Israel captured West Jerusalem during the 1948 war, and illegally occupied and annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 in contravention to international law and Un resolutions. Since then, Israeli measures - including the annexation of adjacent land, forcible displacement, home demolitions, the construction of a high concrete separation Wall on occupied territories and the use of [...]
West Bank: Israeli Strategy in the West Bank. Divide et Impera
The West Bank is a land-locked area sealed off by Israel to its north, south and west; and Jordan to the East. It was entirely occupied by Israel in 1967 (including East Jerusalem), with over 200 settlements illegal built today supporting a total Jewish population of over 600.000. Israel has further annexed thousands of hectares [...]
The role of International Organizations in the MENA region
Tarik Yousef - Director of Brookings Doha Center "International organizations are facing a major challenge in engaging with the Middle-East. The region is now engulfed in geopolitical competitions, internal clashes and a lack of consensus on what development and politics means. I can’t think of a time in the last fifteen years when so many [...]
The MENA Region and the Energy Global Dynamics
Emanuela Menichetti, Director of the Electricity and Renewable Energy Division – Observatoire Méditerranéen de l’Énergie (OME) «Is the MENA region clearly embedded in the dynamics of the global energy dynamics or is the role of the MENA countries becoming the more and more peripheral? One of the main trends is the unconventional fossil fuel revolution: [...]
“Future Research”: an essential instrument of the MENARA project
Edgar Göll is Co-Head of Research of the cluster “Future Studies and Participation” - Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT) «Future Research is among the most modern approaches that are capable to influence decision-makers. And I think that for MENARA is very useful: the project deals with a complicated region with different countries [...]
The Syrian War: The main challenge to achieve a lasting resolution
Máté Szalai, Research fellow - Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) and a PhD candidate at the Corvinus University of Budapest «The best way to picture the Syrian war is to picture it by three different levels: the domestic, the regional and the global level. In order to solve the crisis and have a [...]
China’s role in the MENA region
Jordi Quero, Researcher - Barcelona Center for International Affairs (CIDOB) «We have to pay attention to what China is doing in the Middle-East and its future role in the region. Up to now, we can see a Chinese foreign policy economically driven and this comes hand-in-hand with a depoliticized approach toward the region. Beijing has [...]
MENARA Gender Report
On Nov. 8/9, our expert Katerina Dalacoura (Associate Professor in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science) has presented at the Kayseri Üniversitesi and the Van Yüzüncü Yil University (Turkey) a report on gender in the Middle East and North Africa region being prepared for MENARA. The presentation has offered a 'map' of the situation of women in [...]
Driving Social and Economic Development in the MENA Region: The Role of International Organizations
On Nov. 15, MENARA held a stakeholders’ meeting in Istanbul. The meeting was organized by our partner PODEM and has discussed the role and impact of international organizations in fostering growth and development of MENA, while looking at the key political, social and economic challenges/opportunities the region embraces. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continues to be a [...]
