Wednesday and Thursday mark Egypt’s first post-Mubarak presidential elections. Sadly, what should be a purple-fingered moment brings some hope and much disappointment. Don’t get me wrong – Mubarak was a loathsome stooge, a petty and incompetent rentier tyrant who deserved what he got and more.

The United States and its allies and partners must not only understand Iran’s regional strategy and influence but also develop a coherent strategy of their own with which to confront them. Considering the relative economic, political, and diplomatic power of the two sides, it is unacceptable for the United States and its allies to allow Iran even such progress as it has made in these realms.

At this AEI event, Baroness Emma Nicholson of the AMAR International Charitable Foundation will discuss the role of public-private partnerships in delivering essential services after a regime change.

It was something of a momentous weekend in Arab League history. For the first time ever, the League imposed serious sanctions on one of its own and not for anything related to Israel. Rather, the Arab League voted to impose sanctions on Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria for its continued campaign of repression and murder.

What to think about the Arab Spring? Dour pundits insist that spring is a misnomer. Many are less preoccupied by the odd pairing of spring and death and more troubled by the fact that the spring seems, well, springier for Islamists than it does for secular democrats.

The new president will need to decide whether democracy in the process is more important than democracy as the final result. How should the United States react if, as the new regimes rewrite their constitutions, they turn from democracy toward theocracy? (INCLUDES VIDEO)

The Obama administration and Western governments may embrace democracy for Libya, but rhetoric is not enough. Obama must make a fundamental choice: Which is more important, democracy in the process of reconstituting a new government or democracy as the result?