Middle East and North Africa Events
What Does It Take to Cooperate? New Tools for Transboundary Water Cooperation
April 11, 2013 // 9:00am — 11:00am
Environmental Change and Security Program
Join us as we mark the Year of Water Cooperation with a discussion of tools, approaches, and mechanisms that advance global transboundary water cooperation. Over 260 watersheds are shared by two or more states, and 40 percent of the world’s population shares critical water supplies with another country. Although the world has largely avoided conflict over water, increasing population, economic, and climate change pressures could increase tensions over these shared resources making multi-country cooperation on water all the more essential.
Egypt: A U.S. Dilemma
April 10, 2013 // 9:00am — 10:00am
Middle East Program
Ambassador Mahmoud Karem analyzes the challenges before the Egyptian revolution, discusses how to build consensus in a polarized environment, and lists a few policy objectives for Egypt and the United States.
Historical Perspective on the Arab Spring
April 08, 2013 // 4:00pm — 5:30pm
History and Public Policy Program
In the Middle East, a parallel pattern can be seen in the history of the first Middle Eastern constitutional revolutions in the political movements of the 1870s. What does an examination of the role of constitutionalism in the Arab revolutions of 1923-2011 reveal about prospects for constitutional governments in the Middle East?
The Way the Wind Actually Blew: Weatherman Underground Terrorism and the Counterculture, 1969-1971
April 01, 2013 // 4:00pm — 5:30pm
History and Public Policy Program
The most famous terrorist group in modern American history was the Weatherman Underground, later called the Weather Underground Organization. An outgrowth of Students for a Democratic Society, Weather was active in 1969 through the 1970s. Arthur Eckstein will argue that this is misleading and that the true history of Weather is much grimmer and more ambiguous.
Arab Uprisings and Mass Politics: Constraints, Change, Uncertainty
March 29, 2013 // 10:00am — 11:30am
Middle East Program
Laurie Brand discusses her paper on the effect of regional transitions on Arab foreign policy using Egypt and Jordan as case studies.
Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War
March 27, 2013 // 10:30am — 12:00pm
Environmental Change and Security Program
While there has been much research on the effect of valuable natural resource extraction on a state’s domestic development (e.g., the “resource curse”), Wilson Center Fellow Jeff Colgan focuses on how natural resource extraction affects foreign policy. In 'Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War,' Colgan finds that “petrostates” – countries where revenue from oil exports exceeds 10 percent of GDP – are twice as likely to engage in inter-state conflict than non-petrostates.
The Democratic Transition in Tunisia
March 14, 2013 // 10:00am — 11:00am
Middle East Program
Radwan Masmoudi, President of Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), discusses Tunisia’s democratic transition and perspectives for building a national consensus over the new constitution.
The Arab Awakening: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead
March 08, 2013 // 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Middle East Program
Rami Khouri and Robin Wright assess the past three years of political and economic flux in the Arab world, providing their insights on what they believe will be the challenges to political development moving forward.
Challenges to Women’s Security in the MENA Region
March 07, 2013 // 9:00am — 11:00am
Middle East Program
The Middle East Program and the Global Women’s Leadership Initiative present a meeting with five women experts who will discuss the challenges to women’s security in the MENA region.
Unwilling to Wait: Why Activists are Taking the Initiative on the Peace Process
March 04, 2013 // 12:00pm — 1:00pm
Middle East Program
Two youth activists from OneVoice Palestine and OneVoice Israel will speak about their motivations to take personal responsibility to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through grassroots activism. In speaking about the ongoing challenges to resolving the conflict, they will discuss civil society efforts to overcome these obstacles. Given the many transitions taking place in the region, and OneVoice’s experience in the past ten years, Almasri and Bar-Gal will speak about their vision of where future opportunities for Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolution lie and about the important role of the American foreign policy community in moving the peace process forward.