This is a selection of my articles about the Middle East, mostly written for the The Guardian newspaper and its website. The articles are grouped according to subject.
Democracy and reform
Turkey strides down the Arab street
Comment Is Free, 13 Sep 2011
Turkey is on a roll in the region, as many Arabs admire its political development – but now it will have to start taking sides
Arab governments are failing on human trafficking
Comment Is Free, 28 Jun 2011
The poor record of Middle Eastern countries on trafficking stems from the primacy given to protecting regimes over individuals
Arabs and the long revolution
18 May 2011
A talk at the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York
God save the Arab kings?
Comment Is Free, 27 Apr 2011
Arab monarchies underpinned by religion have been unscathed by the Middle East uprisings – but they may yet be toppled
The vagueness of the law keeps Middle Eastern protests in check
Comment Is Free, 20 Apr 2011
Virtually all Arab countries allow citizens to demonstrate – but there is always a clause that prevents serious subversion
The Arab spring is brighter than ever
Comment Is Free, 14 Mar 2011
Crackdowns on protest merely postpone the day of reckoning – Arabs now have a shared, unstoppable drive for freedom
Death penalty is not the norm in the Middle East
Comment Is Free, 11 Oct 2010
Despite the grotesque cases that occur in Saudi Arabia and Iran, use of the death penalty is not the regional norm
Arab regimes' autocratic nature masks their vulnerability
Comment Is Free, 9 Sep 2010
Lack of public debate makes Arab societies less compliant to new laws – and explains the heavy-handed state enforcement
Why taxes are low in the Middle East
Comment Is Free, 23 Aug 2010
High taxes help to build an effective state. That many Middle Eastern countries don't have them tells us much
Where next for the Middle East?
Lecture at the American University of Beirut, 9 June, 2010
Arab society's crunch points
London Middle East Institute lecture at SOAS, 26 January 2010
Arab winds of change
Comment Is Free, 22 Oct 2009
Who is driving real change in the Arab countries? Not politicians, but feminists, gay people and bloggers
The leaders that go on and on
Comment Is Free, Aug 19 2008
Musharraf's detractors can console themselves with the fact that his reign was short – at least by the standards of the Arab world
The globalisation of ideas
December 3, 2007
Ideologies and values are no longer limited by cultural and geographical boundaries. With time, this should prove to be a good thing
Required reading
Comment Is Free, September 6, 2007
A new initiative in the Middle East aims to translate 100 books into Arabic in its first year. Which titles do you think should be included?
Palaces and prisons
Comment Is Free, October 3, 2006
Condoleezza Rice wants to meet with Middle Eastern moderates - but she's looking in all the wrong places.
A mockery of human rights
Comment Is Free, June 22, 2006
The UN's new Human Rights Council should cut the crap and concentrate on the first two articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Arms and the women
Comment Is Free, June 20, 2006
What do quotas and armed conflicts have in common? Both can improve the gender balance in parliaments, a survey reveals.
End of a love affair
Comment Is Free, June 15, 2006
Should westerners mind their own business about injustices in the rest of the world?
Let's talk about sex, habibi
Comment Is Free, June 14, 2006
A Guardian debate explores the shifting boundaries of freedom of expression in the Middle East.
Sex and violence: the history
Comment Is Free, June 13, 2006
Is free expression just a matter of time, place and context? The Guardian and the British Museum aim to find out.
Where comment is not free
Comment Is Free, June 9, 2006
Growing numbers of cyber-dissidents imprisoned round the world need an organisation specifically to defend bloggers' rights.
False prophets
Comment Is Free, June 5, 2006
The US loves listening to its Arab/Muslim 'reformers'. And they love telling the US just what it wants to hear.
Bush's historian
Comment Is Free, May 2, 2006
The tributes to Bernard Lewis, the man who coined the term 'clash of civilisations', fail to convey how controversial he is.
Unnatural selection
The Guardian, June 13 2005
What happened, I sometimes wonder, to all those Lebanese flags? Earlier this year they were everywhere in Beirut; draped from balconies, fluttering from cars and motorbikes, and waved by demonstrators in their hundreds of thousands.
Writing on the wall
The Guardian, March 09 2005
Beirut, the morning after. The Hizbullah demonstrators who packed Riad al-Solh square yesterday have gone, and so have most of the anti-Syrian demonstrators from the day before.
Ballot boxing
The Guardian, December 13 2004
It's not exactly election fever, but over the next couple of months voters will go to the polls in three very different parts of the Arab world. On January 9, Palestinians will choose their new president. Iraqis are due to vote on January 30, and on Feb 10, Saudi Arabia will hold the first in a series of local government elections.
The Middle East in 2020
Towards the end of 2004, the Guardian newspaper published a series of articles imagining the world in 2020. In this extract, Brian Whitaker looks at the future of the Middle East. The original article is here.
Democracy in the Middle East
A series of five articles looking at the problems of democracy, published in March and April 2004:
Part one: Beware instant democracy
Part two: All together now
Part three: Fuelling the status quo
Part four: Core of the conflict
Part five: suspect packages
From Turkey to Tibet
The Guardian, February 23 2004
I have been writing about it in the Guardian for almost four years and I'm fairly sure that I have been there, but I have to confess that I don't know for certain where the Middle East is.
Voting for the wrong side
The Guardian, February 16 2004
Undaunted by the current muddle over elections in Iraq, the United States is pressing ahead with plans to democratise the rest of the Middle East.
Polls apart
March 04 2002
The first ever opinion poll in Muslim countries reveals the gap in perception between residents of the Middle East and the west, but the findings have to be read with care ...
Hereditary republics in Arab states
The Guardian, August 28 2001
A rumour swept Egypt last week that President Hosni Mubarak had suffered a heart attack. Though this caused only a momentary flicker of concern among the Egyptian public, the government moved swiftly to knock the tale on the head.
Arab politicians eye up makeover
The Guardian, July 16 2001
On a recent visit to London, the Syrian foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, held a press conference. Although originally scheduled to take place in a penthouse suite at one of the best hotels, it was moved at the last minute to a room in the cellar.
Moroccan prince denounces 'despotism'
The Guardian, July 09 2001
Not long ago, any Moroccan who described the country's system of government as "despotism" would have been hauled in for questioning and quite possibly bundled off to one of the desert jails, never to be seen again.
Sandy shores and a media desert
The Guardian, July 02 2001
"Hear the siren song that calls you to Tunisia. This hospitable land of colours and contrasts, spices and scents, invites you to enjoy its natural beauty, ancient cities, lively festivals and warm friendliness of its people. Welcoming visitors to its shores has long been an honoured Tunisian tradition."
Arab rulers undertake reform
The Guardian, February 21 2001
Most parents in Britain would, I'm sure, balk at the idea of naming a child "Referendum" or "New Labour". But in the Middle East, where people take their politics seriously, it's different.
Saudis open a can of words
The Guardian, February 14 2001
Cracking down on corruption can produce a host of new problems ...
Infrastructure of corruption
The Guardian, January 26 2001
Our bus was full when it left Tangiers, but it's even fuller now. Along the way we've picked up a dozen extra passengers and they're standing, crammed in the aisle, for a six-hour journey.
Why sovereignty rules in the Arab world
September 01 2000
One of the intriguing features of Arab politics is that the serious bickering usually takes place beneath a shower of pleasantries, while outright threats are rarely as menacing as they at first seem.
