Unlikely Heroes of the Arab Spring
Now streaming from Free to Choose TV: Unlikely Heroes of the Arab Spring. From the FreetoChoose.tv webpage describing the video: The program shows that “The Arab Spring” was less a political event than it...
Category: U.S./Middle East Policy
The [Mid]Eastern World, It Is Exploding…
Debaters struggling with the complexity, turmoil, and violence across much of the Middle East, might enjoy Barry McGuire’s 1965 hit song “The Eve of Destruction.” The song helps put today’s conflicts in perspective. An...
Greening the Deserts of the Middle East and North Africa
However the current Middle East conflicts turn out, most everyone across Middle Eastern countries will still be living in a desert. Water conflicts between nations are likely to continue into the future across the...
2022 World Cup and LNG Exports to Drop Qatar Funds for Extremists
Two aspects of booming shale oil and gas production across the U.S.. First, increased domestic production reduces the importance of oil from the Middle East. The Carter Doctrine and later U.S./Middle East policies were...
Riding Down the Cost Curve: Shale and Oil Sands Extraction
The eyes and minds of engineers can’t look everyone at once. Every engineering project has an opportunity cost measured by the fruits of alternative engineering challenges left unexplored. High oil prices over the last...
State Ownership to Startup Rising: An Entrepreneurial Revolution in the Middle East
State-ownership across the Middle East slows economic development and stirs ethnic tensions. Dalibor Rohac in a new Cato Policy Analysis, looks and the size and scope of state ownership across Middle East North Africa (MENA) countries...
What Went Wrong? Liberalism to Progressivism to Nationalism and Socialism
Students researching and debating the U.S./Middle East topic will likely clock plenty of hours toward history, geography, economics, and international relations coursework. In this post I suggest some organizing themes for research, and recommend...
Fall Economic Thinking Workshops
2014 Economic Thinking Workshops Schedule (Updated October 1) ET Workshops (NCFCA, Stoa, CCNW) (programs for public school debate listed separately below) • September 10 or 11, Tomball/Magnolia, Texas (tentative) (NCFCA) • September 25, New...
Intellectuals Promoting Freedom and Democracy in Egypt
Where might you look in the 1920s to 1950s for an intellectual atmosphere vibrant with discussions of classical liberal ideals, defending freedom and democracy and a strong civil society? Consider the country where a leading...
The economic roots of the Arab Spring
The McKinsey on Society website includes a number of compelling videos. For students researching and debating U.S./Middle East policy, the video below featuring Hernando de Soto on the economic roots of Arab Spring is...