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  The Gulf and the Maghreb in uncertain times. Session 1. Gulf-Maghreb relations

  First session of the seminar, "The Gulf and the Maghreb in uncertain times. Global players, reshaped regions and transnational trends", organized in collaboration with Fundación Alternativas, which will bring together analysts with vast experience and knowledge from both sides of the Mediterranean, providing a platform to analyse the growing importance of relations between the GCC and the Maghreb states. Session I. Gulf-Maghreb relations: interconnectivities, divergences and opportunities. Moderator: Karim Hauser – Casa Árabe Cinzia Bianco – ECFR Fatiha Dazi-Héni – Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l'Ecole Militaire Frederic Wehrey – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Recent developments show that regional configurations and alliances within the Arab world cannot be taken for granted. While in the not so distant past the Maghreb and the Gulf were put in competition against each other, these last years have witnessed a greater involvement of Gulf countries in the Maghreb through an array of mechanisms and shifting patterns depending on specific contexts. Clear cases in point are the conflicting interests invading Libya’s politics and the normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel in line with the so-called Abraham Accords. In spite of cultural and historical links, and notwithstanding a shared Arab identity, both geography and conflicting geopolitical and economic concerns have kept these subregions apart from each other. However, the Gulf and Maghreb states share interests and concerns. Dynamics throughout the Mediterranean nowadays encompass events at both the subregional, regional and transcontinental level. States are confronted with a number of transnational and cross-regional phenomena, both at the macro and the micro-level. The international relations and economies of Maghreb countries are becoming more multifaceted, with more assertive African policies and the expansion of new trade relations as well as diversification of allies. Will they emulate the Gulf’s regional and global endeavors, leading to a showdown, or will pragmatism and conflict fatigue prevail? Will traditional fault lines shift and adapt to new threats and opportunities? How can domestic politics shape future events? Will the Maghreb become an arena for power competition and Gulf Arab rivalries? How will the GCC’s irregular dynamics affect the balance of power? Have other external powers a role to play? Will potential partnerships be able to translate into deeper strategic ties providing with new opportunities for institutions and societies? The seminar will gather analysts with vast experience and insight from both sides of the Mediterranean, providing a platform to analyze the increasing importance of relations between the GCC and the Maghreb states. More info: https://en.casaarabe.es/event/the-gulf-and-the-maghreb-in-uncertain-times Photo: USAFRICOM U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Apolonia L. Gaspa

  Publicado el 16 de abril 2021
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  Presentation of the “Focus Africa 2023” plan (12:00h, Moncloa)

  On Monday, March 29, the presentation of the “Focus Africa 2023” plan will be presided over by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez. The event will begin at 12:00 p.m. at the Moncloa Palace and will be attended by the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Also attending the presentation will be the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Arancha González Laya; the the Republic of Senegal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad, Aïssata SallTall; the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, and the Managing Director of Elecnor, Rafael Martín de Bustamante Vega. Also intervening is the President of the Republic of Ghana, with the event brought to a close by the President of the Spanish Government. The entire event can be watched live on the Moncloa Palace website, as well as YouTube, in both Spanish and English. The event will continue thereafter, as of 5:00 p.m. at the Palace of Viana, with the holding of two round table discussions that may also be seen live on YouTube in Spanish, English and French. 5:00 p.m. “Spanish investment in the frame of the opportunities of the African continent” The event will be moderated by the State Secretary of Trade, Xiana Méndez. Participants: • Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. • Wamkele Mene, Secretary General for the African Continental Free Trade Area. • Marta Blanco, President of CEOE International. • Betty Maina, Minister of Trade and Industry of Kenya. • Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO of the New Alliance for the Development of Africa. 6:15 p.m.: “Focus Africa 2023 and the Empowerment of African Women.” Moderated by the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation, Arancha González. Participants: • Aïssata Sall Tall, Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Senegalese Abroad of Senegal. • Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ghana. • Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Vice-President of the African Union Commission. • María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, President of the Women for Africa Foundation and the Chairwoman of Spain’s Council of State. More info: https://en.casaarabe.es/event/presentation-of-the-“focus-africa-2023”-plan

  Publicado el 29 de marzo 2021
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  Democratization versus democracy: how European policy failed the Arab uprisings

  The twelfth session of Aula Árabe Universitaria and Aula Mediterránea, given by Andrea Teti (University of Aberdeen), will be taking on Wednesday, April 7. You can watch it live on our Youtube channel. After a lukewarm reaction to the Tunisian revolution that erupted in late 2010, the European Union proclaimed that it had learned the lessons of the Arab uprisings in early 2011. So, what were those lessons according to the EU? Primarily that previous policy had failed in two ways: first of all, that support for authoritarian regimes in the name of “stability” and gradual “reformism” was wrong both pragmatically (because it did not lead to democratization) and ethically (since it did not “fit in with Europe’s core values”). And secondly, that supporting democracy and development had to undergo a matching “paradigm shift” and become much more inclusive than the EU had thought before the “Arab Spring.” Unfortunately, these commitments translated into little more than words. In fact, Brussels was prioritizing “stability” again by 2015 (as demonstrated by its acquiescence to the coup in Egypt). But even before then, contradictions had already arisen in the EU’s stance: despite announcing that it was breaking away from the past, closer examination showed that it had not been able to “change” the “paradigms” it had allegedly acknowledged as unsustainable. How could the Union and its Member States publicly proclaim they were breaking away from their earlier Neighborhood Policy while reproducing the same strategies in the “Southern Partnership”? Part of the answer is clearly geopolitical and geo-economic. However, if we examine this even more closely, a careful linguistic analysis of EU policy strategy documents shows that their outlook on new policy strategies reproduces the logic, and sometimes even the terminology, of the Neighborhood Policy prior to the uprisings. This lack of a response and innovation is especially serious because, according to a painstaking analysis of public opinion poll data over the last decade, populations across the Arab MENA region have clearly and repeatedly pointed out that they “demand democracy,” especially a form of democracy which is socially just. This is not simply a matter of failures in institutional learning, but also that these failures are actively contributing to destabilization of the Mediterranean on both shores. Casa Árabe has organized this twelfth lecture in the Aula Árabe Universitaria event series, to be given by Andrea Teti, a professor of International Relations at the University of Aberdeen, with the cooperation of the UAM’s EUROSUD - South European Studies Master’s program. As part of the pairing of both the Aula event series, the conference will also be the sixteenth session in IEMed’s “Aula Mediterrània” program, in collaboration with the Master’s degree program in Diplomacy and International Organizations at the CEI/UB. Ignacio Gutiérrez de Terán, a professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the UAM, will be participating in the presentation on behalf of the EUROSUD Master’s degree program, as will Jordi Quero, coordinator of the CEI/UB Master’s program, who will give the initial reaction on behalf of that program. The event will be moderated by Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s International Relations Coordinator. Foto: CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2020 – Source: EP https://en.casaarabe.es/event/democratization-versus-democracy-how-european-policy-failed-the-arab-uprisings

  Publicado el 25 de marzo 2021
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  Studying in Lebanon: Challenges to Syrian Refugee Children

  Tenth conference in our program Aula Árabe Universitaria 2, to be given by Professor Carmen Geha (American University of Beirut). After ten years, the Syrian refugee children living in Lebanon are facing a new reality of long-lasting conflict and fear over returning home. Carmen Geha’s conference will analyze the complexities of being trapped in Lebanon, caught up in the middle of a turbulent political reality. The political system for sectarian-based power distribution in the country creates risks and challenges which can be seen in its educational policy towards Syrian youths. How do young refugees experience the educational system and what political realities make up the paths towards their return? The goal of this conference is to help conceptualize the role of education amid situations of uncertainty about the future and how a host country’s politics can influence the lives and future choices of young refugees. Casa Árabe has organized this conference with the cooperation of the bachelor’s degree program in Modern Languages at Nebrija University. Introducing the session will be Laura de la Parra Fernández, director of the bachelor’s degree program and a professor at Nebrija University, and Olivia Orozco de la Torre, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economic Coordinator. Carmen Geha Carmen is an activist and Associate Professor of Public Administration at the American University of Beirut. She specializes in mass political mobilization and the challenges to political reform across the Arab Middle East and North Africa. She is a co-founder of the Center for Inclusive Business & Leadership (CIBL) for Women at AUB, a regional reference on readying gender-inclusive employer policies across the region. She is also a co-founder of Khaddit Beirut (the shake-up), a network of 150+ experts implementing a community-driven roadmap for the recovery of Beirut following the port explosion on August 4th. She served also as Founding Director of the “Education for Leadership in Crisis,” scholarship program for Afghan women at AUB. Carmen manages and oversees large portfolio of research programs and grants in 11 Arab MENA countries focused on women’s economic participation as well as gender, peace, and security. Her work has been published in the Middle East Journal, the British Journal for Middle East Studies, Middle East Law and Governance, Journal of Refugee Studies, and Social Movement Studies among others. Carmen is an activist-scholar and is interviewed regularly on local and international media about events in Lebanon and the region. Carmen regularly advised and consults for top international organizations, UN agencies, and government institutions across the region. She has worked in Libya, Myanmar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq among other places. She has most recently consulted as Senior Gender Advisor for UN Women in Lebanon. Carmen has a PhD in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews, she was the 2018-2019 fellow in social sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study. She has been a visiting fellow at the WiSER Institute in Johannesburg, Weatherhead Center at Harvard, and the Watson Institute in Brown University. More info: https://en.casaarabe.es/event/studying-in-lebanon-challenges-to-syrian-refugee-children

  Publicado el 12 de marzo 2021
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  Syria: Prospects ten years after the outbreak of revolution

  On Tuesday, March 16, we will be showing the eleventh conference in our event series Aula Árabe Universitaria 2, given by the director of the Arab Center for Political Research and Studies of Paris (CAREP), Salam Kawakibi, on our YouTube channel. The war against Syria’s civilian population has been ongoing since 2011, and its impact is profound. Although it is impossible to provide exact figures, the toll has been devastating: it has caused the death of half a million human beings, the destruction of 60% of all infrastructures and the disability of 1.5 million people, with another 200 thousand people in jails and arbitrary detention centers, the internal displacement of half of the country’s inhabitants and the exile of more than six million to different countries in the neighboring region. Although the violence has decreased over the last two years, the situation persists. However, neither the humanitarian catastrophe nor the Syrian people’s demands appear in the headlines anymore. The consequences of this conflict are enormous in terms of international security, and the role of regional and international role-players is undeniable in the Syrian disaster. Within this context, what prospects are there for a potential solution? Casa Árabe has organized this conference given by Salam Kawakibi, a researcher in Political Science and International Relations. It is the eleventh session in the Aula Árabe Universitaria 2 (AAU2) program, offered with the cooperation of the Master’s degree program in International Relations and African Studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). The session will be introduced by Itziar Ruiz-Giménez Arrieta, coordinator of the Master’s Degree program in International Relations and African Studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and is moderated by Karim Hauser, Casa Árabe’s International Relations Coordinator. Salam Kawakibi co-founded the organization The Day After: Supporting a Democratic Transition in Syria (www.tda-sy.org). He is a senior researcher at the University of Saint Andrews’ Centre for Syrian Studies, a co-founder and member of the advisory board of the Mediterranean Citizens Assembly Foundation (MCAF) (www.fundacionacm.org), a member of the board of the Institute for Research and Studies on the Arab World and Mediterranean in Paris, and a member of the scientific committee of Confluences, a Parisian journal which focuses on the Mediterranean region. From 2009 to 2011, Kawakibi was the head researcher at the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Political Science. Prior to that, from 2000 to 2006, he was director of the Institut Français du Proche-Orient in Aleppo. He earned his Advanced Studies Diploma (DEA) in Political Science from the Aix-En-Provence Institute of Political Studies and another in International Relations from the University of Aleppo, as well as his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Aleppo. He has had numerous articles and essays published in specialized journals and various works in Arabic, French, Spanish, German and Turkish. More info: https://en.casaarabe.es/event/syria-prospects-ten-years-after-the-outbreak-of-revolution Photo: Anthony Gale on Flickr

  Publicado el 11 de marzo 2021