View from the Arab World

This fall, the Middle East Initiative (MEI) launched a new event series titled USA 2020: The View from the Arab World. Co-hosted by MEI Faculty Director Tarek Masoud, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said of Oman Professor of International Relations, and MEI Visiting Fellow Karim Haggag, Professor of Practice at The American University in Cairo, the series features dialogues with Arab thought leaders on the 2020 U.S. elections and America’s changing role in the Middle East.

Given its global import, the 2020 U.S. presidential election offered an opportune moment to highlight voices from the Middle East and to bridge views and analyses from the region with a largely western audience.

“Each week we’ve been meeting with leading Arabs from the worlds of policy, practice, the world of ideas to explore their perceptions of the current electoral season in the United States. To explore their sense of where they see the world’s sole superpower headed, and what they think all of this means for the future of the Middle East,” explained Masoud.

Over the course of the fall semester, the series has featured Dr. Nabil Fahmy, former Foreign Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt; Dr. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, political scientist and author of The Gulf Moment; Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, Emmy-nominated journalist, producer, and actor; Dr. Ayad Allawi, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq; Raghida Dergham, award-winning journalist and Executive Chairman of the Beirut Institute; and Mohammed Alyahya, analyst, commentator, and Editor-in-Chief of Al Arabiya English.

One of MEI’s most recent guests in the series was Iraqi-British journalist and political analyst Mina Al-Oraibi, Editor-in-Chief of The National, an English language newspaper based in Abu Dhabi.  With over 18 years of experience covering Middle Eastern, European and American affairs, MEI was fortunate to host Al-Oraibi the week of the election on November 5th.

“The past four years in the United states have in some ways made people question democracy.”

- Mina Al-Oraibi

When asked the question of how the last four years have changed Arab perception of democracy as a desirable form of government, Al-Oraibi said that the American institution is really what’s been in question.

“The past four years in the United states have in some ways made people question democracy,” said Al-Oraibi. “I think it’s more the question of, will the institution be able to maintain what was left of its resilience in the face of Donald Trump’s aspirations. That in a way will make people question how much American institutions can stand all of the chipping away that has occurred in the last four years.”

Al-Oraibi went on to explain that there are those in the Arab world who think that America might need a few lessons on debate and running a democracy. With the results of the election contested in court as of this writing, the eyes of the region—and indeed the world—remain fixed on the America’s democratic institutions.

Through conversations like these, MEI deepens mutual understanding between the Harvard community and the Arab world and contributes to diversifying political discourse in the U.S.

The Middle East Initiative invites you to listen to dialogues on the Middle East Matters podcast. 

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