Reza Aslan, founder of AslanMedia.com, speaks at the Middle East Initiative on April 4, 2013.
Announcements
Executive Education Program:
The Middle East Initiative’s customized executive education program, “Negotiation Opportunities and Challenges,” will be held at Harvard Kennedy School from May 19 to May 24. The program, designed for Kuwaitis in the public and private sectors, aims to help improve analytic and interpersonal skills to set up a favorable negotiation environment, identify opportunities to create value, and convince other parties to help advance your interests. Learn more about this program here.
Event Recordings:
If you missed any of this year's events, head to our multimedia page where you will find video recordings, podcasts and more from the great speakers and panel discussions we had.
FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
iStock
May 23, 2013
Stephen Walt on the Escalating Crisis in Syria
Earlier this month, Professor Stephen Walt shared his perspectives with the Harvard Kennedy School communications office on the deepening Syrian conflict. He discussed the role of the United States in the conflict, Assad's supporters, aid from the international community and more.
AP Images
May 15, 2013
"U.S. Action in Syria Could Sway Iran on Nukes"
Bloomberg View
By Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad must be pleased at how, within a week, the conversation has shifted from his regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons to an international peace conference on Syria’s civil war.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
May 17, 2013
"Three Benghazi myths"
GlobalPost
By Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
There are at least three myths that have grown up around the terrible events on Sept. 11 of last autumn.
May 2013
"Understanding Revolution in the Middle East: The Central Role of the Middle Class"
Middle East Development Journal, volume 5
By Ishac Diwan, Lecturer in Public Policy, Middle East Initiative
This paper presents the outlines of a coherent, structural, long term account of the socioeconomic and political evolution of the Arab republics that can explain both the persistence of autocracy until 2011, and the its eventual collapse, in a way that is empirically verifable. The changing interests of the middle class would have to be a central aspect of a coherent story, on accounts of both distributional and modernization considerations, and that the ongoing transformation can be best understood in terms of their defection from the autocratic order to a new democratic order, which is still in formation.
May 13, 2013
Podcast: Syria's "Endless" Nightmare: Humanitarian and Political Consequences
On Monday, May 6, the Middle East Initiative hosted a panel discussion addressing the most pressing concerns in the deepening, unabated Syrian crisis that has plagued the country since March of 2011. Moderated by Hilary Rantisi, Director of the Middle East Initiative, the panelists addressed the political, economic and humanitarian consequences of the violence in Syria, as well as the responses and responsibilities of the global community.
iStock
May 7, 2013
"The Real Scare in Syria is Not Chemical Weapons"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
"One of my rules of thumb of observing which way the wind blows in the Middle East is now in active operative mode: When Hezbollah and Israel both are actively fighting in the same third country, and Iran and the United States are both actively warning about their determination to act to protect their allies and their interests in that same third country, it is time to make another pot of coffee and make sure you have plenty of fresh batteries at home for your transistor radio."
Photo Credit: Ellis Goldberg
May 7, 2013
Ellis Goldberg: "Sectarian Violence: The Third Rail of Egyptian Politics" Podcast
The Middle East Initiative hosted Professor Ellis Goldberg for a lecture on May 1, 2013 to discuss sectarian violence in Egypt. Professor Goldberg is currently the Kuwait Foundation Visiting Scholar at the Middle East Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School, and is a professor of political science at the University of Washington.
May 4, 2013
"Drop the Failed Approaches and Try New Ideas"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
"There is good news and bad news on the Arab-Israeli peace-making front this week. The good news is that the United States and the Arab League’s ministerial committee seem energized to restart Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. This culminated a few days ago in the Arab clarification that the 2002 Arab Peace Plan that offers Israel a comprehensive and permanent peace can include minor and mutually agreed land swaps around the 1967 borders."
PressTV
April 2013
Middle East Development Journal Releases March 2013 Issue
Though the events of the Arab Spring in 2010 and 2011 represented the beginning of a revolution, the real revolution is yet to occur, writes Ishac Diwan in his introduction to the March 2013 issue of the Middle East Development Journal.
May 1, 2013
"Obama's leadership challenge on Syria"
GlobalPost
By Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard Kennedy School
The US can no longer afford to stay on the sidelines in Syria, writes Professor Burns in this week's GlobalPost piece. The stakes and consequences are just too high to do otherwise.
April 30, 2013
Energy and the Arab Awakening: A View from Riyadh
The Middle East Initiative and Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs hosted distinguished scholars and energy experts from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a panel discussion on Thursday, April 25. The panelists included Dr. Mohammed Al Sabban, Professor, King Abdulaziz University, former advisor to Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources; Mr. Ali Al Shihabi, Founder, Rasmala Investment Bank; and Mr. Abdulaziz al Fahad, Principal of Abdulaziz al Fahad Law Firm.
April 29, 2013
Prince Turki on Saudi Arabia's Role after Arab Awakening
In a speech for the Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative, Prince Turki al Faisal laid out Saudi Arabia’s two–pronged security strategy as the Gulf kingdom contends with the fallout from the 2011 Arab uprisings and fast-changing global energy trends. Prince Turki, who directed the Saudi intelligence service for more than two decades and served as ambassador to the United Kingdom and Ireland, and then to the United States, said Saudi foreign policy doctrine is based on two themes: external security and energy security.
The full text as prepared for delivery is attached (pdf).
April 23, 2013
"Kuwait's Historic Civil Disobedience"
Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
Though they go back many years, in their simplest and latest manifestations Kuwait’s political developments revolve around the issue of whether or not the emir has the authority to unilaterally revise the parliamentary electoral districts system to ensure a pro-regime and docile legislature, and whether or not citizens who oppose such manipulation have the right to peacefully protest against such moves and demand more democratic behavior by the ruling elite.
April 18, 2013
Rashid Khalidi: "Brokers of Deceit" Podcast
An audio recording of a talk by Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, on his new book, Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East, at MEI on April 10, 2013.
April 18, 2013
Reza Aslan: "The Next War? Iran, Israel and the U.S. at the Crossroads" Podcast
An audio recording of a conversation with Reza Aslan, internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions and founder of AslanMedia.com, on April 4, 2013. This event will be moderated by Tarek Masoud, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School.
April 12, 2013
Egypt: A Look to the Future
An audio recording of a talk by the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the United States, Amb. Mohamed Tawfik, at MEI on April 3, 2013.
April 7, 2013
"Two Saints and a Sinner"
Jadaliyya
"Recently there has been a marked decline in attempts by either the government or private persons to claim that their opponents are foreign agents or elements acting in their interest. This is not because political discourse has become kinder and gentler. It has become notably more intense and it is certainly not limited to debates about policy differences. Striking, however, is how infrequently anyone levies the once-common charge that opponents are not Egyptian...it is too early to say if this is a station on the way to a discourse that is both more civil and more probing or simply two distinct communities that refuse to listen to each other. But it is a significant change."
Associated Press
April 6, 2013
"Painfully Following Iran in the U.S. Media"
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative
One of the most annoying aspects of spending time in the United States, as I have just done with a month’s working visit there, is to follow the news coverage of Iran in the mainstream American media. Well, calling it “news” coverage is a bit of a stretch, because the mainstream American media is not really reporting news about Iran, but rather repackaged ideological attacks and threats that emanate primarily from the American and Israeli governments.
