News & Announcements

Dr. Ian Bremmer, expert in political risk and founder of the Eurasia Group, gave a seminar sponsored by the the Future of Diplomacy Project on Thursday, November 9 at the Harvard Kennedy School, titled “Managing Risk in an Unstable World."

The Right Honourable Douglas Alexander offered his views on European security in a discussion moderated by FDP Executive Director Cathryn Cluver.

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.

Audio recordings from MEI's Spring 2015 Study Group Rethinking the Arab State: the Collapse of Legitimacy in Arab Politics, with Professor Michael C. Hudson.

During the Spring 2015 semester, Prof. Hudson hosted a distinguished group of scholars to re-examine the foundational concepts of legitimacy, the state, civil society, religion, and regional stability in the wake of the Arab Uprisings.

An audio recording from Dr. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, Professor of Law, Emory University Law School.

On April 27, 2015 at MEI, Prof. Abdullahi An-Na'im presented his perspective on Sudan’s struggle since Independence from colonial rule in 1956 to reconcile Islam, state and society in the modern context and the teachings of Sudanese Islamic reformer Ustadh Mahmoud Mohamed Taha.

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.

Talking to CNN's 'The Lead,' former U.S. Special Representative to Muslim Communities and the Future of Diplomacy Project's former Fisher Family Fellow Farah Pandith criticized the ideological narrative constructed to recruit muslim youths in her response to the recent Paris attack on "Charlie Hebdo" cartoonists.

"To understand why the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings have had different outcomes, leave aside the dominant narrative of secularism, Islamism and the political weakness of the youth. [T]he more fundamental and essential role [is that] of the ruling elite, without whom no country can make the transition from authoritarianism to democracy. We must think of those old elites, even in a revolutionary uprising, as active participants who are neither passive nor innocent."

An audio recording from Robert S. Ford, former US Ambassador to Syria (2011-2014) and Algeria (2006-2008). He is currently a resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. and teaches at Johns Hopkins University on Middle East politics.

On October 29, 2014 at MEI, Ambassador Ford reflected on his 4½ years working for the U.S. Mission in Iraq and 3 years working on Syria, in a talk moderated by Kennedy School professor and former State Department colleague Nicholas Burns.

An audio recording from Ambassador Marwan Muasher, Vice President for Studies and Director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Jordanian Ambassador to the United States.

On October 22, 2014 at MEI, Ambassador Muasher looked back over four years of popular uprisings in the Arab World and took stock of the hope for transition to genuine stability, prosperity, and democracy and tools necessary to do the job.