Hicham Alaoui

Hicham Alaoui is the founder and director of the Hicham Alaoui Foundation. His recent publications include Pacted Democracy in the Middle East: Tunisia and Egypt in Comparative Perspective (Palgrave, 2022), as well as the co-edited volumes The Political Economy of Arab Education (Lynne Rienner, 2021) and Security Assistance in the Middle East: Challenges … and the Need for Change (Lynne Rienner, 2023). He is a political science lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Gaza War in comparative perspective Hicham Alaoui · 5 September After an 11-month war against Gaza, Israel and its American ally are hesitating about what to do next. Meanwhile, the entire Middle East region is shaken, as each of the regional players seeks its place in an unstable context.
The latest war in Gaza is unlike previous struggles between Israel (…)
The Abraham Accords, Expression of a Fundamentalist Religious Alliance Hicham Alaoui · October 2023 The war in Gaza has overshadowed the normalisation agreements signed in 2020 between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. Beyond its geopolitical dimension, one aspect of this alliance has been overlooked: despite their theological differences, the fundamentalists of the three (…)
Against All Odds, the Persistence of Palestine Hicham Alaoui · August 2022 Although Palestine seems to have disappeared from the Western and Arab diplomatic agenda, it remains rooted in the regional reality and in the memory of the peoples. One cannot so easily eradicate the aspiration to emancipation.
President Biden’s recent visit to the Middle East did not reset (…)
Geopolitics of the Gulf. Return of Qatar, Weakening of the United Arab Emirates Hicham Alaoui · October 2021 In just a few years, Qatar has managed to emerge from its isolation and assert its place in its regional environment, but also further afield, as its role in Afghanistan proves. The United Arab Emirates, on the other hand, has suffered a series of setbacks, even though it continues to have many (…)
Op-ed To Break the Deadlock, Palestine Needs Democratic Elections Hicham Alaoui · June 2021 After the failure of the Oslo Accords, the “agreement of the century” definitively buried the idea of a Palestinian state. The recent wave of violence from which Hamas and Israel have benefited is the consequence. The organization of democratic elections must allow the mobilization that began in (…)
Israel-Emirates. Neither Betrayal nor History-Making Deal Hicham Alaoui · September 2020 Political observers have voiced contrasting opinions about the peace treaty between Israel and the Arab Emirates. Some have seen it as a monumental betrayal, others as an historic breakthrough. Actually, the treaty changes nothing in the Middle East political equation, nor does it attenuate in (…)
From Algeria to Sudan, a New Lease of Life for Arab Springs Hicham Alaoui · July 2019 What is happening in Sudan and Algeria is not a repetition of Arab springs, but a wave that learns from the lessons and mistakes of the past.
The protests in Algeria and Sudan resume the Arab Spring, which was temporarily halted in 2012-13 by two events—the establishment of a (…)