Lorenzo Kamel

‘Based on exhaustive work in numerous archives and in several languages, Lorenzo Kamel has produced what I think is one of the most definitive works on the transition from empire to nation-state. It is impressively ambitious and does what many major historians have been promising to do: to show how hard, Western conceptions of identity shaped and formed the thinking and decisions of statesmen and other political elites in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It also deals with the penetration of hard national categories among the various peoples of the empire. It is an authoritative book and will be very widely consulted.’
NICHOLAS DOUMANIS
Author of Before the Nation and Professor, School of Humanities and Languages, The University of New South Wales – Sydney
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‘This book will make an important mark on the field. From Empire to Sealed Identities shows the ways in which ethnic and other divisions were historically constructed in the Middle East under the influence of imperial powers. The work combines meticulous archival research in multiple languages with careful analysis of broader trends to map the transition from empire to homogenized nation-states. This ability to document with rich detail and at the same time be able to present the larger picture with great clarity is rare. The author pulls off the feat with great erudition.’
BETH BARON
Distinguished Professor of History, The Graduate Center and City College, CUNY
Past President, Middle East Studies Association (MESA)
Director, Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center
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‘In this engaging revisionary study, Lorenzo Kamel shows how modern Western-ist intellectual prejudices have distorted our understanding of identity and conflict in the modern Middle East. Based on original archival research and an exhaustive survey of secondary literature, the author reveals a world that can only be characterized as “medieval” if one misunderstands the Middle Ages. Focussing on the long nineteenth century, the book provides a chronological continuation of much of the most interesting work being done in pre-modern Mediterranean Studies.’
BRIAN A. CATLOS
Author of Muslims of Latin Christendom and Professor, Faculty of Religious Studies, University of Colorado Boulder
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‘Lorenzo Kamel is a dedicated and meticulous scholar, extremely experienced and internationally recognized for his research methodology. His extensive archival work, which forms the basis of many of his most important publications, is impressive by any academic standard. His archival research, informed by exemplary linguistic skills, has, without question, created new understandings of the complex dynamics shaping our inquiry into modern European empires, and the history of the Middle East in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Middle East from Empire to Sealed Identities will continue this outstanding trend.’
SARA ROY
Senior Research Scholar, Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)

Back Cover Endorsements:

‘A scholarly, original study that offers several new insights and a balanced criticism of British and Zionist perceptions of Palestinian history and society. For anyone with an interest in deconstructing the present of our region this book is a must.’
MOSHE MA'OZ, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

‘Based on meticulous and extensive archival work, Imperial Perceptions of Palestine is a powerful and truly illuminating study of Palestine’s history under British influence that will challenge common conceptions and understandings of that period.' 
SARA ROY, Harvard University

‘This book offers important critical research about the roots of the conflict over Palestine. The author has made a thorough investigation based on a wide range of resources and documents, opening new avenues for re-reading a crucial period in the history of the Middle East.’
NAZMI JUBEH, Birzeit University, Ramallah

‘This is a truly outstanding academic work. It fills a gap in the literature on modern Palestine and, more generally, on the construction of the modern Middle East. It is based on a wide range of primary sources in six languages. It offers a comprehensive outlook on a wide number of issues such as cultural, social and spatial boundaries, local identities, land tenure, institutions, toponomy and borders.’
ILARIA PORCIANI, Bologna University

Questo volume fa luce sulla storia del Medio Oriente e del Nord Africa in epoca tardo moderna e contemporanea. Con l’ausilio di fonti primarie in sette lingue, offre una prospettiva inclusiva che pone una particolare attenzione alle questioni di genere, al ruolo rivestito sia dalle componenti religiose ed etniche quanto dagli attori esterni alla regione, nonché alle problematiche connesse al continuo mutare dei confini politici e alla complessa interazione tra le varie realtà identitarie coinvolte. Il fine ultimo è quello di superare una diffusa e ‘segregante’ interpretazione che divide la ‘nostra storia’ dalla ‘loro storia’, aprendo la strada a un approccio più umile verso i popoli della regione. Come ha più volte insegnato la storia, ciò che inizia in Medio Oriente non rimane in Medio Oriente.

Link: https://www.mondadorieducation.it/catalogo/napoleone-e-muhammad-ali-0070351/

Questo libro offre una prospettiva storica sulla circolazione di idee, culture, invenzioni, pratiche e istituzioni tra Asia, Africa, Europa e Americhe. Decostruisce un ampio numero di percezioni e concetti, inclusa la diffusa tendenza a fare riferimento a una «tradizione ebraico-cristiana occidentale», una gabbia analitica che rischia di accentuare pericolosi antagonismi e fenomeni di rottura, a scapito di una maggiore comprensione legata al retaggio storico condiviso che sottende le tre maggiori religioni monoteistiche. Queste ultime, così come molti altri temi e aspetti menzionati nel volume, sono il frutto di un percorso all’insegna dell’accumulazione: un processo che sovente, soprattutto ai nostri giorni, non viene compreso nella sua complessità e nel potenziale che può esprimere. È tempo di porre anche gli ‘altri’ al centro della scena, per comprendere meglio noi stessi e il mondo in cui viviamo.
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Link: https://www.mondadorieducation.it/catalogo/ripensare-la-storia-0066581/

Il volume fa luce sulle origini più profonde di una disputa iniziata molto prima del 1947, l’anno della partizione della Palestina da parte dell’ONU. Il ruolo delle religioni, lo sviluppo e la cristallizzazione delle identità, il possesso della terra, le strategie delle grandi potenze e quelle dei paesi arabi, l’antisemitismo e le discriminazioni, le prospettive dal basso degli abitanti che da oltre un secolo si contendono pochi chilometri quadrati: ognuno di questi tasselli è parte di un mosaico in cui spiccano le cicatrici della storia e vengono meno le verità assolute proprie di larga parte delle narrazioni correnti. Avere il controllo di questi luoghi millenari significa interpretarne il passato. È un aspetto che è rimasto costante nel corso dei secoli. Solo gli interpreti sono cambiati.
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http://www.carocci.it/index.php?option=com_carocci&task=schedalibro&Itemid=72&isbn=9788829014507

Un ampio numero di ‘attori sciiti’ in Medio Oriente si trova oggi esposto a sfide inconsuete, tipiche di chi è chiamato a governare dopo essere stato a lungo escluso dalle dinamiche legate al potere. Sciismo e Potere rimette la Storia al centro dei dibattiti legati a questi temi, mostrando — con l'ausilio di fonti in arabo, farsi, inglese e italiano — quanto il passato sia parte integrante del presente.
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Sciismo e Potere. Il peso della storia tra Iran, Libano e Iraq [Shi’ism and Power: the weight of history between Iran, Lebanon and Iraq], Istituto per l’Oriente C.A. Nallino, 2021, 205 pp. ISBN: 978-8897622604 (co-authored with L. Trombetta)
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http://www.ipocan.it/index.php/it/cd-top

Attraverso un’analisi sostenuta da fonti d’archivio reperite in Inghilterra, Turchia, Israele e territori palestinesi, "Dalle profezie all’impero" si concentra sulle dinamiche che resero possibile la penetrazione dalle potenze europee nel Mediterraneo orientale (1798-1878). Un’attenzione particolare è rivolta alla Gran Bretagna e al ruolo nevralgico svolto in tale processo dalla componente ebraica della popolazione presente sul posto. Lo studio di questi aspetti consente di vedere sotto una nuova luce le strategie applicate nella regione dalle cancellerie occidentali. Rappresenta al contempo un tassello importante, benché poco indagato, per comprendere lo sviluppo storico moderno – e di riflesso il presente – di una delle aree più conflittuali del pianeta.

This book looks at geographical, religious, gender and ethnical 'peripheries', conceptualizing periphery as a dynamic structure which can expand and contract. It provides an historical, social and political background to the dynamics at work in the Middle East and North Africa, and shows that the seeds for changing the face of politics and polities are within peripheries themselves. Focusing on the voices of peripheries can therefore be a powerful tool to ‘de-simplify’ the reading of the Arab Spring and to reshape the paradigmatic schemes through which to look at this part of the world.

Lorenzo Kamel
Introduction
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Nader Hashemi
Chapter 1: From Sectarianization to De-Sectarianization: How to Advance Human Security in the Middle East
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Coralie Pison Hindawi
Chapter 2: Selective Arms Flows and Arms Control: Producing Insecurity in the Middle East … and Beyond
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Waleed Hazbun
Chapter 3: Insecurity, Order and Pluralism in the Middle East: An Agenda for a Critical Approach to Security Studies
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Elijah J. Magnier
Chapter 4: Beyond Security and Stability
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Arshin Adib-Moghaddam
Chapter 5: Contra-Identity: Psycho-Nationalism After the ‘Middle East’
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Abdullah Al-Arian
Chapter 6: Islamists and the Arab Counter-Revolutions
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Youssef Cherif
Chapter 7: Dahlan vs Belhaj: The Maghreb in the Arab War of Narratives
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Morten Valbjørn
Chapter 8: Dialogues in New Middle Eastern Politics: On (the Limits of) Making Historical Analogies to the Classic Arab Cold War in a Sectarianized New Middle East
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Lorenzo Kamel
Chapter 9: Whose Stability? Assessing the ‘Iranian Threat’ through History
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In this edited book, several leading scholars address a number of security-related issues, all connected to one main research question: What (in)security means from the perspective of people living in the Middle East and North Africa? In doing so, the contributors shed light on the contours of a stable and legitimate order that responds to the needs of the peoples in the region, on what history tells us about the ongoing debates on security and stability in the region, and, last but not least, on "human security", which encompasses the dimension of human rights, political rights and social-economic security.
https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/71741

Governance failures, combined with 21st-century social, economic, environmental and demographic conditions, have all contributed to paving the way for the rise of highly heterogeneous non-state and quasi-state actors in the Middle East. Has the state, then, been irremediably under-mined, or will the current transition lead to the emergence of new state entities? How can the crumbling of states and the redrawing of borders be reconciled with the exacerbation of traditional inter-state competition, including through proxy wars? How can a new potential regional order be framed and imagined? This edited book provides a historical-analytical background and policy answers to these and a number of other related questions, analysing developments in the region from the standpoint of the interplay between disintegration and polarization.

Ed. by Lorenzo Kamel
Chapters by Rami G. Khouri, Francesco Cavatorta, Florence Gaub, Kristina Kausch, Waleed Hazbun, Raffaele Marchetti, Yahya Al Zahrani, Lorenzo Kamel
http://www.iai.it/en/pubblicazioni/frailty-authority

This edited volume has been written with the aim to foster both the academic and the policy debate on the changing migratory scenarios in and around the Mediterranean. It looks at the evolution of human mobility towards Mediterranean Europe over the past decades and analyses the historical, demographic, social, psycho-social, economic, and political dimensions of these phenomena. The concluding chapters assess the role of the EU and advances proposals for a long-term European migration policy.

Cultural heritage and illicit trafficking in the Middle East are two key topics of our time.  The  book  sheds  light  on  both  aspects,  and  identifies  the  need  to  democratize  cultural heritage, by giving greater control to local communities. It also investigates the link between local hotbeds of conflict and violence in countries such as Syria and Iraq,  as  well  as  war  economics,  transnational  criminal  networks  and  the  politics  of  deliberate destruction and theft of cultural heritage. Finally, the chapters analyze the impact  of  non-violent  and  violent  non-state  actors,  fragile  states,  forced  migration,  environmental  degradation,  as  well  as  how  local  and  international  institutions  have  reacted to the dramatic events which the region and its inhabitants have experienced in recent years.
Link: https://www.peterlang.com/view/title/72953

As statues linked to imperial and colonial practices are torn down across the world, meaningful global conversations are questioning the iniquities of the present, the medium to long term effects of colonialism, and settled moral standards from the past. All this is of particular relevance also to Euro–Mediterranean relations, as the Mediterranean has been on the interface of European colonial and imperial history in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. Several scholars have pointed out that Europe has for long been hesitant to address a number of aspects and implications connected to this history, casting a shadow on Euro–Mediterranean relations. This book aims to shed a deeper light on this past and its legacy and to provide additional elements to decolonise knowledge, while also addressing Euro–Mediterranean relations in the present. This engagement is still at an early stage, and yet, it is of crucial relevance to put Euro–Mediterranean relations on a more equal footing, while setting the stage for a future towards reconciliation in a space which is ever more conflictual.

Youth are among the most active demographic group to have
challenged the authoritarianism of the state before, during and after
the 2010-12 Arab uprisings. Yet, youth in the MENA still suffer from the
highest unemployment rates in the world and the chronic lack of jobs
and opportunities are widely considered a significant factor fuelling
radical ideologies in the area. While many studies have focused on
the category of “youth” in the Arab world, it is rare to hear how young
people themselves view and interpret developments unfolding
in their societies. Rarer still is to have these voices contribute to
ongoing policy debates on the future of the Mediterranean. This
edited volume collects the revised and updated versions of chapters produced by eight outstanding young scholars and activists
from the Middle East and North Africa.

Beyond the narrow focus on security concerns dominating debates on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), there is a dire need for local perspectives on the many pressing socio-economic and political challenges impacting the “youth” and broader societies in the region. This volume brings together such perspectives offered by eight outstanding young scholars from the region on a broad range of issues: from political activism, to women’s empowerment, from environmental challenges to unemployment, all paying attention to youth-inclusiveness. Their accounts highlight the need for policies that are human-centric and not merely state-centric, and for going beyond reproducing “politics as usual”, and instead responding to the changing problems and aspirations of societies with their younger and older cohorts.

According to UN projections, Africa’s population is set to double to 2.4 billion by 2050, and it is expected to hit 4.3 billion by the end of the century. By then, about one-third of all of humanity will live on the continent. While many studies have focused on the present and the future of Africa and its interconnections with Europe, it is rare to hear how young people from Africa view and interpret current developments unfolding in their countries. To fill this gap, 'Youth and Africa' brings together seven outstanding young intellectuals and scholars from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. They shed light on challenges and opportunities, and remind us that “Africa is a voice to be heard, not a problem to be solved”.

The article takes the transition from a plural to a largely mono-dimensional Kurdish identity as a case study. A special attention is
given to the post-World War I zeitgeist, as well as to the Kurdish historiography and the ongoing attempts and efforts made by some of its most prominent theorists to deal with identity-related issues from a non-nationalist or post-nationalist perspective.

This article aims to uncover the different meanings attached to land ownership in Palestine during the late Ottoman and British Mandate eras and to show how a ‘modern’ understanding of ownership was imposed on the local population, particularly the fellahin (peasants), without a consideration of their needs and traditions. Many widespread claims are challenged, first and foremost the one according to which, at the time of the partition of Palestine (1947), ‘over 70 percent’ of it did not ‘legally’ belong to the local Arab majority, but to the British Mandate power, an assumption that has had political, cultural and social ramifications that have lasted until the present day.

What are the historical roots of "political Shiʿism" in Iran? Which historical dynamics have contributed the most to trigger the involvement of the Iranian clergy in politics? In the fortieth anniversary of the Iranian revolution, academic answers to these questions appear more relevant than ever. To this end, the article provides a historical framework by focusing on four interrelated episodes: the Tobacco Revolt of 1891-2, the rising of Reza Shah (1921) as the penultimate Shah of Persia, the coup d’état of 1953, and the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Each of these four moments continues to echo in Iran, as well as in a large part of the Middle East.

The Middle East is experiencing one of the darkest periods in its history
and a new regional order is still far from being established. Yet, it
appears increasingly clear that few matters will affect its developments
more than the ongoing regional demographic dynamics. The region’s
history and spatial background provide a framework for approaching
these epochal shifts and critically examining the ‘ethnic stabilisation’
thesis, which interprets current demographic movements as a kind
of normalisation of the region’s ‘original’ demographics. Instead of
this ‘medievalization of the Middle East’, many people in the region
are keen on ‘getting back into history’ and ‘regaining possession’
of their multifaceted past: a powerful antidote to the geopolitical
reductionism so popular nowadays.

The emerging literature on the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ has largely focused on the evolution of the uprisings in cities and power centres. In order to reach a more diversified and inner understanding of the ‘Arab Spring’, this special issue examines how peripheries have reacted and contributed to the historical dynamics at work in the Middle East and North Africa. It rejects the idea that the ‘Arab Spring’ is a unitary process and shows that it consists of diverse Springs which differed in terms of opportunity structure, strategies of a variance of actors, and outcomes. This volume looks at geographical, religious, gender and ethnical peripheries, conceptualizing periphery as a dynamic structure which can expand and contract. It shows that the seeds for changing the face of politics and polities are within peripheries themselves. Focusing on the voices of peripheries can therefore be a powerful tool to ‘de-simplify’ the reading of the Arab Spring and to reshape the paradigmatic schemes through which to look at this part of the world.

Key words: Peripheries, Arab Spring, Transition, Bottom-Up Empowerment

The article, based on primary and secondary sources in Arabic, Farsi and English, offers a gender perspective on the construction and the development of the late-modern and contemporary Middle East. A special attention is devoted to the cases studies of Egypt, – historically the most populous and important Arab country – Iran, – the heart of “political Shi’sm” – and the “Holy Land”, the cradle of the three major monotheistic religions: many of the revolutions and the anti-colonial movements and struggles that have shaped the most these areas and the broader region have been ignited and/or strongly influenced by local women.

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Con l’ausilio di fonti primarie e secondarie in farsi, arabo e inglese, l’articolo offre una prospettiva di genere in relazione alla formazione e allo sviluppo del Medio Oriente tardo-moderno e contemporaneo, soffermandosi in particolare sui casi dell’Egitto, – storicamente il Paese arabo più popoloso e importante – dell’Iran, – fulcro dello “sciismo politico” – e della “Terra Santa”, culla delle tre religione monoteiste: molte delle rivoluzioni e delle lotte anti-coloniali che più hanno plasmato lo sviluppo delle aree analizzate e, di riflesso, di larga parte del resto della regione, sono state innescate e/o profondamente influenzate da figure di donne locali.

In the last few years a growing number of academic works have analyzed the past and the present of the Eastern Mediterranean region arguing that Western powers «created artificial nations» and that most of the modern states in the area are deprived of peculiar historical legacies. The narrative of the Islamic State (IS) that is now trying to erase the «Sykes-Picot order» – reproduced in Western media and discourse – is largely based on similar assumptions. This article challenges these arguments and contends that, if not considered in a critical way, the ‘process of simplification’ experienced by the region between the last decades of the nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth centuries can itself trigger simplificative assumptions. The cultural and political evolution of many of the countries in the region shows a much more complex historical development than what the Sykes-Picot (and the related IS) narrative would suggest: most of the states in the region are not simply «artificial creations» and old maps should not be used, once again, to cover a complex local reality.

L. Kamel, Waiting for the Revolution. Women’s Perceptions from Lower and Upper Rural Egypt, in M. Charrad, R. Stephan (eds.), Women Rising: In the Arab Spring and Beyond, New York University Press, New York 2020, pp. 290-300. Co-authored with M. Ezzat Elkholy.
https://nyupress.org/9781479846641/women-rising/

‘Biblical Orientalism’ can be defined as a phenomenon based on the combination of a selective use of religion and a simplifying way to approach its natural habitat: the ‘Holy Land’. Between the 1830s and the beginning of the 20th century this attitude triggered a flood of mainly British books, private diaries and maps. Over time this enormous production, accompanied by a wide range of phenomena such as evangelical tourism, did instill the idea of a ‘meta-Palestine’, an imaginary place devoid of any history except that of Biblical magnificence. This has had various relevant consequences. The present article aims to deconstruct this perception by observing the process through which a local complex reality has been simplified and denied in its continuity.

As a result of the failure of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, new initiatives from civil society have emerged. Initiators learned from the shortcomings of the peace process and seek to achieve peace through understanding the suffering of the Other. Such attempts leave an open space for the trauma of the counterpart and engage both sides in deconstructing mutually exclusive identities that represent the Other as an existential threat. They represent a first step for a deep dialogue and have the potential to (de)threatenize the Other. This article examines two such initiatives that are unique in not seeking to explain their own narrative to the Other, but to present the narrative of the Other to their very own community.

This article calls for a decentring research agenda and serves as a reminder to look beyond the centres when seeking to understand attempted or accomplished processes of transformation. The Arab Spring is not a unitary whole but part of a variety of processes which differs in terms of space (diverse countries, diverse areas in countries), time (the Ghedim Izik protests in Western Sahara started in October 2010, while protests in the Rif are still ongoing), substance (demands for civil and political rights, equality rights, material claims, autonomy), strategies (from violence to apathy), involved actors (social movements, civil society organizations or individual actors) and outcomes (from regime repression to empowerment of peripheries).

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13629395.2015.1033901

L. Kamel, Youth Exclusion and Cultural Activism in Egypt’s Sohag Governorate, in O. Bortolazzi (ed.), Youth Networks, Informal Society and Social Entrepreneurship. Case Studies in Post-Revolutionary Arab World, Bononia University Press, Bologna 2015. Co-authored with M. Ezzat Elkholy, pp. 93-103.

The chapter aims to deconstruct the role of Iran, often described as ‘the main source of instability’ in the Middle East. The analysis starts by addressing two main research questions that have much to do with the past and the present of the country and the broader region: What are the historical roots of ‘political Shi’ism’ in Iran? Which historical dynamics have contributed the most to trigger the involvement of the Iranian clergy in politics?
In the fortieth anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, academic answers to these questions appear to me more relevant than ever. To this end, the chapter provides a detailed historical framework by focusing on four interrelated historical junctures: (1) the Tobacco Revolt of 1891–2, which triggered the conditions ‘to the emergence of Shi’ism as an insurrectionary movement against colonialism’; (2) the dynamics which prompted London to foster the rising of Reza Shah (1921) as the penultimate Shah of Persia and the first of the Pahlavi dynasty; (3) the coup d’état of 1953, which ended Iran’s drive to assert sovereign control over its own resources and (4) the 1979 ‘Islamic Revolution’, whose causes and implications are still very much visible in the lacerations that affect the region. Fernand Braudel noted that even an apparently minor event may be the mirror of a long-term reality, or of a ‘structural conjuncture’. The four ‘moments’ on which the chapter focuses are themselves the components of a larger and more complex ‘structure’ that, in different ways and forms, continues to echo in Iran, as well as in a large part of the Middle East. The qablan (before), alan (now) and ayandeh (future) of Iran – as well the rest of the region – are and will remain inextricably bound together.

The article analyzes the complexity of the sectarian divisions that runs though the contemporary Middle East. The first part focuses on the cleavage between Sunnis and Shiites – more in general on religious diversities and the minority/majority dichotomy in the Eastern Mediterranean – and observes the region from an "internal perspective”, thus contextualizing concepts and words that, up to the recent past, had little or no value if not outside of the Middle East. The section that follows takes Iraq as a case study and analyzes the roots of the sectarian clashes in the country. The conclusions suggest the need to “unlearn” many of the assumptions and the concepts commonly adopted for approaching the past and the present of the region.

Roberto Pertici, Introduzione
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Raffaella Baritono, Woodrow Wilson e il secolo americano
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Silvio Pons, La Rivoluzione d’Ottobre e l’internazionalismo comunista nel Novecento
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Lorenzo Kamel, La Dichiarazione Balfour e l’evoluzione del problema mediorientale
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Ernesto Galli della Loggia, Le stragi belliche del 1917 e l’inizio dell’età posteroica
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Alessandro Campi, «Trincerocrazia», i combattenti, le ipotesi italiane ed europee di «socialismo nazionale»
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Daniele Menozzi, La Nota pontificia dell’agosto del 1917: la Chiesa, la pace, la guerra nel Novecento
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Dino Cofrancesco, Luigi Einaudi, la Grande Guerra, l’Europa
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Stefania Bartoloni, Lo snodo della guerra nel «secolo delle donne»
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Domenico Conte, Oswald Spengler a cent’anni dal Tramonto
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Brunello Vigezzi, Riflessioni conclusive
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Link: https://www.viella.it/libro/9788833131405

Hajj Amīn al-Ḥusaynī – the «Grand Muftī of Jerusalem» – is often portrayed as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in the first part of XX century. Due to his collusion with Nazism, such a position implies that the Palestinian people are, at least in principle, responsible for their own tragic destiny. This study challenges that assumption and sheds light on how and why the Grand Muftī was imposed on the Palestinian people by London. Analyzing the rise to power of Hajj Amīn al-Ḥusaynī and the means granted to him is crucial for understanding the ways through which the British authorities related to the local realities in post-World War I Palestine and to what extent these practices have marked the subsequent development of Palestinian society.

Borders are a fundamental yet tricky issue in international politics. Despite their seemingly static nature, shifting frontiers are at the heart of many historical changes, not just through war. The Middle East and North Africa are experiencing important transitions, some of which are traumatic. In the Middle East there is a “great imbalance”: power relationships are contested and far from clear and alliances, as well as the resilience of state institutions, are tested. Such a strategic outlook is especially conducive to violent conflict. One of the transitions currently underway has to do with state borders and their practical meaning.

The chapters of the book cover (individually on in conjunction with other countries) Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies, Syria, Turkey.

New sources have been recently released fostering the thesis according to which a significant percentage of the Palestinian Arabs were originally immigrants from Egypt and other neighbouring countries. Their histories, as highlighted by some scholars, are largely unknown and continue to be ignored. This article aims to shed light on these aspects, assessing them from a borderless Middle East’s perspective. The aim is to show the process through which a local complex reality has been simplified and denied in its continuity.

The Palestinian question is the subject of the biggest number of books written about a specific region. In spite of this, the traditions, habits, and expectations of most of the men and women who for centuries have lived on it have been relegated to a secondary role. The sources produced by them and reflecting their lives have been sometimes ignored, other times underestimated. After a long process, in this latest historical period wide swathes of Palestinian society have shown that they want to remedy this deficit. They start to take control of their history and are establishing archives. They are ready to concretize what Ignatieff would have called their «attempt to bring losses inflicted by time under control».

"In the late 1990s, many scientists assumed that the state is losing in sovereignty in face of an accelerating globalisation. David Held et al. (1999), for example, argue that the state is now a “decision taker” instead of a “decision maker.” In a similar vein, the German sociologist Habermas (1998) claims that through globalization and world financial markets, states lose control of social, economic and fiscal policies. Similarly, in foreign policy, state sovereignty is declining as international organizations and international human rights norms gain in importance. 
While this might be true in the area of economic and financial policies or foreign policy, we might actually witness variance in levels of state sovereignty in different functional policy areas. After the terror attacks of September 11, in the Western democracies, there is a revival of the state in the policy area of internal security policies. The aim of this study is to determine if the challenge of terrorism is indeed reviving the state.
In order to answer this research question, a comparative analysis of the states of Israel and Germany is conducted. These countries are chosen primarily for conceptual reasons. The hegemonic conception of the “state” mainly applies to Western highly developed countries. Thus, in order to control other factors which influence the level of statehood, only two developed countries are analyzed. In addition, the independent variable – the level of terrorism – varies between Germany (no terror attack) and Israel (many terror attacks) and so this case comparison comes close to the model of Mill’s method of difference. For the limited range of this paper, the case studies are conducted for the years 2001-2007, which is a crucial time period to observe as Western states underwent a number of terror attacks.
In addition, both observed countries struggled with dilemmas raised by the tensions between security and liberal/human rights. Thus, the choice of cases of two liberal democracies is also politically relevant. The study hopes to contribute to the understanding of these dilemmas and to the finding of a “balance between security needs and adherence to the basic principles of human rights and dignity”, which “is of fundamental importance for any democracy under threat” (Hofnung and Weinshall 2009, 4).
"

An important historiographical debate developed starting from the 1980s. It was triggered by the publication of a few influential books by British historian Bernard Lewis. The latter argued that "intellectual curiosity" about "other cultures"-and thus the predisposition and will to study languages, history and traditions-is "still peculiar to Western Europe, and to the inheritors and emulators of the European scholarly tradition".

During the Afshar Operation in 1993, when Afghanistan was ruled by competing warlords and after a decade of mass displacement and a complete collapse of the state, the late Tajik military commander Ahmad Shāh Masʿūd was among those involved in the mass killing of thousands of Hazaras, which, back in the 1990s, had an important role in fighting the Taliban.
His son, the British-educated 32-year-old Ahmad Masʿūd, is today the new idol of a number of Western intellectuals and policy makers who are searching for a trustable figure (or “good guy”, to use an expression adopted by some scholars and analysts) to bet on. This is a pattern already witnessed in countless other contexts in which the US and their allies have intervened in recent years and decades.
https://aspeniaonline.it/the-west-and-the-trusted-allies-inside-afghanistan/

https://www.thecairoreview.com/
Special 10th anniversary issue of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs
March 2022
Ahmad Dallal, Nathan Brown, Ibrahim Awad,
Lisa Anderson, Lorenzo Kamel, Khaled Elgindy,
Leslie Cohen, Arianna Bennett, Hesham Youssef,
Robert Mogielnicki, Nabil Fahmy
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Many different opinions abound concerning Resolution 181, but one fact cannot be denied or overlooked: it was not a solution born out of the "free and sovereign" world states of the time.
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Open access: https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/framing-the-partition-plan-for-palestine/

The mission carried out by the Ukrainian armed forces in Iraq ended on December 9, 2008. The military contingent sent from Kyiv was the third largest of the entire US-led coalition. More precisely, according to official data provided by the U.S. armed forces, “more than 5,000 Ukrainian troops have served in Iraq during Ukraine’s five years of service in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom”.

The war in Iraq, where massive amount of depleted uranium and white phosphorous bombs were used, took the life of nearly a million of human beings. No one was ever held accountable, nor faced war crimes charges, over the invasion of Iraq. No weapon was supplied to the invaded country, nor sanctions were imposed with the aim of stopping, or denouncing, the invasion.

It might be worth recalling that, as confirmed by the inquiry commissioned in 2009 by the then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to Sir John Chilcot, the intervention in Iraq was “unnecessary”, the legal bases for military action were “far from being satisfactory”, and the main justification for the attack (the possession of weapons of mass destruction) was based on false claims and data.

The then chair of the US Senate committee on foreign relations, Joe Biden, was one of the 77 senators who gave President George W. Bush the authority to use force in Iraq. Back then, Biden was able to select all 18 witnesses in the main Senate hearings on Iraq, and he did so choosing mainly people who supported a pro-war position.

We may ask, in hindsight, whether these kinds of policies have brought any benefit, or even a limited stabilization to the region. One of the possible answers to this comes, once more, from US State Department data, according to which, between 2001 and 2014, the “incidents of terrorism” increased 3800 percent – from 355 in 2001 to 13,500 in 2014. Between 2001 and 2014, deaths from terrorist attacks increased six-fold, half of them occurring in Afghanistan and Iraq.

There is a bit of irony in the fact that many among those who condone or downplay the massacres suffered by millions of people in the Middle East are often the same who conflate the exposure of all that with an attempt to “defend” Putin’s nefarious war.

To read the rest of the article: https://asiatimes.com/2022/03/ukraine-and-iraq-a-critical-assessment/

About 10% of the Russian population is composed by Muslims: it's the largest Muslim group in Europe. Notwithstanding this massive presence, Russia's brutality against Muslims is rooted in history and is still very visible in Chechnya and beyond. In his talk on February 21, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, mentioned the Ottoman Empire. He also stated that Crimean Tatars are "radical Islamic terrorists". History, however, reminds us that Crimea was not Russian. At least 300,000 Tatars had been expelled by the Russian authorities from the time of Tsar Alexander up to the reign of Stalin. Their lands were filled with Slavs and other Christians whose inheritors inhabit these areas up to the present.

The Thirty Years’ War started in 1618 as a conflict between various Protestant and Catholic states in the Holy Roman Empire. It brought devastation and major population loss to the heart of Europe. Many observers of today’s Middle East have found similarities with that distant past.

Circa il 10% dei cittadini russi sono musulmani: si tratta della più ampia popolazione islamica presente in Europa. Malgrado tale massiccia presenza, le violenze inflitte (anche) ai musulmani nel contesto della Russia sono radicate nella storia e appaiono ancora oggi molto visibili nel contesto della Cecenia (e non solo).

Nel discorso tenuto da Vladimir Putin lo scorso 21 febbraio, il presidente russo ha menzionato l'Impero ottomano, spingendosi ad affermare che i Tatari di Crimea sono dei “terroristi islamici radicali”. La storia, tuttavia, ci ricorda che la Crimea, annessa da Mosca nel 2014, non è mai stata russa.

Almeno 300mila Tatari vennero espulsi dalle autorità russe tra il 1856 (al tempo dello zar Alessandro) e l’epoca di Stalin: le loro terre vennero redistribuite a beneficio di migliaia di Slavi, – e di altre etnie cristiane – i cui discendenti abitano tutt’oggi quelle terre. In anni recenti, Putin ha cercato in maniera crescente di cooptare l'Islam piuttosto che combatterlo. Il governatore-fantoccio della Cecenia, Ramzan Kadyrov, rappresenta l'esempio forse più lampante di tale strategia.

Essere consapevoli di questi così come di numerosi altri problematici aspetti non deve tuttavia trasformarsi in un pretesto utile a rendere più accettabili le crescenti e sovente acritiche semplificazioni che, non di rado senza contraddittorio, stanno investendo larga parte dei mezzi di comunicazione e della classe politica italiana ed europea.

Oltre il “benaltrismo”

L’illegale invasione dell'Ucraina ha infatti consolidato una serie di assunti che nei precedenti conflitti – dalla ex Jugoslavia fino all'Iraq – hanno goduto di un sostegno molto più limitato, tanto in Europa quanto in Nord America.

Il primo assunto riguarda la constatazione che "l'autodifesa preventiva" (ovvero il pilastro della "Guerra al terrorismo" lanciata da Washington), così come ogni “invocazione pretestuale della forza usata in anticipo” (per usare la definizione di John Quigley in riferimento alla Guerra dei Sei Giorni del 1967), sono sempre illegali e meritano reazioni coerenti.

Il secondo consolidato assunto è che le stragi che coinvolgono bambini e famiglie sono sempre responsabilità di chi le perpetra. Infine il terzo e non meno importante: deve sempre essere ritenuto inammissibile fare riferimento a “danni collaterali” quando sono coinvolti dei civili.

Ognuno di questi ormai consolidati assunti ha molto a che vedere con Putin e con le sue inaccettabili strategie di conquista. Ma ognuno di essi dovrebbe essere pertinente anche quando si fa riferimento alla campagna di bombardamenti compiuti con proiettili all’uranio impoverito dalla NATO, senza alcun avallo dell’ONU, durante la guerra del Kosovo (circa l’84% delle vittime del conflitto in Kosovo sono morte durante o a seguito dell’intervento della NATO), così come dovrebbe essere valido quando ci si sofferma sulle azioni delle autorità ucraine. Ciò che è accaduto al giornalista Andrea Rocchelli (1983–2014), deliberatamente ucciso nel Dombass – insieme a molti altri civili locali – dalle forze armate ucraine, rappresenta una significativa conferma di ciò.
 
In maniera ancora più evidente, tutto ciò è valido anche per quanto concerne la guerra condotta dagli Stati Uniti e dai loro alleati (ne fece parte anche l’Ucraina) contro l’Iraq, nel contesto della quale sono stati uccisi centinaia di migliaia di esseri umani, per i quali ad oggi nessun politico occidentale è stato tenuto a render conto.

In altre parole, oggi più che mai è importante sottolineare tanto l'immoralità dei bombardamenti quanto l’illegalità dell'invio di carri armati in paesi terzi: la guerra è infatti terribile a tutte le latitudini (e non è più inaccettabile solo perché accade in Europa). Chiedere la ragione per la quale i funzionari statunitensi che hanno ingannato il mondo e invaso un paese sovrano nel 2003 non siano mai stati ritenuti responsabili delle loro azioni non dovrebbe essere semplicemente liquidato come una forma di whataboutism (“benaltrismo”).


Immagine: Un carro armato ucraino nel contesto dell’invasione dell’Iraq del 2003-4

L’esportazione dei propri interessi

Invadere un paese sovrano (l'Ucraina) ed “esportare la democrazia” sono due facce (illegali e immorali) della stessa medaglia. La Russia sta oggi “esportando” ciò che gli Stati Uniti, in forme più o meno diverse, hanno “esportato” in molte aree del mondo da decenni, ovvero i loro interessi (strategici, politici, economici). Eppure tali nefaste strategie – talvolta ammantate da grandi e strumentali ideali – hanno suscitato reazioni molto diverse in larga parte delle classi politiche nonché dell’opinione pubblica dei paesi europei.

Ciò appare ancor più problematico se si considera che molti dei nostri paesi sembrano oggi improvvisamente non mostrare alcuna esitazione nell'accogliere centinaia di migliaia di profughi; da un giorno all’altro, non sembrano avere alcun problema a inviare armi e rifornimenti, senza contare le proteste e i boicottaggi che, opportunamente, hanno seguito lo scoppio della guerra. Tutto ciò fa parte di un evidente doppio standard che meriterebbe maggiore attenzione critica, nonché una più profonda comprensione.

Quali soluzioni?

L'Ucraina, paese sovrano, non è tenuta a coordinare le sue politiche con la Russia. Questo è ancor più valido se si considera che Mosca non ha rispettato l'accordo firmato nell'ambito del conflitto in Georgia nel 2008 e non ha ritirato le sue forze da quel Paese.

Fatte salve queste considerazioni, negli ultimi anni tanto gli Stati Uniti quanto i loro alleati europei hanno inviato in Ucraina miliardi di dollari in armi. Tali dinamiche sono diventate sempre più evidenti a seguito del 2014, quando il corrotto ancorché democraticamente eletto governo guidato da Viktor Janukovyč è stato rovesciato in circostanze controverse. Queste ultime hanno coinvolto anche il Battaglione Azov, l'unità neonazista attualmente arruolata all’interno della Guardia Nazionale dell'Ucraina.

Tutto ciò ci ricorda che non esistono spiegazioni facili, né soluzioni semplici, come peraltro ci confermano anche le principali crisi globali registrate negli ultimi decenni, inclusa la crisi dei missili a Cuba dell'ottobre 1962.

Quali dunque le possibili soluzioni? Francia, Germania e Italia – che, contrariamente ai lontani Stati Uniti, hanno molto da perdere dall’attuale crisi – dovrebbero farsi promotrici di un “dialogo sulla sicurezza”, finalizzato a confermare la “garanzia storica” (ricevuta da Mosca nell’ottobre del 1993) che la Nato non si allargherà fino all'Ucraina, in cambio di un chiaro impegno a sostegno della sovranità nazionale ucraina (includente anche la regione del Donbas) e di una smobilitazione completa delle truppe dislocate lungo tutto il confine che divide l’Ucraina dalla Russia.

500 anni fa Niccolò Macchiavelli, ispirato dal suo proverbiale cinismo, sottolineò che non si debba mai “umiliare nessuno che non si è sicuri di poter distruggere”. La comunità internazionale è tenuta ad agire in modo che nessuna delle parti in causa si senta priva di una via di uscita dall’attuale crisi. L'alternativa potrebbe essere la fine dell'umanità come l’abbiamo conosciuta fino ad oggi.

Those observing the Middle East from the outside have often the tendency, paraphrasing Amílcar Cabral’s words at the Conference of Dār Es-Salām in 1963, to believe “that it was they who brought us into history: today we show that this is not so. They made us leave
history, our history, to follow them, right at the back, to follow the progress of their history”. Despite easy impressions, million of human beings in Iraq and neighbouring countries are acting or speaking driven by this very same spirit. It is time for scholars and policy makers to pay closer attention to their voices, sustaining the growing efforts that they are making in order to get back into their own histories.

The UAE-Israel deal sends the message that defying international law and consensus can become a useful bargaining tool to obtain strategic political and economic advantages.
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Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - https://carnegieendowment.org/sada/82648

Almost six years after the outbreak of the war in Syria, symptoms, causes and solutions are still often conflated. ISIS’s future has little to do with the fall of Raqqa: its long-term features will be decided thousands of kilometres away from there.

La "cultura della difesa" che da anni ha preso piede in Italia dovrebbe essere affiancata dalla "consapevolezza dell'attacco", ovvero da una informata cognizione legata ai risvolti che la retorica della cultura della difesa ha sulla vita di milioni di persone in Medio Oriente e non solo. L'acquisizione di tale consapevolezza richiede anni di studi e competenze linguistiche necessarie a penetrare i tessuti sociali che più soffrono tali politiche.

Oscar Wilde era solito sostenere che il cinico conosce il prezzo di ogni cosa, ma il valore di niente. È tempo di rimettere al centro i valori, non per inseguire ideologie pacifiste astruse e (a volte) dannose, bensì per garantire un futuro al nostro tempo ed evitare che i "nostri" interessi siano perseguiti sulle spalle di milioni di "altri".

Motivated by the need to inform the enduring and unresolved debates about religion and politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, this report focuses on the relation between social change and religious diversity and the challenges this poses for the state–religion relationship. It also draws attention to the pluralization of the religious sphere, the individualization of religion and the unlikely return of a state monopoly of Islam. In a context marked by growing instability (coups d’état, popular uprisings, conflicts, political uncertainty), this report examines the future of political Islam, a major ideological trend in the region. It aims to offer a detailed historical and sociological analysis of the different trajectories of moderate political Islam movements, the
emerging processes of doctrinal transformation, electoral and governmental participation and the extent to which they have challenged both Islamist organizations (Muslim brotherhood-affiliated
organizations, Salafi movements) and jihadi movements (ISIS, al Qaeda). Ultimately, the report analyses the relations between religion and politics within Shiism (one of the two major branches of Islam), within Christian communities and finally within the major non-Muslim majority society in the region, Israel. Strongly objecting to prevailing reductionist and essentialist misrepresentations of the region and their sweeping doom-mongering generalizations, the report sheds light on
the distinct dynamics of local histories, inter-organizational competition, the arising ideological tensions and geopolitical rivalries.

The “battleground” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is
shifting from its local context, where it has been placed in the
Oslo, Intifada and roadmap/Quartet periods, to its original
dimension: the international arena. While it is indeed unclear
if a multilateral approach will fare well, it is a fact that the
unilateral/bilateral approach has failed. Having reached the
end of the Middle East Peace Process as we have known it for
the past decades, it is about time to be open-minded about
realistic alternatives. This article analyses these potential
scenarios, the roles played by the main local and international
actors, and outlines how a EU multilateral initiative should
look like.

Since independence, states in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have been dominant players in shaping the regional order. The purpose of this paper is to explore and define challenges to the state and their role in shaping identities in the MENA region, and to evaluate their regional roots. The paper emphasizes two key aspects of nationalism in the region. The first concerns the existence of multiple identities and layers of identity that co-exist in the MENA region and which do not necessarily clash with each other. The second is that nationalism and national identities are not a recent phenomenon in the region. This paper shows that there are similarities as well as differences among the three major sub-regions of MENA in terms of the impact of identities at three levels of analysis.

As a result of the last Israeli elections 48 out of 120 members of the previous Knesset will not return for another term – something hard to imagine in most democratic countries of the world. Despite this, the coming government will remain firmly on the right. This is explained by the fact that what is commonly considered the center is actually the right (at least with regard to the conflict). This paper analyses the historical conditions that favoured this long-established political supremacy. It is argued that demographic, regional and Palestinian related factors are relevant aspects for a comprehensive understanding of the issue, but that only a deeper analysis that takes on board the way in which religion, security and international law have been (mis)used can provide a full-fledged explanation.

The Nile between History and Conflict will be the focus of an international conference organized on March 25 by the University of Turin, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Museo Egizio, Compagnia di San Paolo and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Free access at: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cNpN-HsQS-GEs44VuT-mLg
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Agenda: https://en.unito.it/sites/sten/files/african_challenges.pdf
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Since the dawn of recorded history, the Nile is considered to be the lifeblood of Egypt. Its role was crucial to the point that the ancient Egyptians developed a (remarkably accurate) calendar based on its flooding. Still today, the Nile remains the life line for the region's agriculture, transportation and tourism. In the last decade, competition for the Nile Basin's freshwater has been growing markedly.
In 2011, Ethiopia started to build the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) along the Nile River without prior notification to Egypt and Sudan, thus generating a long-decade diplomatic crisis among the three countries. Indeed, today the tensions between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the GERD risk undermining the stability of the entire Horn of Africa, which has already been severely strained by the Tigray crisis, the Sudanese transition to democracy, and the ongoing civil war in South Sudan. Despite various mediation attempts by international bodies, and at a time when the GERD is about to start functioning, no agreement on dam’s operation is yet in sight.
Speakers will focus on each of these aspects, with the aim of connecting the ongoing dynamics with the past and the future of one of the most important and iconic rivers of the world.

On October 17, the rectorate hall of the University Turin will host a New-Med conference entitled “Cultural Heritage and Illicit Trafficking in a Fragmented Middle East”. The meeting, co-organized by profs. Lorenzo Kamel and Stefano de Martino, relies upon the cooperation and support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), the University of Turin’s Dpt. of Historical Studies, Compagnia di San Paolo, the German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States, and The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
24 international renowned scholars, head of museums, practitioners, and policy makers from 11 countries will gather to analyze the dramatic events that have affected cultural heritage in Middle Eastern countries in recent years. Speakers will also focus on the “human dimension” of this tragedy, and shed light on projects aimed at the rebirth of cultural heritage in the region, such as museums, archaeological excavations, and restoration of damaged monuments.

Debate on the book "The Middle East from Empire to Sealed Identities" (Edinburgh University Press, 2019) with Khaled Fahmy, Pinar Bilgin, Michael Young, Lorenzo Kamel
Academic Workshop

October 18, 2019
Fondazione Luigi Einaudi
Via Principe Amedeo 34, Turin

5 pm-7:30 pm
--
Schedule
17:00-17:15
Welcome Remarks and moderation
Michael Young (Carnagie Center, Beirut)
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17:15-18:15
The Middle East from Empire to Sealed Identities
Lorenzo Kamel (University of Turin)

Khaled Fahmy (University of Cambridge)
Pınar Bilgin (Bilkent University)
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18:15-19:30
Open Discussion on the most important theses of the book

Come ha più volte insegnato la storia, ciò che accade in Medio Oriente e in Nord Africa non resta in Medio Oriente e in Nord Africa, bensì ha significativi riverberi anche in Occidente. Di questo tema e della necessità di superare una diffusa e 'segregante' interpretazione che divide la 'nostra storia' dalla 'loro storia', aprendo la strada a un approccio più umile verso i popoli di queste regioni, tratta l'ultimo volume di Lorenzo Kamel, Napoleone e Muhammad 'Ali. Medio Oriente e Nord Africa in epoca tardo moderna e contemporanea edito da Mondadori Università. Ne parleremo in un incontro online con l'autore Francesca Biancani (Università di Bologna), Marina Calculli (Columbia University, New York), Paolo Di Giannantonio (TG1) e Francesco Strazzari (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna), lunedì 16 maggio dalle ore 17,00. Modererà il dibattito Rosita Di Peri.
Per chi intende collegarsi direttamente al live:
https://mondadori.page.link/6o2z

The value of global cashless payments has been radically increasing worldwide. Despite cash being the most used payment instrument in the world, technological innovation and new consumer preferences are decisively transforming the way consumers pay and manage money. The COVID-19 pandemic may also have been an accelerator of the cashless mega-trend. Private players currently dominate the digital payment ecosystem, urging central banks to seek solutions to ensure public access to legal tender if cash is phased out. In this context, the idea of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is gaining momentum. Nevertheless, there is a need to better understand the implications in terms of risks, benefits and potential costs of CBDCs. From privacy concerns to macroeconomic effects, these implications blur the boundaries of the payment and financial systems, challenging the core functions of our economy and society.
Edited By Nicola Bilotta and Fabrizio Botti. https://www.peterlang.com/view/serial/GPS

From Pluralization to Fragmentation: The Kurdish Case from a Historical Perspective, «Nuova Rivista Storica», 103(1), 2019, pp. 251-266.
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The article provides an historical understanding of the ongoing «homogeneization» of a number of Eastern Mediterranean countries, taking the transition from a plural to a largely mono-dimensional Kurdish identity as a case study. A special attention is given to the post-World War I zeitgeist, as well as to the Kurdish historiography and
the ongoing attempts and efforts made by some of its most prominent theorists to deal with identity-related issues from a non-nationalist or post-nationalist perspective. The conclusions sheds light on inclusive identities and institutions, stressing the importance of sustaining the growing efforts that a number of people in the region are making in
order to get back into their own histories.

On November 12, IAI’s Middle East and Mediterranean Programme, together with the Department of Historical Studies and the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society of the University of Turin, co-organize an international webinar that will explore the historical, economic and political dimensions of the impact of COVID-19 in the Middle East and North Africa. 6 authors, from the Middle East and Europe, will present 6 research studies covering Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and the Persian Gulf. https://www.iai.it/it/eventi/impact-covid-19-conflicts-middle-east-comparative-perspective

A two-day New-Med conference was organized at the American University of Beirut (AUB) on February 7-8, 2019. Several leading scholars and prominent journalists gathered at AUB to address a number of security-related issues, all connected to one main question: What does (in)security mean from the perspective of people living in the Middle East and North Africa?

The Remaking of the Euro-Mediterranean Vision.
New book in the Peter Lang Series' Global Politics and Security.
Series editor: Lorenzo Kamel
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Global Politics and Security" publishes high-quality books authored by leading academics, think-tankers and policymakers on topical questions in international relations and contemporary history, ranging from diplomacy and security, to development, economy, migration, energy and climate.

New book in the Peter Lang Series' Global Politics and Security
Series editor: Lorenzo Kamel
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Global Politics and Security" publishes high-quality books authored by leading academics, think-tankers and policymakers on topical questions in international relations and contemporary history, ranging from diplomacy and security, to development, economy, migration, energy and climate.

Confirmed speakers:

Beth Baron, City University of New York - Armando Barucco, Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation - Francesco Cavatorta, Laval University - Patrick Cockburn, The Independent - Raffaella Del Sarto, The Johns Hopkins University SAIS Europe - Edhem Eldem, Boğaziçi University - Louise Fawcett, Oxford University - Ettore Greco, Istituto Affari Internazionali - Lorenzo Kamel, Istituto Affari Internazionali; University of Freiburg's Institute for Advanced Studies - Bahgat Korany, American University in Cairo - Nora Lafi, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient - Emiliano Alessandri, OSCE - Ian Lesser, The German Marshall Fund of the United States - Beverley Milton-Edwards, Queen’s University Belfast - Nicolò Russo Perez, Compagnia di San Paolo, Italy - Peter Sluglett, National University of Singapore - Ekaterina Stepanova, National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) - David C. Unger, The Johns Hopkins University SAIS Europe - Sanam Vakil, The Johns Hopkins University SAIS Europe.

new books in the Peter Lang series: Global Politics and Security
(Series Editor: Prof. Lorenzo Kamel, Università degli Studi di Torino & Istituto Affari Internazionali) "Global Politics and Security" publishes high-quality books authored by leading academics, think-tankers and policymakers on topical questions in international relations and contemporary history, ranging from diplomacy and security, to development, economy, migration, energy, climate, archaeology.
https://www.peterlang.com/abstract/serial/GPS

A major conference will take place on May 7 at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 8 outstanding young professionals from the Middle East and North Africa - selected after a very competitive peer-review process - will debate on challenges impacting the region.

The course intends to provide a critical and interdisciplinary analysis of the policy and ideology of European colonial expansion between the opening of the Suez Canal (1869) and the outbreak of the First World War, a period characterized by unprecedented competition for overseas territorial acquisitions and the emergence in colonising countries of doctrines of racial superiority. Students will acquire a top-down and a bottom-up perspective on the process of 'simplification' registered in colonial contexts and will be required to adopt a comparative approach that takes on board the Middle East and other geographical contexts directly affected by colonial rule and conflicts, including and particularly African countries and India.

#TurinEssayPrize 2021
The initiative is promoted by Compagnia di San Paolo, Università degli Studi di Torino, Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Scuola di Studi Superiori "Ferdinando Rossi". Details: https://www.fondazioneeinaudi.it/16957/

CONFERENCE
“Ignorance” and the Middle East: Deconstructing the Present Through its Past

Bologna, April 12, 2017

OPENING GREETINGS:

Francesco Ubertini, Rector, University of Bologna

WELCOME REMARKS:

Dario Braga, Director, Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Bologna

Ettore Greco, Director, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome

Armando Barucco, Director, Policy Planning Unit, Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Rome

Carla Salvaterra, Professor, Department of History Cultures Civilizations, University of Bologna

CHAIR:

Francesca Maria Corrao, Professor, Arabic Language and Culture, Department of Political Science, LUISS Guido Carli University, Rome

SPEAKERS:

- Lorenzo Kamel, Marie Curie Experienced Researcher, University of Freiburg’s Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS)
“Ignorance” and the Middle East: Symbols, Concept and the Power of Fear

- Beverley Milton-Edwards, Professor of Politics, Queen's University Belfast
Banners and Battle: Islamism re-shaped

- Patrick Cockburn, Middle East War Correspondent, The Independent, United Kingdom
What we ignore? Media Coverage on and in the Middle East

OPEN DEBATE

CONCLUDING REMARKS:

Emiliano Alessandri, Senior External Co-operation Officer, Office of the Secretary General, OSCE, Vienna