On May 23–24, 2010, a two-day working group meeting in Doha, Qatar took place, CIRS invited a group of scholars to discuss the “Nuclear Question in the Middle East.” The presentations took several different approaches ranging from theoretical deliberations, to practical implications, to historical narratives. During the course of the meeting, the scholars noted that…
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, a prominent Muslim leader in the United States and Chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, visited Qatar during a trip to the region sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. He was invited to the Georgetown University in Qatar campus on August 24, 2010, to talk about “Moderate Islam, the Muslim Community…
On August 30, 2010, Daniel Westbrook, an economics professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, delivered the August CIRS Monthly Dialogue lecture on the topic of “Education and Market Transition in Viet Nam.” Westbrook first traveled to Viet Nam in 1993 to spend a semester teaching at the National Economics University in Hanoi under…
Mary Ann Tétreault, the 2010-2011 CIRS Visiting Scholar and the Una Chapman Cox Distinguished Professor of International Affairs at Trinity University in San Antonio, was invited to deliver the October CIRS Monthly Dialogue lecture on the subject “Who Am I? International Education and Identity in the Gulf.” The lecture was based on the phenomenon of transplanting foreign…
Birol Başkan, Visiting Assistant Professor of Government at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, delivered a Focused Discussion on the topic, “Turkey at the Crossroads: The Last Referendum and its Implications” on October 6, 2010. Başkan’s talk focused on how the September 12, 2010, referendum in Turkey left the country at the crossroads of…
On October 10–11, 2010, CIRS held its third and final meeting of the “Migrant Labor in the Gulf” working group. Each participant submitted a draft paper in advance of the meeting. The goal of the meeting was for those taking part to critique each other’s work and advise the authors as they prepare a final…
In light of the United States’ withdrawal of troops from Iraq, CIRS organized a panel discussion to analyze the political upheavals that have taken place in Iraq and to gauge the possible outcomes. The panel took place on October 19, 2010, at the Intercontinental Hotel in Doha and featured Anthony Cordesman, the Arleigh A. Burke…
Barbara Stowasser, Director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, was invited to Doha to deliver aFocused Discussion on the subject of “Time Sticks" and concepts of time in Islam, to Georgetown faculty and staff. Stowasser began the lecture by noting that “time is essential to the very structure of Muslim communal life.…
Miriam Cooke, Professor of Arab Cultures at Duke University and Fall 2010 Scholar-in-Residence at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, delivered the November CIRS Monthly Dialogue on the topic of “The Tribal Modern: The Past as Future.” In examining a variety of “heritage projects” in Qatar and the Gulf states, Cooke acknowledged the literature…
On November 7, 2010, CIRS held a Working Group meeting to discuss regional perspectives related to the ongoing “Nuclear Question in the Middle East” research initiative that CIRS commenced in May 2010. The project is designed to look into nuclear proliferation concerns associated with the GCC states’ aims of establishing nuclear power capabilities in the…
The talk was followed by a question and answer session. A video of the event is available here.
Carol Lancaster, Dean of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Professor of Politics at Georgetown University, lectured to a group of Georgetown faculty and Qatar-based diplomats on November 14, 2010 on the subject of “The Results and Consequences of the US Mid-term Elections.” The mid-term elections, Lancaster said, “were predicted to be…