Mubarak (noun): a psychotic ex-girlfriend who doesn't get that it's over. -Bashar al Assad, according to emails revealed by WikiLeaks

Bashar al Assad joked that Mubarak was a "noun" for "a psychotic ex-girlfriend who doesn't get that it's over." Ironically, Assad emailed this about Hosni Mubarak after his...

"It takes civil society to engage on solutions," shared Lotfi Maktouf, who founded Al Madanya, which is a Tunisian-based nonprofit that helps address the number one challenge in Tunisia, youth unemployment. Through Al Madanya's simple intervention, subsidizing driver's license training, youth obtain the means to earn a driver's license which...

Have citizens given up on government? This question applies to developing countries, like Egypt. But the question may also apply to highly developed countries, like the U.S.! In our nation's capitol, Washington, D.C. policy wonks share thoughts and "lessons learned" on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. This week, at least...

Traditional aid is no longer helpful, as once believed, for two big reasons. Aside from the necessity of emergency relief aid for disasters, aid as a tool for poverty alleviation or even political stability, has proven contradictory, if not disastrous. The first reason is presented by best-selling author of Dead...

"Development", "Diplomacy", and "Defense" make up the foreign policy triangle, but have different approaches to engaging and sharing information. Although Social Media Week organizes some great workshops of how to promote a message, I would rather focus on how social media tools may get us closer towards solutions...

"A bad wound heals but a bad word doesn't" is the Persian proverb that comes to mind after viewing the comprehensive documentary: Forced Confessions: Non-crime and Punishment in Iran. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace held the first American screening of this documentary on how torture was and is...

MBA students: How would you feel if one of your courses tested your entrepreneurial skills abroad by requiring you to set up a business in one of the Middle Eastern or North African countries? Would you be up for the challenge?

When you graduate "go and do the craziest...

How did the small business tips to fight holiday stress work out for you and your business? Let's review our checklist -- it's okay if your business is stuck in 'Week 4.' (I am going to throw out something that should be the focus for you in the...

Post inauguration discussions mostly reviewed the following:

• First Lady Michelle Obama's haircut,


• the "liberal" rhetoric within President Obama's inaugural address,


• the First Lady's evening dress,


• who got tickets to which ball or event; and


• whether Beyonce lip-synced or not.

PITAPOLICY tweets were underwhelmed with stories of human development, gender balance and other advocacy issues -- excluding voter discrimination. Take a look at the year in review: Yemen's poverty rate increases from 42 to above 50 percent with the upswing of Qat production. You know another country...

When a man is shot to death, that is a crime. But when a woman is raped by security forces, that amounts to a war crime, according to the Geneva Convention's Chapter 32, Rule 93. So if investing in a strategy to better articulate why the international community...

As big businesses report increased sales from Black Friday, small businesses like me are trying to figure out how to maximize opportunities to network at holiday parties. My small business was recently bumped from a panel because a bigger and more glamorous business also accepted the organization's invitation. However, I...

Up until the Oct. 22 presidential debate, the hardline on Iran was one of the distinguishing factors between candidates Obama and Romney, where Romney identified with more hawkish positions: sending troops to Syria and rallying a war cry for Iran. Romney wrote, "If you want peace,...

Two weeks ago I posted how cutting U.S. aid to the Arab world would hurt U.S. businesses. What followed was a series of tweets by Khaled Beydoun and Sana Saeed (tweeting as @legyptian and @SanaSaeed respectively) who pushed back on a related point:

@legyptian tweets: @pitapolicy @SanaSaeed...

Congressmen called for cutting aid to Libya and Egypt. If the cry to cut aid had not erupted due to such tragic circumstances, this would be laughable since just last year, Congressman Dreier called for an Free Trade Agreement with Egypt to increase good will. As...

"We need someone like you to join!" That was such a welcoming statement--especially as I am sitting next to a friendly chatterbox who does not feel threatened by my chain around my neck with the word 'God' written in Arabic. (Perhaps my baseball cap might have neutralized the effect.) Yet,...

Irony is when I walk past a set of tents pitched in New York, or Washington, DC's McPherson Square, and my colleague, who works on international development in the Arab world, exclaims surprise at the number of homeless people and unemployed youth occupying those tents.

The

Egypt's military is large and influential is pretty much like saying "It is what it is." This type of complacency has survived because the military tends to assume an influential role in many large powerful countries boasting a military-industrial complex, such as Turkey, China, and even the United States. We...

July 4th is the symbolic "Happy Birthday" for the United States. As Americans, we declared our freedom and emotionally separated ourselves from our rulers. It was not the birth of a two-party system, nor the birth of the election process. Moreover, July 4th is not the date we recognized the...

I want to understand why the senior White House official could not explain how dealing with Syria through a variety of coordinated measures would help stabilize the Middle East region at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) convention last week. And by "stable" I do not mean the status...