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History will be made in Egypt today and the country’s political future will be determined. Egyptians are heading to the polls to elect a new president after an extraordinary 15 months that saw revolution, violence, and upheaval. Noel King, a freelance journalist in Egypt, joins to talk about the country's youth vote.

Ethan Bronner is a correspondent for our partner The New York Times. He recently announced that he would transition from his role as the paper's Jerusalem Bureau Chief to become a national legal correspondent in New York. The Middle East has changed radically since Bronner accepted the Bureau Chief position in early 2008. Perhaps most visible are the results of the Arab Spring uprisings throughout the region. Bronner reflects on the immense changes in the Middle East since he started reporting there four years ago.

Over the weekend, pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to Myanmar’s parliament in a landmark vote. It’s a historic moment for the country; after years of house arrest, Suu Kyi appears poised to finally step into a role of real power. What's the best way to build a real democracy? Do events in Myanmar offer a model for democratic transitions elsewhere? Suzanne DiMaggio is Vice President for global policy programs at the Asia Society. Robert Lieber is professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University.

Marc Lynch, a.k.a. @AbuAardvark, professor and director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University, editor of the Middle East channel at Foreign Policy, and senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, talks about his new book, The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the protest movement in Syria. While the Arab Spring brought regime change to Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has retained his grip on power. Syrian forces loyal to President Assad have stepped up attacks across the country. Yesterday, government forces began raiding Dara'a, the city where the uprising against the president began. In the last year, Syrian forces have killed more than 8,000 people, according to the United Nations. The international community can’t seem to agree on a solution, and the opposition movement is fractured. What's ahead for Syria?

President Bashar al-Assad's army is mercilessly shelling the city of Homs for the 20th day in a row in Syria. And there are signs of escalation in violence across the country. Activists say Syrian troops are using helicopter gunships to strafe mountain villages where anti-regime rebels could be hiding. There are also reports of Syrian forces now staging vicious door-to-door raids in Damascus. Joining the program is Jim Muir, correspondent for our partner the BBC.

American journalist Marie Colvin has reportedly been killed in Syria along with Rémi Ochlik of France. Colvin wore a black eye patch after she lost an eye to shrapnel while reporting from Sri Lanka in 2001. But that didn't stop from venturing back into Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, to cover the uprising of the Arab people. That's what eventually took her to Homs in Syria, where she lost her life. Yesterday, she filed her last dispatch from the embattled city.

Marwan Bishara, senior political analyst for Al Jazeera English, host of Empire, the monthly show about global powers, and author of The Invisible Arab: The Promise and Peril of the Arab Revolutions, counters the perception of the "Arab Spring" as a spontaneous uprising.

EVENT: "The Invisible Arab", a discussion with Marwan Bishara of Al Jazeera, hosted by the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, takes place this evening, Thursday, February 16th from 6pm-8pm. Registration is required and doors open at 5:30pm. To register, click here.

After Ben-Ali fled Tunisia, and Mubarak ran from Egypt, the Libyan revolution began in Benghazi and then traveled east, to Tripoli. After an intense civil war bolstered by international support, Moammar Gadhafi’s 40-year reign finally ended last October in his hometown of Sirte. As Libyans celebrate the anniversary of their revolution, the state of their government is still in flux, and the role of women in Libyan civic life is particularly uncertain.

For much of the past year, the Syrian government has been cracking down on protesters. The violence has drawn the attention of the international community and caused several thousands Syrians to seek refuge in neighboring countries. But for one Syrian seeking asylum in Brooklyn, it was the reason to go back home.

The Takeaway devoted a full hour this morning to the ongoing situation in Syria. With reports from the ground, a history of the country from David Sanger, Russia's influence in the region, a take from the pro-democracy movement in the U.S., and even the pro-Assad outlook on conflict. The following is our full first hour of coverage in its entirety.

Since its humble beginnings in the Bronx during the 1970s, hip hop has become a global musical phenomenon with attendant forms of style and protest. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of hip hop's recent impact is in the Arab world where formed the soundtrack to the revolution with rappers like Hamada Ben Amor from Tunisia, Cheikh Oumar Cyrille from Senegal, and Mohamed el Deeb from Egypt.

Over the weekend, Egypt’s international cooperation minister, a former Mubarak regime member, said an investigation by her bureau had uncovered "plots aimed at striking at Egypt's stability."  Egyptian authorities referred 19 Americans and 2 dozen other NGO employees in Cairo to trial, and are reportedly charged with brewing unrest in Egypt. 400 Egyptian NGOs are also under investigation at this time.

Over the weekend, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have supported an Arab League peace plan for Syria, claiming the plan would have violated Syria’s sovereignty. On Sunday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the veto during a speech in Sofia, Bulgaria, stating, "Faced with a neutered Security Council we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people's right to have a better future."

The images of brutality are grim: 74 Egyptians dead but the scene is not Tahrir square in Cairo but a soccer field in the Egyptian city of Port Said. A riot at a soccer match between the team from Port Said and a team from Cairo is responsible for those fatalities and it has sent shock waves deep into Egyptian society already reeling from political chaos. 

On Sunday, the American Embassy in Cairo offered to shelter American citizens barred from leaving the country after the Egyptian government instituted a travel ban on 17 American citizens working for NGOs within the country. Sam LaHood, son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, is among the Americans stuck in Cairo. The American Embassy's need to shelter American citizens in a once-friendly nation symbolizes a serious rift in U.S.–Egypt relations.

Back in February 1982, then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad unleashed his troops on the city of Hama in an attempt to wipe out the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters. The Massacre lasted for a month and tens of thousands of Syrians lost their lives. Now the Syrian people are rising against the current president Bashar al-Assad in hopes of ending a 40-year dictatorship of the Assad family.

On Monday Arab League representatives met with the United Nations Security Council to discuss a plan of action for Syria. More than 5,000 Syrians have been killed by government forces since protests against President Bashar Al-Assad began last March. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton delivered a strong message of support to the Syrian resistance the same day: "The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region."

Early Sunday morning, approximately 2,000 Syrian soldiers launched an assault on the suburbs of Damascus. Armed tanks rolled into the outskirts of the city where many dissident soldiers have taken up residence. This latest spate of violence comes as the Arab League officially suspended its monitoring mission in Syria citing increasing violence and civilian deaths.

In Egypt thousands of people have converged on Cairo's Tahrir Square to mark the first anniversary of "Friday of Rage," a key day in the popular uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. A year ago Mubarak's security forces fired on protesters who streamed into the square, killing and wounding hundreds. The day ended with a collapse of Mubarak's much-hated security forces.