With regard to region-wide analytical tools, the World Bank has issued two recent reports on governance challenges in the MENA region. One is related to education and emphasizes the need to change the behavior of educators and policymakers. The other analyzes the prospects for increasing women's entrepreneurship in the region. Meanwhile, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has created a highly useful website that allows users to quickly access information about the basic status of politics and reform efforts in countries throughout the region.
Several recent country-specific reports have emerged as well. The Carnegie Endowment has published a report on Algeria under President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, is submitting reports to the UN Human Rights Council as part of the universal periodic review for several countries in the region, including Bahrain, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Many of the recent developments in Egypt were covered in this post last week. One other story worth mentioning in the context of increasing popular dissatisfaction is the government's recent ban on demonstrations around holy sites such as mosques, which has been greeted with anger. Separately, a good resource for Egypt information is the Arabist blog.
Given the lack of political ferment within Syria, the country's troubled foreign relations generally receive most press attention. The Institute for War and Peace Reporting has now established a Syria program; both its Syria News Briefings and Syria Press Monitor pages provide information relevant to governance issues inside the country.
The big story in Turkey recently has been the battle between secular elites and the ruling AK Party, which has Islamist roots but has by most accounts followed moderate domestic social policies. Headscarves are the impetus for the confrontation, which is analyzed in this IPS article and contextualized somewhat further in this Financial Times article.
Finally, Iran is a country that fascinates foreign observers and receives consistently interesting journalistic and analytical treatment. The Carnegie Endowment published a report that takes a close look at Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while the FT examines advances and continued shortcomings in women's rights. On a semi-positive note, the LA Times describes moderate reforms in the government's attitude toward treating its large number of opiate addicts, while Amnesty International notes that a prominent trade unionist was released from prison last week.
