الحجاج والأرباح: الأردن يتطلع إلى موقع المعمودية المقدس لتعزيز السياحة الدينية
سعت الحكومة الأردنية إلى تطوير موقع المعمودية في بيت عنيا عبر الأردن في محاولة لتعزيز قطاع السياحة والاقتصاد بشكل عام. لكن تحقيق التوازن الصحيح بين الاعتبارات الاقتصادية والدينية والسياسية والبيئية لن يكون أمراً سهلاً.
Jenin’s Freedom Theatre rises from the ashes once again
The Freedom Theatre, headquartered in the Jenin Refugee Camp that was invaded once again by the Israel Defense Forces last week, is nothing if not a crucible for the Palestinian experience. Up against grinding poverty, occupation, religious extremism, and, more recently, aerial bombardment, the theater miraculously survives.
The Risk of Violent Inter-Communal Spillover in West Africa: Realities and Prescriptions
The Sahel region of West Africa suffers from escalating cycles of inter-communal violence that have resulted in countless deaths of innocent people. As this worsening situation continues to spread, it has come to be one of the most prominent threats to security and socio-political stability in the region.
Art in Dialogue with Nature: An Exploration of Saudi Arabia’s New Valley of the Arts
Wadi AlFann (‘Valley of the Arts’) is a new global cultural destination in Saudi Arabia, where monumental contemporary artworks are being commissioned for AlUla’s majestic desert landscape.
Curator Iwona Blazwick and participating Saudi artist Manal Al Dowayan speak with MEI’s Senior Vice President Kate Seelye about Wadi Al Fann’s permanent art commissions and the impact of the Kingdom’s investment in the arts as part of Saudi Vision 2030 on local communities and the international art scene.
The U.S. administration is tacitly contributing to growing acceptance and re-normalization of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the 21st century’s most notorious war criminal, putting in jeopardy the continuation of our counter-terrorism mission in Syria. Assad is toasting his survival on the ashes of his victims — but within the small community of optimistic actors in Syria, ISIS is sitting pretty comfortably too.
It has been an accepted fact that ISIS ceased being a territory-controlling entity in Syria after its March 2019 defeat in the town of Baghouz. Yet it is perhaps time to reevaluate this perspective on the group and its insurgent trajectory in the country. While recent massacres of civilians in central Syria have refocused some international attention on the desert region, known as the Badia, the renewed widespread battles between militants and regime security forces that have occurred in parallel to these attacks have gone unnoticed.
Composing this bricolage of most frequented places is to identify with the environment. Each of the works in this exhibition strives to enliven such connections by looking anew and afresh. Whether considering the lives lived in the temporal or spatial shadows cast by unrest, migration, and industry, or taking a long view of history or an attentive approach to an immediate setting, new relations are found.
On Food and Sustainability: A Conversation with Moza Al Matrooshi and Christian Sleiman
Lyne Sneige, Director of the Arts & Culture Program at the Middle East Institute, speaks with artists Moza Al Matrooshi and Christian Sleiman about their works that are featured in MEI’s current exhibition, Perceptible Rhythms/Alternative Temporalities. The conversation provides greater detail on the relationship between each artist’s works and the themes of food and sustainability.
In Disorder, They Thrive: How Rural Distress Fuels Militancy and Banditry in the Central Sahel
The central Sahel — Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — is buffeted by three main forms of armed conflict that overlap and fuel each other: communal conflict, banditry, and violent extremism. These conflicts are partly rooted in a crisis of governance in rural areas, and are exacerbated by climate change, demographics, and internal and cross-border migration.
Art Dubai’s most ambitious iteration blends commerce and aesthetics
Art Dubai is so much more than an art fair. In this, its most ambitious iteration and 16th year, it promises to be both a cultural emporium and a litmus test for the global economy.
MEI's Arts and Culture Center joins DESIGNEAST in Dubai
MEI’s Arts and Culture Center joins DesignEast at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai
DesignEast is a new platform launching in Dubai during Alserkal Art Week from 26 February to 5 March, 2023 focused on providing opportunities for emerging designers from the Middle East, South East Asia and China. MEI’s Arts and Culture Center director Lyne Sneige speaks to founder and creative director Rue Kotharie about their opening show ‘(Un)common Threads’ and two of the participating artists Ghizlane Sahli (Morocco) and Nour Hage (UAE/UK).
As terrorist groups expand in the Sahel, is Algeria the missing link?
Over the past two years, the steady expansion of terrorist and fundamentalist threats in the Sahel has not gotten the attention it deserves. Algeria’s regional diplomatic clout, military might, and experience in fighting terrorism could help Sahelian states ward off an imminent political and security collapse.
On Nov. 30, the Islamic State announced that its leader, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, had been killed in battle and that his successor, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, was now in place. Hours later, the United States military’s Central Command confirmed the death of Abu al-Hassan, adding that it had occurred in Daraa, in southern Syria, in mid-October at the hands of “the Free Syrian Army.”
