Governance

Nicholas Burns, former American diplomat and current professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, joined Chad to react to the current situation in Syria and his thoughts on how the United States need to handle it.

In June 2016, three Harvard students received funding from the Middle East Initiative to travel to Za'atari Refugee Camp in Jordan to conduct a process evaluation of the pilot TIGER program. TIGER (These Inspiring Girls Enjoy Reading) is a community-based, non-formal education initiative for adolescent Syrian girls in Za'atari funded through the UNHCR Innovation fund, implemented by International Relief and Development (IRD) and designed and supported by Open Learning Exchange.

"Since the United Nations Development Program began work on the Arab Human Development Reports (AHDR) in 2001, the situation in many Arab countries has gone from bad to worse. In fact, today the region cannot even come together to publish a new report. This is unfortunate, because finding a new shared vision for Arab people, especially Arab youth, is a prerequisite for ever achieving peace and prosperity in the Middle East and North Africa."

A collection of resources from the Middle East Initiative's events during March 2016, marking the fifth anniversary of the start of Syria's uprising, focusing on the international political and humanitarian response to the ongoing Syrian civil war and refugee crisis.

An audio recording of a talk by Mouin Rabbani, Former Head of Political Affairs, Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria.

Excerpt from a March 31 installment of the “Inside the Middle East" Q&A Series, with Mouin Rabbani, Former Head of Political Affairs, UN Special Envoy for Syria, on Palestine, Syria, and the successes and failures of UN efforts for peace in Syria.

"Jordan gave the Arab world two reasons to be proud this week. One was the nomination of the film Theeb for an academy award, and the other was the statement to the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council by Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights."

Listen to the podcast produced by students who participated in the Harvard winter field study course in Morocco and Italy, exploring the lessons that Europe can learn from Morocco's considerable experience in, and novel approach to, managing migration.

This collective policy paper summarizes the main themes of Morocco's recent experience around migration policy. It draws upon many conversations with major stakeholders, group work, and site visits of the 16 Harvard students who participated in the winter field study course in Morocco and Italy, led by Prof. Claude Bruderlein and supported by the Middle East Initiative.