WORKING PAPERS
December, 2011
Political Economics: The Challenges of Economic Development in Palestine
By Karam Dana, Former Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Since the Six-Day War and Occupation of 1967, economics, an area of study that affects social and political formulations and transformations, has entered the study of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to a much larger extent: Palestinian workers in Israel, to an underdeveloped infrastructure in the Palestinian territories. More than four decades later, economic challenges continue to play a role in the affairs of the Palestinians: from affecting people’s lives and their leadership on the one hand, and the relationship between the Palestinian and Israel on the other. Within Palestinian society itself, the dynamics of state-society relations have demonstrably been affected by economic transformations, but have yet to be fully studied in places of continuous occupation and conflict like the West bank and the Gaza Strip. This paper explores the challenges that have faced developmental attempts in Palestine since the occupation of 1967.
October 2011
Muslims in America
By Karam Dana, Former Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
The perception of Muslims living in the United States has deteriorated dramatically since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. U.S.-Muslims, a group that had already faced discrimination prior to the attacks, became even more visible to the public. Non-Muslim Americans began questioning American Muslim loyalties to the United States as well as their commitment to being “good” citizens. Such doubt extended to the political arena as well, prompting intrusive inquiries into Muslim-affiliated civic and political organizations and their members. Even non-Muslims with Muslim affiliations or Muslim-sounding names or appearances have been subject to public scrutiny.
Spring 2011
Ten Years After September 11
By Katherine Didow and Jinnyn Jacob, Former Belfer IGA Fellow 2010-2011, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
In January 2011, protests started in Tunisia and Egypt, sparking a string of uprisings in the Muslim world, with consequences yet unknown. The Lebanese government collapsed, bringing the Hezbollah-led March 8th coalition to power and to east in Pakistan the popular Governor of Punjab province was assassinated. These monumental shifts caught many politicians, academics, journalists and pollsters by surprise. As world leaders scramble to formulate policy to confront these new realities, there is an urgent need for accurate and relevant public opinion data on the Muslim world.
October 2010
"Proposed Liability Framework for Geological Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide"
This paper proposes a framework for a liability regime for geological sites for sequestration of carbon dioxide. It incorporates issues that were discussed at the the June 21, 2010 Expert Workshop Addressing CCS Liability, Oversight, and Trust Fund Issues.
Harvard Law School’s Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic* supports immediate large-scale carbon capture and sequestration (“CCS”) demonstration projects as part of a larger national and global effort to address climate change. Large-scale CCS projects (those that sequester at least 1.5 million tons of captured carbon dioxide (“CO2”) annually) must be demonstrated soon to confirm CCS as a viable strategy to combat climate change and to show the commitment of the United States to achieving meaningful reductions in domestic CO2 emissions.
June, 2011
Countering Radicalization in Refugee Camps: How Education Can Help Defeat AQAP
This paper seeks to analyze some of the causes of radicalization and recruitment in refugee/IDP camps, and makes the argument that receiving a well-rounded education, even if it produces mediocre academic results, is the most effective method of counter-radicalization in crisis situations and reduces the space for extremist organizations to recruit and operate.
January, 2011
Economic Growth with Unlimited Supplies of Foreign Labor
By Tarek Coury, Former Associate 9/2008-12/2011, The Dubai Initiative
Dubai Initiative Associate Tarek Coury and Associate Dean of the Dubai School of Government Mohamed Lahouel develop a modified version of the standard Solow and Ramsey growth models suited for countries with high proportions of foreign workers: firms hire foreign workers who are assumed to send a proportion of their wages as remittances. The paper shows that as the (foreign) supply of labor becomes more elastic, per capita income growth along the transitional dynamics converges to zero, the effect of TFP growth on per capita growth gradually disappears and growth in overall output converges to an AK-style model of growth.
December, 2010
Are Private Equity Firms in Emerging Markets Entrepreneurial?
By Ayman Ismail, Former Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
Over the five year period from 2003 to 2008, private equity and venture capital investments have grown exponentially, both globally and in emerging markets, making private equity firms and funds increasingly important actors in emerging markets. In this paper, we examine the hypothesis that private equity firms in emerging markets are entrepreneurial—i.e., are more focused on creating new firms or growing and globalizing existing ones, based on a case study of Egypt.
AP Photo/IntelCenter
November 12, 2010
Al Qaeda's Religious Justification of Nuclear Terrorism
By Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
"...Bin Laden would develop an idea that would breathe life back into Zawahiri's dreams: the United States must become the target of the jihad. If the Americans could be provoked into war, they could be defeated like the Soviets, and expelled from Muslim lands for good. The fall of the U.S. superpower would lead to the overthrow of secular Arab states. This insight led to successive Al Qaeda strikes against the U.S., including the unsuccessful bombing of the World Trade Center (1993), bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa (1998), and the bombing of the USS Cole (2000). It was not evident at the time, but the road to 9/11 began on the day Al Qaeda was formed."
September 2010
Climate Change Adaptation in the Middle East and North Africa
By Jeannie Sowers, Former Research Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
This paper argues that in order to mitigate the effects of human-induced climate change, policy makers must actively remove obstacles to local mobilization of resources, allow private sector participation under adequate and transparent regulation, and provide a supportive context for community-level adaptations.
August 2010
Iranian Youth in Times of Economic Crisis
volume Dubai Initiative Working Paper
By Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, Former Associate, The Dubai Initiative
This paper will review the evidence on youth transitions in Iran, using recent survey data to show how the economic crisis since 2008 has affected youth transitions to employment and to marriage.
