CCAS 2014 Winter/Spring Newsletter

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CCAS Center for Contemporary Arab Studies

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News from the Director

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Board Member Feature: Peter Baumbusch

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Faculty and Staff News: Recent faculty and staff publications, news, and awards

MAAS News: Students report on internships and research conducted during Summer 2013

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Feature Article: Dr. Marwa Daoudy on the role water has played in Syria’s relations with Turkey (continued from cover)

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Faculty Showcase: Dr. Daniel Neep on the problematic exercise of redrawing the map of the Middle East

ccas.georgetown.edu

Winter - Spring 2014

around the world have utilized water resources to protect their assets, manage their economic development, and exploit other nations. In the ancient Middle East, the rise of the city-states Sumer and Akkad in what IS TODAY )RAQ IS USUALLY ATTRIBUTED AMONG OTHER FACTORS TO ÄŤOOD control and the practice of diverting the Tigris and Euphrates into multiple water channels for the purpose of irrigation. Or to cite another example, the city of Babylon during the fourth century BCE protected its population by digging trenches between THE 4IGRIS AND %UPHRATES AND ÄŞLLING THEM WITH WATER )NDEED THE four main rivers of the Middle East (Nile, Euphrates, Tigris, and *ORDAN HAVE SEEN GREAT CIVILIZATIONS ÄŤOURISH AND MAJOR EMPIRES crumble due to how effectively (or ineffectively) they managed their use of water. In medieval times, the expansion of Islam into the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions and continued on page 6

The spillway of the 5.6 milelong Haditha Dam, the largest of its kind in Iraq, controls the ĂąRZ RI WKH (XSKUDWHV 5LYHU DQG LV XVHG IRU K\GURHOHFWULF SURGXFWLRQ

Warring over Water

Security concerns related to water have THKL H ZPNUPĂ„JHU[ impact on relations between Syria and Turkey.

By Marwa Daoudy

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11 Public Events: Revisiting World War I in the Middle East, and other events

EOPLE THROUGHOUT HISTORY AND

13 Educational Outreach: Fall 2013 presentations

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14 Faculty Feature: Drs. Marwa Daoudy and Daniel Neep on the viability of the Syrian state and prospects for a lasting peace settlement 16 Special Event: CCAS professors present for Syria “Teach-In�

Georgetown University

FEATURE ARTICLE

Publication: New edited volume on Palestine published by Indiana University Press 5

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NEWS FROM THE DIRECTOR: OSAMA ABI-MERSHED

Announcing a New Post-Doctoral Fellowship The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies is pleased to inaugurate the postdoctoral fellowship in Druze and Arab Minorities Studies, funded by a generous donation of the American Druze Foundation (ADF). The American Druze Foundation (ADF) Endowed Research Fund supports advanced post-doctoral research on $RUZE AND !RAB -INORITIES IN THE ÄŞELDS OF HISTORY POLITICAL science, cultural studies, sociology, economics, anthropology, and archaeology. The ADF Fellowship is awarded to a recent doctoral graduate (PhD) from an accredited university or granting institution. Eligible candidates must have conducted their doctoral research on the history and/or the current affairs of Arab minorities, and foremost, on topics that are of primary concern for the study of the Druze. For more information about this fellowship, please visit: http://ccas.georgetown.edu/fsg/fellowships/druze/

A M E R I CA N

DRUZE

FOUNDATION

CCAS Welcomes New Centennial Fellows CCAS also welcomes Dr. Lahouari Addi from the University of Lyon (left) and Dr. Saleh Abdel Jawad from Birzeit University (right) as its 2013-2014 Carnegie Centennial Fellows. The Andrew Carnegie Foundation Centennial Fellowship supports social scientists from the Arab world who seek to conduct research in leading American universities.

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Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

CCAS

newsletter

CCAS Newsletter is published twice a year by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, a component of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Core Faculty

Osama W. Abi-Mershed Associate Professor; Director; Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Fida J. Adely Associate Professor Marwa Daoudy Assistant Professor Rochelle A. Davis Associate Professor; Director; Master of Arts in Arab Studies Program Daniel Neep Assistant Professor Joseph Sassoon Visiting Professor Judith Tucker Professor

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Mustafa Aksakal Associate Professor Belkacem Baccouche Visiting Instructor Elliott Colla Associate Professor; Chair; Arabic and Islamic Studies Department Noura Erakat Adjunct Assistant Professor Bassam Haddad Adjunct Professor and ASJ Editor Yvonne Y. Haddad Professor; Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding Noureddine Jebnoun Adjunct Assistant Professor

Staff

Rania Kiblawi Associate Director Zeina Azzam (until October 2013) Director of Educational Outreach Brenda Bickett Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Bibliographer Steven Gertz Multimedia and Publications Editor Kelli Harris Academic Program Coordinator Liliane Salimi Grants and Program Scholarship Administrator Elisabeth Sexton Public Affairs Coordinator Courtney Smith Grant Administrator

BOARD MEMBER FEATURE

A Lawyer on the Ground To CCAS Board Member Peter Baumbusch, the Middle East is no abstract place but is full of faces he recognizes. By Steven Gertz

Photo courtesy Peter Baumbusch

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PETER BAUMBUSCH to some unusual places. Though he maintains a comfortable residence in Washington, DC, he also understands the unpredictability of traveling and living abroad. Baumbusch, for example, has witnessed dust storms in Dubai, endured “rainâ€? from BURNING OIL ÄŞELDS IN +UWAIT AND NARROWLY MISSED (IZBULLAH TAKing over the Beirut airport. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Baumbusch worked for about forty years at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he recently retired from being a partner. As an expert in American tax law, Baumbusch discovered his skill-set was especially attractive to wealthy businessmen from the Middle East looking to invest in the United States. Indeed, over the course of his career, he has advised in the acquisition of more than $10 billion in US companies and real estate investments. In the process, he has built up an extensive network of friendships and acquaintances in the Gulf states especially, but also throughout the Middle East. Baumbusch’s work—and his wife’s involvement in the Rotary Club—has taken him to many different countries in the Middle East, including Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and most recently, Israel/Palestine. Baumbusch is particularly eager to talk about his travels in Jerusalem, the coastal areas of Israel, the West Bank, and Galilee. A visit to the West Bank impressed upon him how desperate the water situation is for Palestinians; he was informed by a guide that 80 percent of the West Bank’s water goes to Israeli settlers living there. When asked what political forces were driving the settlements, Baumbusch noted that some Jews believe that they are entitled to the land because in the Hebrew Bible God promised the land to Abraham’s descendants, while some Christians read passages in the New Testament that seem to require Jewish occupation of the land in order to precipitate the end of time. To this he adds that he believes that Israeli security fears and population concerns are also factors. If there is one place in the Middle East with which Baumbusch is intimately familiar, it would be Dubai. In 2007, Gibson, Dunn #RUTCHER DECIDED TO OPEN AN OFÄŞCE THERE AND ASKED "AUMBUSCH to establish it since he already knew many people in the region. He and his wife arrived there during the construction boom, and he was immediately taken with Dubai’s open and cosmopolitan atmosphere. He observes that Dubai’s ports, its tourist industry, AND ITS ÄŤOURISHING BUSINESS CENTER ARE ALL REMARKABLE BUT HE ÄŞNDS the mix of Western culture with native customs especially striking. MERICAN TAX LAW HAS TAKEN

“I remember seeing people walking around on weekends in thobes (traditional full-length garments) with baseball caps turned backwards,â€? he laughs. “It is truly a unique place.â€? Baumbusch’s time in Dubai has also made him aware of problems that accompany such diversity. “English, not Arabic, is actually the common language in Dubai, since so many people are migrant workers,â€? he observes. This has caused some interesting tensions concerning the education of Dubai’s youth. An Arab friend of Baumbusch was trying to decide where to send his son to school. Should he choose a school where his son would learn Arabic but not much else, or should he send him to an international “If there is one place school, which provides a good education overall but is not LQ WKH 0LGGOH (DVW ZLWK strong in Arabic? He chose the ZKLFK %DXPEXVFK LV international school, but he established a rule that in the home intimately familiar, it they could only speak Ara- ZRXOG EH 'XEDL Ăş bic. One day, he found his son speaking English in the house, and when he confronted his son about the rule, his son replied, “But why, Dad? We’re not Arabs!â€? To Baumbusch, this story epitomizes the tension at work in Dubai—how does one preserve one’s language and culture in a place where English, not Arabic, has become the language of the street? Baumbusch’s sensitivity to such issues signals one of the reaSONS HE IS SUCH A GOOD ÄŞT AS A "OARD MEMBER AT THE #ENTER FOR #ONTEMPORARY !RAB 3TUDIES 7HEN HE WAS ÄŞRST ASKED TO JOIN THE Board, he really did not know anything about the Center. “But the more I learned about the Center,â€? Baumbusch says, “the happier I was with that decision.â€? He praises in particular the Center’s aspiration towards academic excellence, and its clear commitment to educate students and the larger community about the contemporary Arab world. He believes in the institution, and wants to GIVE HIS MORAL AND ÄŞNANCIAL SUPPORT TO HELP THE #ENTER NOT ONLY MAINTAIN ITS REPUTATION FOR QUALITY BUT ALSO ÄŞND WAYS TO IMPROVE what it already does well. ™

Steven Gertz is Multimedia and Publications Editor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

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FACULTY NEWS Associate Professor and CCAS Director Osama Abi-Mershed conTRIBUTED THE CHAPTER Âą! (ISTORY OF THE #ONÄŤICT IN 7ESTERN 3AHARA² TO the edited volume Perspectives on Western Sahara: Myths, Nationalisms, and Geopolitics 2OWMAN AND ,ITTLEÄŞELD 0UBLISHERS Associate Professor Fida Adely received the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies annual book award for Gendered Paradoxes: Educating Jordanian Women in Nation, Faith, and Progress (Chicago, 2012). She also guest edited an issue of Anthropology & Education Quarterly on “Ethnographies of Religious Educationâ€? (Dec. 2013), was elected as a member-at-large for the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies, and as of July 2013, became an Associate Editor of Anthropology & Education Quarterly. Post-Doctoral Fellow Hannes Baumann won a three-year “Early Career Fellowshipâ€? from the UK Leverhulme Trust. He will be researching business elites and politics at King’s College London after he leaves CCAS in May 2014. Associate Professor Elliott Colla published “The Porter and Portabilityâ€? in Scheherazade’s Children: Global Encounters with the Arabian Nights, eds. Phil Kennedy and Marina Warner (New York: NYU Press, 2013), 89-107; “In Praise of Insults: Slogan Genres, Slogan Repertoires and Innovation,â€? Review of Middle East Studies 47:1 (Summer 2013), 37-48; and a translation of The Lady from Tel Aviv (London: Telegram Books, 2013), which received a PEN UK Translation Support Award for 2012 and which prompted an interview with the BBC on December 30, 2013. Also, in January, 2014, he published the novel Baghdad Central (London: Bitter Lemon Press, 2014). Assistant Professor Marwa Daoudy published “Sectarianism in Syria: Myth and Realityâ€? in Open Democracy on July 22, 2013; “BeYOND #ONÄŤICT 4HE 3ECURITIZATION OF 7ATER IN 3YRIAN 4URKISH 2ELAtionsâ€? in Hinnebusch and Tur, eds., Turkey-Syria Relations: Between Enmity and Amity (Ashgate Publishers, 2013), 133-144; and “Syria’s

STAFF NEWS In October 2013, Director of Educational Outreach Zeina Azzam took a NEW JOB AS THE 3ENIOR 0ROGRAM -ANAGer at the Qatar Foundation’s new Arab cultural learning space in Washington, D.C. CCAS is sad to lose Ms. Azzam, who served at the Center in various capacities for roughly two decades, most notably pioneering its educational outreach program. The Center greatly misses Ms. Azzam but looks forward to cooperating with her in future educational outreach events.

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Perilous Arab Springâ€? in After the Spring: Prospects for the Arab World in 2013 (United Nations Association of the United Kingdom, 2013), 62-66. !DJUNCT !SSISTANT 0ROFESSOR Noura Erakat participated in debate at the European Parliament on “New Paradigms in Israel & Palestineâ€? (November 2013), co-published an anthology with CCAS alumnus, Mouin Rabbani, Aborted State? UN Initiatives & New Palestinian Junctures, AND WAS ELECTED TO JOIN THE "OARD OF 4RUSTEES FOR the Institute for Policy Studies. Post-Doctoral Fellow Adel Iskandar published Egypt In Flux: Essays ON AN 5NħNISHED 2EVOLUTION (AUC Press, 2013), and gave invited book talks, among other institutions, at Columbia University, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, the School of Oriental and African Studies, Harvard University, New York University, and the University of California, Berkeley. He also published “Teaching the Arab Uprisings: Between Media Maelstrom and Pedantic Pedagogy,â€? Policy Studies Journal, 41(s1), and “Tamarod: Egypt’s Online Revolution Hones its Skillsâ€? (Jadaliyya, June 30, 2013). Assistant Professor Daniel Neep published “War, State Formation, and Cultureâ€? in the International Journal of Middle East Studies 45:4 (November 2013), 795-797. Visiting Professor Joseph Sassoon published “The U.S. Administration’s Policy in Iraq,â€? in the Wilson Center’s Viewpoint Series on September 25, 2013. He also won the 2013 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize in Middle Eastern Studies for Saddam Hussein’s Ba’th Party: Inside an Authoritarian Regime (Cambridge University Press, 2012). The reviewer wrote that Sassoon has authored “what is undoubtedly the most important book on the Iraqi state and Iraqi politics since Hanna Batatu’s 1978 The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq,â€? and predicted that he has “set a new benchmark for future scholarship on Iraq.â€?

PUBLICATIONS CCAS is proud to announce the publication of Palestine and the Palestinians in the 21st Century, edited by Rochelle Davis and Mimi Kirk and published by Indiana University Press. The volume both examines the legacies of the past century and engages the issues that continue to shape Palestinian society, such as economic development, access to resources, religious transformation, and political movements. To purchase a copy of the book, go to the website of Indiana University Press (http://www.iupress.indiana. edu/catalog/807136).

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

MAAS NEWS

Over the Summer, I‌

MAAS students report on internships and research they conducted in the Middle East and North Africa during the summer of 2013. Benan Grams interned at the Cooperative des Tisseuses de Ain Leuh in Ain Leuh, Morocco. There she worked directly with Berber weavers of the cooperative to help increase international awareness of the weavers’ efforts, their products, and their working conditions. Grams blogged about her work at http://advocacynet.org/ wordpress-mu/bgrams/ Reena Nadler spent ten weeks interning with

the Millennium Challenge Corporation in RaBAT -OROCCO WHERE SHE TRAVELED TO DEVELOPMENT PROJECT SITES INTERVIEWING BENEÄŞCIARIES OF -##´S WORK 3HE ALSO interviewed members of the Justice and Development Party as part of her research for her master’s thesis, and she spent two weeks in Jordan interviewing members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Kristin Smith worked as a Fellow in the Public Diplomacy (PD) section of the U.S. Consulate IN #ASABLANCA -OROCCO IN PREPARATION FOR JOINING THE Foreign Service after graduation. As a Fellow, Smith developed and implemented a variety of programming inCLUDING ÄŞLM SCREENINGS AND GATHERINGS FOR DIGNITARIES 3HE also completed a cable on public education in Morocco. Gregory Jehle conducted thesis research at the Tunisian National Archives in Tunis, where for eight weeks he examined police records from the nineteenth-century Tunisian police force and THE -AJLIS AL ÂĽĂ?BITIYYA *EHLE´S THESIS WILL PLACE THESE institutions in the context of the pre-colonial Tunisian state’s movement towards “modernization,â€? legal reform, and constitutional governance. Sarah Mousa interned for the New York Times’

Cairo Bureau in Egypt, where she met with dozens of activists who continue to play key roles in the regional uprisings, including founders of movements for change that were pivotal to the organization of the uprisings. As part of her work, she witnessed a student rally in Tunisia and interviewed hip-hop artists in Jordan. Xiaoyue Li travelled to Egypt to research for his master’s thesis, where he conducted a historical study on diseases and workers in Egypt. He worked at the Egyptian national library Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya.

There he studied the memoirs of labor activists, as well as newspapers and magazines, to help him understand the social context of labor movements with regards to workers’ health. Also in Egypt, Alberto Ramos conducted interviews in Alexandria with Egyptians returning from the Gulf in order to study their transitions back into Egyptian society. He conducted participant observation at several locations in Alexandria, focusing on Egyptians’ reactions to the worsening economic situation in the lead up to the protests on June 30, 2013. Nina Brekelmans spent a month at Cairo’s

Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) and attended demonstrations at Tahrir and Itihadiya, in the process learning about the Egyptian political scene. However, she was evacuated from Cairo on July 5, after which she resumed her language study in Jordan, where she is spending the academic year. Zachary Cuyler conducted research for his master’s thesis in Beirut, Lebanon, where he studied documents related to Tapline, an oil pipeline operated by Aramco from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon. He studied newspaper articles, internal corporate documents recovered FROM THE PIPELINE COMPANY´S DEFUNCT OFÄŞCES IN "EIRUT AND internal memoranda provided by the former president of the company’s Lebanese workers’ syndicate. Kevin Davis conducted research for his master’s thesis in Yemen, where he was investigating the relationship between historical memory and the movement for independence that is demanding an end to THE AGREEMENT THAT UNIÄŞED THE NORTH AND SOUTH (E was living in Sana‘a in the north but traveled to Aden, the former southern capital, to conduct his research. ™

What’s new with you? &&$6 ZRXOG OLNH WR NQRZ ,I \RX KDYH DQ\ QHZV RU XSGDWHV please email Kelli Harris at PDDV#JHRUJHWRZQ HGX

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FEATURE ARTICLE WATER continued from cover

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Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Marwa Daoudy, from her book The Water Divide Between Syria, Turkey, and Iraq: Negotiation, Security, and Power Asymmetry (CNRS Editions, 2005), 14.

Since 1980, Turkey has been building A MASSIVE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT ALONG the Euphrates and Tigris called the '”NEYDOGU !NADOLU 0ROJESI 'REAT !NATOLIAN 0ROJECT OR '!0 CONSISTing of 22 dams and 19 hydroelectric POWER PLANTS (%00 4HE OFÄŞCIAL PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT IS TO ERADICATE regional disparities between the afÄŤUENT WESTERN PARTS OF THE COUNTRY and the under-developed regions in the southeast. Irrigation, it is argued, provides “sustainable development,â€? which in turn increases economic growth, social stability, and export capacity. However, Turkey’s hydrauLIC PROJECTS ALSO ADDRESS THE SECURITY challenge that Kurdish separatists pose. Besides using military suppression to combat insurgency, the government aims to develop infrastructures in the heart of southeast Anatolia where Kurdish insurgency is the most active. The GAP was scheduled for completion in 2014, but the deadline HAS BEEN PUSHED TO BECAUSE OF ÄŞNANCIAL CONSTRAINTS 0DS VKRZLQJ WKH ORFDWLRQ RI GDPV DORQJ WKH (XSKUDWHV As far as Syria is concerned, Turkey’s exploitation of DQG 7LJULV ULYHUV LQ 6\ULD 7XUNH\ DQG ,UDT the Tigris and Euphrates is highly problematic, since 65 the establishment of the Abbasid empire with its capital percent of Syria’s water supply comes from the Euphraof Baghdad along the Tigris restored irrigation systems tes basin. When Turkey refused to reach an agreement on that had fallen into disuse. However, Mongol invaders in water allocations, Syria began supporting Kurdish milithe thirteenth century CE heavily damaged these canals, tary operations within Turkey via the Partiya Karkaren leaving the Tigris and Euphrates again unexploited. Un- Kurdistan (PKK) and its leader Abdullah Ă–calan. This CONTROLLED ÄŤOODS TOOK PLACE ON A REGULAR BASIS UNTIL THE policy in turn became an important bargaining chip in the French and British mandatory powers introduced modern negotiations that ensued over water rights. In the bilateral technologies after the First World War to harness the riv- Protocol of 1987, Turkey committed to a minimal allocation of 500 cubic meters (m3) per secers’ water for the populations’ use. ond of the Euphrates waters to downFollowing the construction of the As far as Syria is Syria, but Syria’s tacit support Hindiya dam (1911–1914), DiFRQFHUQHG 7XUNH\âV stream for the Kurds continued to be a bone of yala dam (1927–28), and Kut dam contention between the two countries, (1934–43) in Iraq, the Iraqi gov- exploitation of the SEVERAL BOUTS OF CONÄŤICT ernment undertook large develop7LJULV DQG (XSKUDWHV TRIGGERING during the 1990s. Following Turkey’s ment schemes on its portion of the Tigris during the 1950s. LV KLJKO\ SUREOHPDWLF threats of war over Syria’s support to PKK in October 1998, Syria’s decision A historical study of riparian negotiation between Turkey and Syria during the twentieth in the Adana settlement to cease support of the PKK and century reveals a combination of distrust and reconcili- to expel Ă–calan, from its territory cleared the way for coATION CONÄŤICT AND RAPPROCHEMENT "OTH 3YRIA AND 4UR- operation over water. After Turkish authorities captured key have been slow to trust one other, suspicious of the him in February 1999, the PKK gave up its claim to an other’s intentions concerning the Euphrates and Tigris. independent Kurdish state, calling only for recognition of

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Kurdish identity and political and human rights. Following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, a shared fear over a US-backed Kurdish autonomy in Iraq led to the normalization of ties between Syria’s new leadership under Bashar al-Asad and Turkey’s recently elected Justice and Development Party (AKP), headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This initial rapprochement blossomed into amity as the two countries improved their trade relations and opened their borders. Water lost its importance as a security issue, and the subsequent easing of tensions over water paved the way for improved political and economic relations between Syria and Turkey. Turkey’s new elites also reformulated its foreign policy goals, focusing the nation’s ambition principally on economic expansion. Increased business networks between merchant classes in Aleppo and Damascus and the “Anatolian tigersâ€? also helped the two neighbors to ease political tensions. What followed then was a series of protocols and agreements over water and trade. The Joint Technical Committee (JTC) (originally convened in 1962 by Iraq AND 4URKEY TO DISCUSS THEIR RESPECTIVE PROJECTS ON THE %UPHRATES AND WHICH WAS THEN JOINED BY 3YRIA IN had ceased to meet in 1992, but it resumed its meetings in Damascus in May 2007, followed by Istanbul in February 2009 and Baghdad in September 2009. Syria also agreed in January 2008 to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Turkey and Iraq on the Tigris waters, and IN -ARCH A JOINT WATER INSTITUTE WAS ESTABLISHED IN 4URKEY WITH THE OBJECTIVE OF PROMOTING TRILATERAL STUDIES on regional water management. On October 13, 2009, the newly formed Syrian–Turkish High Level StrateGIC #OOPERATION #OUNCIL°MEETING FOR THE ÄŞRST TIME IN the city of Aleppo—strengthened bilateral cooperation over defense, diplomatic relations, economic trade, oil, electricity, agriculture, and health issues. Meanwhile, 4URKEY AGREED FURTHER TO A MINIMAL ÄŤOW OF CUBIC meters per second on the Euphrates river. Turkey also became Syria’s biggest trading partner when mutual trade reached 2.4 billion USD in 2010, and Turkey’s foreign direct investment in Syria doubled between 2006 and 2007. Syrian President Bashar al-Asad described these links with Turkey as “the birth of a new alliance based on common interests.â€? However, this alliance was not to last. The initial success of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions during the Arab uprising encouraged new standards in the region relating to human rights, democracy, accountability, and SOCIAL JUSTICE "EGINNING IN -ARCH SEVERAL MONTHS of anti-regime protests in Syria and the subsequent brutal

REPRESSION BY THE !SAD REGIME DEALT A MAJOR SETBACK TO Syria’s bilateral relations with Turkey. As Turkey became increasingly critical of the Asad regime, the old struggles over water-sharing, borders, and Kurdish insurgency resumed. On November 30, 2011, Turkey JOINED THE !RAB ,EAGUE AND OTHER POWERS IN SANCTIONing the Asad regime. Turkey also hosted the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian Muslim Brothers, and it organized the Friends of Syria meeting in 2012. In addition to facing a humanitarian crisis, the 600,000 Syrian refugees currently in Turkey (of which

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) shakes hands with Syrian President Bashar al-Asad (right) during a visit to Aleppo, Syria on February 6, 2011, to discuss the joint building of a “Friendship Dam� on the Asi River. Construction, however, has been delayed due to the ongoing war in Syria.

ONLY ARE OFĪCIALLY REGISTERED NOW MUST ENDURE the stigma of being a security issue in Turkey, raising alarms about clashes on the Turkish side with pro-Asad members of the Alevi community as well as along the Turkish-Syrian border. In reaction to Turkey’s criticism of Asad, the Syrian regime resumed its support of the PKK and approved its sister organization within Syria THE 09$ INčUENTIAL PARTICULARLY IN THE +URDISH POPulated northeastern region of Syria. Turkey signaled that it would cease trade with Syria, effectively ending a decade of mutual rapprochement towards its neighbor. Foreign Minister Davutoglu announced as well the suspension of the High Level Strategic Council, ending any possibility for cooperation over strategic issues such as water in the near future. It is too early to assess whether the decade-long PROCESS OF DE SECURITIZATION OVER WATER HAS BEEN SUFĪciently robust enough to forestall wider foreign policy re-alignments after 2011. However, one may be sure that increased domestic, border, and regional insecurity will impact water security as well. ™

Marwa Daoudy is Assistant Professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

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FACULTY SHOWCASE

The Temptations of Cartography Is it time to redraw the map of the Middle East? By Daniel Neep

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F YOU HAVE EVER LIVED IN THE MIDDLE EAST, STUDIED its modern history, or simply spent time chatting with inhabitants of the region, you are probably well aware of the role played by the former colonial powers in drawing up the political boundaries that are familiar to us today. In the Mashriq (Arab East), Britain and France carved new states from the carcass of the Ottoman Empire and placed them under their tutelage until such time AS THEIR INHABITANTS MIGHT BE DEEMED ÄŞT TO GOVERN THEM-

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Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

The National Archives (United Kingdom)

selves. Along the Gulf littoral, Britain had earlier supported the establishment of a string of maritime enclaves to provide safe harbor for its naval vessels en route to India. In the Maghrib (Arab West), colonial policy saw not only rule by “association� in Morocco and Tunisia, but also the outright annexation of Algeria by mainland France.

Today, a variety of Arab nationalists and leftists, Islamists and secularists, conservatives and reformers, elites and popular classes, highlight how the legacies of these imposed colonial boundaries still contribute to ongoing political instability in the region. Three complaints are commonly heard: First, new states were created in the Middle East without regard for pre-existing social, economic, political, or cultural realities. These states, especially those in the Levant, are often characterized as a chaotic mishmash of different sectarian and ethnic groups with few common loyalties. 3ECOND THE INHERENT ARTIÄŞCIALITY OF THESE states prevented them from winning the consensual support of their populations. To compensate, state-builders resorted to coercion, resulting in authoritarian institutions of government that were brutal yet brittle, without real roots in society—memorably described by .AZIH !YUBI AS ¹ĪERCE² STATES Third, it is sometimes argued that the structural weakness of Arab states has been entrenched over the years by the active involvement—or passive disregard—of various international actors. While the US is typically held up as the most egregious example of unwanted intervention, actors such as the former colonial powers, the This map, signed UN Security CounE\ 0DUN 6\NHV DQG cil, the EU, and the François GeorgesIMF are also comPicot on May 8, 1916, MONLY IDENTIÄŞED AS FDUYHG XS WKH 0LGGOH guilty parties. From (DVW EHWZHHQ %ULWLVK the perspective of and French colonial many people in the administrations after Middle East, the World War I. legacies of colonialISM ARE NOT CONÄŞNED to the history books but have laid the foundations for and fuel the continuation of political instability and imperialistic interference to the present day. As scholars such as Fred Halliday, Nazih Ayubi, Roger Owen, Ghassan SalamĂŠ, Ian Lustick and others have demonstrated, each of these accusations contains within it a

Sectarian S ectarian arian and ethnic eth rivalries could break reak it into at least three pieces: re piec

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kernel of truth. Yet the underlying premise—that the political map of the Middle East is to blame for its woes—is widely shared by many people outside the region too, albeit by individuals who might have very different solutions about how to improve the situation there. A surprising number of Western policy-makers, politicians, and JOURNALISTS SEEM TO BELIEVE THAT IF THEY CAN JUST ÄŞX THE MAP OF THE -IDDLE %AST THEY CAN ÄŞX ITS PROBLEMS As a good example of this belief, consider an article by Robin Wright titled ‘Imagining a Remapped Middle East’ that was published in the New York Times on September 28, 2013 (see map above). “The map of the modern Mid-

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In n a mo ore or e po owe w rf rful ul twi wist st,, al st allll or part of South Yeme Ye men me n co coul coul uld d th then en beccom me part of Saudi A ab Ar abia ia.. Ne ia N ar arly ly allll Sau audi di cco di ommerce is via sea, se a, and dir a, irec e t accesss to the Arabian Sea ec w ul wo uld d di dimi m ni mi nish sh depen nd n dence on the Persian Gu Gulf ulff — and and nd fears off Ir Iran’s ability to cut off the S th Stra St rait ra i of Horm it muz m uz. u

dle East [...] is in tatters,â€? Wright tells us. “The centrifugal forces of rival beliefs, tribes and ethnicities—empowered by unintended consequences of the Arab Spring —are ALSO PULLING APART A REGION DEÄŞNED BY %UROPEAN COLONIAL powers a century ago and defended by Arab autocrats ever since.â€? Taking the war in Syria as the starting point for the unraveling of the region, Wright argues that “Syria HAS CRUMBLED INTO THREE IDENTIÄŞABLE REGIONS EACH WITH ITS OWN ÄŤAG AND SECURITY FORCES ! DIFFERENT FUTURE IS TAKING shape: a narrow statelet [runs] along a corridor from the south through Damascus, Homs and Hama to the northern Mediterranean coast controlled by the Assads’ minority

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FACULTY SHOWCASE Alawite sect. In the north, a small Kurdistan [has formed], nities don’t tend to stay within the dictates of outdated largely autonomous since mid-2012. The biggest chunk is maps. Solutions like this would effectively involve mass the Sunni-dominated heartland.â€? population transfers—a phenomenon which has hardly Wright goes on to argue that other states that lack a met with great success whether in the context of Israel “sense of common good or identityâ€? are also vulnerable. and Palestine, Greece and Turkey, India and Pakistan, etc. Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq are all potential While geographical solutions to political problems may candidates for fragmentation along ethnic, sectarian, or look neat on paper, in reality they fail to grasp the escultural lines, alongside the potential de facto emergence sential messiness of how—and where—people live their of uniquely cosmopolitan or lives, make their homes, uniquely well-armed “city-statesâ€? :KLOH JHRJUDSKLFDO VROXWLRQV and build their communisuch as Baghdad or Misrata, and ties. Untangling that messy unusually homogeneous micro- WR SROLWLFDO SUREOHPV PD\ complexity is an impossible regions such as the “Jabal al- look neat on paper, in task. Druzeâ€? in southern Syria. Wright In many ways, the inTHINKS THAT OUT OF THE ÄŞVE COUN- reality they fail to grasp the tuitive connection we make tries discussed in the article, as messiness of how—and between identity and gemany as 14 new political entities ography is the child of the might possibly emerge. “A dif- ZKHUH Ä‹SHRSOH OLYH WKHLU OLYHV nationalist imagination. In ferent map would be a strategic the nineteenth and twenGAME CHANGER FOR JUST ABOUT EVERYBODY ² 7RIGHT SUGGESTS tieth centuries, movements for autonomy, self-rule, and ÂąPOTENTIALLY RECONÄŞGURING ALLIANCES SECURITY CHALLENGES independence couched their political vision in terms of TRADE AND ENERGY ÄŤOWS FOR MUCH OF THE WORLD ² their right to claim a space—and a state—for their people To be fair, at no point does Wright consider more ex- alongside the spaces and states of other peoples. While plicitly than this whether or not the new map of the Middle this vision of one people in one space could motivate leEast would work to the advantage of external actors. But gitimate struggles against occupation and colonialism, it the point here is not to discern the existence of some kind also enabled darker imaginings of national purity, someof cartographic conspiracy along the lines of a new Sykes- times with murderous consequences as the nation sought 0ICOT ARRANGEMENT FOR THE TWENTY ÄŞRST CENTURY )NSTEAD to “cleanseâ€? its territory of impure and alien elements. At what Wright’s article reveals is how deeply embedded its most extreme, the drive for the homogenization of a in our mindset is the assumption that identity and geog- population within a given space may give rise to genoraphy are two sides of the same coin. It seems somehow cidal impulses. natural that social divisions—whether along tribal, ethnic, Yet this nationalist imagination that locates one people religious, or cultural lines—should correspond to spatial in one space seems oddly inadequate for the world we live divisions that can be drawn, straightforwardly, on a map. in today. The transnational movements of people, labor, We saw repeated examples of this assumption in the capital, and ideas crisscross the clean boundary lines that run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, when the interna- are familiar from our maps, weaving an impossibly dense tional media informed its audience about the complexi- web of social, economic, and political connections. Rathties of Iraqi politics and society by means of little maps er than seeking to force the undeniably messy complexity that divided the country into Kurdish north, Sunni cen- of these interactions to conform to the clean political logic ter, and Shia south—as if they were three homogeneous of the map, perhaps we should start to think of ways in and unadulterated ethno-confessional blocs. Ten years which political cartography could more accurately map later, the same assumption emerged in discussion of fu- the contours of lived experience in the Middle East and ture scenarios for Syria, when a number of commentators ELSEWHERE 4O BRING AN END TO SOCIAL CONÄŤICTS PREMISED hypothesized that peace might follow the retreat of the upon the equivalence of identity and geography, we must Alawi regime to its so-called “traditional heartlandâ€? in the resist the pernicious temptations of the map. ™ mountains of the coast. 4HIS KIND OF GEOGRAPHICAL SOLUTION MIGHT AT ÄŞRST APPEAR practical, but it overlooks decades of urbanization, social Daniel Neep is Assistant Professor at the Center for Conmobility, and cultural change. Unfortunately, commu- temporary Arab Studies.

10

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

PUBLIC EVENTS

Fall 2013 CCAS Public Events 9LĂ…LJ[PUN VU [OL 4PKKSL ,HZ[ K\YPUN >VYSK >HY 0 examining secular and religious trends in the Middle East and North Africa, and other events. America as Chimera: Public Diplomacy between Journalism and Transculturalism September 5, 2013

CCAS Qatar Post-Doctoral Fellow Adel Iskandar presented his research on the US government’s public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East throughout the last decade, arguing that during this time the discourses of news and hybridity in the government’s new outlets—Al-Hurra and Radio Sawa—represented a shift in the way America was branded and exported in the Middle East. His study demonstrated that policy priorities sometimes CAME AT THE EXPENSE OF JOURNALISTIC PRINCIPLES and were consistent with U.S. national interests rather than regional priorities. “The Island� September 16-17, 2013

CCAS co-sponsored a reception following the performance of the play, “The Island� performed by Freedom Theatre from Jenin Refugee Camp, Palestine. “The Island� was written by South African playwrights Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona and inspired by a true story of two cellmates in a prison. Syria: A Teach-In September 21, 2013

(SEE

PAGE

16

FOR DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF

EVENT.)

CCAS

The Middle Eastern Dimension of World War One: A Century of History and Historiography September 26, 2013

The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and Georgetown’s Institute for Global History hosted the opening lecture of their yearlong lecture and workshop series on World War I in the Middle East and North Africa, “The New Middle East: The First World War

Prof. L. Carl Brown presents alongside 'U 0XVWDID $NVDNDO

100 Years Later.� The lecture featured historian L. Carl Brown, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, who opened the series with a general overview of the Middle East during World War I, discussing in particular the state of the Ottoman Empire prior to its demise as well as suggesting areas for further research. “When I Saw You� September 29, 2013

##!3 CO SPONSORED THE OPENING ÄŞLM FOR THE 2013 DC Palestinian Film and Arts Festival. “When I Saw Youâ€? tells the story of a 0ALESTINIAN BOY ÄŤEEING THE WAR FOR A refugee camp in Jordan, and was directed by !NNEMARIE *ACIR AN INDEPENDENT ÄŞLMMAKER living in Jordan. Roundtable on the Cultural Heritage of Morocco October 1, 2013

The roundtable featured three speakers: Kenneth Honerkamp, Professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Georgia; Father Michael Calabria, Chaplain-inResidence at Georgetown University; and Paul Heck, Associate Professor of Religion at Georgetown University. The roundtable

broached three intertwined themes: to engage participants in a discussion on the roots of Morocco’s cultural heritage that is informed and shaped by its historical and religious antecedents; to develop a deeper understanding of those historical and religious roots including its commitment to multiculturalism and moderation resulting from the incorporation OF -ALIKI AND 3UÄŞ VALUES AND TO DEVELOP RECOMMENDATIONS AS TO PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS that can be bilaterally developed between Morocco and the US to support and encourage this moderation and respect for diversity. The Center uploaded an edited version of the paper on its website. “Indignez-vous!â€? Arab Spring Youth and the Struggle for Political and Cultural Legitimation in Tunisia and Morocco October 3, 2013

Dr. Safoi Babana-Hampton, Associate Professor French and Francophone Studies at Michigan State University, described her communications with young Arab Spring activists from Morocco and Tunisia through social media. She examined their commitment to devise creative forms of resistance in order to voice their outrage toward institutional inJUSTICE AND SOCIALLY AND CULTURALLY SANCTIONED alienation and violence. Palestinian Political Factions in Lebanon: An Everyday Perspective October 15, 2013

Perla Issa, PhD student at the University of Exeter and MAAS alumna, discussed her research on Palestinian political factions in Nahr el-Bared camp in the north of Lebanon. Her ÄŞNDINGS HAVE LED HER TO RE CONCEPTUALIZE POlitical factionalism within Palestinian society, positing that what binds Palestinian refugees to these factions is not ideology or regional or international alliances, but social factors.

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PUBLIC EVENTS “They’re Gathered Up to Die!�: Popular Perceptions of the First World War in the Ottoman Empire October 17, 2013

God’s Century?: Assessing the “Clash� of Secular and Religious Trends in the Middle East and North Africa October 24-25, 2013

CCAS and Georgetown’s Institute for Global History hosted the second event in the yearlong lecture and workshop series on World War I in the Middle East and North Africa, “The New Middle East: The First World War 100 Years Later.â€? Yigit Akin, Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Tulane University, presented his paper, “‘They’re Gathered Up to Die!’: Popular Perceptions of the First World War in the Ottoman EmPIRE ² IN WHICH HE DISCUSSES THE SIGNIÄŞCANCE of songs, ballads, and laments created by the Ottoman people as a way of understanding the war, and how this in turn provided a glimpse into the experiences and feelings of the homefront population during and after the war.

CCAS, the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU), and the School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q) sponsored “God’s Century?,� a conference that assessed the “clash� of secular and religious trends in the Middle East and North Africa. Themes included conceptual and theoretical perspectives, Islam’s links to socio-economic development, and Islam’s impact on politics and the state. Faculty participating in the event came from all three centers, including John Voll, Jonathan Brown, and Paul Heck from ACMCU; Mehran Kamrava, Zahra Babar, Mark Farha, Abdullah Al-Arian, and Birol Baskan from SFS-Q; and Osama Abi-Mershed, Fida Adely, and Joseph Sassoon from CCAS. American University’s Kristin Diwan also presented, and SFS-Q Dean Gerd Nonneman gave the closing remarks. Libya: From Revolutionary Legitimacy to Constitutional Legitimacy November 4, 2013

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Qatar: Small State, Big Politics October 23, 2013

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Remembering the Great War in Syria and Lebanon: Everything, Including the Plague November 14, 2013

.AJWA AL 1ATTAN !SSOCIATE 0ROFESSOR AT Loyola Marymount University, led a workshop titled “Remembering the Great War in Syria and Lebanon: Everything, Including the Plague.� She consulted a number of po-

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Roundtable on Revolution and Political Transitions in North Africa November 21,2013

CCAS and the Maghreb Center cosponsored a roundtable on “Revolution and Political Transitions in North Africa.� The roundtable included discussion of military and police forces in transitions, the sequencing of elections and constitution writing, and the important role of youth in the uprisings. Participants included Lahouari Addi, Noureddine Jebnoun, and Joseph Sassoon from CCAS, Michael Hudson from the National University of Singapore, Azzedine Layachi from St. John’s University, Emad El-Din Shahin from The American University in Cairo, Ricardo Rene Laremont from SUNY Binghamton, Amira Aleya-Sghaier FROM THE 5NIVERSITY OF 4UNIS AND .EJIB !YAchi from the Maghreb Center. ™

>LLRS` ,N`W[PHU Contemporary Film Series Now Showing at CCAS Boardroom, ICC 241 February-April 2014, Tuesdays, 5-7pm The “Egyptian Contemporary Film :LYPLZš PZ H ^LLRS` Ă„ST ZLYPLZ [OH[ showcases some of the landmark and controversial productions from Egypt since 2000. For a list of upcoming titles, see: http://guevents.georgetown.edu/ event/ccas_egyptian_contempoYHY`FĂ„STFZLYPLZ <^;0HR1K<@J CCAS

Mehran Kamrava, director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar, spoke at CCAS about his new book Qatar: Small State, Big Politics (Cornell, 2013). During his presentation, Dr. Kamrava described Qatar’s successful bid in creating what he calls “subtle power,â€? or the combination of carefully crafted strategies to build poLITICAL INÄŤUENCE IN THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA (E highlighted Qatar’s pursuit of “brandingâ€? (for example, using media like Al Jazeera to raise 1ATAR´S INTERNATIONAL PROÄŞLE AND ÂąHEDGING² (maintaining relations with countries hostile to one another) to illustrate how Qatar has GONE ABOUT BUILDING ITS INÄŤUENCE

The Ambassador of Libya to the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Aref Ali Nayed, gave a lecture REÄŤECTING ON THE SITUATION ,IBYA ÄŞNDS ITSELF IN today. Exploring structural sources of tension that have led to multiple crises in Libya, Dr. Nayed explored possible remedies and solutions, concluding with an outline of a “Libya Disaster Recovery Planâ€? aimed at stabilizing the country. In addition to his political role as ambassador, Dr. Nayed has had a distinGUISHED ACADEMIC CAREER IN THE ÄŞELDS OF )Slamic theology, hermeneutics, and interfaith dialogue. CCAS and ACMCU co-sponsored the event.

ems, plays, novels, memoirs, and histories to examine the impact of famine on Syrian civilians during the war. The lecture is part of the 2013-2014 Middle East and North Africa Public Lecture Series and Workshops: “The New Middle East: The First World War 100 Years Later,� and was co-sponsored by CCAS and the Institute for Global History.

EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH

Students Teaching Students MAAS students assist CCAS’s educational outreach program via the Speakers’ Bureau.

CCAS: FAISAL KATTAN

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CAS’S EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH program strongly encourages students enrolled in the MAAS program to present lectures on aspects of the Middle East and North Africa at K-14 schools in the Washington, DC metropolitan area through an initiative called the Speakers’ Bureau. This past semester, two students from the MAAS program spoke at two D.C.-area schools. Hannah Beswick, a second-year candidate concentrating in Development, spoke to 125 students as well as teachers from all grade levels at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia, in November 2013. Directing her talk to history classes in particular as well as to members of the Middle East Club, Ms. Beswick focused on the current civil war and humanitarian crisis in Syria and addressed how the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq were responding to the refugees čEEING THE CONčICT (ER PRESENTATION covered a brief timeline of the civil war beginning in 2011; the current situation (who has the power, how many people have been displaced, how many people have died, etc.); where refugees leaving Syria have gone; and what the international aid community is—or should be—doing. Questions asked by the audience included what a refugee camp is and what it is like to live in one; why Saudi Arabia is funding the rebels if the US is funding Saudi Arabia (which in turn brought up a discussion about international politics and international

law); and if people wanted to help, what they should do, and how they would know if their donations were funding terrorists or not. In addition, Faisal Kattan A ĪRST YEAR MAAS candidate and national of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who is concentrating in Politics and focuses on political Islam, citizenship, and statebuilding spoke at Wilson High School in Washington, $# EARLY IN THE &ALL SEMESTER ĪRST to an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class and then later to a History class. Using resources developed from past CCAS educational workshops and seminars, Mr. Kattan gave presentations covering the rise of Islam, and he spoke about cultural and material contributions Muslims have made to the world. Questions from the students in the History class were more political in nature, focusing on the role of Islam in trade, SPECIĪCALLY THE 3ILK 2OAD AS WELL AS THE contemporary political uses of Islam. While the class discussions revealed a lack of general knowledge among students about current events in the Arab world, they did suggest future topics that would be relevant to the needs of teachers and students in the DC area. Students in the MAAS program have expressed great interest in speaking at area schools, some of them noting that K-14 students are remarkably open to talking about topics that can be quite controversial. CCAS hopes to increase its student participation in educational outreach programming in the coming years. ™

CCAS Staff Present on Arab Christianity at Tulane University On October 9, 2013, former Director of Educational Outreach Zeina Azzam and Multimedia and Publications Editor Steven Gertz gave a presentation for Arabic classes at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, titled “Arab Christianity: A Historical and Cultural Introduction.â€? Mr. Gertz began by giving a brief history of Semitic languages, comparing the roots of Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic/Syriac to show linguistic commonalities. He then gave a historical overview of the Arab tribes that converted to Christianity ILMVYL 0ZSHT HUK OL L_WSVYLK [OL ZPNUPĂ„JHUJL VM 1LY\ZHSLT HZ H WPSNYPTHNL ZP[L MVY Christians throughout the Mediterranean and western Asia. He then addressed the Arabization of Christianity during and after the Islamic conquest, pointing out that most of the switch to Arabic occurred during the Umayyad Caliphate. The different Christian NYV\WZ ^LYL [OLU PKLU[PĂ„LK ,HZ[LYU 6Y[OVdox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants) and their history covered in brief. Ms. Azzam, whose family is Antiochian Orthodox from Palestine, continued with a TVYL WLYZVUHS YLĂ…LJ[PVU VU (YHI *OYPZ[PHUP[` She described the experience of worshiping in an Orthodox church as a multisensory one, marked by fragrant incense, ubiquitous icons, beautiful chanting, and wine, holy bread, and certain foods made for special feasts and occasions. Ms. Azzam then described fasting during the Lenten season and addressed the sacraments of the Orthodox Church, such as marriage and baptism, and the rituals associated with them. She talked about the role of the priest in the church, noting that Orthodox priests can marry before they are ordained and therefore many have families who participate in the church’s parish activities. She concluded by exploring some of the differences between Orthodox churches in the Middle East and the West. ™

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FACULTY FEATURE

Can Syria Hold Together?

New CCAS assistant professors Marwa Daoudy and Daniel Neep talk about their professional backgrounds, their research in Syria, and the challenges facing this nation at war. Interview by Steven Gertz

As you are both new to CCAS, can you tell us a bit about your professional backgrounds and how you became interested in the Arab world? Marwa Daoudy: I was born and grew up in Syria, and then later moved to Switzerland. My upbringPUN ^HZ Ă„SSLK ^P[O lively political debates over family dinners. I developed from an early age a strong interest in international politics particularly in the Middle East. At Ă„YZ[ 0 [OV\NO[ 0 ^V\SK ZH[PZM` [OPZ PU[LYest by becoming a reporter, traveling the world, and writing about politics. Later I found that academia offered a unique opWVY[\UP[` [V M\SĂ„SS T` PU[LSSLJ[\HS J\YPVZP[` and transmit my interests and passions to a new generation.

14

Daniel Neep: My interest in the Middle East began with my undergraduate degree in Arabic and French at Oxford University. At the time, it was normal for British students to decide their course of study before actually starting university: you would apply to be accepted for a particular subject and your studies would then be almost exclusively devoted to that subject. So I had decided to study Arabic while I was still at school, when I was just seventeen. I had never been to the region, my family had no connections there, and I clearly had no idea what I was getting into. Arabic wasn’t a particularly common choice for working-class students from the post-industrial north of England. But I had gotten hold of some books on Palestine and Middle Eastern history from the town library, and something apparently sparked my interest there. ([ 6_MVYK 0 ZWLU[ T` ÄYZ[ `LHY TLTVrizing obscure verb conjugations, and I

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

spent my second year deciphering al1ȊOPџ [OL 4HXȊTȊ[ ]HYPV\Z OHKP[O HUK other classical texts, which seemed at the time like an insurmountable obstacle. 0U T` ÄYZ[ [^V `LHYZ VM Z[\K` 0 KVU[ think I spoke even a word of Arabic. But I also spent my third year on the Arabic program at the Institut Francais d’Etudes Arabes a Damas (subsequently renamed IFPO Damas), and I spent two summers living in Palestine. This transformed my interest in the region from being abstract and intellectual to an experience that was both personal and political. I then built on this interest by teaching English for a year in Damascus and studying for a Masters and PhD, focusing on Syria, at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. Prior to joining Georgetown, I led for several years the Middle East program at the Royal United Services Institute, a respected London defense and foreign policy think-tank. I also obtained a tenured position as Lecturer (the UK equivalent of Assistant Professor) in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, and I worked as Research Director (Syria) at the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL). In this latter role, I was working towards the goal of establishing a British research institute in Damascus (similar to the IFPO, VY (*69 PU 1VYKHU ^OLU [OL J\YYLU[ uprising began. In this issue, we’ve examined Syria in the context of the nations and peoples within and surrounding it. Given the chaotic state of Syria right now as

Tara Daoudy; CCAS

My graduate studies focused on International Relations, and I specialized in environmental politics, non-traditional security studies, and Middle East politics. I completed my dissertation on the subject VM ^H[LY JVUĂ…PJ[ HUK ULNV[PH[PVU PU [OL 7Vlitical Science department of the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. My case study drew on security dynamics between Iraq, Syria, and Turkey in the Euphrates and Tigris basins. During my doctoral YLZLHYJO 0 ^HZ H NYHK\H[L HMĂ„SPH[L H[ /HYvard University for two years with an additional year at the University of Pennsylvania. I then did postdoctoral research at

the School of Oriental and African Studies (London) and Sciences-Po (Paris). After teaching for two years at the University of Oxford, both in the department of Politics and International Relations and the Middle East Center as well as a year at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, I joined CCAS and the School of Foreign Service PU 1HU\HY`

well as the international nature of the JVUÅPJ[ [OLYL JHU `V\ ZWLHR HIV\[ [OL durability of Bashar al-Asad’s regime and speculate as to how likely you think it is that Syria as a political entity might dissolve? MD: The survival of the Asad regime and the maintenance of Syria as a cohesive political entity are two separate matters. State-making in Syria pre-dates the rise to power of the Asad regime. The French partition of Greater Syria in 1920, which separated Lebanon from Syria, and its decision to cede the Sandjak of Alexandretta to Turkey in exchange for allied participation in the Second World War profoundly impacted Syrian psyche and history. Since independence, Syrians have worked hard to build a secular state with a strong national identity that transcends L[OUPJ HUK YLSPNPV\Z HMÄSPH[PVUZ

Bo Yaser

However, since the onset of the uprisings in 2011, the Asad regime has opted for a survival strategy of sectarian strife and threatened the population with chaos and civil war in the event of its demise. The regime has managed to keep its grip on power through external military and diplomatic support, but it is increasingly losing control over major parts of the country. State institutions are collapsing and the country is operating on minimal resources and capacity. For example, nine million Syrians out of a population of 23 million HYL ILSPL]LK [V OH]L KPMÄJ\S[` MLLKPUN themselves. Asad’s regime might endure for much longer than expected but something irreversible has been set in motion. DN: When the revolution broke out in Syria, many people—including perhaps many activists inside the country—were skeptical that the regime would be able to survive without either introducing major

reforms or crumbling from within. However, over the course of the Ă„YZ[ TVU[OZ VM [OL JVUĂ…PJ[ [OL YLNPTL ^HZ able to shed its ‘nonessential’ personnel (especially technocrats and liberal-minded reformists) and strip itself down to a core of committed loyalists to whom it could either entrust the state’s instruments of coercion or sub-contract the task of carrying out the more extreme MVYTZ VM IY\[HSP[` HUK ]PVSLUJL @L[ HZ [OL phenomenon of the ZOHIIČ&#x;Đ”H illustrates, once local sub-state actors were allowed to perpetrate acts of violence, they began using that power to accumulate power in other domains, especially the economic. In [OPZ ^H` [OL OVYYPĂ„J WYHJ[PJLZ VM ]PVSLUJL we have witnessed in Syria over the past two and a half years do not exhibit a purely political rationality but are enmeshed in the economic and symbolic logic of criminality, extortion, intra-group competition, and exploitation. Do you think it likely that the Asad regime will be able to reach a political ZL[[SLTLU[ ^P[O [OL MHJ[PVUZ Ă„NO[PUN P[& DN: I think it’s extremely unlikely, but regardless of whether there is any kind of neNV[PH[LK WVSP[PJHS ZL[[SLTLU[ [V [OL JVUĂ…PJ[ [OL YLNPTL ^PSS Ă„UK P[ KPMĂ„J\S[ [V W\[ [OPZ genie of violence back in the bottle. Even if the Asad regime were able to repress both the popular revolution and the jihadi groups that have swarmed into Syria, it would not be in a position to reconstitute the same structure of power that existed prior to 2011. If the Asad regime remains intact throughout this process, it will SPRLS` OH]L [V ZOHYL PUĂ…\LUJL ^P[O WHYHSSLS informal networks and sub-state centers of authority to which power has been

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delegated during the war. Of course, state institutions are to varying degrees always undercut by informal politics in every country. But uncontrollable, violent, selfinterested gang leaders who exist outside the formal hierarchies of the Syrian state are unlikely to disappear overnight. Even if the regime wants to end the war, it is unlikely it will be able to impose this decision upon the sub-state actors who have ILLU LTWV^LYLK [V ÄNO[ [OL JVUÅPJ[ MD: Regrettably, a peaceful transition through a viable and lasting settlement appears to be increasingly unlikely between regime forces, the armed resistance, and foreign extremists. In my view it would be a mistake to try to model any future peace settlement after, for example, the one reached at Dayton in 1995. That agreement brought the tragic bloodshed in Bosnia-Herzegovina to an end, but the country was partitioned into three ethnically separated areas and placed under international tutelage that continues to this day. The majority of Syrians (including various entities within the opposition) consider Syria’s territorial integrity and cohesiveness a red line that should not be crossed. Any discussion of Syria’s future needs to account for this. Future peace settlements in Syria will also need to strike a balance between maintaining a cohesive political entity while accounting for the rights of religious and ethnic minorities. ™

üçT Ă?t VE T – Ăˆc~TE)Æ VN cE Æ ÉT ÆĂ?a Æ d c

15

SPECIAL EVENT

Educating the Public

About Syria

Three CCAS faculty with expertise on Syria join together for a “teach-in� at Georgetown. By Zeina Azzam and Steven Gertz

G

iven the dramatic events taking place in Syria over the past two years, CCAS decided to plan a joint event on September 21, 2013, between its public relations and outreach departments showcasing a “teachinâ€? by CCAS professors on Syria. Associate Professor Rochelle Davis, Assistant Professor Daniel Neep, and Adjunct Professor Bassam Haddad all contributed to this event, along with the support of then Educational Outreach Director Zeina Azzam, Grants Administrator Courtney Smith, and Public Affairs Coordinator Elisabeth Sexton. Associate Professor Rochelle Davis and MAAS alumna Grace Benton began the morning with a unit for 45 DC-area teachers titled “Teaching Forced Displacement.â€? They described and analyzed the international refugee regime, giving examples from UN agencies (especially UNHCR), as well as NGOs that work with internally displaced persons HUK YLM\NLLZ 4Z )LU[VU ZOV^LK H Ă„ST [OH[ she created about refugees, including information about their legal status, rights, where [OL` OHK Ă…LK [V [OL RPUKZ VM ZLY]PJLZ [OL` receive, the problems they face, and how they are treated by relief agencies. +Y +H]PZ [OLU MVJ\ZLK VU 1VYKHU ^OPJO OHZ hosted migrants and refugees for hundreds of years, due to its geographical location as a crossroads for many civilizations. In 1948 1VYKHU ZLY]LK HZ H YLM\NL MVY [OL THZZP]L Palestinian refugee population as a result of the war in Israel/Palestine—what Palestinians remember as the Nakba. At present, ULHYS` VUL OHSM VM 1VYKHUÂťZ JP[PaLUY` HYL originally Palestinian; the population also includes approximately half a million Syrian refugees and 150,000 Iraqi refugees, as well as many displaced from several other countries. Although these refugees feel a sense

VM ZLJ\YP[` HUK ZHML[` PU 1VYKHU [OL` KV UV[ have the right to work there and so depend VU V[OLY ZV\YJLZ VM ÄUHUJPHS Z\WWVY[ Z\JO as international aid. Both speakers discussed how to teach about refugees in the classroom, and Ms. Benton ZOV^LK ZOVY[LY ÄSTZ ZOL OHK KL]LSVWLK MYVT MVV[HNL [OH[ [OL YLM\NLLZ PU 1VYKHU themselves had taken as part of a video project that she had worked on in Amman. The speakers shared several lesson plans that could be used directly in the classroom along ^P[O [OLZL ÄSTZ ;V YLHK [OLZL SLZZVU WSHUZ go to: https://blogs.commons.georgetown. edu/rochelledavis/refugee-video-project/. In the afternoon, Assistant Professor Daniel Neep began the public event with a historical introduction to Syria. He challenged two myths common among media and policymakers: 1) that the colonial construction of :`YPHZ Z[H[L PTWSPLZ [OH[ P[ PZ HY[PÄJPHS HUK therefore doomed to fail, and 2) that Syria is deeply divided into communal and sectarian groups that are now warring against one another in the wake of the uprising. Dr. Neep pointed out that while it is true that the French divided up and isolated various communities in order to discourage nationalism, the rise of the Ba’th party in 1940 largely Z\JJLLKLK PU MVYNPUN H \UPÄLK ZLJ\SHY UH[PVU that majority Sunni as well as Druze, Alawi, and Christian minorities willingly joined. As the state has grown and come to a play a major role in everyday life, contended Dr. Neep, the state of Syria under the Asads has JLHZLK [V IL HU HY[PÄJPHS JVUZ[Y\J[PVU Adjunct Professor Bassam Haddad next discussed the current crisis and the agreement that the US has reached with Russia regarding the dismantling of Bashar Asad’s

chemical weapons arsenal. He argued that the very fact that the US was debating over whether it should bomb Syria demonstrates American arrogance and ignorance of the situation in Syria. The US is now faced with KPMÄJ\S[ JOVPJLZ UVUL VM ^OPJO HYL KLZPYable. Dr. Haddad noted that while all the Arab uprisings are complex, the Syrian one is especially so. He observed that Syria is at the heart of historical struggles, including the (YHI 0ZYHLSP JVUÅPJ[ YLNPVUHS YP]HSY` IL[^LLU Saudi Arabia and Iran, the Cold War between the US and Russia, and the rise of Hizbullah. The uprising, then, was hijacked by regional powers that are now using Syria as a proxy for their regional battles. He also emphasized that it is not possible to return to the status quo, as Asad’s regime no longer controls the whole of the country. Associate Professor Rochelle Davis completed the event with a discussion of her most recent research on refugees, displaced persons, and humanitarian aid in Syria, LebHUVU ;\YRL` HUK 1VYKHU (Z ^HY OHZ KL]HZtated Syria, many Syrian civilians have been forced to abandon their homes and relocate to neighboring countries. Turkey, Lebanon, 0YHX HUK 1VYKHU OH]L WSH`LK H JY\JPHS YVSL PU providing homes for hundreds of thousands of refugees. Dr. Davis particularly highlighted their living conditions and the effects their migration has had on their host countries. She emphasized that while providing support to refugees is laudable, bringing the war to an end is the more important task at hand. ™

For an interview with CCAS assistant professors Daniel Neep and Marwa Daoudy ABOUT THE CONÄŤICT IN 3YRIA SEE PAGE

An online version of this newsletter is available on CCAS’s website: http://ccas.georgetown.edu/ 16

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

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