IFI attains observer status to the UNFCCC
The Issam Fares Institute has been granted official observatory status to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the world summit Conference of Parties meeting in Durban, South Africa (COP17).
AUB-IFI Engages Change
IFI Director Rami G Khouri insists that Arab democracy be given a chance in an interview with CNN World's Global Public Square, and predicts the current historic changes sweeping the Arab world will lead to a secular political order in an interview with The Cario Review of Global Affairs for the American University of Cairo. Mr Khouri also joined IFI's Associate Director Dr Karim Makdisi for a distinguished AUB panel event, Engaging Change in the Middle East: Reflections on Regional Transformations, which was organized by AUB's Office of the Provost; the event was covered by AUB's Office of Communications and the Beirut-based Daily Star.
AUB-IFI hosts Board of Trustees for regional network of Arab social scientists
IFI hosted a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the newly established Beirut-based Arab Council for Social Sciences (ACSS) - an independent, non-profit, regional network that aims to strengthen social science research in the Arab region and to promote links between Arab scholars and their regional and international counterparts.
In 2008, Dr. Karim Makdisi, Associate Director at IFI, was elected to the ACSS Board of Trustees and currently serves as its Treasurer.
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(Arabic) presented by Dr Driss Guerraoui,
Mohammed V University, Rabat.
Scholars Roundtable Tackles Arab Youth Identity and Values
The Issam Fares Institute and UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Office recently held a roundtable on Youth Identities and Values at the Dubai School of Government, bringing together professors and researchers from universities across the region, including the United Arab Emirates University, University of Bahrain, American University in Cairo, American University of Beirut, Dubai School of Government and Mohammed V University in Morocco, and addressing the question of how young people see themselves and their place in the world.
Read paper (Arabic) presented by Dr Driss Guerraoui, Mohammed V University, Rabat.
Analyzing, Teaching and Influencing Public Policy: Sharing National Lessons and Exploring New Horizons?
The Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs held a round-table discussion entitled: "Analyzing, Teaching and Influencing public policy: sharing national lessons and exploring new horizons? with Dr. Mitchel Wallerstein, Dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and Dr. Iman Nuwayhid, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at AUB.
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IFI attends the 2010 Dubai Initiative Conference at Harvard
Issam Fares Institute delegates participate in the 2010 Dubai Initiative Conference, Belfer Center, Harvard University. AUB's former President and Distinguished Senior Fellow at IFI John Waterbury, AUB Associate Professor Robert Saliba, from IFI's new program on Urbanism, and AUB Associate Professor Nadim Farajalla, Faculty Research Director for IFI's Climate Change program, will be presenting at the conference.
More information about the conference can be found here.
The Fares Lecture Series
Director of the Issam Fares Institute (AUB) and Fares Center Visiting Scholar Spring 2010 (Tufts University), Rami G. Khouri gave three lectures at The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts University.
Fares Lecture Series, Spring 2010
On-the-Job Training in the Turbulent Middle East: Assessing Obama's First Year by Rami G. Khouri
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Mosques, Malls and Monarchs: The New/Old Power Balance Inside the Arab World by Rami G. Khouri
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The Palestinian Exile and the Babylonian Exile: Reflections on the Arab-Israeli Conflict After 62 Years by Rami G. Khouri
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Development without Democracy in the Arab World
Dr Samir Makdisi, Distinguished Senior Public Policy Fellow at the Issam Fares Institute, AUB, publishes in the Institute of Financial Economics Lecture and Working Paper Series No.2, 2009.
Read / Download working paper
Country-specific Studies on Climate Change and the Policy-making Process in the Levant
The Issam Fares Institute commissioned 5 country/region-specific papers on the various issues and stakeholders involved in climate change for the Levant countries (Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria) and North Africa.
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Nadim Makdisi Memorial Fund
The Nadim Makdisi Memorial Fund at AUB will honor the life and legacy of the late Nadim Makdisi by sponsoring an annual lecture and funding research in the field of media and communications.
Richard Makdisi, the son of Nadim, generously endowed the fund with a donation of $200,000. The memorial fund and its activities are housed at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at AUB.
Every year IFI will organize an annual Nadim Makdisi Memorial Lecture by a distinguished Arab or international personality in the field of mass media and communications and their intersection with public policy. The first lecture will be held in the fall semester of the 2009-10 academic year.
The fund will also offer several fellowships to AUB graduate students to undertake research related to journalism and communications, the fields that defined Nadim Makdisi's professional life.
IISD report on Climate Change and Security in the Middle East now available online
IFI hosted the Danish Embassy Lebanon and IndyACT at AUB to launch a new report published by Canadian reaserch insititute IISD titled, "Rising Temperatures, Rising Tensions: climate change and the risk of violent conflict in the Middle East"
Download / Read full report (PDF) English | Arabic
Proceedings on the Regional Workshop on 'Arab World Policy for Post-2012 Negotiations'
IFI, IndyAct and the Heinrich Boll Foundation published the proceedings of this 2-day regional Climate Change workshop held at AUB 14/15 October 2008.
Download full publication [PDF, 26.7 MB]