Weak States in the Greater Middle East Working Group II

On May 18–19 2013, CIRS held a second working group to conclude its research initiative on “Weak States in the Greater Middle East.” Participants met in Washington D.C. to discuss individual…

Rogaia Abusharaf on ‘Debating Darfur’

Rogaia Abusharaf, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Georgetown University School of ‎Foreign Service in Qatar and CIRS Faculty Fellow 2012-2013, led a Focused Discussion on ‎‎“Debating Darfur in the World” on April 24, 2013. The lecture focused on the narratives that ‎have been used by the Sudanese government, Western media, and diaspora communities to make ‎sense of…

Daniel Lucey on Global Viral Outbreaks

On April 22, 2013, Daniel Lucey, Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at ‎Georgetown University Medical Center and an expert on global virus outbreaks, delivered the ‎final CIRS Monthly Dialogue of the 2012-2013 academic…

H.E. Al Dafa on Current Trends in Qatari Diplomacy

On Monday, April 1, 2013, CIRS hosted a talk by H. E. Bader Omar Al Dafa from ‎the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Al Dafa is a career diplomat, and served as ‎Qatar’s Ambassador to Egypt, the United States, France, and Russia. He was also the ‎Undersecretary General to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for ‎Western Asia (ESCWA). H. E. Al Dafa is currently Ambassador-at-Large and also ‎the Executive Director of the Global Dry Land Alliance. During his visit, Ambassador ‎Al Dafa shared his experiences as a diplomat and commented on current trends in ‎Qatari diplomacy related to regional developments.

Social Change in Post-Khomeini Iran Working Group II

On March 16–17, 2013, CIRS held a second working group to conclude its research initiative on “Social Change in Post-Khomeini Iran.” Experts and scholars from various multidisciplinary backgrounds reconvened in Doha…

War by Other Means? Iran under Sanctions

On March 12, 2013, CIRS organized a panel discussion on the topic of “War by Other Means?Iran under Sanctions,” featuring Mehran Kamrava, Director of CIRS; Mansoor Moaddel, CIRS Visiting Scholar; and Manata Hashemi, CIRS Postdoctoral Fellow. The objective of the panel was to have a discussion on the nature of the sanctions and their consequences…

Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zlatko Lagumdzija, on the Syrian conflict

CIRS hosted a Focused Discussion featuring the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dr. Zlatko Lagumdžija. The event included an in-depth discussion of the Syrian conflict with senior diplomats and ambassadors, academics, and foreign policy analysts. Some of the topics of discussion included the course and direction of the Syrian conflict, the regional and international responses it has elicited, the pros and cons of outside military intervention in the conflict, and the rise in the scale of the refugees and the humanitarian disaster to which the conflict has given rise.

Maha Al-Hendawi Lectures on Inclusive Education in the Gulf

Maha Al-Hendawi, the inaugural CIRS Qatar University Fellow for 2012-2013 and Assistant ‎Professor of Special Education in the College of Education at Qatar ‎University, delivered a ‎CIRSFocused Discussion on “Policy Borrowing in Education: the Example of Inclusive ‎Education in the Gulf” on February 19, 2013. Al-Hendawi began the lecture by noting that her ‎interest in the topic came…

H.E. Kasit Piromya on Southeast Asia’s Role in Global Food Security

Former Foreign Minister of Thailand and career diplomat Kasit Piromya was the featured speaker ‎for a CIRS Monthly Dialoguelecture on January 22, 2013. His Excellency Piromya’s talk, titled ‎‎“Southeast Asia’s Role in Global Food Security,” focused on the role of Southeast Asian ‎countries as major exporters of food and as the “food cradle” or “food kitchen”…