Reflections on a Diplomatic Career in the Middle East: A Conversation With Ambassador Yael Lempert
Brian is joined by Amb. (ret.) Yael Lempert, Vice President for Outreach at MEI, to discuss her career in diplomacy and the importance of US diplomatic efforts abroad. She shares stories from postings across the Middle East in Baghdad, Cairo, Tripoli, Jerusalem, and Amman and examines how her personal and professional experiences shaped her approach to the work. Together, Brian and Yael discuss the realities of life in the Foreign Service, the core tenets of American diplomacy, and why it matters in today’s Middle East.
This summer, brutally hot temperatures, deepening water scarcity, and spiking fertilizer costs have put North Africa’s agricultural sector under intense pressure. Host Alistair Taylor is joined by Mohammed Mahmoud, CEO and founder of the Climate and Water Initiative and lead for Middle East Climate and Water Policy at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health, to unpack the region’s food and water security challenges. Drawing on Mahmoud’s new report card on agricultural sustainability in North Africa, they explore the diverging picture across the region, why some countries have weathered the strain better than others, and what it will take to build a more resilient and secure food system.
Battered but Still Standing, Egypt Tries to Weather the Economic Ravages of the Iran War
While Egypt is not in the direct line of fire in the US-Israeli war with Iran, its economy is acutely vulnerable to the conflict. In addition to the rising energy prices and shortages that have affected much of the world, it also struggled with issues that reflected its economy’s own underlying structural vulnerabilities.
For over 30 years Egypt’s foreign policy has stood on three key pillars: building strategic relations with the United States, maintaining the peace treaty with Israel, and promoting the security of Arab states in the Gulf. The presidency and the security apparatus, moreover, have often overshadowed and minimized the influence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the policymaking process. These pillars solidified under the rule of Hosni Mubarak, and as a result President Mohamed Morsi will not be able to uproot them anytime soon.
Since the most recent but now routine eruptions of violence between street protesters and Egypt’s state, speculation has swirled about the durability of the pact between the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s armed forces.
When President Mohamed Morsi granted himself sweeping new powers last November, he unwittingly accomplished something no one had yet achieved. He managed to bring Egypt’s fractious and disparate political factions together around a single cause: bitterly opposing him and his Muslim Brotherhood.
When I moved to Cairo in 1981 I discovered a courtly and safe city. The streets were alive with playful banter, expressions of the renowned Egyptian joie de vivre. Men who wished to attract the attention of lady passers-by sang bits of love songs or called them things like “minaret” and “gazelle.”
A Conversation with al-Gama`a al-Islamiya’s Hani Nour Eldin
Hani Nour Eldin is a member of the Egyptian Islamist group al-Gama`a al-Islamiya and an administrative employee of the Suez Canal Authority. In 2011 he was elected to parliament as part of the group’s political arm, the Building and Development Party. In June 2012 he caused considerable controversy when he traveled to Washington, D.C. as part of a parliamentary delegation.
Ten months have passed since the election of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi as Egypt’s first post-uprising president. During his election campaign, Morsi repeatedly promised “change.” So far, however, it appears that Egypt’s bureaucracy has been more successful at changing Morsi’s plans and discourse than he has been at changing the state’s structures.
Interview with Ambassador Dr. Mohamed Noman Galal: Reflections of a Scholar-Diplomat on Arab-Asia Relations
To be sure, Asia is the home of great civilizations. It is also the continent of rising powers, dynamic economies, and nearly half of the world’s population. For these reasons, it only makes sense that Egypt continues seeking ways to expand its ties with Asian countries. It will take imaginative Egyptian leadership to accomplish this objective and, more broadly, to capitalize on the country’s location and to help unleash its people’s creative energy.
Economic Effects of the Arab Spring: Policy Failures and Mounting Challenges
Thu, 2/28/2013 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm The Middle East Institute is proud to host economists Andreas Bauer and Dr. Zubair Iqbal for an examination of the economic impact of the upheavals affecting Arab Spring countries, including Egypt and Tunisia. Since the 2011 uprisings, growth in the MENA region has slowed, inequality worsened, and unemployment increased, thus weakening the popular support needed for new governments to introduce difficult, but necessary, economic reforms.
Economic Effects of the Arab Spring: Policy Failures and Mounting Challenges
Thu, 2/28/2013 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm The Middle East Institute is proud to host economists Andreas Bauer and Dr. Zubair Iqbal for an examination of the economic impact of the upheavals affecting Arab Spring countries, including Egypt and Tunisia. Since the 2011 uprisings, growth in the MENA region has slowed, inequality worsened, and unemployment increased, thus weakening the popular support needed for new governments to introduce difficult, but necessary, economic reforms.
Economic Effects of the Arab Spring: Policy Failures and Mounting Challenges
Thu, 2/28/2013 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm The Middle East Institute is proud to host economists Andreas Bauer and Dr. Zubair Iqbal for an examination of the economic impact of the upheavals affecting Arab Spring countries, including Egypt and Tunisia. Since the 2011 uprisings, growth in the MENA region has slowed, inequality worsened, and unemployment increased, thus weakening the popular support needed for new governments to introduce difficult, but necessary, economic reforms.
Economic Effects of the Arab Spring: Policy Failures and Mounting Challenges
Thu, 2/28/2013 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm The Middle East Institute is proud to host economists Andreas Bauer and Dr. Zubair Iqbal for an examination of the economic impact of the upheavals affecting Arab Spring countries, including Egypt and Tunisia. Since the 2011 uprisings, growth in the MENA region has slowed, inequality worsened, and unemployment increased, thus weakening the popular support needed for new governments to introduce difficult, but necessary, economic reforms.
The oldest peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the study of the modern Middle East, MEI’s flagship journal covers politics, society, and culture in the region.
