IMES in the News

IMES Faculty Associate Mohammad H. Faghfoory has translated and annotated a work on Sufi Islam entitled The Path of Worshippers to the Paradise of the Lord of the Worlds by Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad Al-Ghazzali (University Press of America, April 2012).

IMES Faculty Associates Jennifer Brinkerhoff will be presenting the findings of the Coptic Diaspora Survey on May 18 at the International Institute at UCLA. For more details, please click here.

IMES Faculty Associate Nathan Brown moderated a session at an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace entitled "The Islamists: Views from Within" with representatives from Islamist parties in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia.
Professor Brown gave talks on the Egyptian Revolution at St. Olaf College, The New School for Social Research and in Santa Fe and Albuquerque New Mexico. Professor Brown also gave a presentation to visiting Leaders for Democracy Fellows from the Arab world on April 27, and also gave a presentation on the Arab Spring at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on April 23.
Professor Brown also published the following articles and op-eds:
-Chapter on Hamas in The Islamists are Coming by Robin Wright (editor), United States Institute of Peace
-Jewish Daily Forward, April 30, 2012: The Road Ahead: Reading Hamas
-Foreign Policy, April 16, 2012: Egypt's transition imbroglio
-The National Interest, April 4, 2012: Egypt's Muddy Waters

IMES Faculty Associate Liesl Riddle co-wrote a paper with Dr. Meghana Ayyagari entitled "Contemporary Cleopatras: The Business Ethics of Egyptian Female Managers," which has been recognized as a 2012 Outstanding Paper by Emerald Publishing's Literati Network. To read this paper, please click here.
Professor Riddle also published "Managerial Values in the Greater Middle East: Similarities and Differences Across Seven Countries" in International Business Review Vol. 12 (2012) p. 480-492. The paper was co-authored with Dr. David Ralston (U of Oklahoma), Carolyn Egri (Simon Fraser University), Arif Butt (Lahore University), Tevfik Dalgic (University of Texas at Dallas), and David Brock (Ben-Gurion University). To read this paper, please click here.
Professor Riddle was also invited to speak at the US State Department's Foreign Service Institute on "Managerial Values and the Changing Business Environment in the Middle East/North Africa" on April 10th.

IMES Faculty Associate Pardis Minuchehr has secured a Persian StarTalk grant from the Foreign Language Center for Persian Curriculum Design (Advanced). This program is designed to create a guiding curriculum for Persian language instructors. In the course of two intensive weeks, this program will help instructors in facing the challenges of the twenty-first century in teaching Persian. This professional development program will include sessions on standards-based curriculum planning, multi-media technology, learner-centered classroom strategies, and second language acquisition theories, as well as familiarity with assessment tools.
The conference will be held at IMES on June 4, 2012. Professor Minuchehr is the Principal Investigator on the grant.

IMES Faculty Associate Shira Robinson authored an essay entitled "The Problem of Privilege" which was first posted to the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) website on March 22, 2012. The piece was subsequently reposted on the Jadaliyya website on March 23, 2012 as well.

IMES Faculty Associate Hossein Askari authored an article entitled "Islamic Finance, Risk Sharing and International Financial Stability" in the Yale Journal of International Affairs, Volume 7, Issue 1, Winter, March 2012. Professor Askari also gave the following interviews:
-NPR.org, March 19, 2012: "New Sanction Severely Limits Iran's Global Commerce"
-CNN International, March 16, 2012.
-NPR.org, March 15, 2012.

IMES Faculty Associate Nathan Brown gave a lecture at TEPEV (a Turkish think tank in Ankara) on the experience of constitution writing in the Middle East; participated in a briefing in Brussels for senior European Commission foreign policy officials on the Arab transitions; delivered the keynote address at a conference on "Islam in the New Middle East" at the University of Michigan; delivered a presentation at the AIPAC policy conference; delivered a presentation at Georgetown's Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs on Islamist movements, delivered a briefing to the board of directors of "Americans for Peace now."
Professor Brown also did a book tour in London, Brussels, and Berlin on his recently released book When Victory is Not an Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics (Cornell University Press, January 2012).
Professor Brown published two articles:
-Commentary (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), March 30, 2012: Egypt's Transition in Crisis: Falling Into the Wrong Turkish Model?
-Foreign Policy, March 19, 2012: Midnight for the SCAF's Cinderella Story

On February 10, IMES Faculty Associates Jennifer Brinkerhoff and Liesl Riddle shared preliminary results from their Coptic Diaspora Survey Project. Discussants included Dilip Ratha, Lead Economist and Manager, Migration and Remittances Team, World Bank; and Bishop Angaelos, General Bishop (Coptic Church) of the United Kingdom.
Al Hourra TV taped the event and produced a story that was broadcast in Egypt.
Also related to the study, the research team conducted several briefings at the State Department, including for the US Embassy to Egypt (Senior Political Officer), the US-based Egypt Desk Officer, and the Office of International Religious Freedom.
To read the report in its entirety, please click here.

IMES Faculty Associate Hossein Askari authored a chapter entitled "A GCC Monetary Union: benefits and role of the central banks" in a book entitled Investing in the Middle East and North Africa Region, (Sohail Jaffar, ed., London: Euromoney Books, February 2012). Professor Askari also gave interviews to WDEL Radio (Delaware), BBC Radio 5 ("Up All Night" program), and ABC Radio National (Australia).

IMES Faculty Associate Hossein Askari authored a chapter entitled "Oil Rents, Political and Military Policies, and the Fallout" in a book entitled Handbook of Oil Politics,(Routledge, December 2011). Professor Askarai also gave several interviews to National Public Radio, CNN Radio, National Swedish Radio, WDEL Radio (Delaware), LinkTV, Sirius XM Satellite Radio, Russia TV, BBC World Service, Reuters, China Radio International, the Christian Science Monitor (quoted) and the Century Foundation (which was conducted by IMES Graduate student Reza Akbari and can be viewed here).

IMES Faculty Associate Eric Cline co-authored a new book entitled The Ahhiyawa Texts: Writings from the Ancient World (Society of Biblical Literature, December 2011).

IMES Faculty Associate Nathan Brown had a book launch for the Arabic edition of his book When Victory is Not an Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics (Cornell University Press, January 2012) in Cairo at the Al-Ahram Center for Strategic Studies on January 16, 2012.
Professor Brown also published several articles:
-Egypt Source, January 30, 2012: Why Are So Many Upset About al-Azhar?
-Jewish Daily Forward, January 25, 2012: Brotherhood Prepares for Power in Egypt
-Foreign Policy, January 23, 2012: Why Won't Saudi Arabia Write Down its Laws?
-Egypt Source, January 19, 2012: Court Decision on Presidential Election Law: Road Block or Minor Speed Bump for the Military?
-Commentary (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), January 17, 2012: Is Hamas Mellowing?
-Carnegie Paper, January 2012: When Victory Becomes an Option: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Confronts Success

IMES Faculty Associate Edward Gnehm was interviewed by the Associated Press for Kuwait TV. He spoke on US-Kuwaiti relations in light of the upcoming Kuwaiti parliamentary elections in February.

IMES Graduate student Reza Akbari recently co-authored two op-ed pieces. One was written for Frontline and addressed a potential military attack against Iran. Please click here to read the first piece. The second piece was written for CNN World and discusses the recent execution sentrence for an Iranian-American citizen by the Iranian judiciary. Please click here to read the second piece.

IMES Faculty Associate Robert Eisen participated in a small conference that dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies in Baltimore at the beginning of December. The goal of the conference was to come up with educational materials for Jewish-Christian dialogue groups around the country regarding the conflict and the role that religion plays in it. Such materials are needed because such dialogue groups are increasingly having to confront this issue in their discussions.

IMES Faculty Associate Nathan Brown had the Arabic edition of his book When Victory is Not an Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics (Cornell University Press, January 2012) published in Beirut in December. The English edition of the book will come out in January 2012.
Professor Brown also published three articles in December:
-National Interest, December 1, 2011: The Muslim Brotherhood's Democratic Dilemma
-Commentary (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), December 7, 2011: Landmines in Egypt's Constitutional Roadmap
-Foreign Policy, December 15, 2011: Kuwait's Short 19th Century
Additionally, Professor Brown's report that was presented to the United Nations Development Program--"Constitutional Rebirth: Tunisia and Egypt Reconstruct Themselves"--was posted in English and Arabic.

IMES Faculty Associate Pardis Minuchehr was a participant in a conference in Berlin, Germany on 16 and 17 December. The conference was entitled "Cinema in Iran: Circulation, Censorship and Cultural Production." Professor Minuchehr gave Welcoming Remarks at the conference as well as Chaired the panel on Media makers and the Arts. The conference was sponsored by ICI Berlin: Kulturlabor Insititute for Cultural Inquiry.

IMES Faculty Associate Edward Gnehm participated in a panel at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on December 19. The talk was entitled "Public Opinion on Iraq and the Arab Spring" and discussed the findings from the latest Zogby Polls. The event was co-sponsored by the Arab American Institute.

On December 12, 2011, IMES faculty associates Edward Gnehm, Nathan Brown, Marc Lynch and Judith Yaphe participated in a seminar in Kuwait City entitled "US Foreign Policy in a Changing Middle East." The seminar was co-sponsored by George Washington University, the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, and the Kuwait Diplomatic Institute (KDI).
To see a selection of photos from the seminar, please visit the IMES Facebook page.

IMES Graduate student Jason Stern recently published a piece about Egyptian-Americans and their right to vote:
Foreign Policy, November 11, 2011: When Egyptian-Americans vote

IMES Graduate student Reza Akbari participated in a BBC World Service interview about the recent attack on the British Embassy in Tehran. IMES Faculty Associate Hossein Askari also participated in the interview which can be listened to here.

IMES Faculty Associate Nathan Brown recently published several pieces:
-Foreign Policy, November 8, 2011: Americans, Put Away Your Quills
-European Union Institute for Security Studes (ISS), November 18, 2011: Egyptian democracy and the Muslim Brotherhood
-National Interest, December 1, 2011: The Muslim Brotherhood's Democratic Dilemma
-Current History, December 2011: The Palestinians' Receding Dream of Statehood

On November 8, IMES Faculty Associates Jennifer Brinkerhoff and Liesl Riddle launched the first-ever survey of the Coptic Diaspora in the US, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The survey is conducted in conjunction with Coptic Orphans.
Given current events in Egypt, including between Muslims and Christians, and the evolving governance challenges, a better understanding of the Copt Diaspora's interest and inclination to engage on behalf of Egypt's development could meaningfully inform diaspora engagement and development policy for international policymakers, the Coptic Church, and, potentially, a new government of Egypt.
Preliminary findings will be presented at GWU to policymakers during the anniversary of the uprising in February 2012.

IMES Faculty Associate Edward Gnehm recently gave a 20 minute interview to Gulam Magazine in Kurdistan on current events in Syria.

IMES Faculty Associate Edward Gnehm recently appeared on a program called "The Stream" on Al Jazeera English where he discussed Kuwait's political uprising. To view the video, click here.
Ambassador Gnehm also recently published a Peace Brief on "Jordan and the Current Unrest in Syria" for the United States Institute of Peace. To read the brief, click here.

IMES Graduate student Reza Akbari recently published an op-ed on CNN about the possibility of dissolving the post of president in Iran. To read the co-authored piece, click here.

IMES Faculty Associate Kelly Pemberton recently wrote an article on gender, secularism and Islam in Turkey in the August 2011 issue of Near East Quarterly entitled "Reclaiming Muslim Space in 21st Century Turkey." Professor Pemberton also did an interview with Dan Merica on October 21 for the CNN belief blog. The title of the blog was "Gadhafi used 'renegade' Islamic view for 'purely political purposes'" and can be viewed here.

IMES Faculty Associate Nathan Brown participated in the following events:
October 6 - presentation at the Carnegie Endowment on "Post-Revolutionary Egypt: New Trends in Islam"
October 14 - presentation on Egypt to a conference at Boston College on "Secularism, Islam, and Democracy: Constitutional Tensions and Accomodations"
October 21 - participated in a workshop on authoritarian constitutions at the University of Chicago
October 28-29 - participated in a symposium on the Arab Spring and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the Heinrich Boell Foundation
Professor Brown also published an article:
Voenno-Promyshlennyi Kurier, October 26, 2011: "A Long Time Before Peace in the Holy Land"

IMES Faculty Associate Liesl Riddle co-edited a special issue of the Journal of World Business (Volume 46, Issue 4, October 2011) on business in the Middle East. She also co-authored the introductary article in the issue:
Kamel Mellahi, Mehmet Demirbag, Liesl Riddle, 2011. "Multinationals in the Middle East: Opportunities and Challenges," Journal of World Business, Vol 46, No. 4, pp. 406-411.
Professor Riddle also co-authored an additional article in another journal:
Liesl Riddle & Meghana Ayyagari. 2011. "Contemporary Cleopatras: The Business Ethics of Female Egyptian Managers." Education, Business and Society: Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, Vol 4, No. 3, pp. 167-192. To read the abstract of the article, click here.

IMES Faculty Associate Robert Eisen has been appointed to serve on the Middle East Advisory Board of Search for Common Ground, a distinguished international organization based in Washington, DC that deals with conflict and conflict resolution throughout the world. It has offices in 15 countries and is very active in the Middle East.
Professor Eisen also appeared on the news show World Insight on China's English language channel to discuss the Palestinian bid for membership at the UN.

IMES Faculty Associate Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar published an article on November 3 on the Middle East Channel of ForeignPolicy.com entitled "How Iran Really Sees Turkey."

IMES Graduate student Reza Akbari has started a position with The Century Foundation as a research Associate within the InsideIran project. Reza also recently published a piece on the fraction among Iranian conservative parties on insideiran.org. To read the article, click here.

IMES Graduate student Jessica Smelser(pictured below) received the Boren Fellowship for the 2011-2012 school year. She will be traveling to Egypt in January 2012 for an eight and a half month Arabic language program. Jessica will be studying at the Al Diwan Language Center in Nasr City.

IMES Graduate student Daniel Brunner was one of the first students to participate in the Aramex Fund this past summer. He studied in Irbid, Jordan at Yarmouk University. Daniel submitted the following information about his experience, as well as some photographs below:
"The Aramex Fund made possible a life-changing opportunity.  For three months, I imbibed Jordanian culture through intensive Arabic lessons, an internship at an NGO, and by frequent outings with locals.  The language and professional skills I learned over this past summer will help me in my required language proficiency exam and subsequent career search.  I am greatly indebted to Aramex for funding this program and for allowing me to be a part of its first year."



For more information about the Aramex Fund, please stop by the IMES office (1957 E St. NW, Suite 512 Washington, DC 20052), send an email (imes@gwu.edu), or call (202. 994.9249)

IMES Graduate student Kaylan Geiger spent the summer of 2011 studying Arabic at Birzeit University in the West Bank. She was fortunate to be able to meet and interview the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, in the northern town of Al-Aqaba during a ceremony to reopen the village's main road after it had been demolished by the IDF in April (see photo below). Kaylan was also able to travel to Cairo in August for three weeks where she talked to people on the ground about recent events surrounding the revolution. She is currently writing an article that will hopefully be published in the World Affairs Journal in the coming weeks.

IMES Graduate student Jason Stern submitted the following photo and caption:

"On July 29th, over one hundred thousand Islamists flooded Tahrir Square in Cairo to assert their particular vision for Egypt's future. In this photo, Middle East Studies Program graduate students Reza Akbari '12 and Jason Stern '12 angle for a better view of the protests. The picture was taken by fellow MESP student Kaylan Geiger '12. All three students were in Cairo this summer to study the latest developments in Egypt's ongoing political transition."

IMES Faculty Associate Liesl Riddle was quoted in an article entitled "The US: Mission to embrace the region is an uphill struggle" (Sept. 28, 2011) in the Financial Times. In the article she shared her thoughts on the Middle East Free Trade Initiative. To view the actual newspaper article, please click here.

IMES Faculty Associate Muriel Atkin published a chapter entitled "Tajikistan, from de facto colony to sovereign dependency," in Sovereignty after Empire: Comparing the Middle East and Central Asia, (Edinburgh University Press, 2011), pp. 304-325.

IMES Faculty Associate Melani McAlister appeared as part of a plenary panel on "The Historical Legacy of September 11" at the national conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR). Also appearing on the panel were Dr. Andrew Bacevich, Dr. Marilyn Young and Dr. Mary Dudzlak, JD. The panel was filmed by C-SPAN and can be viewed by clicking here.

IMES Faculty Associate Hossein Askari co-authored a book entitled Risk Sharing in Finance: The Islamic Finance Alternative, (John Willey and Sons, December 2011). To view a list of endorsements of the book, please click here.

IMES Faculty Associate Nathan Brown has published the following articles since May 1:
-Carnegie Paper, October 2011: Post-Revolutionary Al-Azhar
-Carnegie Commentary, August 22, 2011: Can the Colossus Be Salvaged? Egypt's State-Owned press in a Post-Revolutionary Environment
-National Interest, August 9, 2011: What Does the U.S. Want to Talk to the Brotherhood About?
-Foreign Policy, August 9, 2011: Do Tunisians Agree on More Than They Realize?
-Foreign Policy, August 3, 2011: The Trial of the Century
-Carnegie Commentary, July 6, 2011: Palestine: The Fire Next Time?
-National Interest, June 23, 2011: Rawls Visits the Pyramids
-Foreign Policy, June 17, 2011: No Savior for Palestine
-Carnegie Commentary, June 15, 2011: Egypt's Revolution Stumbles Forward
-New York Times, June 9, 2011: Why Egyptians Want Mubarak Tried
-Foreign Policy, May 27, 2011: The Muslim Brotherhood as Helicopter Parent
-Foreign Policy, May 18, 2011: Hope and Change in the Middle East
Professor Brown has participated on several panels and in many working groups in the past months at Carnegie, IISS, the American Political Science Association, CSIS, and the Aspen Institute among others. He was a speaker at the Atlantic Council dinner on Egypt on September 19th. Additionally, he met with White House NSC staffers in July to talk about Egypt, briefed State Department officials in August on the Muslim Brotherhood, and lectured at Cornell Law School on Egyptian constitutional changes in September.

 

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