This research is based on systematic quantitative and qualitative data concerning Egyptian university students’ image of the United States, their reactions to its public diplomacy messages, and why they hold those opinions. The data was collected almost ten months before Egypt’s January 25th revolution. Face-to-face survey and focus group discussions were used to probe the thorny questions and perceptions of these Egyptians vis-à-vis&nbs ... » read more

The devastating 2010 flood in Pakistan, the worst humanitarian disaster on the face of this planet in recent history, resulted in over 1.6 million damaged houses damaged, many razed to the ground, and 3.2 million hectares of standing crops inundated. Twenty percent of the country’s land mass—more than the entire landmass of Italy—has been affected. Millions of poor people in the riverside communities of the Indus have been pushed further into poverty. U ... » read more

The stability of Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state in a troubled region, presents a formidable challenge for the United States. Pakistan-based militant groups undermine the country’s security, help fuel the insurgency in Afghanistan, and increasingly endanger the American homeland. This report identifies the key trends in Pakistan’s stability over the last two years, and evaluates their implications for U.S. policy. Pakistan has made important progress against militancy ... » read more

In the past eighteen months, the Obama national security team has become increasingly more concerned about the threat that al-Qa’eda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) poses to Yemen and the American homeland. Although AQAP is extremely dangerous it poses one of the weaker challenges to Yemen as well as a limited security menace to the West. It does not possess the material and human means, the endurance to sustain a transnational campaign, or the resources to build a social we ... » read more

Malaysia – a Muslim-majority country that has the potential to join Turkey and Indonesia in the nascent league of Muslim democracies – has been undergoing a particularly nasty struggle recently, one that has pitted democratic forces against autocratic ones, and clean politics against corruption.  With Anwar once again posing a very real threat to the old regime’s entrenched power, fresh allegations of sexual misconduct, a crime that carries a maximum prison sentence of ... » read more