Valdai Club Experts Discuss the Processes in the Middle East
Valdai Discussion Club Conference Hall (Bolshaya Tatarskaya 42, Moscow, Russia)

On June 16, 2017, the Valdai Discussion Club will present the report "The Middle East: Darkness before the New Dawn? Regional Conflicts and the Future of the Global Community"

The diplomatic crisis in the Persian Gulf, on the background of terrorist attacks and ongoing military conflict in Syria, illustrates another difficult period in the Middle East region. It is not the first time that the question arises whether the events in the Middle East reflect a process of painful dying of the old order with unpredictable consequences or there are the pangs of a new order formation? Some of the states of the region, which for a long time were the flagships of its development, are now plunged into an abyss of instability and violence. Others resisted the challenges, but they have to confront the terrible monster of international terrorism.

During the two-day discussions at the Valdai Club conference, titled "The Middle East: When Will Tomorrow Come?", experts from different countries discussed possible options for the future of the region. For Russia this is not a theoretical problem, because Russia is connected with the peoples of the Middle East by close civilizational ties. The Valdai Club report posts three main questions: To what extent the conflicts in the Middle East are derivatives of global development trends and to what extent they are the manifestation of the regional customs and traditions? Can their settlement create a new reality where the stability and prosperity will be guaranteed to the whole region? Authors of the report will speak about their attempts to find answers to these questions:

Alexander Aksenyonok, Ph.D., Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, member of the Russian Council for International Affairs (RIAC);

Irina Zvyagelskaya, Doctor of Science, History; Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies RAS; Professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) and at the Institute of African and Asian Studies (Moscow State University);

Vitaly Naumkin (head of the author's team), Doctor of Science (History), Professor, Academician RAS; President of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS); Chair at the Department of Regional Problems of World Politics, Moscow State University; Advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria; Editor-in-Chief of “Vostok (ORIENS)” Journal of the RAS.

Moderator:

Timofei Bordachev, Programme director of the Valdai Discussion Club.

Working language: Russian

To attend, please fill out the accreditation form. If you have any questions, please call +7 (926) 031-18-60 (Public Relations Department).