31st Annual Meeting of the Conference Group on the Middle East: Call for Papers for 2015

The Conference Group on the Middle East (CGME) meets in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association.  The 2015 meeting convenes in San Francisco, September 2-6.

Young people represent a gigantic majority of the Arab population.  While the proportions obviously vary, in places like Iraq, Gaza, Syria and Egypt, upwards of three quarters of the population are young than 30 years.  In one case after another, young people face a future of "adulthood denied" to quote the title of a topical monograph, in the sense that they lack the ability to get a decent job, have their own place to live, marry and reproduce the family.  

Youths played significant, often leading roles in the demonstrations that marked the first stage of the Arab Awakenings that began in late 2010.  The cases of Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen come to mind, but also Morocco, Bahrain, Jordan and certainly Syria, among other instances.  Many of the youthful political activists and mobilizers were later marginalized as better organized, more experienced and more brutal actors displaced them and state elites clawed back power.  Today in repressive Egypt, for example, many of the key youth actors are in jail serving long terms for disobedience, organizing protests or a variety of trumped up charges.  

The CGME will address youth politics after the Arab Awakenings: Is there a "youth politics", are there organized political forces devoted to youth causes, and what has been the enduring impact of formal or informal associational life on the texture and content of politics in the Middle East; has something important changed? The welcomes empirically informed papers that rigorously address single cases, including studies of single associations, parties or interest groups, country studies, or comparative studies. Theoretically oriented papers are welcome as well.

CGME:  three decades ago, little serious attention was paid to the Middle East at the annual meetings of the leading disciplinary associations, including the American Political Science Association (APSA). Professor Louis J. Cantori and a small group of colleagues, including this writer, decided in 1983 to create the Conference Group the Middle East (CGME), which convened for the first time in 1984 and has continued ever since.

Islam in the West: a good selection of essays in the new Harvard Review

The essays are, for the most part, conference papers that have been nicely edited for publication. Pieces by Richard Bulliet on Islamic reformation, Jytte Klausen on the Danish cartoon episode, Lucia Volk on youthful returnees to Lebanon and the cultural contradictions they confront, and Michael Freedman on promoting political reform and civil society are among the several that I found valuable.

Strongly Recommended: Sara Roy's new book on "Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza"

Roy's book is the latest volume in the "Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics" that I co-edit with Dale F. Eickelman.

Excellent extended piece on new media in Egypt

Civil society in Arab societies

"The distinction between civil society associations as means and ends is an important one.  The institutions of free government are essential to a free society.  But political and economic freedoms are rights of individual persons, not of a society as a whole. Governments have centralizing and enlarging tendencies that can compromise individual freedoms – hence the role of civil society in mediating between individuals and government institutions. The absence of such spontaneous and individual-based free associations therefore becomes a major hindrance for countries emerging from authoritarian or totalitarian regimes. In effect, if not by conscious design, such associations demand and teach individual responsibility for the maintenance of a larger free society. 

"While it is natural for people searching for dignity, justice, and fairness to try to learn from the examples of other countries that overcame authoritarian rule, have we understood the right lessons from the post-communist transitions in Europe that might apply to Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere in the Arab world? Although the countries of Central and Eastern Europe had significant historical, political, social, and psychological differences with one another – with some emerging peacefully as new democracies and others suffering through bloody civil wars, as in the Balkans – they serve as good examples for identifying the necessary ingredients for successfully overcoming the legacy of totalitarianism."

In the "Civil Society in the Middle East Program," which I directed in the 1990s at New York University, we examined the quality of associational life in most Arab states, as well as in Turkey, Iran and Israel.  The program, funded by the Ford Foundation, was launched with a theme issue of the Middle East Journal, which has been widely cited.  A compact summary of the project, edited by program officer Jillian Schwedler (now a professor at Amherst), was published.   Toward Civil Society in the Middle East? includes a rewarding analytical essay by Schwedler.  In addition to the three volumes published in English, the project was also inspired several journal numbers of Iran Nameh in Persian focusing on Iran.  These were edited by program co-Director Professor Farhad Kazemi.  In addition, Professor Kazemi edited volumes in Persian.  The program also inspired debate and discussion in Arabic and Turkish fora.  The Civil Society Program also produced a documentary film, Quest for Change, which is distributed by Icarus Films and available from many university film libraries for rent.

Fifth Arab Human Development Report published. Focus is on human security and the failure of the Arab state to meet citizens' needs & respect rights

execsummary-e.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Download complete report.

Dissent, repression and Iran's June election

A thoughtful, measured and informed appraisal of pre-election Iran, as well as a commentary on the election and the immediate aftermath. How may a discredited and pitiless regime be brought to accountability? If the authors (Kaveh Ehsani, Arang Keshavarzian and Norma Claire Moruzzi) are correct in their assessment of the widespread discontent with Ahmadinejad's leadership, then we may expect to see continuing unrest, perhaps in the forms of boycotts, strikes and work stoppages reminiscent of the 1978-9 revolution. Yet, as they note, many opposition leaders have been jailed, so it will be apt to see if the June demonstrations have given rise to a new set of leaders.

Video link: Mustafa Akyol's Boston U. lecture, April 15, 2009.

BUniverse - Yes, We Can! Toward a Brave New Turkey

"Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol discusses Turkey’s historical and contemporary struggle toward political and cultural modernity in the 2009 Campagna-Kerven Lecture on Modern Turkey. Since 1996, the lecture series has brought leading scholarly and popular authorities to Boston University to speak on Turkey’s changing society and its role in the Middle East. Although the country has long sought to embrace Western values, Akyol argues, recent developments are causing many Turks to reconsider what “westernization” actually means.

"Akyol begins with an overview of the region’s history, from the Ottoman Empire to the creation of the Republic of Turkey in the 1920s to the present. He argues that many observers wrongly overlook the religiously and ethnically diverse — and surprisingly tolerant — Ottoman society when seeking an explanation for Turkish Muslim’s relatively progressive attitudes: “The sum of the dichotomies between Islam and democracy was actually sorted out by Islamic intellectuals back in the nineteenth century,” Akyol asserts. He explains the rise of the Republic in the context of Turkey’s tendency to equate modernization with westernization. Throughout the last century, he notes, liberals have tried to force social reforms on the Turkish people, while “democracy” has been equated with allowing people to live more traditional lifestyles (such as a Muslim woman choosing to wear a headscarf). Now, he says, the Turkish middle class is beginning to regard religious freedom as more of a Western idea than as enforced modern customs.

"After examining both historical and current episodes in Turkish life, Akyol concludes that, despite a growing Islamist sentiment within the country, religious struggles ultimately will not destabilize the nation. It is rising Turkish nationalism, he says, and not traditional Islam, that “has turned into a force which opposes anything that is new.” But, he says, the people who have corrupted Ataturk’s legacy — such as two retired generals who are now on trial for attempting a coup — are showing Turkish citizens that “the people who claim to be patriots can also be criminals.”"

BU Universe videos.

Has U.S. policy on aid to Egypt changed?

The Wapo editorial criticizes the Obama administration for reducing aid dedicated to the promotion of civil society and political reform. In fact, the U.S. has spent very little to support such activities. If one were to question a U.S. diplomat two, five or seven years ago about how the U.S. is supporting political reform in Egypt, as I have, you would learn that most of the reform activities being supported with U.S. funds are quite anemic, or simply have little to do with substantial reform. Instead, many of the program beneficiaries are business-oriented groups, or other activities that seldom if ever challenge the exisiting authorities. In fact, when I have asked the question my interlocutor usually has to strain to find examples of reform-oriented recipients.

Since 2000, the Mubarak regime has aggressively intimidated and suppressed activists. The repression began with Saad Eddin Ibrahim, once believed immune from attack, and is now understood by NGOs to mean that Egyptian NGOs only take foreign funding at their severe peril.

There were moments when the Bush adminstration push hard for reform, for instance in 2005, but the pushes did not last long. In my view, pulling back was a mistake because Egypt is quite vulnerable to U.S. pressure, but the Bush adminstration was so spooked by the Hamas victory in January 2006 that it played right in authoritarian Egypt's hands.

One hopes that the Obama people will re-evaluate the U.S. relationship with Egypt, but that is not a matter of a few more million for NGOs, but rather a more serious posture insisting on change.

What Will Unconditional Aid Buy From Egypt's Hosni Mubarak? - washingtonpost.com

Egypt's Judges Club speaks out on professional syndicates

While the Egyptian government has succeeded in co-opting and corrupting some judges, the courts remain an important source of resistance to the regime's arbitrary law-making and disdain for the Constitution. The Judges Club, in particular, continued to maintain its independence. This is illustrated in its study of the government's persistent efforts to stultify and intimidate civil associations.

Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
"According to the study, if one looks at the provisions of Law No. 100 and its amendments under the title of ensuring syndicates’ democracy, they would find out that it only aims at assassinating democracy and undermining the competences of the syndicates’ general assemblies, he said.

"It affirmed that the law does not only violate Article 173 of the Constitution by not taking the opinion of the Supreme Council of Judicial Authorities, but it also violates the principle of the separation of powers and relies on judges to carry out administrative work. In addition, it uses judges to confiscate the right of syndicates’ members to choose their leaders."

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967

Richard Falk's August 25, 2008 report.
2008 Developments - HRC Plenary (HRC) - Reports - Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, Richard Falk

Salim Amin Nasr R.I.P.

A man of majestic integrity died on Sunday, September 21, 2008. He was a man enormously dedicated to his country and he was moved by a quiet passion for fundamental ideals of fairness and justice. We met nearly 25 years ago. By the late 1980s, Salim conceived and headed the Center for Peace and Reconstruction in Lebanon, a far-sighted effort to bring together leading moderate Lebanese dedicated to reviving civility to Lebanon. I remember the meetings as gatherings of impressive, courageous people intent upon supplanting the war society that then still prevailed in Lebanon.
Later Salim, a gifted sociologist, became a program officer for the Ford Foundation in Cairo. In that capacity he worked very hard to construct a network of Arab social scientists united by their commitment to political reform and improved governance. He was a passionate supporter of the project that Farhad Kazemi and I headed at NYU, the Civil Society in the Middle East program. The program was designed as an effort to evaluate the vibrancy of associational life in the Middle East, as well as examine the mechanisms and tactics regional states used to impede civil society. This was no two-aspirins-at-bedtime approach to political reform but a clear-headed effort to imagine a better future for the region's societies.
Salim might have stayed on at Ford, the foundation certainly wished him to do so, but he decided to return to Lebanon in mid-1990s, where he worked hard on reform and governance issues at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, then headed by Paul Salem.
I have special memories of Salim, perhaps none so poignant as a high quality conference in Italy, when this rigorous, serious intellectual was moved to tears recounting an episode during the civil war when his life hung by thread at a checkpoint. Colleagues around the room could not control their own tears. He cared deeply about his work because he knew that he was not engaged in a sterile academic exercise, but work that might truly make a difference.
He loved good music, when he was in Manhattan he would make a quiet excursion to a little cafe in Greenwich Village, La Lanterna di Vittorio. In the Cafe di Vittorio there was usually fine opera being played and he would savor wonderful coffee and something sweet. He loved that place.
I last saw him more than a year ago in Jubayl (Byblos), Lebanon. Salim's wonderful wife Marlene asked me to talk to him, to ask him to slow down. He had been ill for several years, and he was quite frail, but I told her he could not slow down, his work kept him going.
He was so very proud of his son and daughter, Amin and Zeina. I am sure they will honor their father with their loves. They, and their mother, have lost a wonderful man, but Lebanon has lost a extraordinary son.
Those who would like to honor Salim's memory are asked to donate in his name to the Lebanese Red Cross.

[Thanks to EB for helping me remember the incident recounted above.]

Green civil society in Bahrain

On February 2, I enjoyed meeting Ms. Khalwa al-Muhannadi, the President of the Friends of the Environment Society in Bahrain. This is a grassroots organization of volunteers motivated by the deterioration of the environment in Bahrain. In the memory of young adults, sweet water springs have been lost or contaminated, the shore line has been altered dramatically, and rich marine ecosystems have deteriorated. This society is an of citizen activism that is both impressive and encouraging. My impression is a significant slice educated twenty and thirty somethings in the Gulf support this and similar groups. As yet, the successes of the Bahraini group have been limited to raising ecology awareness and educating school children. Presently, they are focusing on the plague of the plastic bag. Their website includes English and Arabic sections.
A new website will be up in a few days, and I will the link when it is available.
اصدقاء البيئة

Mubarak as Bush's hero of civl society

Agence Global - Article: "If Bush had spent more than three hours in Egypt, he might have noticed Mubarak’s thugs doling out 'civil society.' The day after Bush's visit, Abdel Wahhab el-Messiri and his colleagues were taking part in a protest in Cairo, and the 70-year-old leader of the opposition Kefaya movement was taken by police and dumped in a desert suburb about 12 miles (20 km) out of town.

On Sunday, Bush said in the United Arab Emirates what he should have said standing next to Mubarak in Egypt on Wednesday: 'You cannot build trust when you hold an election in which opposition candidates find themselves harassed or in prison.' Bush was referring to Ayman Nour, Mubarak’s main opponent in Egypt’s first contested presidential elections in September 2005."

The melange of informal and formal associations that may provide a buffer between citizen and the raw power of the state were decimated in Iraq.

One of the reasons the quest to create a democracy in Iraq has proven so difficult is that civil society there has been largely absent. Amidst a sea of bad news it is good to know that islands of associability are emerging.
Iraqi Charities Plant Seed of Civil Society - New York Times: "Since 2003 the government has registered 5,000 private organizations, including charities, human rights groups, medical assistance agencies and literacy projects. Officials estimate that an additional 7,000 groups are working unofficially. The efforts show that even as violence and sectarian hatred tear Iraq's mixed cities apart, a growing number of Iraqis are trying to bring them together. 'Iraqis were thirsty for such experiences,' said Khadija Tuma, director of the office in the Ministry of Civil Society Affairs that now works with the private aid groups. 'It was as if they already had it inside themselves.'
The new charity groups offer bits of relief in the sea of poverty that swept Iraq during the economic embargo of the 1990's and has worsened with the pervasive lawlessness that followed the American invasion.
The burst of public-spiritedness comes after long decades of muzzled community life under Saddam Hussein, when drab Soviet-style committees for youth, women and industrialists were the only community groups permitted. "

For more on civil society in the Middle East

Read it in the NYT in 2006 or from cutting edge scholars in 1996 and earlier

Good for Thomas Friedman, he reached the same conclusions that the Civil Society in the Middle East program reached in the mid-1990s. Of course, he exaggerates the poverty of associational life in several Arab countries, but the regimes' penchant for the weakening secular oppositionis certainly accurate. The result is that public space is de-politicized leaving a vacuum in which Islamists political forces have been able to move without too many obstructions.

Addicted to Oil - New York Times:

"Why? Because once you sweep away the dictator or king at the top of any Middle East state, you go into free fall until you hit the mosque--as the U.S.discovered in Iraq. There is nothing between the ruling palace and the mosque. The secular autocratic regimes, like those in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Iraq, never allowed anything to grow under their feet. They never allowed the emergence of any truly independent judiciary, media, progressive secular parties or civil society groups--from women's organizations to trade associations. The mosque became an alternative power center because it was the only place the government's iron fist could not fully penetrate. As such, it became a placewhere people were able to associate freely, incubate local leaders and generate a shared opposition ideology."