Statehood and Participation

Bourhan Ghalioun

Globalization and Democracy

   French

Zeina Halabi
Arab Civil Society - Assessing Interpretations and determining Challenges 
   Arabic

Jamal Jawahiri

Challenges for Iraqi Civil Society

  Arabic

Rami Khoury & Volker Perthes

A Dozen Prescriptions for Europe to Push Arab reform

  Arabic        German

Ghassan Mukheiber
Le Droit des Associations au Liban et dans les Pays Arabes

Ghassan Salamé
Towards a New Social Contract

  French

Yasemine Soysal
Citoyenneté et Identité: Vivre au sein de  diasporas dans l'Europe de l'après guerre
  Arabic

War and Peace

Noam Chomsky

Imminent Dangers - Threats and Opportunities
    Arabic

Tamirace Fakhoury-Mühlbacher

International Relations in an Uncertain Hegemonial World System

Power and Identity

Fawwaz Traboulsi
'Orientalizing the Orientals': The Other Message of Edward Said

Arising form an interest in the study of the modalities of production of knowledge in and about the Arab region, this paper will deal with Occidentalism, understood as the body of narratives and discourses by which Europeans and the US societies, governments and policies are represented and interpreted in this part of the world. The main thesis in this paper is that Edward Said’s critical secular project should be perused and enriched by an equivalent critique of Occidentalism. Informed by Said’s early warning against the “participation of the Orient in its own Orientalization”, we will follow that process of self orientalization among larger sections of the Arab intelligentsia. Contrary to the current wisdom, Orientalized Arab intellectuals are not confined to the “native informants” but cover many of those who pretend representing and defending Arab and Muslim specificity and who belong to the camp opposed to the Empire. Case studies will touch upon economic reform, democratization, the Holocaust, 9/11, the Iraq War, and others.

Mahmood Mamdani
On Blasphemy, Bigotry and the Politics of Culture Talk

In a book that I wrote in 2004 titled Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, I began with two propositions: that every culture, without exception, is historical; and that cultures do not grow in separate containers called civilizations. The claim that they should be seen as a part of an attempt to politicize culture, that is, to harness culture to a political project. My focus then was on the period that led to 9/11. My object will be to advance two further arguments. One, the continuing “clash of civilizations”- including its distinctive European version- is better understood not as a defense civilization but as the ideological arm of a larger political project, the War on Terror. And two, for those interested in developing an effective counter to hate movements organized as political projects, I suggest developing an intellectual and political, rather than a legal, strategy. (synopsis by Mahmood Mamdani )

Abed Azrié
Quelques Impression en Marge de la Musique

Abbas Beydoun

A Discourse on Difficult Identities

  Arabic

Ilya Harik
Violence, Cultural Identity, and Negotiated Diversity

Jochen Hippler

An Elephant by the Name of Monica

  Arabic    French

Joelle Khoury

Time Goes One Way - Against the Classification of Art

  French

Anton Pelinka

On the Pitfalls of Multiculturalism

  Arabic    French

Dieter Senghaas

Modernity and Anti-Modernity Facing Cultural Globalization

  Arabic    French

Georges Tarabichi

Arab Intellectuals and the Discontents of Globalization

Sustainable Development

Karen Assaf, Bayoumi Attia, Ali Darwish, Batir Wardam and Simone Klawitter
Water as a Human Right - The understanding of water in the Arab countries of the Middle East

Suzanne Baaklini

Global Warming: More Drought and Heat in Lebanon

  French

Suzanne Baaklini describes the potential effects of climate change on Lebanon, citing heat waves, floods, drought and desertification and their effects on the ecological system of Lebanon and the Lebanese economy, in particular tourism and agricultural, and suggests a number of measures to avoid these effects.

Fouad Hamdan

Arab States Ignore Climate  Change

Arab Leaders are ignoring climate change at the peril of their people, argues Fouad Hamdan. Far from being the problem of a distant future, climate change is already affecting Arab countries. Yet, the unavoidable reduction of fossil energy consumption will not necessarily spell doom for a region whose wealth largely stem from oil extraction. Hydrogen, a clean energy suitable to replace oil and petrol can be generated from solar energy, using two elements that are freely available in abundance in the Arab world: abundant sunshine, and unpopulated areas ideally suited to accommodate large fields of solar panels. Timely investment in such technologies would more than offset any reduction in oil production, and put the region at the forefront of clean energy suppliers.

Minu Hemmati

Minu Hemmati and Rosalie Gardiner

Gender and Sustainable Development

Habib Maalouf

On the Edge - A Late Warning on Climate Change
  Arabic

A call for taking on Climate Change as one of the most serious challenges to the existing practices of global cooperation and economy, and to adjust values and behavior towards sustainability and responsibility.

Barbara Unmüssig

Water - Human Right or Merchandise?

Marita Wiggerthale

Liberalisation of Agricultural Trade The Way Forward for Sustainable Development?