Middle East & North Africa

Meghan O’Sullivan, Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of 'Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power,' talks with Aroop Mukharji (@aroopmukharji) about fracking, America’s strategic petroleum reserve, energy abundance, and her early start in geopolitics.

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.

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” Dr. Abbas Al-Mejren, Kuwait Foundation Visiting Scholar at the Middle East Initiative and Professor of Economics at Kuwait University, discusses economic development plans in Kuwait and Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including poverty alleviation and rationalizing subsidies.

A video of the panel discussion on ISIS, hosted by the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School, on October 23, 2014. NPR International Correspondent Deborah Amos and HLS Professor Noah Feldman discussed the extremist group's rapid rise, unique characteristics, and ideological and logistical background in a panel moderated by ILSP Co-Director and HLS Professor Kristen Stilt.

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 a Harvard Kennedy School IDEASpHERE session titled "Challenges to US Global Leadership," Graham Allison, Nicholas Burns, David Gergen, David Ignatius, and Meghan O’Sullivan discussed challenges as well as opportunities facing the United States. Burns moderated the session.

Challenges include the rise of China and the future of the U.S.-China relationship, the crises taking place around the world, and the reputation of the U.S. worldwide. An unexpected opportunity is the increase in available energy sources in the United States.

The last seven decades without war among the great powers – what historians describe as “the long peace” – is a remarkable achievement. “This is a rare and unusual fact if you look at the last few thousand years of history,” said Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center and moderator of the IDEASpHERE panel “Winning the Peace.” “Furthermore, it is no accident. Wise choices by statesmen have contributed to ‘the long peace,’ which has allowed many generations to live their lives.”

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” Dr. Khalil Al-Anani, Adjunct Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, discusses the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, democratization in the Middle East and the hope for political stability in Egypt.

In this installment of “Inside the Middle East: Q&A,” Dr. Adnan Shihab-Eldin, Director General of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, discusses changes in the global energy market, security in the Gulf countries, and the advancement of science and technology efforts in Kuwait.