Lebanon's Policy Making and Hezbollah Killing Machine

Tehran Pushes Washington Toward Confrontation

Lubna Alhomsi’s Startup Journey in the Arab Fashion Industry

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Raghad Saddam Hussein: Her Father’s Defense and Prospects of Political Involvement in Iraq

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Lebanon’s Policymaking and Hezbollah’s Killing Machine

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Editorial

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Editor-in-Chief

With a new set of priorities established by the Biden administration in Washington, less attention is being given to the Middle East, and especially to Lebanon. And while the French President Emmanuel Macron reconsiders the terms of his French Initiative for Lebanon, Hezbollah sees an opportunity to exert more control over Lebanon, its institutions, and its people – using both political alliances and physical violence. In this week’s cover story, Hanin Ghaddar speaks about Hezbollah’s tactics in government formation and its resort to assassinations as a means to silence frustrated Shia in Lebanon .

Beginning February 21, if US sanctions against Iran are not alleviated, Tehran will formally reject any further short-noticed IAEA inspections, according to a law passed in December by the conservative-dominated Iranian parliament. In defiance to Washington’s stance on reviving the JCPOA, Iran is set to step even further out of compliance, but this time it may not be an irreversible deviation. In his weekly column, Joseph Braude explores the new administration’s choice between an unwanted confrontation and an even less desirable capitulation, as well as Tehran’s desperate need for sanctions relief .

While Arab countries are witnessing a spike in COVID-19 cases, measures are being taken with regards to their educational systems. Full distance learning procedures have been renewed in the Gulf countries of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait, while in Egypt more flexible options are provided.

Students, teachers, parents, and school administrators are still struggling with the new normal of school year. Hatem Khedr gives us an account of these changes and how people are adjusting to them .

Read these articles and more on our website eng.majalla.com.

As always, we welcome and value our reader’s feedback and we invite you to take the opportunity to leave your comments on our website .

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Issue 1840- February- 19/02/2021

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ing to Convict Trump

16 When Allies Go Nuclear

36 Arabs Implement Online Education

to Control Pandemic

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Minari Will Draw You in With Its Beautiful Little Details

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Protest in Support of Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow Russian women opposition activists take part in a protest action in support of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the occasion of Valentine Day in Moscow, Russia, 14 February 2021. Navalny was detained after his arrival to Moscow from Germany on 17 January 2021. /EPA Photos 6

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Venice Carnival People wear carnival costumes and protective face masks during the last Sunday of Venice Carnival, in Venice, Italy, 14 February 2021. The traditional Carnival of Venice is held this year without the usual crowds of tourists due to the ongoing coronavirus Covid19- pandemic . Andrea merola MB Venice. Italy (EPA Photos)

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interest at the same time.

“There is a risk of intervention (by central banks). The rules can be changed... But the more people start to use it and give it greater legitimacy, the harder it is for central banks to push back.”

Free Patriotic Movement.

“Hariri’s goal was not to cause a further rift with President Aoun.

Rather, his goal was to clarify a set of inaccuracies, slanders and lies that were being broadcast about Hariri’s formation of the government,” el-Haggar said.

WHO Says 13 Middle East Nations Report New Variants

Erbil Aattack Ppaves Wway for a Nnew Cchapter with Baghdad on Ddisputed Tterritories, says writer An attack that targeted a US military base in Erbil this week paves the way for starting a new page with Baghdad regarding disputed territoted to forming a government ac- ries that are occupied by armed miLebanese MP Says Hariri Ready to cording to the criteria set by the litias, Iraqi writer and political anaOpen Discussion with Aoun over French initiative, that is, assembling lyst Tariq Jawhar said.

Forming New Gov’t a government of non-partisan spe- “I think that it is now an opportunity cialists,” el-Haggar told Al-Majalla for Baghdad and Erbil to start a new page, especially by cooperating in Lebanese Prime Minister Saad in exclusive statements. security matters as well as in the disHariri is ready to open discussion with President Michel Aoun over On February 14, Prime Minis- puted territories that are occupied by the formation of a new government, ter Hariri delivered a speech that armed militias and terrorist elements said Lebanese member of parlia- caused negative reactions from affiliated with ISIS,” he told Al-Mament Mohamed el-Haggar.

President Aoun, his team and the jalla in an interview.

Despite its territorial defeat in Iraq “Prime Minister Hariri is commitin 2017, ISIS remains active in Iraq – particularly in territory in the north and west of the country that is disputed by Erbil and Baghdad.

titude of 24,700 kilometers above the Martian surface on Wednesday, a day after the probe entered Mars’ orbit, according to the statement.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid AlMaktoum, UAE prime minister and Dubai›s ruler, shared the colored image on Twitter.

«The first picture of Mars captured by the first-ever Arab probe in history,» he wrote.

The mission is designed to reveal the secrets of Martian weather, but the UAE also wants it to serve as an inspiration for the region›s youth.

Bitcoin Tops $50,000 For First Time Bitcoin rose above $50,000 this

week to a new record high, building on a rally fuelled by signs that the world’s biggest cryptocurrency is gaining acceptance amongst mainstream investors, Reuters reported.

Russ Mould, Investment director at AJ, said, “With Bank of NY Mellon and Mastercard having given it an affirmation in the last week, it’s a massive step forward for the bitcoin investors who view it as the future of money. “(Tesla boss Elon) Musk’s intervention has created interest, and the more people that adapt it and use it as money, then the greater the chances of it perhaps being taken on board as a mainstream currency.

That would feed further speculative

UAE’s Hope Probe Sends Home First Image of Mars The UAE›s «Hope» probe sent back its first image of Mars, the national space agency said Sunday, days after the spacecraft successfully entered the Red Planet›s orbit.

The picture «captured the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, emerging into the early morning sunlight,» it said in a statement.

The image was taken from an al-

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Coronavirus case numbers are stabilizing in parts of the Middle East but the situation remains critical, with more than a dozen countries

reporting cases of new variants, the World Health Organization said.

Ahmed al-Mandhari, director of WHO›s eastern Mediterranean region, which comprises most of the Middle East, said in a press briefing from Cairo that at least one of the three new coronavirus variants was reported in the 13 countries in the region. He did not name the countries.

All three of the new variants are more contagious, according to WHO. Al-Mandhari said there are nearly 6 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the region and about 140,000 deaths. WHO urged people to continue taking precautionary measures against the virus.

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over story alliances and physical violence.

THE POLITICAL GAME Although Macron is struggling with Iran’s and Hezbollah’s hostility and unwillingness to cooperate, he is still trying to find a compromise through soft diplomacy. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is hiding behind its ally President Michel Aoun, who has so far rejected every government formation presented by prime minister designate Saad Hariri, knowing that Hariri vets every formation with the French president.

Via Aoun, Hezbollah is trying to achieve more gains and push Macron to make more compromises.

The group wants a better representation in the next government, by guaranteeing the obstructing third for itself and its allies. They also want to make sure they manage and control the ministry of finance – through a friendly Shia minister, and dictate the government mission before it’s even formed.

Hezbollah knows that this is the perfect window of opportunity to force these compromises, before the broader regional dynamics shift, and while the world is distracted by the US new priorities.

Lebanon’s Policymaking and Hezbollah’s Killing Machine Given US New Priorities, the Iran-backed Group Steps Up its Tactics Hanin Ghaddar With a new set of priorities established by the Biden administration in Washington, less attention is being given to the Middle East, and especially

to Lebanon. And while the French President Emmanuel Macron reconsiders the terms of his French Initiative for Lebanon, Hezbollah sees an opportunity to exert more control over Lebanon, its institutions, and its people – using both political

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Lebanese President, Michel Aoun (L) receives Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri (R) at Baabda Presidential Palace in Beirut, Lebanon on February 2021 ,12.

(Getty)

On the other hand, Hariri also knows that if he drops any of the Arab, French and American conditions for forming the government, his cabinet will fail as the previous one did in 2019 – after the protests forced him to resign. Without the international and Arab support – political and financial – Hariri will not be able to receive the bail out needed for Lebanon’s economy and financial sectors.

Accordingly, his cabinet will be responsible for Lebanon’s final collapse and his name will forever be marked with it.

Therefore, Hariri cannot offer any compromises on his own and needs to go back to at least France, UAE, and Egypt - the three countries he recently visited to ask for help. Despite the fact that Hariri received the regional and international support he needed, he still couldn’t convince Aoun of his formation, mainly because Hezbollah is not ready, and is waiting for the international context to become more mature. If anything, Hezbollah and Iran prefer to make deals directly with the US – without having to go through France and the UAE. In this context, it is going to be almost impossible to form a government in Lebanon anytime soon. And as we all wait and get distracted by the news of Hariri’s

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Hariri also knows that if he drops any of the Arab, French and American conditions for forming the government, his cabinet will fail as the previous one did in 2019 – after the protests forced him to resign. regional and European visits, and his meetings with Aoun in Baabda, Hezbollah is not wasting time.

They started killing and thereby enforcing their command and authority from outside the political scene and government formation tactics.

THE KILLING MACHINE The assassination of Lokman Slim earlier in February took everyone by surprise. Although we expected Hezbollah to kill its opponents – as it has always done – we were too distracted with Hezbollah’s rhetoric on government formation and the general political scene. We almost forgot that at their core, Hezbollah is a killing machine. They kill when someone like Lokman Slim threatens them with ideas, logical arguments, and his determination to live and regain what Hezbollah has stolen over the years.

Hezbollah’s killing machine was not really turned on now. It actually hasn’t stopped since the eighties.

Right after Hezbollah was established – allegedly as a Shiite resistance movement – their main concern was to get rid of the leftist Shia leaders, who were back then the leaders of the National Resistance Front.

Assassinations against these figures, such Hussein Mroueh and Mahdi Amel – intensified and picked pace until Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) felt comfortable to take over the Shia scene and leadership.

After the 2005 Cedar Revolution and the withdrawal of the Syrian troops from Lebanon, Hezbollah’s killing machine picked pace and moved against the March 14 camp political leadership, when a series of assassinations of political leaders and public figures took place until they felt comfortable again and ready to take over the Lebanese political scene.

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This happened in 2008 with the Doha Accord, ending the May 7 events when Hezbollah used their arms for the first time against the Lebanese people.

Since 2008, they kept killing but with a slower pace and with a more targeted approach, such as the assassination of head of ISF Information Branch Wissam al-Hassan in 2011. Yet, slowly but surely, the stronger Hezbollah’s grip over Lebanon became, the less killing they had to do. The more comfortable they felt with their authority and power, the less urgent it became to turn on the killing machine.

So why restart it now? Why kill Slim at this point and what do we expect moving forward?

HEZBOLLAH’S UNCERTAINTIES Slim might be the first in this new wave of assassinations, but not necessarily the last.

Hezbollah seems to have felt the urge to kill again because they are feeling less comfortable, and certainly less in control of the Lebanese street.

Hezbollah seems to have felt the urge to kill again because they are feeling less comfortable, and certainly less in control of the Lebanese street. By assassinating Lokma, Hezbollah would be going back to the eighties where targeting Shia leaders was the objectives.

Hezbollah feels that they no longer in control of the Shia community, which has bravely showed signs of discontent, despite the threats and intimidation against Shia activists. The resistance rhetoric no longer works, as they turned their weapons against Lebanese and other Arabs in the region, from Lebanon to Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Hezbollah’s protection of corrupt politicians no longer works, as the Lebanese have finally realized the repercussions of this approach on their personal lives – that is when they can no longer access their bank accounts, lost their jobs, and are waiting for the final financial collapse. Hezbollah’s justifications no longer work as well. The Lebanese people, including the majority of the Shia, do not prioritize Hezbollah’s rhetoric anymore. All they want is to live.

With many Shia showing restlessness and frustration, Hezbollah felt threatened. Without the necessary

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A picture of Lokman Slim is seen during a memorial service to pay tribute to him, one week after he was found dead in his car, on February 11, 2021 in Dahieh, Beirut, Lebanon (Getty)

US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea speaks during a memorial ceremony in honour of slain prominent activist and intellectual Lokman Slim, in the garden of the family residence in the capital Beirut›s southern suburbs, a week after he was found dead in his car, on February 11, 2021.

(Getty)

funds to cater for the people’s needs, the group cannot satisfy their fears and concerns. Therefore, it was time to impose fear, and they turned on their killing machine against one of the main and most influential Shia leaders and intellectuals in Lebanon: Lokman Slim.

However, Slim’s assassination might very well be the first in a series of anti-Hezbollah activists, mainly those who have a certain influence over the Shia community. There are many who are working behind the scenes, and many who continue to be vocal and determined. But fear might eventually slip through the layers of threats and public shaming.

Hezbollah’s media have already started the public shaming campaign and their threats increased in a shameless manner.

In any case, Hezbollah cannot easily turn down the Shia discontent by means of assassination. And it is not something they can walk back from without seriously addressing its roots and depths. But as they fail to do so, they do what they usually do – they kill. Meanwhile, the Shia discontent will only grow.

It might not get loud because of the fear instilled by the killing machine, but it will not go away. Slim’s assassination will make sure of that.

As the world watches the US diplomatic efforts

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It might be an opportunity for the world to also remember that like Hezbollah, the regime in Iran also has its own killing machine, which is still killing across the region, despite all efforts and soft diplomacy. towards Iran and the development of the nuclear program negotiations, Hezbollah resorts to killing.

It might be an opportunity for the world to also remember that like Hezbollah, the regime in Iran also has its own killing machine, which is still killing across the region, despite all efforts and soft diplomacy.

Hanin Ghaddar is the Friedmann Fellow at The Washington Institute’s Geduld Program on Arab Politics, where she focuses on Shia politics throughout the Levant.

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olitics Tehran a chance to reset relations with Washington, early indications show little shift in either rhetoric or behavior. Indeed, some prominent figures have taken pains to erase any distinction between the Trump and Biden administrations. Hossein Dehghan, a military adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and currently the only declared presidential candidate for the country’s upcoming elections, recently gave an interview in which he said that, while “the Biden administration talked about diplomacy, multilateralism, and interaction in the international arena as well as returning to its international commitments, [nevertheless], we still see the same policies from the newly elected administration as we did from the Trump team: not lifting the oppressive sanctions against Iranian people, continuing to block Iran oil revenue in foreign banks while we need the money to fight against the coronavirus pandemic.” Dehghan concluded, “Altogether this means the continuation of Trumpism in international relations.”

Tehran Pushes Washington Toward Confrontation With Sanctions in Place, Iran’s Deadline Will Test American Resolve

by Joseph Braude The Iranian parliament is set to challenge Washington’s commitment to reviving the JCPOA by stepping even further out of compliance itself, presenting the new administration with an un-

comfortable choice between an unwanted confrontation and an even less desirable capitulation.

THE VIEW FROM TEHRAN Although the presidential transition afforded

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Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei delivers remarks on Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran Nuclear Issue in 2015 between five permanent members of United Nations Security Council, Germany and Iran on February ,17 2021 in Tehran, Iran.

(Getty)

Most of Tehran’s other moves to undermine the agreement, such as uranium enrichment, could be speedily reversed. “But the steps that are coming do pose a more significant risk and are more difficult to reverse.”

“But it does not mean Iran will stop other inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.”

The shift would mark a stark break with Iran’s previous deviations from the JCPOA. In the assessment of Kelsey Davenport, director for Other government officials have echoed De- nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control hghan’s sentiments. Iranian Foreign Ministry Association in Washington, most of Tehran’s spokesperson Khatibzadeh recently noted, other moves to undermine the agreement, such “It’s a pity that the current (US) administra- as uranium enrichment, could be speedily retion has become an accomplice in the previ- versed. “But the steps that are coming, I think, ous administration’s violation of commit- do pose a more significant risk and are more ments. This is not a constructive approach difficult to reverse,” she said. Although Rouand must end.” Khatibzadeh denounced the hani and the Majles have so far stopped short Biden administration for “following in the of threatening to expel IAEA inspectors, any footsteps of Donald Trump,” and contended loss of access will likely fuel speculation that that Washington has maintained the same Tehran is engaged in illicit activities. The risk “maximum pressure and crimes” against “the “underscores the importance of restoring full compliance with the JCPOA before Iran takes Iranian nation.” these steps and develops this new knowledge,” Davenport said.

AN APPROCHING DEADLINE It is likely that absent the alleviation of U.S. sanctions, in less than a week, Tehran will formally reject any further snap inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency beginning February 21. This comes within the framework of a law passed in December

by Tehran’s conservative-dominated Majles.

“Our law is very clear regarding this issue,” Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei told a televised news conference last month.

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To date, President Biden has given no indication he plans to reconsider his campaign pledge, so often repeated, to maintain American sanctions until Iran returns to full compliance with the JCPOA. February 21 will mark the first test of that commitment.

If history is any guide, Tehran is the more likely party to back down, with desperately needed sanctions relief hanging in the balance.

When Allies Go Nuclear United States’ Urgent Agenda to Stop the Spread of the World’s Deadliest Weapons

By Chuck Hagel, Malcolm Rifkind, Kevin Rudd, Ivo H. Daalder The year is 2030. Seismic monitors have just detected an unforeseen underground atomic explosion, signaling that yet another country has joined the growing club of nuclear-armed states. There are now 20 such countries, more than double the number in 2021. To the surprise of many, the proliferation has come not from rogue states bent on committing nuclear blackmail but from a group of countries usually seen as cautious and rule abiding: U.S. allies. Even though they had forsworn acquiring nuclear capabilities decades earlier when they signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), these

allies changed their minds and withdrew from the agreement, a move that triggered yet more defections as nations across the world raced to acquire the bomb. And so the number of nuclear decision-makers multiplied, raising the odds of a terrifying possibility: that one of these powerful weapons might go off.

Far-fetched? Perhaps, but this scenario is more plausible now than many think. Although the threat of nuclear proliferation in recent decades has been concentrated in the Middle East and Asia, that wasn’t always the case. In the 1960s, Washington worried about its Asian and European allies going nuclear.

U.S. intelligence officials projected that by the mid1970-s, there could be 10 to 15 nuclear powers in the world, including Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Turkey.

The NPT was designed to prevent this possibility, and since

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it was signed, in 1968, only four countries (India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea) have acquired and retained operational nuclear forces. This success was due in large part to the United States’ concerted efforts to extend its nuclear umbrella to allied territory. Reassured that they would be protected from nuclear attack and intimidation, U.S. allies in Asia and Europe decided not to develop their own nuclear capabilities.

But now they may be rethinking that decision. In both Asia and Europe, U.S. allies face a growing military threat from nuclear-armed powers, as China and Russia each become more aggressive and modernize their nuclear forces. And in the United States, allies see a government that has walked away from long-standing arms control agreements and a population that no longer seems committed to global engagement. All of this has left U.S. allies wondering whether they can still rely on Washington for their defense and security—or whether it might be time to think about getting the bomb.

In his inaugural address, President Joe Biden pledged, “We will repair our alliances.” But after the Trump administration did so much to sow mistrust, it will take more than words to reassure allies of the United States’ commitments and erase any thoughts of joining the nuclear club. It will also take active steps to bolster confidence in the United States’ nuclear guarantee, reinvigorated defense cooperation with allies, and a complete rethinking of arms control. This is a big agenda.

But it is doable.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speak to the media prior to talks at the Chancellery on August 2020 ,27 in Berlin, Germany. (Getty)

NERVOUS STATES Most of the discussions in allied capitals about the U.S. nuclear umbrella have played out beyond public view, but signs of disquiet are beginning to emerge. In Germany, doubts about the United States’ reliability have arisen within official circles, and a growing chorus of voices outside government has suggested possible alternatives to the U.S. nuclear guarantee.

Some have proposed relying instead on a European nuclear umbrella composed of some combination of French and British capabilities, perhaps supported financially by Germany and other nonnuclear European countries. France, for its part, has invited fellow European states to engage in a “strategic dialogue” on its nuclear deterrent and possibly participate in nuclear exercises.

In Poland, there have been calls to bolster Europe’s nuclear deterrence, with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the country’s governing party, welcoming the idea of the EU as a nuclear power with an arsenal equal to that of Russia’s. Turkey, too, has shown an interest in the bomb, with its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, suggesting that he is open to the possibility of acquiring it. “Several countries have missiles with nuclear warheads, not one or two. But we can’t have them,” he said.

“This I cannot accept.”

Similar sentiments are emerging in Asia. Japan, the only country in history to have suffered a nuclear attack, is

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US should bring NATO and Asian allies into the nuclear planning process from the outset, closely consulting them as the administration conducts its next Nuclear Posture Review. concerned about the continued reliability of the U.S. nuclear umbrella, especially as its nuclear-armed neighbors become more aggressive. Doubts about U.S. reliability are nothing new in Japan: in the 1970s, the country delayed ratifying the NPT for more than five years, worried that the treaty would enshrine its nuclear inferiority and that the U.S. umbrella might prove insufficient to ensure Japan’s security. Today, such sentiment has been compounded by China’s newfound assertiveness and North Korea’s nuclear advances. And although Japanese officials are not openly raising the possibility that their country will acquire a nuclear arsenal of its own, Japan continues to maintain the material and know-how to do so rapidly should it decide to.

South Korea has also been questioning its lack of a nuclear arsenal. North Korea first tested a nuclear weapon in 2006, and in the years since, it has built dozens of weapons and hundreds of missiles, some of which could reach the continental United States. Adding to South Korea’s feelings of insecurity, in 2019, the Trump administration canceled joint military exercises with the country and demanded that it quintuple the amount it pays for the privilege of keeping tens of thousands of U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula. Although few South Koreans have advocated a national nuclear deterrent, more and more of them want greater reassurance from the United States. Many have called for Washington to reintroduce the tactical nuclear weapons—short-range and low-yield—that it withdrew after the Cold War. In Australia, finally, growing concern about China has led to what the Australian government has called “the most consequential strategic realignment” of its defense policy since World War II: a clear focus on defending its national security in an Indo-Pacific region marked by great-power competition and a rising chance of conflict. Although Australia is not yet rethinking its nuclear abstinence, it has decided to acquire long-range strike capabilities to enhance the credibility of its defense and deterrence posture. If doubts about U.S. reliability were to prove more than a temporary phenomenon, the same logic could lead to a renewed debate about Australia’s nonnuclear policy.

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olitics The biggest nuclear unknown in the coming decade concerns China’s arsenal, which, although shrouded in secrecy, is believed to be undergoing rapid modernization and could double in size within a few years.

NO DOUBT Reassuring allies starts with a return to fundamentals: the Biden administration must unequivocally reaffirm the cornerstones of U.S. security commitments. That means affirming the United States’ treaty commitments to collective defense, reversing the Trump administration’s decision to remove U.S. troops from Germany and elsewhere, and negotiating long-term costsharing arrangements with the countries that host U.S. troops in Asia and Europe.

To erase doubts about the U.S. umbrella, the Biden administration should raise the salience of nuclear issues with allies. It should bring NATO and Asian allies into the nuclear planning process from the outset, closely consulting them as the administration conducts its next Nuclear Posture Review.

The administration should plan more exercises with U.S. allies that include a nuclear dimension and regularly involve allied political leaders in them. Finally, it should seek to bolster the defense and deterrence capabilities of its alliances in Asia and Europe. That may entail increasing the number of U.S. troops in both regions or, at the very least, pledging to maintain their current levels. It may also entail deploying additional missile defense capabilities and reviewing the U.S. nuclear posture in both regions to ensure that existing capabilities are enough to maintain the credibility of the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Whatever the decisions, they should be taken only in close consultation with, and at the invitation of, U.S. allies.

Allies will have to do their part. Europe, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said, must “take on more responsibility,

For more than 50 years, the United States’ alliances have helped stop the spread of nuclear weapons. But faced with worsening regional threats and growing uncertainty about U.S. staying power, U.S. allies are beginning to reassess their security arrangements—including their nuclear dimensions.

both in military and diplomatic terms.” But it should do so by building up real military capacity—improved warfighting capabilities, enhanced readiness—not just more procedures or headquarters. Europe will also need to build up the nuclear dimension of its defense efforts. European allies that currently participate in NATO nuclear missions by deploying aircraft and hosting U.S. weapons should retain and modernize these forces.

Western Europe’s two nuclear powers, France and the United Kingdom, should not only deepen their long-standing nuclear cooperation but also offer to extend their nuclear deterrents to their European allies. The result would be a European nuclear umbrella, something that would complement rather than replace the U.S. nuclear guarantee yet still strengthen NATO and bolster European security. Indeed, that is the point of greater European capabilities, and the United States should make clear that it welcomes any efforts to strengthen defense cooperation within Europe. The region’s ability to act autonomously poses no threat to the United States or NATO; to the contrary, it makes Europe a stronger military partner.

Restoring confidence among U.S. allies in Asia will be trickier, because the region lacks its own version of NATO and relies instead on bilateral security arrangements. To compensate, Washington should encourage greater cooperation among its Asian allies and reestablish trilateral security cooperation with Japan and South Korea, which was halted in recent years

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- U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Feb. ,12 2021. (Getty)

because of disputes between the two Asian powers. Washington should also establish an Asian equivalent to NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group, a body that would bring Australia, Japan, and South Korea into the U.S. nuclear planning process and offer them a platform for discussing regional deterrence. Finally, the United States and the three other countries in the Asia Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Australia, India, and Japan) may need to consider eventually including South Korea in the group if Seoul expresses interest in joining.

The biggest nuclear unknown in the coming decade concerns China’s arsenal, which, although shrouded in secrecy, is believed to be undergoing rapid modernization and could double in size within a few years. The United States and its allies have a powerful incentive to penetrate China’s nuclear opacity and get greater insight into its capabilities. Arms control agreements can play a role in this effort, providing greater transparency about capabilities, an exchange of views on intentions, and stability in the overall nuclear relationship.

Indeed, the United States needs to overhaul its approach to arms control globally. Biden took a wise first step when he agreed to extend the New START treaty with Russia, which covers only long-range strategic weapons; the next step should be a new bilateral agreement that would seek to cover all U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads, including those in storage, as well as novel nuclear delivery systems, such as hypersonic weapons.

That said, arms control must move beyond the U.S.-Russian

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framework that has dominated for decades. A logical grouping for expanded discussions would be the five permanent members of the UN Security Council—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These five countries should start a dialogue that addresses nuclear issues, and over time, they could negotiate measures that would pull back the curtain on their arsenals, convince one another of the defensive nature of those arsenals, and open up the possibility of mutual limitations. As a first step, the United States and Russia could invite the other three members to observe the inspections that Washington and Moscow conduct as part of their existing arms control obligations, thus demonstrating the value of transparency without revealing critical secrets about weapons designs. Subsequently, all five countries could agree to exchange information about their nuclear capabilities, notify each other of forthcoming missile and other tests, and take other steps to enhance transparency. Eventually, each country could commit to limiting its nuclear forces to the lowest possible level.

WHAT’S AT STAKE Biden has made rebuilding U.S. alliances a fundamental priority from the moment he took office. The president was right to reaffirm the U.S. commitment to NATO in a call with the alliance’s secretary-general and key European allies, and he was right to do the same regarding Australia, Japan, and South Korea in calls to those countries’ leaders.

Now, however, comes the hard work of transforming relationships in more fundamental ways—bolstering deterrence and defense capabilities all around, bringing Asian and European allies into the U.S. nuclear planning process, and broadening arms control efforts beyond Russia. This is hardly an impossible agenda, but it could hardly be more urgent. At stake is nothing less than a decades-long success: preventing the spread of the world’s deadliest weapons.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

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olitics

What’s Next for GOP Senators Refusing to Convict Trump Trump›s Acquittal: A Short-term Calculation with Long Range Effects Doyle McManus It always seemed unlikely that Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader, would vote to convict the disgraced ex-president who, even from exile in Mar-a-Lago, holds sway over most of his party.

But the justification McConnell offered when announcing his

vote for acquittal Saturday was an act of political cynicism and a weaselly evasion of the main issue the Senate was asked to decide: whether Donald Trump bears responsibility for the sacking of the Capitol on Jan. 6.

McConnell has already said what he thinks about the facts: Trump is guilty of incitement, at least under a common-sense definition of the word.

«The mob was fed lies,» McConnell said in a Senate speech last

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) enters the U.S. Capitol Building on Saturday, Feb. 2021 ,13, in Washington, D.C. (TNS)

month. «They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding» — the certification of President Biden›s election — «which they did not like.»

For the usually sphinx-like McConnell, that was a moment of stunning clarity — as close to an act of courage as we›ve seen lately in a party whose members are alternately enthralled or terrified by Trump.

But McConnell then retreated, voting to spare Trump from being held accountable — not because he is innocent, but on narrow procedural grounds.

«While a close call, I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal, and we therefore lack jurisdiction,» he wrote to other senators before the vote.

Even though Trump was impeached when he was president, McConnell argued, he cannot be put on trial after the end of his term.

Most legal scholars, conservatives and liberals alike, believe that argument is wrong. In past centuries, the Senate has tried at least two officials who were no longer in power. And last week, by a bipartisan vote of 56 to 44, the Senate upheld those precedents.

The motive for McConnell›s retreat is clear: He wants to give his Republican colleagues a cover story, a technical excuse to vote against impeachment so it doesn›t come back to haunt them.

Most Republican primary voters remain loyal to Trump, often fiercely so.

But the reason McConnell is providing is so flimsy that it›s unlikely to stand up well in the eyes of history.

McConnell›s dodge wasn›t the only weak excuse GOP senators reached for as they searched for reasons to acquit a defendant many of them privately believe to be guilty.

Some engaged in old-fashioned tit for tat: Sure, Trump riled up the mob, but didn›t some Democrats do the same thing when they made excuses for violence on the fringes of Black Lives Matter protests?

«You had a summer where people all over the country were doing similar kinds of things,» Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said. So what›s the big deal about Trump encouraging the people who sacked the Capitol and threatened to kill the vice president?

Equally weak was the assertion that the impeachment was «just politics,» a product of hatred for Trump and his followers.

«This is about humiliating the individuals that supported President Trump,» Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee argued.

Leave aside that 10 House Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, considered the charges serious enough that they joined Democrats to vote in favor of impeachment.

Then there›s the 1st Amendment argument: the notion that holding Trump accountable for the effect of his words is a violation of his rights.

That›s simply wrong. The 1st Amendment protects Citizen Trump›s right to speak his mind. It doesn›t protect former President Trump from losing his job — or being barred from holding it again — if Congress decides that he has committed crimes against the Constitution. And the 1st Amendment doesn›t protect incitements to violence.

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But impeachment isn›t a criminal proceeding. It›s the process by which Congress can remove a high official who has violated his oath and disqualify him from holding office in the future.

And that brings us to the substantive charge against Trump — the one Republicans keep trying to evade.

The evidence has made it clear that Trump not only encouraged the mob; when they rampaged through the Capitol, he waited hours before telling them to go home.

The president›s defenders want senators to judge Trump›s guilt of incitement under the standard of criminal law, which requires showing that he knowingly and directly caused the riot.

But impeachment isn›t a criminal proceeding. It›s the process by which Congress can remove a high official who has violated his oath and disqualify him from holding office in the future.

The senators who voted to acquit need to say clearly whether they believe Trump incited the mob or not. McConnell said Trump was «practically and morally responsible» for the events of Jan. 6 but let him off on a technicality. Most other Republicans haven›t even gone that far.

History will remember their votes as their judgments on Trump›s words and actions — not as a decision about whether officials are exempt from impeachment trial for actions in their final month in power.

They should consider how their short-term political calculation may look years from now, including to voters in coming elections.

On Saturday, Trump claimed his acquittal as a victory and promised his followers that he will remain politically active. «Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun,» he said.

In the months ahead, new evidence may emerge to show whether Trump connived directly with the extremists who assaulted the Capitol. As we heard Saturday, Trump seemed unconcerned that members of Congress were in mortal danger that day.

And if Trump survives all the investigations into his conduct, maintains his grip on the GOP and wins his party›s presidential nomination in 2024, his loyalists in the Senate will bear responsibility — even though they may pretend it wasn›t their doing.

McConnell, no fan of Trump, seems to be gambling that the former president will naturally fade away and that his hold on the Republican Party will weaken. He and the GOP have to hope they›re right.

This article was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.

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in support of journalists, against abuses towards minorities, calling for an end to Myanmar’s numerous internal conflicts—drew only modest crowds, mostly young dissidents and a smattering of reporters. Why weren’t those excesses and atrocities of the still-powerful generals, including allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide, not enough? Had these protesters simply not known about those abuses? she wondered.

?What took them so long

WHAT TOOK THEM SO LONG?

The Coup in Myanmar Prompted a Reevaluation of the Military Role, Which the Genocide Failed to Do

By Timothy McLaughlin For years, Thinzar Shunlei Yi’s activism against the brutality of Myanmar’s military, at best, was met with tepid enthusiasm or, at worst, set her up as a target, putting her on a collision course with the country’s most prominent voices— including Aung San Suu Kyi. But after the military took power in a shock, predawn coup last week, detaining Suu Kyi and returning the country to

a dictatorship, she has unexpectedly found herself among throngs of flag-waving demonstrators, disobeying and resisting military rule.

In the days since the coup, hundreds of thousands of people have marched in the streets nationwide, in hard-scrabble trading cities on the Chinese border and in towns high in the hills, and even in the colossal capital, built in part to inoculate leaders from such public shows of discontent.

Yet the demonstrations Thinzar Shunlei Yi had organized—

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Protesters rally against the military coup and arrest of National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, at Parliament House on February 12, 2021 in Canberra, Australia.

(Getty)

In a country that emerged from decades of ruinous military rule and isolation in only 2011, this month’s coup has sparked intense anger at the armed forces and invigorated a “Gen Z” of young, meme-fluent protesters. The country’s new dictator, Min Aung Hlaing, said he needed to toss out the results of last year’s democratic elections—which the military’s party resoundingly lost—and grab hold of power in order to, bafflingly, ensure a “a genuine and disciplined democratic system.” In response, President Joe Biden said last week that the United States will enact new, targeted sanctions against military members responsible for the coup, as well as their families, and prevent the generals from accessing $1 billion in Myanmar-government funds held in the U.S. The coup has, however, also prompted the beginning among some of Myanmar’s people of a reevaluation of the military’s acceptance in society despite its abhorrent behavior—something that a brutal campaign against the Rohingya, for which the armed forces now stand accused of genocide, notably failed to do.

Military companies that are deeply entrenched in the country’s economy are suddenly being singled out, with calls for boycotts of military brands and of shops owned by people who have supported the junta. Actors who previously had no issue filming sitcoms and movies with a production house owned by the commander in chief’s daughter, a regular in Yangon’s socialite circles, took to social media to voice support for the demonstrations. There has been international commercial backlash too: Kirin, the Japanese beer maker, ended a partnership with a military-backed brewery that it had entered into when the armed forces were still sanctioned by the U.S.; some stores in Myanmar have stopped stocking the beer altogether. A prominent Singaporean businessman with a large stake in the military’s cigarette company pulled out of the investment.

These abrupt reversals are not contained to the business sector. Protesters gathered yesterday in front of the United Nations office in Yangon, calling for action from the global body, which successive governments and much of the public have for years demonized, dismissing it as biased toward Myanmar for its criticism of the country’s human-rights record, particularly the handling of the Rohingya. Suu Kyi’s own administration accused UN workers of aiding terrorists and barred the global body’s rights envoy from entering the country.

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“In a country that emerged from decades of ruinous military rule and isolation in only 2011, this month’s coup has sparked intense anger at the armed forces and invigorated a “Gen Z” of young, meme-fluent protesters.”

Across Facebook and Twitter, there are also pleas for the media to tell the world what is happening in Myanmar. Yet the same reporters who are now being cheered have frequently been targeted by the public, military, government, and even at times their own colleagues as press freedoms have deteriorated in recent years. One of Suu Kyi’s advisers, now detained, said reporting on the Rohingya crisis bordered on “fake news.” A Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist was forced to flee the country for her safety three years ago.

These screeching U-turns, rife as they are with contradictions, have left activists such as Thinzar Shunlei Yi frustrated. When we spoke recently, after she had spent the day attending demonstrations, she at times struggled to sum up her feelings. “For so long people were already aware of all these things, but they didn’t stand up,” she said, the clanging of pots and pans ringing out in the background as she spoke, part of a now nightly ritual to show displeasure with the new junta.

The feeling of oppression being experienced across Myanmar was, she said, what the country’s ethnic minorities had long been subjected to, something that was too often ignored in Yangon, the country’s largest city, and by its Bamar ethnic majority. They “were telling the world, telling the country, that the military wasn’t right, that people were being killed,” she said. Myanmar’s people, however, “didn’t care.”

For decades, Myanmar’s myriad ethnic minorities, who speak their own languages and have distinct cultures, have been subjected to a multifront campaign of “Burmanization.”

Part of this informal push involves attacks and abuses by the predominantly Bamar military, but other facets, while less violent, are also insidious: The demolishing of non-Burmese religious sites, the suppression of language and customs, are all aimed at stripping away non-Bamar identity. When Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy took power in 2015, many in the country hoped she would bring reconciliation and provide a greater voice to ethnic minority groups. Instead, she alienated many, and kept others at a distance. A particularly contentious series of newly-built statues honoring her father, the late independence hero Aung San, infuri-

ated ethnic groups, some of whom protested and were met with violence by police.

The military, meanwhile, continued its unabated record of horrific rights abuses. In 2017, it launched attacks in Rakhine State that sent hundreds of thousands of predominantly Rohingya Muslims fleeing across the border to neighboring Bangladesh. Suu Kyi stood by the military, going so far as to defend their actions at The Hague. While this appearance garnered the most attention, it was far from the only time she sang their praises. In April, she applauded the military as they rained artillery and bombs down on villages in the country’s west, killing and displacing citizens.

Suu Kyi commands a devotion that is more religious than political. In the Burmese language, she is described as having awe za, a word denoting a certain power and authority that

“The feeling of oppression being experienced across Myanmar was what the country’s ethnic minorities had long been subjected to, something that was too often ignored in Yangon, the country’s largest city, and by its Bamar ethnic majority.”

commands respect and admiration, explains Kenneth Wong, a lecturer in Burmese language at UC Berkeley. Part of this is drawn, Wong told me, from her link to her father. She has often cast her support of the military as one based on his legacy as the founder of Myanmar’s army. Her defense of their actions was cheered domestically, where it was seen as a defense of the nation and only deepened a pervasive Myanmar-versus-the-world mindset.

Outside of a small group of activists and some ethnic organizations, the Rohingya’s plight received minimal sympathy within Myanmar: There were no beer boycotts, no mass demonstrations, no calls for UN support. If anything, quite the opposite—those who raised alarm bells and were critical of Suu Kyi were threatened and targeted. Thinzar Shunlei Yi, whose father previously served in the military, was flooded with calls of solicitation when her phone number was leaked and labeled as belonging to a sex worker. Then the situation worsened, as the calls and messages transformed into threats of rape and death.

In recent days, however, doctors, police officers, exotic-pet owners, and shirtless muscled hunks have joined in the anticoup demonstrations, alongside ethnic and religious minorities. “I’m upset about the ignorance of the majority in the past, but now I’m glad to join the fight with them when they [have] realized the truth,” Esther Ze Naw, a young activist from the Kachin ethnic group, who helped lead one of the first demonstrations against the coup last week, told me. Like the others I spoke with, she feared increased repression and a further backsliding on human rights under the military, but said that she saw a silver lining: Although there is still a focus on Suu Kyi’s release and the restoration of last year’s election results, some are now issuing a broader set of demands, including the abolishment of the 2008 military-drafted con-

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Buddhist monks hold placards featuring images of Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest on February 13, 2021 in Yangon, Myanmar.

(Getty)

Protesters hold images of de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 10, 2021 in Yangon, Myanmar. (Getty)

stitution, the creation of a government with more ethnic representation, and the release of all political prisoners. “Of course, this is a crisis,” she said, “but it is also an opportunity to promote a new political agenda for a new generation.”

Among those who have protested in recent days were a group of Rohingya, who marched through Yangon carrying signs proclaiming their identity. Most in Myanmar refuse to recognize the group at all, but Khin Maung Lwin, one of the Rohingya protesters, said that he was heartened by the warm reception they received. The demonstration, he told me, had provided an exceedingly rare moment of equality. “The whole country is out protesting against the military; we are also from this country—that is why we are participating.”

The entire day, he said, no one had referred to the group as “Bengalis,” the term used derogatorily by most in Myanmar to indicate the Rohingya’s status as purported outsiders.

There were other hopeful moments as well. On Twitter, a Yangon resident offered an apology to Yanghee Lee—the former UN special rapporteur to Myanmar who was blocked

by Suu Kyi’s government and called a “whore” by ultranationalist monks—for frequently disparaging her on the site.

Lee responded, accepting the apology. When I reached out, the person, who asked that they not be named because of the current political situation, told me they now “can see and feel that she has the right intention and kindness” and she wants a “better Myanmar.” (Lee told me she was amazed by the messages and public apologies she had received. She said she hoped that the moment presented a chance for “Myanmar to really reconcile and an opportunity for the democratization movement and process to mature.”)

So far, the authorities have withheld the type of overwhelming force used to put down popular protests in the past, though police in the northern city of Mandalay fired

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“Although there is still a focus on Suu Kyi’s release and the restoration of last year’s election results, some are now issuing a broader set of demands, including the abolishment of the 2008 military-drafted constitution, the creation of a government with more ethnic representation, and the release of all political prisoners.” live rounds. “This is one moment in which all the people in Myanmar think with one mind. Resistance to the coup has brought everyone together—including the Muslims and Rohingyas,” says Khin Zaw Win, a former political prisoner and the director of Yangon’s Tampadipa Institute, a think tank. It was a moment, he told me, to look beyond a singular political figure and party, to start creating a more diverse democracy movement. “This solidarity and amassing of social cohesion and capital is priceless,” he said, “and has to be built upon.”

This article was originally published in the Atlantic Online.

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olitics rections”—but beyond these superficial parallels, the equivalence ends. The Russian protesters were trying to establish the rule of law; the Americans to overthrow it.

The Trump presidency and its final act, in particular, revealed the fragility of American democracy. In the eyes of Russia—and of many others—the stature of the United States was diminished. As a result, Washington’s default approach to Moscow is no longer tenable. With the exception of Trump, who openly sought Putin’s approval, every U.S. president since the end of the Cold War has used moral grandstanding as a means to influence Moscow. If Biden revives this approach—as the rhetoric coming out of the White House and some of his new appointments indicate he might—then U.S.-Russian relations are likely to continue their downward spiral of animosity and “whataboutism.” Lecturing Putin about human rights will only anger the Russian president and could end up hurting the democratic reformers Washington aims to support.

But with humility and pragmatism, the Biden administration can still seek to influence Russian behavior for the better, albeit more modestly than Washington has done in the past. It will require working cooperatively with allies and acknowledging the limits of American power. Having relinquished its exclusive claim to moral leadership, the United States would be wise to scale back its ideological ambitions abroad in favor of self-improvement at home.

NO GOING BACK

A Lost Claim to Moral Leadership

Russia Will Never See the United States the Same Way Again

By Anna Arutunyan January saw violent protests in both Washington and Moscow. Supporters of then U.S. President Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol ahead

of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, and in Russia, opponents of President Vladimir Putin demonstrated against the imprisonment of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Chaos, anger, and arrests: the imagery, even the language, was similar—the Kremlin media routinely describe protests as “attempted insur-

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Supporters of US President Donald Trump protest outside the US Capitol on January ,6 2021, in Washington, DC. (Getty)

The riot on Capitol Hill, blasted across Russian screens via social media, punctured the myth of American moral superiority. It also seemed to vindicate the Kremlin’s portrayal of the United States as a divided, racist, and hypocritical nation. Whereas police officers had cracked down violently on Black Lives Matter protesters just months earlier in cities across the United States, they now stood back and let a mob of Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol.

The spectacle invited some predictable gloating from Russian officials and state media. But even more telling was the dismissive, almost indifferent response from the highest echelons of the Russian government.

Putin was largely silent on the American presidential transition. And on the day of Biden’s inauguration, the Kremlin issued a statement saying that it was “not preparing for the inauguration. Nothing will change for Russia; it’s been around for many hundreds of years and will continue to be.” For the first time in decades, Moscow was saying it does not especially care what the United States does or thinks.

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Russia might invade its neighbors and poison its political opponents, but from Moscow’s perspective American denunciations are rendered meaningless by the United States’ own brutality toward Black Americans.

Asked to comment on the riots on Russian television, Konstantin Kosachev, chair of Russia’s Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, described the U.S. government as aloof from society and American democracy as broken. Vyacheslav Volodin, chair of Russia’s parliament, the Duma, and an influential architect of domestic policy, penned a statement arguing that the standards “imposed by the U.S.” should be reassessed based on the events in Washington. “The U.S. political system is not only closed, but it’s been frozen in development for about 70 years,” Volodin wrote. “Two parties have a monopoly on power, not allowing other political forces” to play a role. He concluded with a call for the United States to get its own house in order and to “build its [foreign] policy based on non-interference in the affairs of other sovereign states.”

Volodin had a point. One need not buy into conspiracy theories about the “deep state” stealing the election from Trump to consider that maybe, just maybe, the political crisis in the United States was not purely the result of Russian meddling in 2016, that Trump was as much a symptom of deeper societal conflict as a cause of it, and that U.S.-Russian relations cannot— and should not—simply go back to the way they were pre-Trump.

Even the Russian opposition has been skeptical of attempts to blame everything on Trump and Trumpism.

Navalny denounced the former U.S. president’s ban from Twitter, and other members of Russia’s liberal opposition have been critical of the Black Lives Matter movement. The term “pro-Western opposition” is misleading when applied to antigovernment movements in Belarus and Ukraine and meaningless when applied to such movements in Russia. The Kremlin’s opponents no longer share a universal allegiance to the West. And those who are pro-Western are no longer necessarily pro-American.

As the Biden administration seeks to support oppo-

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olitics American policymakers will need to abandon unrealistic expectations about their ability to change Russia’s political culture and accept that real change will come gradually, from within, and at its own pace.

nents of the Kremlin, it may find itself harming more than helping. The Russian government has long accused its political opponents of colluding with hostile powers—an ugly and effective tactic increasingly widespread in the United States, as well. The Kremlin will spin any U.S. support for Navalny, his supporters, and other opposition figures as proof that they are U.S. plants and use it to justify further repression.

WHAT POWER OF EXAMPLE? A more promising U.S. policy toward Russia would be based on interests rather than ideals. For many years, the buzzword among diplomats and policymakers in Moscow has been “multipolarity”: an international order in which there is no longer a single great power.

The Kremlin seeks to navigate and capitalize on an emerging multipolar world by doing business not with ideological allies but with ephemeral, pragmatic partners. Instead of looking for shared values, Moscow looks for shared interests, whether in trade, security, or anything else.

When the Kremlin feels that the nascent multipolar order—or Moscow’s regional sphere of influence—is threatened, it acts aggressively (and sometimes illegally) to demonstrate that Washington is no longer the only power that can throw its weight around with impunity. But unlike the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Russia does not want to replace the United States as a political or moral hegemon. It just wants to cut the United States down to size.

When Russia interferes or meddles outside its borders,

Having relinquished its exclusive claim to moral leadership, the United States would be wise to scale back its ideological ambitions abroad in favor of selfimprovement at home.

it does not seek to impose its vision on the world but rather to advance its national interests. Perhaps as a result of this self-interested worldview, the Kremlin sees the United States as similarly motivated. Washington may dress up its intensions in the garb of freedom, universal rights, and democracy, but in U.S. foreign policy the Kremlin still sees a mirror image of its own.

In his inauguration address, Biden said the United States would lead not by “the example of our power but by the power of our example.” But to which examples can Biden credibly point? In Syria, for instance, Russia saw a wrong-headed American intervention couched in moral terms spawn the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. By contrast, Moscow believes that it applied a legal and practical rationale for backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: it supported the strongman not because he was a good guy who did well for his people but because he was the established leader and a Russian ally who guaranteed access to an important naval base.

Biden’s ambition to lead by example is similarly

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Participants of an unauthorized protest rally against of jailing of oppositon leader Alexei Navalny shout, on January 2021 ,23 in Moscow, Russia. (Getty)

challenged on the home front. Russia might invade its neighbors and poison its political opponents, but from Moscow’s perspective American denunciations are rendered meaningless by the United States’ own brutality toward Black Americans. The Kremlin does not think Washington has a right to preach, nor does it think American leaders actually believe what they say.

A better approach would be for Washington to accept a greater degree of multipolarity and dial back the public criticism of Putin in favor of private diplomacy. Russia may be in no mood to listen to the United States, but there are others—American allies—whose communications with the Kremlin are less fraught.

Germany, a major Russian energy partner and an important mediator in the Ukraine conflict, might prove to be a more effective interlocutor with Moscow. So might Canada, Denmark, or Norway, all of which are members of the Arctic Council, giving them influence over Moscow as it seeks to develop the “High North.”

In short, there are many U.S. allies that would receive a more sympathetic hearing in Russia. Rather than in-

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sisting that it has to lead, Washington can partner with and even simply support these allies as they seek to influence Moscow on areas of mutual interest.

American policymakers will need to abandon unrealistic expectations about their ability to change Russia’s political culture and accept that real change will come gradually, from within, and at its own pace. Standing up to abuses of power may sound like the right thing to do, but U.S. sanctions such as the Magnitsky Act have often backfired—prompting Russia to halt investigations that would have resulted in greater accountability, for instance. In light of Navalny’s imprisonment and Moscow’s brutal crackdown on his supporters, this may seem like counterintuitive advice.

But U.S. policymakers should ask themselves whether sanctions, pressure, or moral grandstanding will help or hurt Navalny or his supporters. Very often, such initiatives are more about signaling American virtue than about actually helping Russians stand up for themselves. The Biden administration should do what works best, not what feels best.

Rising political unrest and waning influence can make the Russian and American pictures look similar. But the difference is that Russia looks after its interests alone, while the United States—under Biden, if not under his predecessor—still believes that it can do good in the world. Washington wants to counter Moscow’s meddling abroad and halt its abuse of political opponents at home. It is by no means impotent on these issues. But accepting that it no longer has—nor can lay claim to—an exceptional moral position in the eyes of Russia will allow Washington to recalibrate its dealings with Moscow, change the tone of the dialogue, and improve the effectiveness of its policy.

This article was originally published on ForeignAffairs.com.

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conomy

Market Value Can Capitalism Serve Democracy?

By Binyamin Appelbaum It has become a matter of general agreement among citizens of the richest country on earth that things are not going so well. The United States in its 245th year is an ailing nation—socially, politically, and economically. In the recent presidential election, one political party promised to “make America great again—again.” The other rallied supporters to “build back better.” Nobody talked about “morning in America” or anything similarly sunny. Everyone can see that it is dark outside.

During the country’s last national funk, in the 1970s, Americans latched on to the idea that the market would set them free. The result was an era of religious reverence for property rights and markets in everything, as a solution not just to the country’s economic problems but to its social and political problems, too. People were reclassified as a form of capital and told to invest in themselves. Pollution was reconceived as a tradable good. Spending money was declared to be a form of free speech.

The evangelists of free exchange insisted that unregulated capitalism and liberal democracy were symbiotic. A half century later, it is getting harder to find people who still

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The Charging Bull bronze sculpture, also known as Wall Street Bull or Bowling Green Bull in New York City with tourists around taking photos of it as it is a landmark, a tourist destination, a popular attraction and symbol for Wall Street and Financial District as well with aggressive financial optimism and prosperity, wealth and luck, located on Broadway at the Financial District of Manhattan.

(Getty Images)

think that is true. There is an ineluctable tension between property and democracy: political freedom is, among other things, the dangerous idea that the polity gets to define property rights. Maintaining a market economy and a liberal democracy requires a careful balancing act. And it is clear that Americans of all political persuasions are losing interest in forging the necessary compromises.

On the right, there is a growing willingness to sacrifice democracy. As the historian Quinn Slobodian pointed out in his 2018 book, Globalists, defenders of property rights are not opponents of government involvement in the economy; rather, they have sought, with considerable success, to encase property in a fortress of laws expressly designed to limit the power of the polity. This defense of privilege is understandably infuriating to the many Americans who lack the economic security to provide for their families or the opportunity to pursue their dreams. It fuels the reflexive hostility toward the market that increasingly colors policy debates among liberals.

In his new book, Freedom From the Market, Mike Konczal, the director of the Progressive Thought Program at the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank focused on economic inequality, goes beyond arguments in favor of regulating markets or establishing new government programs to redistribute income. “This book,” he writes, “argues that true freedom requires keeping us free from the market.” In his account, the market economy isn’t an engine of broad prosperity, and it certainly isn’t complementary to political freedom. “Market dependence,” he declares, “is a profound state of unfreedom.”

Konczal provides a compelling account of the problems with markets. But his indictment misses the ways in which the expansion of the market economy has often produced precisely the kinds of changes he seeks. For all the skepticism of the market on the left, it remains an important tool.

PRECONDITIONS FOR FREEDOM The progressive conception of freedom is the product of several centuries of trial and error. First came the assertion that people are entitled to freedom from various forms of oppression. That is the kind of freedom that was enshrined in the Bill of Rights. But equality before the law isn’t worth much without the ability to participate in writing those laws, so next came the assertion that freedom requires universal suffrage. But participation isn’t worth much unless people can participate as equals. As U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed in 1944, “We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.”

The problem with relying on a market economy to deliver economic security and independence is encapsulated in an old joke: “Ah yes, like the Ritz Hotel, open to rich and poor alike”—that is, although everyone may be allowed to

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Konczal describes the rise of the labor movement and its eventual success in the long battles to restrict the workday and the workweek as an example of the antimarket tendency in American life. buy what he needs, not everyone can afford to do so. One proposed corrective enjoying a moment in the spotlight is the idea that the government should give people money, perhaps in the form of a universal basic income. But giving people money is not the same thing as ensuring that people have health care. Another corrective is to provide services deemed essential. Public schools are a notable example.

Konczal is a partisan of the second approach. He wants the government to endow all Americans with the basics necessary to participate fully in a modern democratic society, a list that includes health care, a college education, and broadband Internet. He argues that the government must do the job because the market won’t. “The distribution of goods in a market economy doesn’t match what we need to live free lives,” he writes. ] Many policy books present theoretical arguments lightly studded with anecdotes. One gets the feeling that the baker begrudged each chocolate chip he put into the pound cake.

Konczal’s book is tastier. He built a name for himself as a blogger in the years after the 2008 financial crisis, and he knows how to narrate. His book is a retelling of U.S. history as a long struggle to limit the role of the market. “For two centuries,” he writes, “Americans have been fighting for freedom from the market.” The people have won some victories: food stamps for children, unemployment benefits for workers, Medicare for the elderly. Lately, however, the war hasn’t been going so well. Increasingly, the quality of life is determined by the ability to pay—for health insurance, education, housing. The wealthy live well, and the poor struggle. A major obstacle, in Konczal’s view, is that Americans have been taught to equate markets with freedom and to regard government as a constraint on markets and freedom. “Battles for the future of our country and society are not won on arguments about market failures, on the balance sheets of accounts, or on narrowly tailored, incremental solutions,” he writes in his conclusion. “They are won on arguments about freedom.” To win, progressives need to reclaim the banner of freedom.

E

conomy

NO ESCAPING THE MARKET Although Konczal’s commitment to a broader and more muscular definition of freedom is admirable, he ultimately misjudges the relationship between markets and freedom.

Reading Kon-czal’s book, one is often struck that the Americans he portrays were fighting not to escape from the market but to participate in it more fully. They saw government not as an alternative to the market but as a means of shaping it.

In one chapter, set during World War II, Konczal tells of the creation of almost three dozen daycare centers in Richmond, California, to tend to the children of women employed in the city’s sprawling shipyards. Families that used the centers, or the more than 3,100 other wartime daycare facilities that opened across the United States, paid only a nominal fee. The government covered the balance. Konczal describes this as an instance of Americans successfully escaping the tyranny of market forces: the government provided mothers with a service otherwise unavailable or unaffordable. But the government acted so women could work—and it did so by paying other women to work in the daycare centers.

Opponents of the daycare program were the ones who sought to preserve a space outside the market. They argued that mothers should remain in the home—at least those who couldn’t afford childcare without a government subsidy. After the war, they successfully forced the closure of the federally subsidized daycare centers. In 1954, when Congress introduced a tax deduction for childcare expenses, it was initially restricted to women who could demonstrate that they needed paid work. Konczal is right to argue that childcare should be readily available in the United States today. But public support for childcare is not just a matter of providing people with the freedom to par-

Maintaining a market economy and a liberal democracy requires a careful balancing act. And it is clear that Americans of all political persuasions are losing interest in forging the necessary compromises.

ticipate fully in society or in democracy. It also affords the freedom to participate in the market economy.

The freedom to participate in the market can also strengthen democracy. Konczal opens his narrative with one of the formative episodes in the creation of the modern United States: the redistribution of western lands. He recounts the ferment on the densely populated Eastern Seaboard that produced the Homestead Act, the legislation that allowed Americans to claim enough land for a family farm. “Are you an American citizen?” brayed Horace Greeley’s NewYork Daily Tribune. “Then you are a joint-owner of the public lands. Why not take enough of your property to provide yourself a home? Why not vote yourself a farm?”

Americans did just that: the polity established rules for the distribution of common property. According to Konczal, more than 46 million Americans are descended from the homesteaders who claimed pieces of the land.

Konczal argues that the Homestead Act reflected “an unapologetic demand to keep something away from the market.” In fact, it was the means by which much of the continent was commodified. The United States took land occupied by Native Americans and redefined it as private property for white Americans. Many proponents and beneficiaries of the Homestead Act envisioned yeomanry as

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A pedestrian walks past the Leading Insurance Agency, which offers plans under the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) on January 2021 ,28 in Miami, Florida.

(Getty)

an alternative to wage labor, but not as an escape from the market economy: corn, wheat, and other cash crops predominated from the outset. The Homestead Act should be seen as a lesson in the power of government to construct markets, and in the lasting consequences of its choices.

Millions of smallholders gained a footing in the market economy, giving greater substance to the egalitarian rhetoric of the country’s founders. At the same time, the exclusion of Native Americans from their lands, and of Black people from land ownership, still weighs on American society and American democracy.

CAPITALISM IN THE SERVICE OF DEMOCRACY The appeal of free-market rhetoric rests partly in its simplicity: the government should protect economic freedom, narrowly defined as property rights, and facilitate free exchange. Progressives have struggled to articulate an alternative. What should Americans want instead?

One powerful idea is to invert the subordination of political freedom to economic freedom. In the philosopher Debra Satz’s formulation, “Democratic societies depend on

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the ability of their citizens to operate as equals.” Therefore, where “markets undermine or block egalitarian relationships between people, there is a case for market regulation, even when such markets are otherwise efficient.” Most market activities wouldn’t be affected by such a principle.

Satz also notes, importantly, that some kinds of market activities serve to strengthen democracy.

In 1905, the Supreme Court, in Lochner v. New York, struck down a state law that said bakers could not work more than ten hours a day or 60 hours a week. The majority held that the law interfered with the freedom of workers and employers to make voluntary arrangements. In a famous dissent, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., pointed out that the status quo was an artificial construct. Every market has rules; it is just a question of what those rules should be. “Holmes was pointing out that a truly neutral market was a lie,” Konczal writes. By barring New York from acting, the Court wasn’t preserving the purity of markets. It was siding with employers. It already allowed various forms of interference, such as bankruptcy and limited shareholder liability. “The only time the courts would call foul was when laws provided better protections for workers.”

Konczal describes the rise of the labor movement and its eventual success in the long battles to restrict the workday and the workweek as an example of the antimarket tendency in American life. Workers, he writes, “wanted a space and time free from the marketplace.” There is another way to portray the same story, however. Union leaders and activists are justly celebrated as “the people who brought you the weekend.” But the value of the weekend is that it follows the workweek. Americans already enjoyed the freedom to refrain from working. What they wanted was the freedom to work and then to go home at the end of the workday and stay home on Saturday. They wanted to place capitalism in the service of freedom.

The Trump years provided Americans with a brutal lesson in the importance of public policy. The dawn of a new administration offers a chance to act on that lesson.

Americans need government help to obtain an education, to care for themselves and for family members, to pursue economic opportunities. But progressives will squander the moment if they frame those goals as a fight against markets. What Americans need is a fuller measure of freedom—the freedom to participate in democratic society and in the marketplace.

BINYAMIN APPELBAUM is a member of the New York Times editorial board and the author of The Economists’ Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society.

This article was originally published in the March/April 2021 issue of Foreign Affairs Magazine and on ForeignAffairs.com.

S

ociety

Arabs Implement Online Education to Control Pandemic Measures Offer Comprehensive and Equitable Learning

By Hatem Khedr Some Arab countries, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have decided to execute online learning in their varied educational institutions as part of restrictions

imposed to control the spread of the Covid19-.

Egypt has offered a flexible system of education that helps parents choose either lessons at school or online learning.

“Online education is a good system so as to avoid coronavirus infections. My children attend private

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1- Arham al-Khateeb, an Arabic teacher at a Kuwaiti school, gives an online class to students via laptop while sitting in an empty classroom on the first day of school, at an educational facility in Kuwait City on October 4, 2020.

(Getty)

lessons at home and use online education at the same time,” Saied Salama, an Egyptian parent, told Majalla.

“They have become accustomed to this approach by which they are learning very well,” he noted, hoping that the Covid19- would end as soon as possible to help people live a normal life. “Studying at schools nowadays is risky so I keep my children at home,” he said.

Parents in Egypt are satisfied with this move which helps them choose the most appropriate way for their conditions, yet they complain about the system which requires the first academic semester’s exam to be conducted within days.

“We were ready for exams, but the Ministry of Higher Education postponed it until the end of the mid-year vacation. We want online exams as we had online learning to avoid infections. We are worried about ourselves and our relatives if we attend exams at universities,” said Mohammad El-Dawnasi, a university student.

Yara Osama, a student in the Faculty of Medicine, said online learning helps students concentrate more but she is afraid of face-to-face exams.

“I prefer online learning amid coronavirus as it protects students from possible infections,” she told Majalla.

Ms. Osama complained about the great amount of study for exams as students will be examined in whole modules and each one has eight subjects.

“Our Faculty has no system for online exams. I hope for this move but it is not possible nowadays. I have a lot of study but try to do my best,” she made clear.

A few days ago, the UAE declared continued distance learning at all public and private schools as well as higher education institutions as a precaution to safeguard students from the pandemic. The country has been implementing this system since March 2020 within the framework of measures taken to control the virus. The country has conducted professional training for school teachers and allowed private schools to use their own distance learning system. In addition, it has launched smart learning platforms together with guidelines and instruction manuals to manage students’ behavior on distance learning.

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti government announced last Monday the continuation of online learning at all educational institutions until situation stabilises in the country. The government said that it is an

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Benefitting from online learning depends on some factors such as the speed of the Internet, educational institutions’ infrastructure, as well as the skills of teachers and students in using educational tools. alternative to regular education which has been implemented for the safety of all students and staff at educational institutions.

Although online education is compulsorily imposed due to the virus, there is a debate on the move.

Some say that the step was successful but still requires further development to achieve all desired goals. However, others still prefer regular education due to its several benefits, as they say, even during the pandemic.

“Regular education comes first compared with any other methods of instruction. Online learning does not help students get all information due to many reasons,” Ahmed Abu Al-Amayem, a chemistry teacher in Kuwait, told Majalla.

Online learning doesn’t control the educational process as students are not acquainted with the tools and technology used by teachers during class, he noted.

“The Ministry of Education should set a strategy on dividing classrooms into sub-classrooms with up to 15 students in each sub-class, with adherence to all precautionary measures for the safety of both students and all staff at educational institutions,” suggested Abu Al-Amayem, aged 48 years.

It is not difficult to implement this strategy to ensure full benefits to students as it has been used successfully in several countries, he argued.

“Every group attends school three days instead of five, and this will help students adapt to the current conditions and increase their understanding of the subject matter,” he said.

Mona Mohamed, 34 years, set a successful plan regarding e-learning to help her children keep pace with the new lessons that they will learn.

“I have worked with my children as if I were a teacher. I organize their time and set discipline. It

was a hectic job in the beginning, but they learned how to use tools and sit with a laptop for long periods of time,” she told Majalla.

However, Mohamed expressed empathy with parents who have problems using the new tools of online learning as they have been relying on regular education and tutors who give private lessons to their children at home in parallel with school.

The Saudi Ministry of Education declared the continuation of distance learning to curb the coronavirus infection, lauding the success made in the e-platform implemented in the first academic year.

An Egyptian expat in Saudi Arabia was complaining

UAE has launched smart learning platforms together with guidelines and instruction manuals to manage students’ behavior on distance learning.

about the inability of helping his children get online learning due to his work.

“I can’t depend on online learning for my children as this needs much time to work with them. I work from 7:00 am until 5:00pm every day. I have no time to sit with each child separately, help him/her do homework and explain some points. School was playing this role,” he told Majalla on condition of anonymity.

“My children take private lessons given by some teachers, taking into consideration all preventive and precautionary measures set by the Kingdom’s bodies. The session includes up to five students and I think it is suitable and safe for people who have similar conditions,” he explained.

Mohamed Auda, a director of a Kuwaiti private school, said there are some problems facing teachers explaining lessons while using devices and stressed that distance learning is necessary in light of the Covid19-.

“Some teachers are not able to deal with the tools when they explain lessons to students. But we have no other options at these conditions. Outstanding students highly benefit from online learning,” he told Majalla.

He asserted, however, that online learning is not an

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Children continue their school curriculum online via a computer screen at their home in Kuwait City on March 23, 2020 (Getty)

Egyptian high school students wear protective face masks as they attend the first day of final exams on June 21, 2020 in Cairo, Egypt (Getty)

alternative to direct education at schools but people have to temporarily depend on it until the pandemic is controlled.

In a related context, Faisal Al-Maqsid, Acting Undersecretary of Kuwait’s Ministry of Education, has previously revealed that, in light of the Covid19pandemic, the Ministry has sought to back all steps aimed at making change for a comprehensive and equitable learning.

He said that the positive outcomes of online learning over the last period were registered and had overcome challenges through training, implementing and following up within the educational system.

The Covid19- pandemic led to an unprecedented shift in Kuwait as this sudden change has affected more than 400,000 students studying at primary, intermediate and secondary stages, said Mr. AlMaqsid.

Some governmental sources in Kuwait have previously said that regular study will not be resumed at educational institutions until 65 percent of people receive coronavirus vaccine or in the event of an improvement in the epidemiological situation.

When resuming study, the sources added, all health measures for the safety of students will be taken, with the setting of a mechanism to be implemented

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There are some problems facing teachers explaining lessons while using devices, but distance learning is necessary in light of the Covid- 19 in cooperation with several governmental bodies.

Finally, getting excellent service from online learning depends on some factors such as the speed of the Internet, educational institutions’ infrastructure, as well as the skills of teachers and students in using educational tools.

Apart from the above-mentioned countries which are implementing online learning, Jordan declared last week a face-to-face education system in three phases: the first one was last Sunday; the second will start next Sunday; and the third will begin on March 7. The move was taken after coronavirus infections dropped, according to governmental statements. At the same time, the Ministry of Education gave the option to parents to decide whether they wanted online learning or face-to-face education.

Book

Reflecting Egypt’s golden cultural days, the sixties were quite memorable in Cairo.

Working women required a helping hand in the household.

And before electric washing machines took over, there was the “washing woman”.

A Vintage Phone

Short Stories That Recall a Sublime Past

By Amira El-Noshokaty ‘All that you left behind’ is what this compilation of short stories is about. A brief history of the intangible heritage of Cairo, the city that conquers all.

Born in 1958, writer Tarek Fahmy Hussein tiptoes into the past without falling into the nostalgia trend. In Telephone Be Ors (A Vintage Phone) Ibn

Rushd Publishing House, 2020, his first published book, the writer opens up with a phone call from a vintage phone that literally took him back in time.

He remembered how home phones were a scarce commodity. Hussein recalled his parents, his memories and mainly himself when he was just a little boy fascinated by the puppet theatre in which his mother worked all her life. He remembered how lucky he was to watch the most memorable

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A vintage Landline Phone. (Getty)

and successful puppet operetta Al Leila Al Kebira (The Big Night) in its prime.

Reflecting Egypt’s golden cultural days, the sixties were quite memorable in Cairo. Working women required a helping hand in the household. And before electric washing machines took over, there was the “washing woman”. In his story “Abdou and Aziza” Hussein remembers the famous cleaning Tuesdays. Aziza the washing woman is portrayed as a strong resilient woman who takes her work very seriously and is quite reluctant to use the newish babour el gaz (vintage gas stove) that had a device to hush its loud voice.

Abdou was the cleaning man who helped clean their house on that same day. Having a man to clean the house, though quite rare these days, was quite popular back then. The glamour of the sixties from the perception of a child is charming indeed.

On the other hand, as a grown man, the characters of the short story compilation start to reflect upon their status quo and reminisce upon the passion for life that they lost somehow.

Ala Bab Madraset Al Banat (At the Gate of the Girl’s School) revisits adolescence and first

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romantic platonic love in deep contrast with the modern day one. In Azzaa (Post Funeral Services) the protagonist plays on the lost love theme and creates an encounter between two people whose lives crossed paths briefly and what happens when they meet decades later when they are both older and wiser.

Al Mendil Al Azraq (The Blue Scarf) is about a lonely middle-aged man who developed a classic love story with his neighbour while spending hours in her balcony.

Throughout the compilation of short stories, Hussein uses a simple narration that focuses on the events other than using figurative language.

Simple, though yet quite deep, his stories reflect daily life rituals that represent journeys we seldom take. Like his story Mohawla Fashla, (A Failed Attempt) the protagonist silently watches those people who kept their tradition of fishing on top of a bridge. The bridge is crossed by Cairo residents daily in their fast rides back and forth to work, but it never crosses their minds to join the fishermen and attempt their patience and daily meditation.

Though fiction, the story feels quite real and leads to a serious soul searching journey, where the reader has enough room to dial up from his own vintage phone and reconnect with his own self again.

About the writer

Tarek Fahmy Hussein is a banker who studied economy in 1980. He attained his journalism diploma in 1978, his acting diploma in 1987 and has published several of his culture-related articles in local Egyptian newspapers.

A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Issue 1840- February- 19/02/2021

Raghad Saddam Hussein: Her Father’s Defense and Prospects of Political Involvement in Iraq www.majalla.com

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rt brand creator, speaks about her experience with the concept she is bringing to the Arab fashion scene in Dubai, and shares her views and inspirations.

A TOOL FOR EMPOWERMENT American actress, Marilyn Monroe, said once: “Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.” It is a sort of women empowerment through fashion that helps women unlock their potential.

“Clothes alone may not make the woman what they are, but they definitely have a very strong effect on her, boosting self-confidence and improving her attitude”, said Alhomsi.

“So, I believe that whenever we, women, have this confidence about our appearance, we feel our inner power and feel strong enough to explore new opportunities in life, meet people from different social and professional backgrounds”, she added.

INSPIRATION FOR INNOVATION

From Passion to Empowerment

Lubna Alhomsi’s Startup Journey in the Arab Fashion Industry

by Motasem Al Felou

power women to express themselves, glow from the outside and grow self-confidence. For her, She is simply a dreamer with a relentless entre- innovation and inclusion are vital for the growth preneurial spirit and deep passion for fashion. She of the Arab fashion industry. Lubna Alhomsi, a believes in the soft power of fashion that can em- Dubai-based Syrian Arab fashion designer and

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Lubna Alhomsi

Staying innovative is the key for progress. Inspiration is the fuel of innovation. It is waking up the next day looking for new experiences and achievements. The question of what inspires the young designer is important for her daily progress.

“Every rebellious and different person, thing, or attitude, all inspire me. For example, my collection of the Royal Wildflowers has been inspired by different types, shapes and colors of flowers, and how they look in during their life cycle!”, she explains as one of the sources of her inspiration.

“I am a history lover so each design I prepare has some story with a vintage touch that contributes to making the designs timeless. Staying innovative helps me relate fashion designs to real life thoughts and situations”, the Syrian designer added.

She always keeps her sketch book with her and it is always full of potential designs.

CHANGING THE STATUS QUO Many believe fashion agencies are dedicated to

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I believe that whenever we, women, have this confidence about our appearance, we feel our inner power and feel strong enough to explore new opportunities in life, meet people from different social and professional backgrounds slim women, excluding curvy and overweight women from new trends. Lubna Alhomsi agrees that the fashion industry should be as inclusive as possible.

“Each and every woman has her own unique beauty, regardless of body size, and I believe in that!

Most of my designs could be done for plus size.

Regarding this issue, my clients are so satisfied and they tell me how much confident and happy they are when they put Moniritta’s piece on”, commented Alhomsi, the founder of Moniritta brand, which produces fashion that is elegant, inspirational and empowering.

Every brand starts with a concept that develops later into a customer journey, brand experience and a unique character. She explains the new concept she is bringing to the Dubai fashion industry through her fashion startup.

After Alhomsi graduated from Esmod Dubai, the oldest fashion school in GCC, she had the concept ready in mind and created her own brand, Moniritta. Her concept is based on the uniqueness of combinations between the East and West, vintage and modern, and simplicity and sophistication, with the element of empowerment being present all the way.

19-AFFORDABILITY AND COVID Affordability is crucial in making it easier for women to be trendier and more modern, especial-

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rt

ly women belonging to middle classes.

“I think this is an important point. Believe me this is not easy”, Alhomsi said.

Each and every woman has her own unique beauty, regardless of body size, and I believe in that! Most of my designs could be done for plus size.

The question of affordability remains a challenge.

The lockdown has changed people’s spending priorities. “Moniritta is timeless and there is nothing more worthwhile than investing in pieces that adapt to any season and any occasion! I am trying to give to our customers high quality and very stylish garments at affordable prices, compared to well-established brands”, she added.

Speaking about the effects of Covid-19 on her business, the young entrepreneur said, “Covid-19 has changed our life in general and changed the fashion design industry’s business models. Consumers prefer online shopping. Online orders help us keep selling”.

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One of MONIRITTA’s signature pieces. We believe sexiness is a characteristic of every woman in the world.

What is more impressive and playful than a skirt matched with a top with amazing fringes )supplied(

Inspiration of the 80’s silhouettes, a waist-emphasized dress with narrow skirt shape will make you stand out and express your personality within yourself!

We like to reconstruct and reinvent the past into an innovative and accessible future for fashion )supplied(

SIMPLICITY IS POWER Lubna Alhomsi finds great inspiration in Coco Chanel. She believes that the simpler the design, the more elegant. She is into simplicity.

“Coco Chanel said ‘simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance’. This is what I hope to add to Arab fashion industry, especially for evening gowns. There is no need for too much embroidery or stones or cuts to be added together in the same outfit to make it look sophisticated”, Alhomsi said.

She told me that using the right fabric with a sim-

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The question of affordability remains a challenge. The lockdown has changed people’s spending priorities. ple touch representing a bigger concept could be more than enough to be nicely dressed.

“I wish every lady to look like a royal. Simplicity is key here”, she concluded.

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Chung’s own childhood and follows a Korean family that moves to rural Arkansas in the 1980s. Though it’s stirring, the film is not some rose-tinted account of the American dream pursued and achieved. The soil that Jacob grabs whole fistfuls of and proclaims “the best dirt in America” seems to him the most tactile symbol of opportunity imaginable. But Chung’s movie explores how the earth punishes Jacob for his belief in it, while also charting the Yi family’s efforts to simply survive.

Minari works because it knows that behind every sweet childhood memory lies bitter struggle. The story is utterly charming when told from David’s point of view, and unflinching when it pivots to the complicated dynamics of his parents’ marriage. Chung’s humanistic approach as a filmmaker reminds me of François Truffaut at his best, using personal details to weave narratives that feel grand beyond their scale. Minari is about just one family carving out a life in the middle of nowhere, but it has volumes to say about the wonders and frustrations of building an independent existence in America.

Steven Yeun, right, appears in «Minari» with Alan Kim by Lee Isaac Chung )TNS(

Minari Will Draw You in With Its Beautiful Little Details

When the film begins, Jacob and Monica have spent their marriage’s early years working as chicken sexers in California, earning a pittance sorting chicks at hatcheries. To Jacob, the Arkansas farm offers an escape from that monotony, and he dives into his new work with enthusiasm. He takes on a kooky farmhand, Paul (an overwhelmingly charming Will Patton), who advises him to space out his lettuce plants so that they can grow huge, “the Arkansas way.” The promise of the land lies in the space, the emptiness, the room for growth; while Monica misses city life, Jacob is enchanted by his limitless new horizon.

Jacob’s starry-eyed dreams of independence and success are counterbalanced by Monica’s intense homesickness. When her mother, Soon-ja (a wry, hilarious Youn Yuh-jung),

An Uncommon Generational Narrative of Immigrant Parents and Their American-born Children

By David Sims The open, green plot of land that the Yi family moves to at the start of Minari represents something different to each member. The kids, David (played by Alan Kim) and Anne (Noel Cho), treat it as a playground, a mysterious new landscape to run around and explore. The mother, Monica (Yeri Han), views the isolated lot—and the vacant trailer home in

the middle of it—with horror and resignation. But the dad, Jacob (Steven Yeun), sees only pure potential, the chance to make something of his own. “It’s an investment. Don’t worry; we’ll earn it all back,” he reassures his wife. “This is how you farm in America.”

The Jury Prize winner at 2021’s Sundance Film Festival, Minari is a warm drama inspired by the director Lee Isaac

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From left, Steven Yeun, Alan Kim, Yuh-Jung Youn, Yeri Han, and Noel Cho in “Minari,” inspired by writer-director Lee Isaac Chung’s own life )TNS(

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Though it’s stirring, the film is not some rose-tinted account of the American dream pursued and achieved. The soil that Jacob grabs whole fistfuls of and proclaims “the best dirt in America” seems to him the most tactile symbol of opportunity imaginable. comes from South Korea to stay with the family, she brings a bag of dried anchovies, and Monica cries at the sight of them. Soon-ja is a delight—foulmouthed, unceremonious, and funny—but David is largely baffled by her. He complains that she doesn’t behave like a “real Grandma” and turns up his nose at the Korean treats she offers him. Chung packages many small moments like this together, gathering emotional weight before the film reaches its bigger plot twists. Yeun and Han’s nuanced work sells Jacob and Monica’s deep connection despite their money troubles and marital strife.

Minari is a generational narrative that mostly avoids the clichés of immigrant parents and their American-born children.

Though he has a disciplinary streak, Jacob is the most enamored of life in the States and most eager to reject any hint of old-world superstition (at one point, he shoos away a water dowser who tries to help him irrigate his farm). David, though initially suspicious of his grandmother, forms a tight bond with her because she lets him be a kid, whereas his mother hovers over him, fretting about a congenital heart condition that requires her to constantly check his blood pressure.

Chung’s strengths are in the littlest observations. Through the film’s two-hour running time, he seeds enough context to tell a whole story in one guilty look between Jacob and Monica, or in an unintentionally rude comment from a well-meaning David to his grandmother. So when the family’s financial woes mount and the brutal third act arrives, the developments don’t feel like a melodramatic deluge. Viewers can empathize as much with Jacob’s ambitions as they can with Monica’s exasperation at his fixation on work over family. Minari is a tale that will feel familiar to many, but Chung grounds it in brilliant specificity.

This article was originally published in The Atlantic Online.

H

ealth Teresa Fung, adjunct professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, recommends focusing on five simple strategies to help you meet your nutritional goals.

1. Strive for partial success

Choosing nutritious options isn›t always easy.

Instead of insisting on perfection, aim to make at least half of what›s on your plate healthy. Think a heaping serving of salad with your cheesy slice of pizza, or a healthy portion of roasted vegetables and brown rice with your fried shrimp. If you aim for half or healthier foods on your plate, it can make a big difference in the overall quality of your diet, and it›s more sustainable long-term than trying to be perfect.

Obviously the healthier options you choose the better, but halfway or more is a good starting point.

2. Reduce temptation

5Tips to Get Your Eating Habits Back on Track

If Your Diet Has Taken a Detour into Unhealthy Territory, These Strategies Can Help You Improve

By Harvard Women›s Health Watch The COVID19- pandemic has changed a lot of things: schedules, the amount of time spent at home, stress levels, and -- for a lot of people -- eating habits. For

some, these changes have not been for the better. If you fall into this category, you may be struggling to get back on track. What can you do to rein in a wayward diet?

Rather than aim for a complete dietary revamp,

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The urge to mindlessly graze all day is real if you›re home more than you used to be or are working in or near your kitchen. A handful of this and a bite of that can quickly turn your daily diet into a disaster.

The solution? Remove visual temptation, says Fung. «I think you really have to put your food behind the cabinet door,» she says. «Don›t leave food on the counter.» If you can›t see it, you›re less likely to grab it on impulse.

In addition, she says, try to avoid using the kitchen as your office.

Set up somewhere else, so you have to make a conscious decision to go into the kitchen to eat.

Choosing nutritious options isn’t always easy. Instead of insisting on perfection, aim to make at least half of what’s on your plate healthy. combine them to make your meal. This formula makes it easy to quickly put together a healthy dish.

For example, you might have chicken with brown rice and cauliflower, a noodle bowl that contains shrimp and broccoli with a little soy sauce and sesame oil, or a black bean burrito with grilled peppers and onions.

To make the process even easier, and to give yourself options when you can›t get to the grocery store, keep your pantry and freezer stocked. Canned fish, beans, and easy-to-cook grains are some staples you can add to your pantry. For your freezer, try cooked shredded chicken, edamame, and other vegetables, says Fung.

4. Let your food entertain you

Rather than eating because you›re bored, start cooking to avoid boredom. «I think now that people are not able to do some of their usual activities, they may have more time on their hands, and some time to learn how to cook new things,» says Fung.

Experiment with new recipes, try new foods, or watch some cooking shows, says Fung. If you›re like many people, you›ve probably realized that your repertoire of meals is relatively narrow. «Most people rotate among 10 to 14 recipes,» says Fung. Expanding your options can help you eat more variety and choose healthier foods. Cooking them yourself can also provide a source of entertainment.

5. Switch things up

3. Be a formula follower

When you›re eating at home more often, you may quickly lose inspiration for meal-making. An easy way to build healthy meals without too much mental effort is to think of your meals in three parts, says Fung.

These are a protein, such as fish, chicken, eggs, or beans a vegetable a carbohydrate, such as quinoa, rice, or noodles.

Once you pick one item from each category,

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To improve the nutritional quality of your recipes, make some simple substitutions. Baking bread?

Try adding some whole-wheat flour instead of white, says Fung. Eating takeout? Instead of your usual full entrée, consider choosing an appetizer or one item off the menu and then adding a salad, vegetable, or other healthy option from home to fill out the meal, she says. By making small substitutions, you can improve the nutritional content of your meals.

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ulture Her husband trained her in tanoura for one month and then she started to take part in shows.

SPIRITUAL DANCE Tanoura is a dance of mystical origins and is popular among Arabs and foreigners alike. It is a rhythmic dance that is collectively performed in circular motions, which stems from Sufi Islamic philosophy.

The dance’s performers see that the movement in the universe starts from a point and ends at the same point, and therefore they reflect this concept in their dance. Their movements come in circular motion, as if they draw with them halos that reinforce their beliefs, spinning and spinning as if they were the planets swimming in space.

Whirling Away Stereotypes First Female Sufi Dancer in Egypt Menna A. Farouk The sounds of music were loud in a dinner hall inside one of the floating restaurants in Cairo’s upscale neighbourhood of Maadi.

Outside the hall, Hanaa Moustafa, 35, was preparing to enter and perform as the first Sufi whirling dancer in Egypt.

“I feel really spiritual when I dance,” Moustafa told Al-Majalla before making her three performances at the restaurants.

Hanaa works every day until the early hours of the next morning and participates in parties and events.

“I entered the world of tanoura (Sufi whirling) through folklore, as my mother used to work in costumes in the balloon theater, and I used to go with her to the theater. So, I loved the art of folklore,” she said.

Moustafa joined a folklore troupe when she was six years old and took part in many international festivals as a folk dancer.

“Then, I met my husband who is a professional tanoura dancer and he trained me and was my main motivation,” Hanaa revealed.

Moustafa was also provoked by the popular idea that a girl dancing tanoura is unlikely, which prompted her to become professional in this art.

The middle-aged dancer received rejection from her colleagues in the folklore troupe as their comment was always “how can a girl dance the tanoura?”

“But my reply was that if a man did it a woman could do it as well because tanoura is not restricted to a certain gender. If we look at belly dancing for example, we will find that most belly dancing trainers are men,” she said.

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Hana Moustafa, 35, performs at a floating restaurant in Cairo’s upscale neighbourhood of Maadi on February 13, 2021

Often the dance is accompanied by prayers and praise of God and performers whirl not just for the sake of whirling, but because they want to reach a sublime stage of spiritual clarity.

This dance first originated in Turkey in the thirteenth century while some studies indicate that Turkish philosopher and poet Jalal al-Din al-Rumi was the first to introduce the Dervish or Mevlevi dance, which is the spiritual circular dance from which the tanoura dance was derived.

Often the dance is accompanied by prayers and praise of God and performers whirl not just for the sake of whirling, but because they want to reach a sublime stage of spiritual clarity.

ONLY FEMALE TRAINER IN EGYPT Moustafa is also the only female trainer of tanoura dancing in Egypt. She has also participated in a number of international festivals and has traveled to a number of countries, including Turkey, Qatar, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Emirates.

When she performed in Turkey, which is the origin of the art of tanoura, she received wide accolades from the audience.

Moustafa has trained many female foreign dancers in tanoura and she believes that women are not practicing this kind of art because they think they will be not able to bear the vertigo.

“Sufi whirling is an exhausting dance, but the most difficult thing about it is the vertigo. But by doing certain practices that break the dizziness, any woman can perform well,” she said.

According to the 2015 Global Gender Gap Index, Egypt ranks low in gender equity compared to other countries worldwide.

The Index, which measures disparities between men and women across countries, ranked Egypt at 136

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Hana Moustafa, 35, poses for a photo at a floating restaurant in Cairo’s upscale neighbourhood of Maadi on February 13, 2021. (By Menna A. Farouk)

out of 145 countries worldwide. It added that women have significantly lower participation in the labor force than men (26% vs 79%).

“Women are still underrepresented in many fields and the increase of their representation in any field would not only benefit those women socially and economically but also would benefit the whole society,” Randa Fakhr El-Deen, a women’s rights activist and executive director of the NGOs’ Union on Harmful Practices Against Women, told Majalla.

She added that having those women fighting for a space besides men in art and workplaces in general would gradually break deeply-rooted misconceptions and social stereotypes as well as increase women’s representation in different walks of life.

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Raghad Saddam Hussein: Her Father’s Defense and Prospects of Political Involvement in Iraq

By Majalla Painted by Mekdad Raghad Saddam Hussein is the eldest daughter of Saddam Hussein, the late president of Iraq. She took the responsibility of helping her father during the trial after which he was eventually executed in 2006. She appeared last week in an exclusive interview for Al-Arabiya Channel that aired as part of a series of interviews.

Raghad Saddam was born in Baghdad in 1967 to Saddam Hussein and his wife and cousin Sajidah Talfah. Raghad had two brothers and two sisters.

She got married to her father’s cousin Hussein Kamel, who defected from Iraq and offered to share information about weapons of mass destruction with American and British intelligence. However, Kamel was convinced to return to Iraq and to be pardoned later. After his return, Kamel was labelled a traitor by his fellow clan members and was killed along with his brother. Raghad Saddam bore five children to Kamel, three sons and two daughters.

Following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Saddam daughters had to flee their country. In her recent interview, Raghad Saddam recalled that they had no passports and fled to Syria first, with the help of some tribes that she would not name. However, they did not stay for a long time in Syria and moved to settle in Jordan where King Abdullah gave her family his personal protection.

Her brothers Qusay and Uday were killed following

the invasion by US forces after a long gunfight in Mosul. Photos of their corpses were famously circulated in the media. Commenting that she did not and will not see the photos, she confirmed that she knew the informant who reported her brothers’ hiding place. Saddam also said that she lost one of her sons during the US bombing of Iraq, as her house was hit by 11 missiles.

During the trial of her father, Saddam took the responsibility of organizing his legal defense. Eventually, when he was executed in 2006, she insisted that he should be buried in Yemen until the Iraq is free from occupation. Talking about the trial period, she said, “I spent almost exactly three years defending my father. It wasn’t easy at all. When the invasion first started, we were trying to adjust to the circumstances post-invasion. I was also trying to handle my father’s legal case which was not easy. President Saddam was an exceptional character. He was a head of state, first and foremost, but he was also an exceptional man, a man of stature and prestige.”

Marking 12 years after her father’s execution, Saddam directed a recorded message to the Iraqi people. She said, “I wish for you Iraqis our vision for Iraq to be more secure and stable than it is now.”

“All humanitarian and moral values have been lost, and strange ideas have been disseminated here and there. Extremism has reached the extent of exploiting religion as a cover to achieve sick objectives for many parties,” she added.

In 2018, Iraqi authorities named her on top of the country’s most-wanted list. Then, she vowed to

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confront all those who “insult her” by suing them back. Iraqi security services at the time had published the names of 60 people wanted on suspicion of belonging to ISIS, al-Qaeda, or the Baath Party of late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

In the first part of her multi-series interview with Al-Arabiya, Saddam denounced Iranian interference in Iraqi politics. She lamented the absence of real power which led to Iran’s provocative actions in her country, saying “In light of the absence of Iraq’s real and legitimate authority, Iran deemed the state free for the taking.”

“Based on my own conviction, when the deterrent becomes real, the high-ranking officials, the decision-makers, whoever they were, when they put their mind to ending this interference, they can do that,” she added. She also warned against the option of dividing her country, saying “each phase may have any requirements with the exception of dividing the homeland.”

Saddam revealed her hope to return back to Iraq and, when asked about prospects of playing a direct role in Iraqi politics, she replied, “Everything is possible.”

In a reply about her father’s decision to invade Kuwait, Saddam said that it was a wrong decision and both countries have incurred losses.

Though she described her father’s rule as a “glorious time for Iraq,” she admitted that certain cases witnessed harsh treatment. “When your president is Saddam Hussein, you have to choose between prosperity and freedom,” she told Al Arabiya.