Panelists will examine how the reverberations from last year's Arab Awakening, including the resulting unrest in Syria and the rise to power in Egypt of the Muslim Brotherhood, are re-shaping Hamas' relations with its patrons Iran and Syria, its rival, Fatah, and even the dynamics inside the organization itself.
Arab Economic Challenges and Opportunities in the Wake of the Upsrisings
What are some of the fundamental socio-economic features they all share and what steps must they take if their economies are to enjoy sustained growth in the medium to long term? Dr. Toufic Gaspard, the economic adviser to Lebanon's minister of finance, will focus on Arab economies in Egypt and the Levant to examine how to solve the dominant regional problems of unemployment and poor productivity with the goal of establishing social and political stability.
Understanding Iran’s foreign policy is the key to crafting sensible and effective policies toward Iran and requires, above all, a close analysis of the profound cultural and psychological contexts of Iranian foreign policy behavior.
The Middle East Institute is proud to host Georgetown University professor Paul Pillar for a discussion about Iran and how best to address its nuclear ambitions. Pillar argues that the acceptable range of opinion on Iran has narrowed around the idea that all options, including a military strike, must be pursued to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons. And yet, Pillar argues, if the combination of nuclear talks and sanctions do not yield the outcome the West and Israel seek, containment is preferable to war.
