News

Comics Festivals Across the Middle East

This fall, ICWA is doodling its way across the Middle East. Fellow Jonathan Guyer recently participated in Le Festival International de la Bande Dessinée d’Alger, the region’s premier comic con. Speaking on a plenary session entitled “Dis le mois en bulles: La Bande Dessinée et le Dessin dans le monde arabe,” he joined Algerian cartoonists Le […]

Read More…

Ten Borders

The New Yorker – Staff writer and past ICWA Fellow Nicholas Schmidle traces the incredible journey of one Syrian refugee in his latest piece. Gahith, a Syrian law student, fled his home country and traveled across Europe, encountering other refugees, smugglers, police brutality, and mores, crossing ten borders before reaching eventually Sweden. With input from spokesman for the International Organization […]

Read More…

Rescuing Girls, Investing in Girls: a Critique of Development Fantasies

Past  Fellow Cynthia Caron’s recent academic article, written with Shelby A. Margolin, has been gaining media attention for its findings on girl-centered development initiatives. The research paper, “Rescuing Girls, Investing in Girls: a Critique of Development Fantasies,” delves into the effects of campaigns designed to foster economic growth by empowering girls and critiques the “failed development narrative that economic […]

Read More…

Best Bad Idea for America in Syria

CNN – In his latest article, Andrew Tabler writes about the deteriorating situation in Syria. Four years after the crisis began Syria is the world’s largest generator of Sunni-Shia extremism, both Russia and Iran are moving into the country militarily and the possible courses of action for the United States in Syria continue to worsen. According to Tabler, […]

Read More…

To Make Love Last, What If We Should Stop Working so Hard?

The Washington Post – In a recent post at PostEverything, past Fellow Eve Fairbanks muses on making love last. She describes the rising trend of articles that serve as how-to manuals for falling and staying in love, but wonders, after a trip to Kenya, if such concerted efforts really are the key to a successful romantic life.  This latest […]

Read More…

Egypt’s Intellectual Situation

September 17, 2015 Painter Adel El-Siwi leads me through his workspace on the fourth floor of a downtown Cairo apartment building. His hands, cargo shorts, pink T-shirt, and Crocs are splattered with paint. Shelves of art, literature, and philosophy books reach the high ceiling. Across the corridor, massive canvases face the wall like unopened presents. Tubes of […]

Read More…

Can Russia Make a Difference in Syria’s War?

PBS Newshour – Over the past month Russia has been increasing its military involvement in the war in Syria by providing supplies and equipment, including attack aircraft, to the Assad regime. Judy Woodruff of PBS Newshour interviewed Past Fellow Andrew Tabler, now of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Nikolas Gvosdev of the U.S. Naval War […]

Read More…