Governance

Excerpt from an October 16 installment of the “Inside the Middle East" Q&A Series, with Minister Hedi Larbi, Former Minister of Economic Infrastructure and Sustainable Development and Middle East Initiative Fall 2015 Kuwait Foundation Visiting Scholar, on the role of International Monetary Institutions such as the World Bank and IMF in encouraging and implementing economic reforms during the political transition in Tunisia.

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” recorded on September 22, 2015, Mahmoud Gebril, Former Prime Minister of Libya, discusses Libya's difficult transition including international intervention and the overthrown of the Qaddafi regime, subsequent elections and reform efforts, and his hopes for future political stability and economic prosperity.

A video recording of a public address from His Excellency Dr. Mahmoud Gebril, former Prime Minister of Libya.

On September 22, 2015, HE Dr. Mahmoud Gebril spoke on the current trends shaping the Arab countries with a special focus on Libya and North Africa, and highlighting the most likely scenarios for the future.

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” recorded on April 16, 2015, Nabil Fahmy, Former Foreign Minister of Egypt and Dean and Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP), American University Cairo, discusses Egypt’s transitional process, public policy challenges, and foreign policy, including relations with Iran and intervention in Yemen.

Coinciding with the conclusion of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, Bill and Melinda Gates talk about their “big bets” for the next 15 years in their Annual Letter this year. Among the questions they ask: How do we feed Africa, and ultimately the world? Their big bet is that Africa will feed itself and will be on the way to helping feed the world by 2030.

Calestous Juma, who heads the Belfer Center’s Agricultural Innovation in Africa project, supported by the Gates Foundation, agrees with the Gates’ bet. In his 2011 book The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa, he provides details on how Africa can feed itself in a generation. Here, he answers questions about what is needed for Africa to make huge strides in agriculture in the next 15 years.

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” Marwan Muasher, Vice President of Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Jordanian Ambassador to the United States, discusses pluralism and democracy in the Middle East and his long term vision for political, economic, and cultural transformation in the Arab World.

In the August 9th edition of the Washington Post, David Ignatius examines the nonviolent, technology-driven nature of the revolutions across the Middle East and argues that this mass organizing of the public on accessible media boosts the likelihood of a democratic result.

"The world loved the Rainbow Nation success story and chose, along with many South Africans, to ignore that reconciliation can easily be used to justify impunity. Jansen's description of the Reitz Four, that they too are his children and that he cannot disown them, echoes the mythology of the TRC that perpetrators were sinners who strayed and need to be forgiven (and granted amnesty), not as individuals who broke the law and need to be held accountable. Any serious discussion about rights and responsibility is quickly marginalised, with dangerous implications for any attempts to foster a respect for human rights and a respect for the rule of law."