to Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati commentator and a visiting professor at Harvard University. Here is our conversation.

A conversation with Bernard Avishai, visiting professor at Dartmouth College, writer at The New Yorker, and author of The Tragedy of Zionism.