PUBLICATIONS
The Dubai Initiative publishes the works of its Senior Fellows, Research Fellows, Associates, and others affiliated with the organization. We also offer complimentary hard-copies of our Working Papers and Policy Briefs series. Please contact us at dubai_initiative@hks.harvard.edu for more information.
September 21, 2011
Palestinian Challenge Perplexes Americans and Israelis
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the past week in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington my discussions on Mideast issues with a wide range of knowledgeable people confirm the view I have held for some time now: Official and other American attitudes to the Middle East, especially on the Arab-Israeli conflict, are characterized by deep perplexity, contradiction and disarray. No wonder the region is in the midst of a historic transition that has radically shifted the center of gravity of political action and diplomatic control away from American-Israeli dominance, towards a greater role for Arab public opinion.
(Photo by Marcus Halevi)
September 20, 2011
"Arab Uprisings Shift to Political Struggles"
By James F. Smith, Communications Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Many of this year’s Arab uprisings are evolving from angry popular revolts into drawn-out political struggles to build democratic systems that will protect basic civic rights and social justice, analysts told a John F. Kennedy Jr. forum audience at Harvard Kennedy School on Monday, Sept. 19.
September 19, 2011
"Iraqi factions wrangle over gas reserves"
By Justin Dargin, Former Associate, The Dubai Initiative
Dubai Initiative Associate Justin Dargin quoted by The Financial Times in an article about political wrangling over gas reserves, potential exports, and development in Iraq.
September 19, 2011
The Strengths and Weaknesses of American Democracy
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
PHILADELPHIA -- I had one particularly enlightening and depressing day last week as a student of American democracy and Arab-Israeli diplomacy, and know better now why most Arabs have totally given up on expecting anything positive or fair to emerge from the United States vis-à-vis our region. Democracy is a great and noble venture and a most utilitarian governance system, but it also has a dark and ugly side that is very visible here in the U.S. these days.
September 16, 2011
Non-associated gas push changes Saudi game
By Justin Dargin, Former Associate, The Dubai Initiative
Dubai Initiative Associate Justin Dargin is quoted in Natural Gas Daily about the development of natural gas in the Gulf.
September 14, 2011
An American Commemoration
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
GROUND ZERO, NEW YORK CITY -- I am writing this after having spent time at Ground Zero in New York City on September 11, an experience at once moving, enlightening and troubling. It captured for me the many complex and puzzling dimensions of what the 9/11 terror attacks and their aftermath really mean to the American people. It sharpened what I had previously concluded about the meaning of 9/11 in American life: This is an epic tale of intense passion wrapped in perplexity, a drama of powerful moral and human fortitude that remains undiminished alongside the spectacle of political confusion, and an affirmation of intense self-confidence and strength at home in tandem with equally strong doses of ignorance about the rest of the world and how to relate to it.
September 12, 2011
The Arab Awakening
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in rural Tunisia on December 17, 2010, he set in motion a dynamic that goes far beyond the overthrow of individual dictators. We are witnessing nothing less than the awakening, throughout the Arab world, of several phenomena that are critical for stable statehood: the citizen, the citizenry, legitimacy of authority, a commitment to social justice, genuine politics, national self-determination and, ultimately, true sovereignty. It took hundreds of years for the United States and Western Europe to develop governance and civil society systems that affirmed those principles, even if incompletely or erratically, so we should be realistic in our expectations of how long it will take Arab societies to do so.
[This article appeared in the September 12, 2011 edition of The Nation.]
September 12, 2011
Qatar Trades Support of Libyan Revolution for Oil and Gas
By Justin Dargin, Former Associate, The Dubai Initiative
Dubai Initiative Associate Justin Dargin is quoted in AMEinfo.com, the Middle East's business and finance news resource, in an article about how Qatar's early support of the Libyan revolution has led to increased influence in the Libyan energy sector.
September 10, 2011
The Double Tragedy
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
BOSTON -- The United States has been remembering and commemorating the tenth anniversary of the trauma and native heroism that marked the events of Sept. 11, 2001 for most Americans. The remembrances have been emotionally powerful, but they are also politically incomplete. Americans rightly emphasize the grave wound and incomprehensible crime that were inflicted on them, and also celebrate American resilience in the face of both. But the tragedy and suffering of the initial criminality have simply been perpetuated by the inability, or unwillingness, of American society to adequately explore why this happened to them -- because Americans for the most part still fail to address the wider context of the world in which dwell both the criminal attacker and the innocent victims.
September 7, 2011
A Bleak Decade Since the 9/11 Attacks
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
BOSTON -- To arrive in the United States, as I did a few days ago, one week before the tenth anniversary commemoration of the 9/11 terror attacks against the United States, is to reach a land that is remarkably little changed from what it was on that shocking September day in 2001 when Al-Qaeda zealots attacked and killed thousands of civilians. This classic act of terror had two dimensions, in two different spheres, all of which remain with us today as we try to understand the meaning of the act then and its consequences today. In the first sphere of the human mind and its perceptions and reactions, the 9/11 attacks were about psychological terror and political assertion. In the second sphere of the dichotomy of people and values, the attacks were about us and them, good and evil, strength and vulnerability, Islam and the world, and America and the world.
