The Zambakari Advisory
  • About
  • Services
    • Strategic Intelligence
    • Program Design
    • Transitional Processes
  • Publications
    • Africa >
      • Special Issue: Fall 2021
      • Special Issue: Fall 2020
      • Special Issue: Summer 2020
      • Special Issue: Spring 2020
      • Special Issue: 2019
      • Peer Reviewed Articles
      • Reports
      • Magazines/Newspaper
      • Policy Brief
      • Features
      • Book / Book Chapter
    • Middle East & North Africa >
      • Special Issue: Winter 2020
      • Peer Reviewed Articles
    • North America >
      • Special Issue: Fall 2021
      • Special Issue: Fall 2020
      • Peer Reviewed Articles
      • Reports
    • Call For Papers
  • Blog
    • Africa
    • Middle East
    • North America
    • Submission Guidelines
  • Media
  • Donate

Syria: To Bomb again, or not?

4/16/2018

0 Comments

 
Dr. Christopher Zambakari, MBA, MIS, LP.D.
​Founder & CEO of The Zambakari Advisory
 
Picture
The guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) launches Tomahawk cruise missiles. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Carlos M. Vazquez II/Released)
The conflict in Syria is one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Since December 2017, over 5.4 million people have fled the war in Syria seeking refuge in neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan.  Another 6.3 million people have been forcefully displaced inside Syria (IDPs). News broke out suspecting that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime had used chemical attacks to strike the rebel-held suburb of Douma, east of Damascus. This prompted western governments’ outrage and pressure began to mount for a forceful response despite lack of a convincing proof that the chemical strike was carried out by the Syrian government. Nonetheless, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, asserts "proof" that last week the Syrian government attacked with chemical weapons. President Trump, who recently said he wants to pull the United States out of Syria, has more recently declared that the missiles “will be coming” towards Syria. On April 13th he ordered strikes on Syrian targets.
 ​

Read More
0 Comments

Attempting to Consolidate Power: Analyzing Muhammad bin Salman's Policies in Saudi Arabia

2/5/2018

0 Comments

 
​Feras Klenk, PhD Candidate
University of Arizona, School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies

PicturePrince Mohammad bin Salman at the Royal Court Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Recently the world was awoken to a show of force by Muhammad bin Salman (MbS), the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In a relatively short period of time, the prince has managed to remove any real or imagined rivals from the centers of political and economic power and authority in Saudi Arabia, by charging them with corruption. It is presented to a foreign, especially western, audience[1] as an anti-corruption drive by an energetic young reformer against old vested interests. It is cleverly couched in the liberal language of technocratic reform in the style of Emmanuel Macron, and liberal pundits emphasize its “revolutionary” potential. Hence, MbS’ allegedly necessary and urgent actions appeal to both domestic and international audiences.



Read More
0 Comments

Dispatch from moria Refugee camp: a Crisis within a Crisis

9/26/2017

0 Comments

 
John Balouziyeh, Attorney at Dentons Law Firm
Picture
Courtesy of John Balouziyeh: Some refugees in Moria have lived in tents such as this one for as long as eight or nine months, pending decisions on their asylum applications from the European Asylum Support Office
I recently returned from Moria Refugee Camp in Lesvos, Greece, where I served as a project lawyer with European Lawyers in Lesvos (“ELIL”), a legal aid organization that serves refugees fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and the broader Middle East and North Africa. The experience of working with refugees, who toiled for weeks or even months to reach the gateway to Europe, was moving on many fronts. These refugees landed on the shores of Lesvos after fleeing from the most atrocious crimes of the twenty-first century, including genocide, torture, sexual slavery and other war crimes. In this article, I will share my reflections on my experience and also ways that you can help.

Read More
0 Comments

Syria: Anatomy of a Sectarian Regime

1/15/2017

0 Comments

 
Nasser Rabbat (PhD), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
PictureDamaged buildings in Jobar, a suburb of Damascus, Syria, July 6, 2015. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh
In the summer of 1992, I took a “luxury cab” from Damascus to Amman. The cab’s class was important, for luxury cabs provided extra services at the border crossing, which could help preventing the usual humiliation reserved for Syrian men every time they left the country. 
 ​
​When we reached the Syrian border, the driver went down and promised to stamp the documents in five minutes.  He came back sooner with an apologetic look on his face.  “I am afraid you have to come down for they are asking about your draft status.”  I went in without any worry: my passport stated that I was exempt from military service, which should clear the issue.  But the officer demanded to see my official draft book.  “I don’t have it on me,” I said.  “Well, you cannot leave the country then,” he firmly replied.  I tried to explain, but he would not listen.  The driver took me by the hand and said, “let us speak to the chief of the border center.”  We went into a large office with an army major sitting behind a big desk under the ubiquitous picture of President Hafiz al-Assad.  


Read More
0 Comments

The Age of Disintegration

7/21/2016

0 Comments

 
Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for the Independent of London
PictureA man rides a bicycle through a devastated part of Homs, Syria. (File/AP Photo)
​​In the process and under the pressure of outside military intervention, a vast region of the planet seems to be cracking open. Yet there is very little understanding of these processes in Washington. This was recently well illustrated by the protest of 51 State Department diplomats against President Obama’s Syrian policy and their suggestion that air strikes be launched targeting Syrian regime forces in the belief that President Bashar al-Assad would then abide by a ceasefire. The diplomats’ approach remains typically simpleminded in this most complex of conflicts, assuming as it does that the Syrian government’s barrel-bombing of civilians and other grim acts are the “root cause of the instability that continues to grip Syria and the broader region.”It is as if the minds of these diplomats were still in the Cold War era, as if they were still fighting the Soviet Union and its allies.


Read More
0 Comments

Refugee Crisis and Challenges of Integration

4/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Rose Jaji (PhD), University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
Picture
The current influx of refugees heading for Europe has rejuvenated debate on refugees in political, policy making, humanitarian and academic circles as well as among citizens of (prospective) host countries. In this piece, I specifically address refugee integration. There is a lot of uncertainty and perhaps anxiety on whether host countries can integrate the refugees, the strategies to ensure successful integration and how the end result looks like. Questions on how the future of countries that have taken in huge numbers of refugees is going to be like are compounded by confusion of integration with assimilation.




Read More
0 Comments

Homegrown Extremism in Jordan

3/1/2016

0 Comments

 
Malika Bouziane, Berghof Foundation, Berlin, Germany
Picture
Walking through the Jordanian capital the last days, I was struck by the increased police presence on the streets of Amman; a response to an omnipresent threat being in the air and a demonstration by the regime that security and stability is given a top priority. Indeed, the 2005 suicide bombing of three hotels in Amman, killing and injuring dozens of people is still present in the collective Jordanian memory.


Read More
0 Comments

ABOUT

MEDIA

CONTACT US

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Copyright © 2020 The Zambakari Advisory - ​Privacy Policy 
Our site uses cookies to improve your experience. You can control cookies by adjusting your browser or device settings.
If you continue without changing your settings, we assume that you are happy to receive all cookies.
​If not, please feel free to opt out here.

SEO by Qasim Khilji

  • About
  • Services
    • Strategic Intelligence
    • Program Design
    • Transitional Processes
  • Publications
    • Africa >
      • Special Issue: Fall 2021
      • Special Issue: Fall 2020
      • Special Issue: Summer 2020
      • Special Issue: Spring 2020
      • Special Issue: 2019
      • Peer Reviewed Articles
      • Reports
      • Magazines/Newspaper
      • Policy Brief
      • Features
      • Book / Book Chapter
    • Middle East & North Africa >
      • Special Issue: Winter 2020
      • Peer Reviewed Articles
    • North America >
      • Special Issue: Fall 2021
      • Special Issue: Fall 2020
      • Peer Reviewed Articles
      • Reports
    • Call For Papers
  • Blog
    • Africa
    • Middle East
    • North America
    • Submission Guidelines
  • Media
  • Donate