DI Faculty Affiliate Coauthors Working Paper
Read DI Faculty Affiliate Asim Khwaja's new working paper "Estimating the Impact of the Hajj: Religion and Tolerance in Islam’s Global Gathering" here.
FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
Winter 2007/2008
Issues of War and Peace in the Middle East: A Few Remarks
By Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; Faculty Chair, Dubai Initiative, Tarik Yousef, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Dean of the Dubai School of Government; Associate Professor of Economics, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Vali Nasr, Senior Fellow, Dubai Initiative; Adjunct Sr. Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; and Professor of International Politics & Assoc. Director, Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Fletcher School, Tufts University, Nabil Ali Alyousuf, Assistant Director General, The Executive Office and Lakhdar Brahimi
"The Middle East: Between Progress and Conflict," an inaugural conference jointly hosted by The Dubai Initiative and the Dubai School of Government, was held on November 8, 2007 at the Kennedy School of Government.
The conference opened with remarks by Graham Allison, Nabil Ali Alyousuf, Tarik Yousef, and Vali Nasr. Lakhdar Brahimi, former Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General, opened the conference with his keynote speech, "Issues of War and Peace in the Middle East: A Few Remarks."
May 9, 2008
"Breakfast in Beirut"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
This was the third time in a generation that I lived through armed conflict in Beirut, including the early months of the civil war in 1975, the war with Israel in summer 2006, and now this battle -- both a local test of political strength and a proxy battle for the wider ideological war pitting United States-led, predominantly Sunni Muslim Arabs vs. Iranian- and Syrian-led, heavily Shiite Muslim Arabs. The regional and global confrontation translated this week into who controlled a few buildings and streets in West Beirut.
May 6, 2008
"The Global Food and Energy Crises and the Middle East"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
Things will be much more difficult this time around. The consequences could be much worse, especially in view of the ripple effect of the war in Iraq, Iran's growing influence, continued stalemate in Palestine, and the weakening of some Arab governments. It is difficult to predict exactly what will happen in the years ahead, but the stressful factors pushing change are already clear and we would be foolish to ignore them.
May 5, 2008
"Linus Pauling Still Teaches Courage"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
Any scientist -- even political scientists and politicians -- should be able to hear and understand the cries for a more orderly, safe and just society that emanate from throughout the Middle East. Many of the preconceived ideas or simplistic impressions about Middle Eastern Arabs and Muslims that prevail in the United States and other Western countries are not derived from careful observation of facts.
May 2008
"Labor Regulations and European Industrial Specialization: Evidence from Private Equity Investments"
By Ant Bozkaya, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
European nations empirically substitute between employment protection regulations and labor market expenditures like unemployment insurance benefits in the provision of labor market insurance to workers. While perhaps substitutes from a worker's perspective, employment regulations more directly tax firms making frequent labor force adjustments. These labor adjustments are especially important for the portfolio companies of both venture capital and buy-out investors. European nations providing worker insurance through labor market expenditures developed stronger domestic private equity markets over the 1990-2004 period than those nations favoring employment protection. These patterns are further evident in US-sourced private equity investments into Europe. Moreover, tests for industry specialization suggest that countries with more flexible labor markets tend to specialize in sectors characterized by high labor volatility. These results are relevant to the literature examining the impact of labor market regulations on entrepreneurship and productivity growth due to reallocation across firms and sectors.
Click here for the full text.
May 2008
Financing Entrepreneurship
By Ant Bozkaya, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program and Philip Auerswald, Associate, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
This important collection comprises foundational papers which offer an understanding of the conceptual and historical substructure of entrepreneurial finance and more recent seminal works about entrepreneurs and the obstacles that they systematically seek to overcome. Further articles describe the variety of institutional forms that have evolved to address the challenges inherent in entrepreneurial finance and the role of government in the process of innovation, entrepreneurship and the financing of new ventures. These papers, complemented by the editors' comprehensive introduction, are essential for scholars, researchers, policy makers and entrepreneurs wishing to advance their understanding of this important and expanding field of study.
For more information on the book, click here.
May 1, 2008
"Global Action Institute: Arab and American Dialogue"
By Ant Bozkaya, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
During the March 14-15 Young Arab Leaders Global Action Forum in New York, DI Research Fellow Ant Bozkaya moderated a session on the establishment of a YAL Global Action Institute in the United States.
Access the full session brief here.
April 29, 2008
"Washington Cedes its Role"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
It is telling of the damage the United States has done to its influence in the Middle East that the potentially most important diplomatic development in the past generation -- a possible Israeli-Syrian treaty -- seems to be taking place without any significant American role.
April 28, 2008
"As Northern Ireland, So the Middle East"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
There may be important parallels today between the IRA cease-fire in 1994 and Hamas' offer of a mutual, not a unilateral, truce. Israel and its friends would seem sensible to respond to Hamas by testing its sincerity about shifting from armed resistance to political negotiation, through a carefully calibrated and negotiated series of steps that simultaneously gives both sides important gains.
April 23, 2008
"Two Causes of Arab Political Incoherence"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
How much are the Arabs responsible for their own political dysfunction, national fragmentation and rampant violence, and how much of their troubles can be blamed on foreign interference and military interventions in the region? Two recent articles in quality American journals highlight how low-class Arab politics that are widely dissatisfying to their own citizens can reflect both indigenous autocracy and foreign mischief-making.
AP Photo
April 21, 2008
"The US Democracy Gap in the Arab World"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
One of the paradoxes of the complex relationship between the Arab World and the United States relates to the rhetoric and reality of democratic values. The George W. Bush administration has made democracy promotion a central pillar of its foreign policy in the Middle East at the level of rhetoric, but in practice it pays little heed to behaving democratically in its interaction with the Arab people.
AP Photo
April 15, 2008
"Two Arab Worlds Drift Further Apart"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
As oil prices and income to some Arab producers continue to rise, we can witness sharper polarization between the wealthy energy-producing, small population states of the Gulf, on the one hand, and the more populous, energy-importing Arab countries all around it in the Levant region, the Nile Valley, and further west into North Africa. Any person who travels to such places as Dubai, Doha, Bahrain, Amman, Cairo, Casablanca and Beirut moves between two very different worlds that are united by investment and labor flows but are being pushed further apart in most other spheres of life.
eremi
April 11, 2008
"Understanding Hamas' Six R's"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
Israel, the United States, and some other countries reject dealing with Hamas because they see it purely as a terrorist organization dedicated to the "destruction of Israel." The reality is more complex than that. Hamas certainly has committed acts of terror against Israeli civilians, and it must be held accountable for such deeds -- in a context in which all who commit murder and terror in the Middle East are similarly held accountable, including Israelis, Arabs, Iranians, Americans and British.
April, 2008
"Who Funds Technology-Based Small Firms? Evidence from Belgium"
Economics of Innovation and New Technology
By Ant Bozkaya, Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative/Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
Using an original survey sample of 103 unquoted Belgian technology-based small firms (TBSFs), we examine the capital structure of start-up companies during their consecutive development stages. We find that internal funds, either alone as personal savings or in combination with family and friends, to be the primary source of financing. Personal funds of the founders are used to finance the start of 82% of TBSFs. Commercial bank and government funds are the most important sources of external finance for TBSFs subsequent to start-up. Most founders agreed that business angels and venture capitalists play a greater role at later stages. However, once granted, more substantial amounts of funding come from venture capitalists. There is also evidence that suggests a change in the mix of internal and external sources of finance. Finally, our findings based on founders' scores in raising external funds suggest a call for urgent policy action to improve access to and availability of early-stage entrepreneurial finance in Belgium. We discuss our findings in light of the capital structure of small firms relating to TBSFs.
AP Photo
March 24, 2008
"A Lesson in Humility and Humanity"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Dubai Initiative Senior Fellow, Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, and Editor-at-Large of the Daily Star
Acts of acknowledgment, regret, shame, contrition and apology are absolutely crucial for resolving some of the most intractable conflicts of our world. Such gestures alone do not resolve a problem or end a conflict; astute politics and diplomacy are also needed to negotiate realistic agreements. The combination of technical accords and powerful human gestures or reconciliation can stop active warfare, and shift human energies on both sides of a divide into the business of coexistence, mutual development, prosperity and security.
January 2008
"Results Based Government in Arab States: Drivers, Barriers and Tensions"
By Nesrine Halima, Associate, Dubai Initiative and Innovations in Governance Project, Dubai School of Government
The transnational movement of goods, services and ideas-the
process known as globalization-has had profound impact on national
government structures and how their administrations are managed.
In many respects, globalization has dissolved both material and
immaterial economic, social and even cultural boundaries. The
interplay between both these factors has made globalization an area of
interest and concern within the area of public administration. This policy
brief examines the relationship between globalization and resultsbased
government, and how global processes and trends have affected
the public sector in Arab states. The brief concludes that the variance
between the levels of progress in adopting and applying these tools of
public administration across the Arab world cannot be attributed to lack of political commitment alone, but also resides within the specific institutional and sociocultural histories of Arab states.
