Tag Archives: Middle East

What I learned about Wikileaks on Twitter

By Elmira Bayrasli | Published: December 3, 2010
As a former State Department “official,” foreign policy hound, Turcophile, Middle East watcher and news junkie, I can’t take my eyes off of Wikileaks.  Trouble is, my eyes are jetlagged weary (as I write this it’s 3:30 AM in Tokyo) and focused on social innovation as I attend and speak at several social innovation events [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

U.S. to Iran: Let’s be friends

By Elmira Bayrasli | Published: June 6, 2010
Barack Obama shocked the Washington foreign policy establishment when, back in 2007, he said, “we’ve got to talk directly to Iran.”  It was a policy prescription that beltway insiders may have considered but certainly none openly discussed.  To do so would have been “naïve,” which is exactly what then candidate Obama was called. In his [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

There’s no such thing as a “Muslim” entrepreneur

By Elmira Bayrasli | Published: April 26, 2010
From ash clouds to Foggy Bottom. This week I’m hanging out in our nation’s capital, attending the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship.  You can read my thoughts and impressions on www.portfolio.com. Here’s my first one, talking about how surprised I am that the conference isn’t “business as usual.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s the investors, stupid

By Elmira Bayrasli | Published: February 8, 2010
Entrepreneurship is hot in the Middle East.  And that was long before President Obama announced last June in Cairo that he would host a summit on entrepreneurship, which will take place April 26-27, 2010 in Washington DC. Arabs are abuzz about getting their ideas for new businesses off the ground. Habib Haddad, founder of Yamli [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Good Muslims, Minus Women

By Elmira Bayrasli | Published: January 5, 2010
Osama bin-Laden, al-Qaeda, 9/11, Iraq, the Taliban, Afghanistan, and Ft. Hood or what some would describe as terrorism and murder have become the symbols of Islam in the West. They have shaped, sadly, what Americans know about Muslims. And that has led to our increasingly irrational and overemotional, “you are the enemy” policies toward the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment