“Engaging the Middle East: After the Cairo Speech”
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The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies PHAROS LIGHTING THE PATH TO UNDERSTANDING THE NEWSLETTER OF THE FARES CENTER AT TUFTS UNIVERSITY FALL 2011 A Letter from the Provost It is with pride and admiration that I look back on this past year at the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies. I am proud of the important work that Jamshed Bharucha the Fares Center has done to help us all understand a momentous year in the Middle East. One of the great pleasures of my nine years at Tufts was to support and encourage the Fares Center and its many initiatives, and I will remember it warmly in my new position as President of The Cooper Union in New York City. As we all watched the “Arab Spring” of uprisings from North Africa to the Gulf, Leslie Gelb delivers the keynote address, “Is There a Workable U.S. Strategy for the Middle the Fares Center continued to provide East? No! Then What?”, on the first day of the 2010 Fares Center Conference. a crucial venue for the Tufts community and beyond to discuss current events as well as reflect on the history and “Engaging the Middle East: cultures of the Middle East. The Fares Center hosted a lively dis- After the Cairo Speech” cussion on Arab youth demographics with Gallup pollster Mohamed Younis On October 14–15, 2010 the Fares Center Middle East in the wake of President and Fares Center visiting scholar Rami held its annual conference at Tufts Obama’s promising speech and recom- Khouri. The Center also hosted several University. The conference attracted a mended avenues for progress on key student roundtables on the uprisings in wide array of Middle East experts who concerns where progress had not yet Tunisia and beyond. Martin Indyk, vice discussed the evolution of President materialized. president of the Brookings Institution Barack Obama’s foreign policy in the American foreign policy in the Middle and former ambassador to Israel and region since his June 2009 speech at Cairo East has been guided by “worse than no assistant secretary of state under University, “A New Beginning.” strategy,” argued Leslie H. Gelb in his President Clinton, gave a fascinating Participants analyzed the core issues keynote remarks, “Is There a Workable luncheon talk titled “President Obama’s affecting the Middle East, including the U.S. Strategy for the Middle East? No! Efforts at Peace in the Middle East: ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, U.S. Then What?” Formulating a strategy Is This Time Different?” in which he involvement in Afghanistan, relations with requires clearheaded identification of discussed the likely causes of the recent Pakistan, and, more generally, relations achievable objectives, and an assessment unrest. with Muslim communities. The speakers of the power a nation has to accomplish evaluated American foreign policy in the these objectives. According to Gelb, who CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies Letter from the Director PHAROS LIGHTING THE PATH TO UNDERSTANDING he 2010–2011 academic year was a dynamic one for the Fares Center as it continued to engage members of the Tufts University community THE NEWSLETTER OF THE FARES CENTER and others on issues concerning the Middle East, AT TUFTS UNIVERSITY FALL 2011 Tincluding the eastern Mediterranean region. Our October conference, “Engaging the Middle East: After the Cairo The lighthouse known as Pharos, considered one of Speech,” brought together a diverse group of academics, jour- the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, directed Leila Fawaz nalists, practitioners, and students to discuss the challenges ships to the cultural richness of Alexandria. facing President Obama and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East today. Events in the region during the early part of 2011 shaped many of the lectures and events of the spring semester, including Martin Indyk’s March 30 talk in which he addressed U.S. pol- icy toward the Middle East in light of the uprisings. GUEST EDITOR: Within the university the Fares Center collaborated with a range of academic depart- Amelia Cook (MALD ’08) received a ments and schools, including the International Relations Program, the Department of Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School, where she studied Art and Art History, the Department of History, the Department of Political Science, the international development, human rights, Department of German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literatures, the Jonathan M. and environmental policy. She recently Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, and The Fletcher School. We welcomed published, with Jeremy Sarkin, “Who is Indigenous? Indigenous Rights Globally, the addition of an Arabic major, in addition to the Middle East Studies major, and sev- in Africa, and among the San in Botswana,” eral first-class faculty members to teach about the region. We are also pleased that Dean in the Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law (Fall, 2009); “Is Botswana James Glaser and others in the Tufts administration are working to establish closer ties the Miracle of Africa? Democracy, the Rule with language programs in the Middle East. of Law, and Human Rights versus Economic We have continued to emphasize our relationship with Tufts students—both gradu- Development,” in Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems (Spring, 2010); and ate and undergraduate—and to offer a growing selection of opportunities for these “The Human Rights of the San (Bushmen) students to become involved in our work. During this academic year, we were fortunate of Botswana: The Clash of the Rights of to have two remarkable visiting scholars, Rami G. Khouri and William A. Rugh, both of Indigenous Communities and Their Access to Water with the Rights of the State to whom enriched the Center’s work with their research and public lectures, as well as the Environmental Conservation and Mineral relationships they developed with students. Resource Exploitation,” in Transnational Law The Fares Center would like to offer special thanks to Jamshed Bharucha, Tufts and Policy (Spring, 2011). In 2010, she completed an M.S. in resource economics University provost, to whom the Center reports. Since his arrival in 2002 he has been a and policy at the University of Maine, where strong and active supporter of the Fares Center, as has Tufts president Lawrence Bacow. she worked as a graduate assistant in the School of Economics. Amelia received her We have greatly appreciated the support of both university leaders and will miss them as B.A. in Africana studies from Vassar College each moves on to a new position this year. We also wish to congratulate and thank Rob in 2001. She was a research assistant at the Hollister, outgoing dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Fares Center while at The Fletcher School, and continues to work as an editor for the Service, who fortunately for Tufts will stay on as faculty. He, too, has been a staunch Center from her new home in Boise, Idaho. supporter of the Fares Center and the Tisch College has been involved in all of our con- Amelia can be reached at [email protected]. ferences and many other activities. We are grateful for the generosity of friends of the Center, including H.E. Issam M. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Fares and trustee Fares I. Fares, on whom we depend for much of our programming. We Nicole Abi-Esber, Lauren Dorgan, Hammad Hammad, Brooke Smith, Katrina Stanislaw, would especially like to thank Anastassis David, member of the Fares Center Advisory David Wallsh, and Julie Younes Board, whose support made this year’s conference possible. Currently, we are looking forward to our upcoming conference, “The New Middle CONSULTING EDITOR: East: Challenges and Opportunities,” which will take place at Tufts University on Peri Bearman October 13–14, 2011. PHOTO EDITORS: Chris Zymaris and Don Button Letter from the Provost The Fares Center CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 At the same time, the Center “Engaging the Middle East: After the Cairo Speech” CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 maintained its focus on exploring the history, art, and cultures of the Middle East by hosting talks on a wide range of topics. These included a lecture by Gülru Necipoglu, Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Art at Harvard University, on “Architectural Dialogues Across the Mediterranean,” a presentation by Ohio State University professor Jane Hathaway on “Eunuchs in Islamic Civilization,” and a paper given by Princeton University postdoctoral research associate Andrew Arsan on “The Beginnings of Shi‘a Internationalism.” Participants in the 2010 Fares Center Conference: (from left) Farideh Farhi, This year’s conference, “Engaging Randa Slim, C. Christine Fair, Barbara Slavin, and Deborah Amos. the Middle East: After the Cairo Speech,” was once again remark- ably successful in drawing a selective was introduced by Fletcher School dean comparative politics at the United States group of speakers together to and U.S. Special Representative for North Military Academy, West Point. Shai debate the level of progress Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. Feldman, professor of politics at President Barack Obama has made has been consistently unable to achieve Brandeis University and director of its in the Middle East since his inaugu- this objective in regard to Middle East Crown Center for Middle East Studies, ration. I know that the Center is policy. Instead it is influenced by a range noted a handful of reasons why it is not especially grateful for the support of “impulses”—among others, to protect “entirely crazy” for President Obama to provided by Advisory Board member oil-producing countries, to resolve remain engaged, starting with the fact Anastassis David, which made the problems with military force, and to that both sides have a lot to lose if peace conference possible.