Research Library

The invocation of sectarianism as a category of analysis for understanding the Middle East is misleading. It conflates a religious identification with a political one, and it ignores the kinship, class and national and regional networks within which sectarian self-expression has invariably been enmeshed. What is urgently needed is a new research agenda to study the dialectic — the complex, constant and unequal relationship between local and foreign — that makes up the modern Middle East.

Mexico Center director Tony Payan outlines overarching principles and specific policy proposals that, with the necessary political will, can productively address complex immigration issues.

This paper argues that the Texas social studies curriculum does not offer balanced coverage of world religions, due in large part to intervention by conservative members of the Texas State Board of Education. The paper identifies examples of imbalanced coverage in social studies texts and offers recommendations for broadening coverage of religion in Texas public schools.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen profiles Theresa May and sets out the policy challenges her government will face, post-Brexit.

This interactive online map and graphs examine trends in Mexican students studying the United States, using data from 1999 to 2014 acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

This paper examines the progress of energy subsidy reforms in the Persian Gulf, documenting policy changes in all six monarchies and briefly examining the role of energy and the state.

Five years after the Jasmine Revolution, Tunisia stands alone as the only country in North Africa where the Arab Spring has led to significant reforms and a democratic transition. Reservations have been voiced, however, on the gender equality provisions in the country’s revised constitution.

In the short term, Guatemala requires the consolidation of a strong state and a political-social pact based not only on holding new elections, but also grounded in laws that promote institutional strengthening and an effective response to its citizens' most heartfelt demands, in a context of freedom, justice and inclusion.

How will Mexico's government and military respond in the long run to the humiliating escape of Chapo Guzman, the country's most powerful drug trafficker?

This report reviews the key concepts and themes that emerged from the conference “Divided Societies, Volatile States: The Politics of Identity Post-Arab Spring,” hosted by the Baker Institute Center for the Middle East on March 10, 2015.