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SUMMARY:Mehran Kamrava on International Power Realignment in the Gulf
DESCRIPTION:On March 10\, 2009\, a Monthly Dialogue entitled “International Power Realignment in the Gulf” was given by Mehran Kamrava\, Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies and an expert on Iran and the Persian Gulf. The Dialogue was attended by Georgetown faculty\, students\, staff\, and invited guests. \n \n \nKamrava’s Monthly Dialogue informed the audience about “how changing dynamics in the Gulf are resulting in the emergence of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as major players in the region and beyond.” Kamrava argued that we are witnessing a shift in power alignments in the Gulf region as small states\, such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates\, are exhibiting powerful performances in the region as well as within the international arena. In tandem with this trend\, the position of the region’s traditional “big powers\,” such as Iran and Iraq\, are being gradually and strategically declining. \n \n \nThis power realignment is important in two respects. Firstly\, Kamrava’s thesis regarding the Gulf region is that Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are unusual in that they are “small states” and yet are powerful players changing the international relations of the region. “These small states of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates\, in many ways\, do not fit the defined model. In fact\, they are often times going against the model of how small states are supposed to behave in the international arena” according to the various international relations theories. They exhibit an extraordinary set of characteristics and engage in behaviors that are fundamentally atypical. \n \n \nThese countries\, Kamrava noted\, rely on the support and protection of global superpowers and Qatar is home to one of the largest United States airbases. These states also spend huge amounts of resources on forging a number of alliances with large states. Traditionally\, small states limit themselves to dealing with their immediate geographic surroundings\, but Qatar has shown a penchant for helping to negotiate in other countries’ regional and civil strife. These small states show a growing self-confidence and clout and have become “norm makers” as they influence others with their particular style of international relations and\, essentially\, “change the rules of the game.” \n \n \nThese small states’ power\, Kamrava pointed out\, is evident in three distinct areas: \n \n \n\nNeither Qatar nor the United Arab Emirates blindly tow Riyadh’s line as they have done historically\, particularly concerning trade relations and policies.\nBoth these states demonstrate some fearlessness in relation to Iran\, with particular emphasis on their struggle over the issue of the three islands. These countries have also reclaimed their symbolic sovereignty by re-naming the area the “Arabian” Gulf rather than conforming to what has been known historically as the “Persian” Gulf.\nWith the decline of Iraq’s regional influence\, these states have emerged as major regional power players.\n\n \nOne of the most important issues regarding these particular small states\, Kamrava argued\, is that not only do these states change the power dynamics in the region\, but they are instrumental in changing our very conception of what constitutes power in the first instance. Traditional scholarship argues that there are two types of power: hard power and soft power. “Hard power” is a country’s ability to gain influence and submission from others through military or forceful means and “soft power” is how a country gains influence by having a strong appeal and by attracting others to its particular values systems and norms. \n \n \nKamrava concluded by noting that Qatar and the United Arab Emirates exhibit neither of these powers and yet\, they are highly influential and successful states. Kamrava argued that what these small states do have is what he terms “civilian power\,” which is a combination of personal and state-owned wealth and stability along with strategic and clever use of these assets. These countries have vast sovereign wealth funds that have allowed Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to be partially shielded from the damage that the global economic crisis has had on the rest of the world and has given these small states “big power.” \n \n \nDr. Mehran Kamrava is Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He received his PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge. His specialties include political development\, comparative politics\, and Middle Eastern Studies. \n \n \nIn addition to a number of journal articles\, he is the author of Revolution in Iran: The Roots of Turmoil (1990)\, The Political History of Modern Iran: From Tribalism to Theocracy(1992)\, Revolutionary Politics (1992)\, Politics and Society in the Third World (1993)\,Understanding Comparative Politics: A Framework for Analysis (1996)\, Democracy in the Balance: Culture and Society in the Middle East (1998)\, Cultural Politics in the Third World(1999)\, Politics and Society in the Developing World\, 2nd ed. (2000)\, The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War(2005)\, and Iran’s Intellectual Revolution(2008). He has also edited The New Voices of Islam: Rethinking Politics and Modernity(2006) and is the co-editor of the two-volume work Iran Today: Life in the Islamic Republic.  \n \n \nArticle by Suzi Mirgani\, CIRS Publications Coordinator.
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/mehran-kamrava-on-international-power-realignment-in-the-gulf/
CATEGORIES:American Studies,CIRS Faculty Lectures,Dialogue Series,Regional Studies
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20090317T080000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Moscow:20090317T180000
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SUMMARY:Edward Djerejian on U.S. Policy Toward the Arab & Muslim World
DESCRIPTION:Drawing on his career of experience as a diplomat\, former U.S. ambassador to Syria and Israel\, Edward Djerejian\, offered his insights and analysis of current foreign policy challenges facing the United States in the Middle East and South Asia to a full house at the Diplomatic Club in Doha on March 17\, 2009. \n \n \nAmbassador Djerejian\, a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University\, is currently the Director of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. He has served in eight U.S. administrations from John Kennedy to Bill Clinton and has filled such posts as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs and ambassador to Syria and Israel. In 2008\, Djererjian published a book entitled Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador’s Journey through the Middle East\, detailing his experiences in the region. \n \n \nIn his lecture\, Ambassador Djerejian noted that “the challenges that the Obama administration faces in its foreign policy toward the Arab and Muslim world are comparably great.” He addressed U.S. policy challenges in Israel-Palestine\, Iraq\, Iran\, Afghanistan\, and Pakistan\, stressing that the politics of the region are often interconnected and what happens in one state can have a significant impact on another. Specifically\, he pointed to the centrality of Israel-Palestine conflict\, saying that the so-called neo-conservatives erred when they claimed that the road to peace in the region ran through Baghdad rather than Jerusalem. While he hailed some positive developments in Israeli-Arab relations\, including the Madrid conference of 1991\, in which Arabs and Israelis negotiated face-to-face for the first time\, Djerejian said that it was essential that U.S. policy be aimed at a resolution of the conflict. He added that the term “peace process\,” was not useful as it implies that there is no end in sight\, and he therefore preferred to concentrate on a more results-oriented vision. \n \n \nIn his discussion of U.S. foreign policy toward Iraq\, Djerejian stressed that the Bush administration made a serious error in ignoring a key recommendation of the Iraq Study Group to engage diplomatically its adversaries\, Iran and Syria. The United States has many common interests with Iran in particular\, among them cooperation on Iraq\, Afghanistan\, and energy. Djerejian suggested that all issues be on the table in talks with Iran\, except for the threat of regime change. Military action against Iran would be a huge failure\, he said. \n \n \nOn Afghanistan and Pakistan\, the former ambassador suggested that U.S. policy suffers from a lack of coherence in approach\, in part\, due to the distraction of the war in Iraq. He proposed that the Obama administration lower its military goals and expectations in Afghanistan\, partly out of recognition that\, historically\, the country is not easily controlled by foreign powers. Additionally\, the United States should recommit to building roads and infrastructure and providing basic services and security to the Afghan people\, given that the Taliban thrives in places where these essentials are missing. \n \n \nAddressing the region as a whole\, Ambassador Djerejian argued that it “is fraught with critical issues – unresolved – that need the attention of the people of the region in the first instance\, but also\, the hopefully constructive involvement of the outside world.” He argued that “overarching all of these specific issues\, in my view\, is the struggle of ideas within the Muslim world and by that I mean the struggle between the forces of moderation and the forces of extremism and in the middle\, those – especially the younger generations – who haven’t made up their mind which way to go. This is a struggle of ideas that will determine the future of the Arab world.” \n \n \nDjerejian concluded by noting that the problem for U.S. democracy promotion efforts is the possibility that radical Islamist parties will use elections to assume power then overthrow the democratic system. The United States should therefore take a careful approach to promote a culture of democracy rather than trying to impose an American-modeled democratic system on foreign cultures. He stressed education as an important building-block in such a promotion of democracy\, highlighting the role education played in Arab high society over the centuries and citing Qatar’s Education City as an example of rising new models of education in the region. \n \n \nSummary by Alex Schank. Alex graduated from Georgetown University in 2008 with a major in English and minors in Arabic and government. As an undergraduate\, he studied abroad in Cairo\, Egypt and completed an internship with the U.S. Department of State in Doha\, Qatar. Alex is currently studying Arabic at Qatar University. 
URL:https://cirs.qatar.georgetown.edu/event/edward-djerejian-us-policy-toward-arab-muslim-world/
CATEGORIES:American Studies,Dialogue Series,Regional Studies
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