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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20071111T080000
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SUMMARY:Ambassador Stephen Day The Evolution of British Diplomacy since the End of the First World War
DESCRIPTION:On November 8\, 2007\, CIRS hosted a lecture by Stephen Day\, British career diplomat and former Ambassador of the United Kingdom to Tunisia and Qatar. Day delivered a lecture on “The Evolution of British Diplomacy since the End of the First World War\,” focusing on the underlying dynamics that continue to characterize the basis of British policy globally and in relation to the Middle East. \n \n \nDay has devoted much of his career to service in and study of the Middle East\, and\, in his current capacity as the Director of Claremont Associates\, he continues to be actively involved in consulting and giving strategic advice on political and economic issues related to the region.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/ambassador-stephen-day-evolution-british-diplomacy-end-first-world-war/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,Race & Society,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20071112T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20071112T180000
DTSTAMP:20260424T065810
CREATED:20141026T232327Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T115631Z
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SUMMARY:Environmental Degradation and Conservation: Challenges and Prospects
DESCRIPTION:Experts from Education City and around the world came together on Monday\, 12 November 2007\, to discuss the environmental consequences of Qatar’s rapid industrialization. Panelists from each of the branch campuses at Education City took part in the discussion. The event was sponsored by the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Qatar). \n\nTimothy Beach\, Director of Georgetown University’s Center for the Environment\, described how the earth’s climate tends to follow short cycles of warm weather followed by longer eras of cold weather. According to Beach\, these cycles explain the desertion of the Mayan people\, as well as settlement of people along the Nile river valley. Beach credited An Inconvenient Truth\, Al Gore’s award-winning film on climate change\, on raising the public’s awareness of the problem. However\, Beach pointed out that Gore’s film uses low-probability/high-impact actions to drive people to action. \n\nPatrick Linke discussed water resource issues in Qatar. As a chemical engineer at Texas A&M University in Qatar\, Linke has been studying the use of seawater and desalinated water to fulfill the needs of the rapid industrialization. \n\nDeborah Lange of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh described the leadership role the University is taking in creating and promoting sustainable business practices. In addition to promoting environmentally-friendly operations at the University\, CMU also integrates environmental awareness throughout the undergraduate and graduate programs. For these reasons\, Carnegie Mellon was listed by the Sierra Club as one of the top 10 organizations that are committed to environmental action. The Sierra Club is on of the oldest grassroots environmental organizations with more than 1.3 million members in America. \n\nPeter Martin\, a professor of communication design from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar explained the unique relationship between environmental problems and cultural problems. In describing the development of modern culture\, Martin explained that humanity sees itself are more and more detached from the environment. As we become more comfortable with artificial environments we begin to trivialize time\, place and history. Only by reversing this cultural degradation can we build sustainable business practices that will reverse the environmental degradation. \n\nRenee Richer\, a biology professor from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar\, discussed the challenges of conservation as a result of Qatar’s rapid industrialization. She explained the uniqueness of Qatar’s environment\, with its extreme temperatures\, low rainfall\, and high water salinity. Unfortunately\, Qatar’s small size and recent growth have meant that an accurate tally of the diversity of species in the country is not available. The rapid growth means that animal habitats are being destroyed\, as well as resources being exploited. The rising population in Qatar is one example. “The fish catch has nearly doubled from 2001 until 2005 from 79\,000 tons of fish to 140\,000 tons. That is a huge increase in resource usage\,” Richer said. Richer did credit the Qatari government’s biodiversity action plan as a step forward to building sustainable environment here in Qatar. \n\nAs a continuation of the CIRS’ panel presentation on the environment\, Renee Richer published a review paper in March 2008\, titled “Conservation in Qatar: Impacts of Increasing Industrialization.”  \n\nArticle by Suzi Mirgani\, CIRS staff member.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/environmental-degradation-and-conservation-challenges-and-prospects/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,Environmental Studies,Panels,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20071128T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20071128T180000
DTSTAMP:20260424T065810
CREATED:20141026T095435Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240314T115624Z
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SUMMARY:Patrick Laude on the Ambassadors of Inner Islam
DESCRIPTION:On November 28\, 2007\, forty invited guests gathered in the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar Library to listen to Professor Patrick Laude speak about “The Ambassadors of Inner Islam and the Encounter of Religions.”This lecture was part of CIRS’s on-going Monthly Dialogue Series. Laude is Professor of French\, a Sorbonne graduate and author of nine books\, including Pray Without Ceasing: The Way of the Invocation in World Religion\, 2006\, Divine Play\, Sacred Laughter and Spiritual Understanding\, 2005\, Singing the Way: Insights in Poetry and Spiritual Transformation\, 2005\, Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998): Life and Teachings\, 2004\, Massignon intérieur\, 2001\, and Approches du quiétisme\, 1992. \n \n \nProfessor Laude explained the main tenets of his current research which focuses on the contributions of three eminent European Islamic Studies scholars to Islamic studies and inter-religious studies. Louis Massignon (1883-1962)\, Henry Corbin (1903-1978) and Frithjof Schuon (1907-1998) set themselves apart from Orientalist research and the abstract detachment that was a prerequisite for scientific objectivity by demonstrating the forgotten but fertile connection between faith and scholarship. Laude explained that the spiritual realm that these scholars were interested in is one that cannot be reduced to the prevalent social or political concerns. \n \n \nLaude gave a brief account of his own relationship with the subject\, explaining what makes these particular scholars worthy of being named Ambassadors of Islam\, and explaining what lessons could be learned in relation to the co-existence of religions. All three scholars\, although studying the same topic\, came from different intellectual paradigms ranging from the Christian and mystical to the phenomenological and the perennialist. \n \n \nThe title “Ambassadors of Islam”\, Laude explained\, is meant to give the sense that these scholars introduced the West to Islamic ideas found in the realm of a broader spiritual and philosophical understanding. In fact\, Massignon was a Catholic scholar and priest who devoted his life to the study of Islam and Arabic\, as he believed this language to be the language of transcendence. He was able to partake in a spirituality that extended beyond strict religious boundaries while being grounded in the Christian mysteries of faith. Corbin was steeped in German philosophy and Protestant theology\, and became the prominent European expert in Shiite theosophy\, while Schuon has been recognized as the foremost expositor of the perennial philosophy based upon the principle of the “transcendent unity of religions.” \n \n \nFurther to being representatives of Islam in the West\, these thinkers represented a marginalized and forgotten aspect of Islam; they revived its spiritual and intellectual heritage. These scholars had a profound influence on some sectors of the Islamic intelligentsia especially in South East Asia. \n \n \nLaude explained how these three Ambassadors of Islam emphasized the importance of a spiritual “congeniality” with or “sympathy” toward the object of religious studies\, a re-evaluation of the centrality of the poetic and the imaginal in approaching spiritual traditions\, and above all the commonality and transcendence of a universal horizon of spirituality beyond the formal differences that separate religions. As such\, they saw Sufism as an embodiment of the spiritual fulfillment of Islam from a law into a spiritual way of being open to other faiths. \n \n \nAll three scholars’ legacy is some measure of recognition in a spiritual and metaphysical unity of all the great religions; an essential commonality that is in no way contradictory with the formal\, theological and ritual diversity that characterizes the religious world. Therefore\, one lesson that can be learned from these thinkers is not only the recognition of others’ religions but also the understanding of the metaphysical and anthropological necessity of the multiplicity of spiritual traditions. The unity of religions espoused\, to varying degrees\, by these scholars\, in a way that is more implicit and Christ-centered in Massignon\, more hermeneutic in Corbin’s works\, and fully articulated in Schuon and the perennialist school\, is not found in the literal sense of religions but resides in the encompassing and inclusive nature of the spiritual and the philosophical understanding of the religious phenomenon.  \n \n \nSummary prepared by Suzi Mirgani\, CIRS staff member.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/patrick-laude-ambassadors-inner-islam/
CATEGORIES:Dialogue Series,Race & Society,Regional Studies
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