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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Trying to make sense of the patterns of alignments in the Middle East, especially since the Iraq war that began in 2003, is not easy, writes Nun School assistant professor Lawrence Rubin in a blog post for The Washington Post. Allies and enemies line up in shifting coalitions of support and opposition across any number of conflicts – from the Syrian civil war, to the Iranian nuclear question, to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although much ink has been spilled on the role of sectarian rivalry and the balance of military power, one reliable predictor of how political coalitions shake out in any given situation remains one of the least explored: The ideological threats presented by non-state or quasi-state actors such as Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State and other Islamist regimes may be just as, if not more, potent than the military challenges they pose.
