Press Release
On April 16, faculty from Harvard, Boston University and the American University of Beirut convened at Harvard Kennedy School to explore different aspects of the current political transformations in the Middle East and North Africa. The event was co-sponsored by the Middle East Initiative, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies Working Group on Arab Transformative Movements and The American University of Beirut.
Each title below is linked to an audio recording of the corresponding talk.
Panel 1: From Autocracy to Democracy in the Arab region
Samir Makdisi: Autocratic Environment and the Initial Democratic Breakthroughs
Rami G. Khouri: Lessons from the Uprisings and Prospects for Democratic Transition
Panel 2: Arab Transformative Movements
Roger Owen: The constitutional moment in Tunisia and Egypt
Augustus Richard Norton: Islamists in politics: The inclusion thesis redux
Ishac Diwan: The middle class and the rich in the Arab revolutions
More on the participants:
Ishac Diwan: Director for Africa and the Middle East, Growth Lab, and Lecturer in Public Policy, Center for International Development, Harvard Kennedy School.
Rami G. Khouri: Director, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut; non-resident Senior Fellow, Middle East Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School, and the Dubai School of Government; editor at large, Beirut Daily Star; internationally syndicated political columnist; author.
Samir Makdisi: Professor Emeritus of Economics; Distinguished Senior Fellow, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Relations; and Founding Director of the Institute of Financial Economics, all at the American University of Beirut; former Minister of Economy and Trade, Republic of Lebanon, 1992; Deputy President of AUB, 1992-1998; chair of the Board of Trustees, Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran and Turkey, 1993-2001(ERF, headquarters in Cairo).
Augustus Richard Norton: Professor of International Relations and Anthropology, Department of International Relations, Boston University.
Roger Owen: A.J. Meyer Professor of Middle Eastern History in the Department of History and Director of the Contemporary Arab Studies Program at CMES.