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The Middle East in 2007 |
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December 21, 2006 News Release Contact: Arlington , VA -- On December 20, 2006, a panel of experts convened at the Potomac Institute on the issues that await the Middle East in 2007. The event, “Middle East Challenges and Opportunities in 2007: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” was a ttended by a diverse group of policy and Middle East experts including foreign embassy staff as well reporters from the Washington, D.C. area. The event began with welcome remarks from Potomac’s Chairman and CEO, Michael Swetnam, and initial comments from the event’s co-host, Professor Yonah Alexander, Director of the Institute’s International Center for Terrorism Studies. The panelists included: Dr. Hillel Fradkin, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute; David Schenker, Senior Fellow in Arab Politics, Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Dr. Trita Parsi, President, National Iranian American Council; Jonathan Davidson, Former Senior Advisor, Delegation of the European Commission; and Dalal Hasan, Program Officer for Middle East and North Africa, National Endowment for Democracy. The experts each presented brief comments focusing on the strategic outlook for the region including the prospects for terrorism, war, and the roadmap to reconciliation, stability and peace. Dr. Alexander discussed the concern about nuclearization of the region and the politicalization of Islam. He quoted Pragmatist Richard Burton from 1865, who said “Peace is the dream of the wise; war is the history of mankind.” He challenged the panelists to address whether war is inevitable in the region, and emphasized our need to understand the complexity of the area. The panel then began their individual remarks after a ninety second flash animation of 5,000 years of warring history in the Middle East (www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf). Dr. Fradkin noted that much of the current dialogue regarding the Middle East pines for the “nostalgia of the past and claims that the region was healthy and stable”; but he noted that this perception is not accurate. He commented that the current cure—radical Islam—is worse than the disease. Mr. Schenker covered a broad range of Middle East topics, commenting that there are currently three civil wars ongoing in the region for power in Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon. Touching briefly on the wars for control and future of Palestine and Lebanon, he said that the real concern is the ongoing divide in Iraq between the Sunni and the Shiites. Dr. Parsi continued along similar lines, noting that recent events have weakened the United States’ standing and credibility on democracy and particularly in the region. He argued that Iran has been able to ascend as a strong regional power because the United States removed the regimes of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. Dr. Parsi said that the United States tried the approach of geo-containment in the 1990s and it did not work—noting that sometimes “the cost of trying to succeed can be devastating as well.” Mr. Davidson remarked on the importance of the geo-political realities of history and geography in the region. The proximity of the region to Europe and the cultural impact of the Arab world on the European society must be considered. Both of these factors have tended to drive Europe’s position towards in the region, which can be quite different from the U.S. perspective. He continued, “Europe must take a more proactive role” in the region and the United States must work with them. The final panelist, Ms. Hasan, discussed the importance of the democratic agenda in 2007. She contended that the neo-conservative policy of the Freedom Agenda is a complete failure in the region. Democratization in the Middle East is a long-term issue and needs to be a grass-roots one. Democracy is facing a backlash because it is seen as being imposed as U.S. foreign policy. She also noted the important role non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play in the process—democracy cannot be imposed from outside, but must be grown from within The seminar concluded with remarks and questions from the highly engaged audience. C-SPAN taped the program, which aired December 20 th and will continue to show. Please check the C-SPAN schedule ( http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/schedule.csp) for future times. The International Center for Terrorism Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies, and the Homeland Security Policy Institute at The George Washington University were co-sponsors of this event. The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is an independent, 501(c)(3), not-for-profit public policy research institute. The Institute identifies and aggressively shepherds discussion on key science and technology issues facing our society. From these discussions and forums, we develop meaningful science and technology policy options and ensure their implementation at the intersection of business and government. ### |
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