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'The Middle East: Between Economic Progress and Conflict' highlighted the region's dramatic economic transformation, and, in particular the Dubai model. Other topics that received focus included the prospects of economic development and reform and current regional conflicts.
The conference is the first among several joint academic and policy-making activities between the Dubai School of Government and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government to be held under the Dubai Initiative.
The Dubai Initiative was launched by the Belfer Center for Science and International Studies and the Dubai School of Government to link the expertise and resources of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government with the Dubai School of Government. The move will enable the exchange of students, scholars, knowledge and resources between the two institutions in governance, political science, economics, energy, security, gender and foreign relations in the Middle East.
The current conference was supervised by Graham Alison, Director of Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Studies; Nabil Ali Alyousuf, Executive President of the Dubai School of Government; Vali Naser, Senior Research Fellow at the Kennedy School's Dubai Initiative, and Dr. Tarik Yousef, Dean of the Dubai School of Government.
Nabil Ali Alyousuf said:
"This conference is a platform for debate and a more in-depth understanding of the region's challenges. There are several opportunities available in the region to drive its well being. Initiatives such as this will result in a better world for all of us."
Key speakers of the conference included Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi, Former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations; Joseph Nye, Dean Emeritus of the John F. Kennedy School of Government; Ambassador Edward Djerejian, Director of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University; Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow at the Dubai Initiative; Dr. Mustapha Nobly, Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank, and Dr. Tarik Yousef, Dean of the Dubai School of Government.
Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi said: "In general, we face a serious challenge in education, especially in the higher segment - a reason why we are all quite excited to get this school off the ground and look forward to similar initiatives in the future."
Commenting on the significance of the conference, Joseph Nye said: "Our cooperation with Dubai will not only bring expertise from the Kennedy School to Dubai, it will also offer rich knowledge from Dubai to the Kennedy School."
"The efforts being made by the Dubai Government to modernize and open up to knowledge around the world will augur well for Dubai, and develop a new culture of policy making and public administration that is based on knowledge, study and research."
Dr. Tarik Yousef said: "We do not want to be just another institution of higher education in the Arab world. We would rather be a cutting edge research and teaching body."
"We've outlined a vision to support academic research on public policy in the Middle East from within the region. By anchoring our work with institutions such as Harvard, Brookings, the World Bank or the UNDP, we will benchmark our institution and our ideas and initiatives against the best of standards around the world."
Similar to the one-day conference, various projects based on the Dubai Initiative will be rolled out periodically, hosting prominent world-renowned speakers from the world's top academic institutions.
Posted by Anne-Birte Stensgaard, Senior News Editor
