Programme of the Valdai Club Middle East Conference
“The Middle East in Search for Lost Awakening”
Moscow, March 30-31, 2021
March 30, Tuesday
10:30 – 10:45
Opening of the conference // Live broadcast
Speakers:
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Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club;
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Vitaly Naumkin, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; President of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
10:45 – 12:30
Session 1. The New Arab Revival: To Be or Not to Be? // Live broadcast
For the Middle East, the past decade was a period of conflicts, wars, revolutions and protests; democratization of political systems and social reforms; change of political elites and new political movements; economic crises and humanitarian catastrophes; foreign interventions and ad hoc alliances; technological breakthroughs and heated social debates; rise and fall of non-state actors, consolidation of civil society.
It did not bring prosperity and justice for all, but may have brought freedom and development for some.
Can all this be a prelude to a new Arab revival? And if so, what will it be like? Will it be like the 19th century’s Nahda of the mid-20th century’s Arab Awakening? It not, what should we expect?
Speakers:
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Ali Alahmad, Politician and Public Figure, Syria;
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Joost Hiltermann, Program Director, Middle East & North Africa, International Crisis Group;
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Daniel Levy, President, US/Middle East Project;
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Youssef Cherif, Director, Columbia Global Centers |Tunis
Moderator:
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Vasily Kuznetsov, Head of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Head of the Department of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Oriental Faculty of the State Academic University for the Humanities
13:00 – 14:30
Session 2. The External Actors and the New Colonialism: Total Recall? // Live broadcast
What changes are being observed in the non-Arab states’ Middle East policies? Has neo-Ottomanism morphed from an ideological pipe dream into a foreign policy strategy? To what extent is Iran motivated by its imperial memories? Can the United States’ regional engineering be interpreted in terms of the colonial theory? Will the colonial legacy of European states be revised? Will the memory wars, which are currently shaking the western world, engulf the Middle East as well? What will be the Arab states’ place in the new system of regional relations?
Speakers:
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Ahmad Majdalani, Executive Committee Member, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO);
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Qadri Jamil, Head, Syrian Opposition’s Moscow Platform; Secretary, People’s Will Party (Syria);
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Eugene Rogan, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of Oxford; Director of The Middle East Centre at St. Antony’s College, Oxford;
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Andrey Baklanov, Professor-Head of the Middle East and North African Studies Section, Higher School of Economics
Moderator:
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Irina Zvyagelskaya, Head of the Centre for Middle East Studies, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) RAS
15:30 – 16:15
Special session. “Dialogue within Dialogue” with Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, Diplomatic Adviser to the UAE President; Former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and Vitaly Naumkin, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; President of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. // Live broadcast
16:30 – 18:00
Session 3: The State: The New Leaders and the Old Institutions // Live broadcast
How is the Arab state changing? Are the political systems undergoing transformation? How are they influenced by crises and conflicts? What is happening to the institutions of presidency and monarchy? What are the new roles of parliaments, political parties, electoral procedures? Have the political functions of armed forces and security services changed? Is there a renewal of elites underway? Will the new generation of leaders catalyse institutional changes? What is the role of information technologies in these changes? Is the political culture changing? What awaits the alternative forms of political organisation of societies?
Speakers:
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HRH Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, Founder and Trustee, King Faisal Foundation; Chairman, King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies;
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Mustafa Aydin, President, International Relations Council of Turkey;
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Hrair Balian, Director, Conflict Resolution Program, Carter Center;
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Alastair Crooke, Director, Conflicts Forum;
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Nikolay Surkov, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Middle East Studies, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) RAS
Moderator:
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Veniamin Popov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Analyst of the Institute for International Studies, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO)
March 31, Wednesday
10:00 – 11:30
Session 4. Nationalism, Islamism etc: Between Ideologies and Political Projects // Live broadcast
Is a revival of ideologies possible today? Can particular development projects lay claim to be ideologies? Is the narrative of Arab nationalism a geopolitical tool or is it a reply to the Arab societies’ identity crisis? Will the political Islam remain a banner of protest or has its ideological potential burned out? What awaits the radical ideologies? Does the region have any prerequisites for emergence of the left? What positions can be taken by environmentalism, feminism, and subaltern groups’ ideologies in the Middle East?
Speakers:
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Amal Abou Zeid, Advisor to the President of Lebanon; Member of the Lebanese Parliament-Free Patriotic Movement/Honoris causa (2016 – 2018);
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Mehdi Sanaei, Senior Advisor to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Director of the Institute for Iran-Eurasia Studies;
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Ebtesam Al-Ketbi, President, Emirates Policy Centre (UAE)
Moderator:
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Vyacheslav Belokrenitsky, Vice President of the Academic Council, Institute of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
12:00 – 13:30
Special session, Russia in the Middle East // Live broadcast
Speaker:
- Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Moderator:
- Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club
14:30 – 16:00
Session 5. Middle Eastern Communities: A New Subjectivity? // Live broadcast
How are the Middle Eastern societies changing? What is happening to the traditional social structures amid urbanisation, conflicts, socio-political reforms? What is the role of ethnic and religious minorities in the socio-political life? What is the role of identity issues in the political processes? Have the young and women become new socio-political actors? Are the structures of civil society becoming an important factor of political life?
Speakers:
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Raghida Dergham, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Beirut Institute; Columnist for The National and Annahar Al Arabi;
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Randa Slim, Senior Fellow and Director of the Program on Conflict Resolution and Track II Dialogues, Middle East Institute, Washington, DC;
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Konstantin Truevtsev, Leading Researcher in the Centre of Arab and Islamic Studies, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Moderator:
- Vitaly Naumkin, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; President of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
16:00 – 16:30
Closing of the conference // Live broadcast
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Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club;
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Vitaly Naumkin, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; President of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
