Category: Katie Preston

Peace Picks June 27-30

Posted in Katie Preston - June 27, 2016 - 0 Comment
  1. Restoring NATO’s Power And Purpose| Monday, June 27th | 1:30  | Atlantic Council | 1030 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20005, USA| Register HERE | After Britain’s historic vote to leave the European Union, the NATO Alliance has become more important than ever as a platform for European cooperation and security. What the Alliance achieves at its upcoming Warsaw Summit will be integral in defining NATO’s role in the new Euro-Atlantic security environment and strengthening international peace and stability in a turbulent world. Framing a critical conversation about the Alliance’s strategic priorities, this event will present the final conclusions of an Atlantic Council-chartered study on the future of NATO co-chaired by Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns and General James L. Jones. The study is premised on the belief that the Alliance is facing its greatest set of internal and external challenges since the Cold War. The report calls for renewed leadership by the United States and key European allies to restore NATO’s power and purpose in the face of an entirely different security landscape.  Featuring a panel discussion with Nicholas Burns, Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Former US Ambassador to NATO; and General James L. Jones, Chairman and Board Director, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council; the event will convene key transatlantic officials and leaders to discuss what the US, UK, and crucial European Allies must do to bolster NATO’s strength and solidarity in a post-Brexit Europe.
  2.  Challenges And Opportunities For The U.S. Government To Improve The Protection Of Civilians In Armed Conflict| Monday, June 27th | 3:30-5:00  | Stimson Center | 8th floor, 1211 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036 | Register HERE | To mark the Washington, D.C. launch of Protection of Civilians, a comprehensive volume published by Oxford University Press, the Stimson Center will host a discussion examining how the U.S. government can advance the protection of civilians agenda. Panelists from inside and outside the U.S. government will explore how the government has engaged through bilateral diplomatic channels and multilateral institutions to prevent and respond to violence against civilians in conflict zones. The panel discussion will be followed by a reception with drinks and hors d’oeuvres. This event will be held under the Chatham House Rule. Speakers include: Victoria K. Holt, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State; Bruno Stagno Ugarte, Deputy Executive Director at Human Rights Watch, Lise Grande, Deputy Representative of the Secretary-General to the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Tamara Guttman, Director General, Stabilization and Reconstruction Task Force (START).
  3. Is China’s Door Closing? | Tuesday, June 28th | 2:30-4:00  | Woodrow Wilson Center | 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20004 | Register HERE | Ever since Deng Xiaoping launched his reforms in 1978, “openness” (对外开放) has been a central tenet of Chinese policy. While the actual degree of China’s openness has varied from time to time and sector to sector over the past 38 years, the trend toward greater liberalization of society, institutions, and the economy has been clear. Until recently. The passage of China’s foreign NGO law raises doubts about Xi Jinping’s commitment to further opening and reform. The law, which places foreign NGO’s under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Security, is the latest in a series of regulations meant to control “hostile foreign forces.” Surveys indicate that foreign companies are concerned about tightening business regulations in China and wonder whether they are as welcome as they were in recent decades. International journalists and publishers, too, are finding it difficult to obtain visas and to reach Chinese audiences. Is China’s door closing to foreigners? Why are conditions changing for international actors in China? How should the United States respond? Please join us for a discussion of the future of American NGO’s, corporations, and media in Xi’s China. Speakers: Erin Ennis, Senior Vice President, US-China Business Council Isaac Stone Fish, Asia Editor, Foreign Policy Shawn Shieh, Deputy Director, China Labour Bulletin.
  4. Changing Tides: The Road To Reconciliation And The Future Of Turkish – Israeli Relations | Tuesday, June 28th | 4:00-6:00  | Turkish Heritage Organization | Carnegie Endowment Conference Center | 1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW | In light of these recent developments and the possibility that a deal between Turkey and Israel is imminent, the Turkish Heritage Organization is hosting a roundtable discussion on Tuesday, June 28th from 4-6pm at the Carnegie Endowment Conference Center to explore and discuss the prospects for reconciliation between Turkey and Israel, the final stages of a deal and what the future might look like for both countries. Spakers include: Dr. Brenda Shaffer, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council; Dan Arbell,  Nonresident senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings and Former Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC; and Moran Stern,  Georgetown University, Center for Jewish Civilization. The moderator will be Dr. Mark Meirowitz, Assistant Professor at SUNY Maritime College.
  5. Media Activism Amid Civil War: The Role of Syrian Women Journalists | Wednesday, June 29th | 12:30-1:45  | Middle East Institute | 1761 N Street NW Washington, DC 20036 | Register HERE | Syrian citizen-journalists, bloggers, and media activists have played a critical role covering one of the world’s most dangerous conflicts. They do so in the face of significant challenges – from fear for their safety, to overcoming international indifference to the story of an unending conflict. Women journalists face even greater challenges and yet many continue to work in the field. Non-profit initiatives like the Syrian Female Journalists’ Network are providing training and support while promoting a better understanding of the important role of women in the Syrian uprising. The Middle East Institute (MEI) is pleased to host the founders of the Syrian Female Journalists Network, Rula Asad and Milia Eidmouni, and radio journalist Caroline Ayoub for a discussion of their work in promoting the roles of Syrian women in journalism and civil society. Kate Seelye will moderate the discussion with the activists, who are visiting Washington as part of an Asfari Foundation-backed program to highlight the ongoing role of Syrian civil society.
  6. Kurdistan Rising? Considerations For Kurds, Their Neighbors, And The Region | Wednesday, June 29th | 3:00-4:30  | American Enterprise Institute |1150 Seventeenth Street, NW Washington, DC 20036| Register HERE | Two decades ago, many US officials would have been hard-pressed to place Kurdistan on a map, let alone consider the Kurds as allies. Today, Kurds loom large on the Middle Eastern stage, highlighting their renewed push for independence amid the chaos in Iraq. In his new monograph, “Kurdistan Rising? Considerations for Kurds, Their Neighbors, and the Region,” AEI’s Michael Rubin examines the effects of Kurdish independence and unresolved questions that would follow an independent Kurdistan, including citizenship, political structures, defense, economic systems, and renegotiation of treaties to include the Kurds. Lukman Faily, Iraqi ambassador to the United States; James F. Jeffrey, former US ambassador to Iraq and Turkey; and Michael Rubin, resident scholar at AEI, will speak.
  7. Congo Crisis: Getting to Good Elections in a Bad Neighborhood | Wednesday, June 29th | 4:00pm | Institute of World Politics | 1521 16th Street NW Washington, DC | Register  HERE |  Charles Snyder, Former Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Professor of African Affairs, IWP, will speak about prospects for Congo.

 

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The Gulf’s still risky future

Posted in Katie Preston - June 25, 2016 - 0 Comment

Wednesday the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center hosted The Gulf, Iran, and Future Oil Geopolitics, featuring David Goldwyn, President of Goldwyn Global Strategies; Douglas Hengel, Senior Resident Fellow at the German Marshall Fund; Elizabeth Rosenberg, Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program at the Center for New American Security; and Jean-Francois Seznec, Non-Resident Senior Fellow and Director at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. Jan Kalicki, Global Fellow at the Wilson Center and Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, moderated the discussion.

Rosenberg discussed how lifting most sanctions on Iran has influenced Iranian politics. While the economy has opened up considerably since January, there are still many obstacles to doing international business in Iran. The prohibition on doing business with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leaves much of the economy untouchable by foreign investors. Many of the remaining sanctions are secondary, which requires Iranian companies to cut ties to groups like the IRGC that control 20-60% of the Iranian economy.

Iran is currently producing 3.5-3.8 million barrels per day and exporting 2 million. Iran could get up to 4 million per day. Beyond that, Iran would have to make substantial infrastructure investments. Several international oil companies have signed exploratory contracts, but there are still a lot of unknowns. With Iran upping the ante in  Syria and around the region, the future of the broader Middle East is in question.

Goldwyn said that Iraqi oil production had recently reached 1.8 million barrels per day, its highest level ever. This is Iraq’s peak. It will not even be able to maintain this level. Iraq suffers chronic problems:

  1. the government is weak and unable to make plans or execute them;
  2. failure to resolve ethnic and sectarian conflicts opened the door to the Islamic State (ISIS) and maybe worse in the future;
  3. the government is spending a huge portion of its budget on the war effort: $33 billion between 2009 and 2014.

The Iraqi army’s progress in retaking Fallujah is promising, but Fallujah has been liberated many times—each time escalating ethnic tensions to still higher levels.

Iraq will barely be able to maintain production in the coming months. The Iraqi government is spending all of its diminished oil revenue on its military, and low oil prices have limited the government’s ability to function on a basic level—let alone invest in infrastructure to boost oil production. Iraq’s near future looks grim.

Seznec commented on how Saudi Arabia’s deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is transforming his country in dramatic ways. His new “Vision 2030” intends to wean Saudi Arabia off oil dependence and diversify its economy. Saudi Arabia intends to maintain its current production of 10.2 million barrels per day, while growing its private sector. To accomplish this, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud appointed Khalid al-Falih as minister of the newly revamped Ministry of Energy, Industry, and Mineral Resources.

A major component of “Vision 2030” is selling 5 percent of the government’s shares in Aramco. Aramco is currently valued at 2 trillion dollars, so this will likely be the biggest IPO (initial public offering) in history. Part of Mohammed bin Salman’s plan is to revolutionize the workforce. By 2030, the government hopes that women will fill 45 percent of public and private sector positions. There are big changes on the way for the Kingdom, and we will have to wait and see what else the young deputy crown prince has in store for us.

Hengel addressed major factors that will affect all the countries discussed. His bottom line is that dependence on the Gulf will continue. The natural decline in current production means that continued investment in existing oil fields and new discoveries are essential. Hengel predicts that the United States and the world will continue to be dependent on OPEC. There is much uncertainty about the future of consumption. Many countries have started shifting towards electric vehicles and are moving away from their dependence on oil. But the United States continues to lead in consumption with the lion’s share, 10%, of global consumption. Gulf oil supplies are likely to remain important for the foreseeable future.

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Rebuilding Syria

Posted in Katie Preston - June 23, 2016 - 0 Comment

Launching the American Security Project’s new white paper Syrian stabilization and Reconstruction, ASP hosted a panel to discuss the prospects for rebuilding Syria after the end of its tragic civil war. Mathew Wallin, Fellow for Public Diplomacy at the American Security Project, presented a summary of the white paper, highlighting the need to go into Syria with defined goals and a clear understanding of how to achieve them. In order to learn from our mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan, Wallin emphasized an approach to reconstruction that focuses on the local level to establish security and create a new unified vision for Syria’s future.

Hani Masri, a member of the ASP Board of Directors and Founder of Tomorrow’s Youth Foundation, stressed the role that women and children play in post-war reconstruction. Masri noted that if we do not invest in Syria’s youth today, in twenty or thirty years the new generation of Syrians will not be ready to take on the challenges of governance in the new Middle East. Betty Bernstein-Zabza, Senior Advisor and Director of Operations for Global Women’s Issues in the Office of the Secretary of State, then addressed the reconstruction efforts undertaken in Iraq. Tragically, many women have become heads of households in Iraq and Syria, and because of that, any effort to provide security and economic prosperity in liberated areas must take women and children into account.

Kaufman Fellow and Director of Project Fikra at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy David Pollock proposed a bold plan for future engagement in Syria. He argued that given that Assad and his partners—Iran and Russia—are not seeking a political solution any time soon, the international community must start rebuilding Syria today. He claimed that reconstruction could commence in Opposition-controlled areas in Idlib, Deraa, and al-Hasakah, and stressed how the immediate needs of places such as Kobane and Manbij underline the urgency of acting now. An audience member questioned this proposal on grounds that Idlib, in particular, is under constant aerial bombardment. Any infrastructure rebuilt would be instantly destroyed. Among his other proposals,

Pollack responded emphasizing the need for a no-fly zone. He added that while this and other proposed measures will not solve the whole of the Syrian crisis, we have to start somewhere. The United States and international community have an opportunity to do the right thing, backed by moral and strategic reasoning.

Wallin commented that in the policy community many people advocate that we need to “do something” without sufficient thought to what comes after. We can provide humanitarian aid now, but that policy has no foreseeable end. A no-fly zone in Syria might have to be maintained for twenty years.

Wallin’s strategic concerns noted, it’s hard to argue against doing something to help the 6.6 million internally displaced Syrians that have fled their homes and the remaining millions that are living in constant peril.

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Peace picks June 20-24

Posted in Katie Preston - June 19, 2016 - 0 Comment
  1. Decision Point For The Citizens Of Europe: Brexit Referendum And Spanish Parliamentary Elections | Monday, June 20th | 12:00-1pm | Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) | 1717 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA | Register HERE |On June 23, citizens of the United Kingdom will participate in the European Union membership referendum. Only three days later, on June 26, a general election will be held in Spain after six months of political deadlock and the failure to form a government. Both events will have significant implications for the future of the European Union, a union already under duress due to the Greek debt crisis and mass migration. In addition, populist and nationalist parties have been surging in a number of EU member countries – from Germany to Austria, Hungary to Poland, and France to the United Kingdom. Will Europeans seek unity or chose division? The US-Italy Global Affairs Forum would like to invite you to a panel discussion discussing such issues. Speakers will include Renzo Cianfanelli of the US-Italy Global Affairs Forum; Donald Jensen, Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations; John Gizzi, White House Correspondent for Newsmax,; and Juncal Fernández-Garayzábal of the Institute for the Study of International Migrations (ISIM) at Georgetown University.
  2. Ukraine’s Humanitarian Crisis | Tuesday, June 21st | 10:30-3:00 | Atlantic Council | 1030 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20005, USA| Register HERE | Since 2014, the war in Ukraine’s East has claimed over ten thousand lives and displaced over 1.6 million people—the largest internally displaced persons crisis in Europe. Nationwide, more than 3.1 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance. As daily ceasefire violations continue in the Donbas, the ability of the Minsk Agreements to deliver a sustainable peace comes under question. The situation in the occupied territories of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic is dire: An absence of the rule of law, violations of human rights by the self-imposed authorities, and shortages of basic necessities have left the most vulnerable populations at risk. In addition, aid groups face difficulties delivering supplies and services to where they are most needed. The conference will focus on the current state of Ukraine’s humanitarian crisis and how to strategize on a way forward. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus at the US House of Representatives, will deliver keynote remarks. We hope you can join us for this important and timely discussion. A light lunch will be served.
  3. The National Security Implications Of Climate Change And Food Security | Tuesday, June 21st | 10:30-12:00 | Center for American Progress | 1333 H Street NW, 10th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005| Register HERE | U.S. policy communities are increasingly identifying climate change, environmental deterioration, water management, and food security as key concerns for national security and global governance. The interplay between these trends was visible during the upheavals across the Middle East, as food riots and water disputes illuminated the region’s extreme food insecurity. In the five years before the uprising in Syria, for example, the country experienced one of the worst droughts on record—decimating wheat production and wiping out livestock. There is little question that the effects of climate change will cause more extreme weather events and crop insecurities in the decades to come, and it is reasonable to expect that the secondary and tertiary effects will be magnified with time. Join the Center for American Progress on June 21, 2016, to discuss potential U.S. policy responses that address these pressing issues. Introductory remarks will be from Former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Jon White,  retired Rear Admiral, Navy, Coast Guard; President and CEO, Consortium for Ocean Leadership. Panelist will be Nancy Stetson, U.S. Special Representative for Global Food Security, U.S. Department of State; Richard Leach, President and CEO, World Food Program USA; Sharon Burke, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy, U.S. Department of Defense; Senior Advisor, New America.
  4. What Comes After? Strategy For Stabilization And Reconstruction In Syria | Tuesday, June 21st | 12:00-1:30 | American Security Project | 1100 New York Ave NW #710W, Washington, DC 20005| Register HERE | As the conflict in Syria enters its 5th year, questions of stabilization, peace, and reconstruction seem far away. However, building a sustainable peace will require clear planning now. Join American Security Project on June 21st for the launch of its latest White Paper on Syrian stabilization and reconstruction to discuss building a coherent strategy for building a durable peace. Hani Masri,  Member of the ASP Board of Directors and Founder of Tomorrow’s Youth Foundation, will speak.  Lunch refreshments will be served from 12:00pm – 12:30pm.
  5. Responding To The Migrant Crisis In The Middle East | Tuesday, June 21st | 1:00 | Council on Foreign Relations | 1777 F St NW #100, Washington, DC 20006, USA| Experts discuss efforts to assist refugees displaced from the migrant crisis in the Middle East. Speakers will include: Lisa Anderson, Former President of the American University in Cairo; US Ambassador to Germany, Peter Wittig; and David Miliband, President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee.
  6. The Gulf, Iran, And Future Oil Geopolitics | Wednesday, June 22nd   | 3:00-4:30 | Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars | 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20004 | Register HERE | The oil markets remain in constant turmoil. Oil prices have yet to recover as OPEC countries have repeatedly failed to agree on production cuts. Following the nuclear deal, Iran has been aggressively looking to increase its oil exports despite secondary non-nuclear sanctions. Iraq is also focusing on increasing its oil exports while mired in a dispute with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over revenue sharing. By contrast, the world’s largest producer, Saudi Arabia, is in the midst of a major restructuring of its decision-making apparatus as it also attempts to diversify from its dependence on oil. This panel will explore the geopolitics of oil and discuss the current state of play in the Gulf region.  Panelists include: Douglas Hengel, Senior Resident Fellow, German Marshall Fund; David Goldwyn, President, Goldwyn Global Strategies; Elizabeth Rosenberg, Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy, Economics, and Security Program, Center for a New American Security; Jean Francois Seznec, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center; Jan Kalicki, Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center, and Senior Fellow, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, will moderate.
  7. Russia’s Military: Assessment, Strategy, And Threat | Thursday, June 23rd   | 1:00-2:30 | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | 1779  Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036 | Register HERE | Russia’s actions in Crimea, eastern Ukraine, and Syria have demonstrated the reemergence of the Russian military as one of the Kremlin’s most effective foreign policy tools. The success of these campaigns comes as a result of major military reform and modernization efforts that began in 2008. What changes led to today’s revamped Russian military? How will the Kremlin use its modernized force as a geopolitical tool? And does Russia’s new military pose a threat to the West? Ahead of the NATO Warsaw summit in July, the Center on Global Interests is pleased to invite you to a discussion with Michael Kofman, a leading expert on Russia’s military, and Michael Purcell, Director of Operations at CGI and former Marine officer, on the details of Russian military capabilities and how the West should respond. The event will mark the release of a new CGI report – a net assessment of Russia’s military – co-authored by Michael Kofman and Russian military analyst Alexander Golts. A Q&A will follow. Light refreshments will be served.

Turkey’s Kurdish anxieties

Posted in Katie Preston - June 17, 2016 - 0 Comment

The Bipartisan Policy Center hosted Cascading Conflicts: U.S. Policy on Turkey, Syria, and the Kurds Tuesday morning. This was nominally a launch of its report on Authoritarianism and Escalation: Preparing for the Worst in Turkey’s Resurgent Kurdish Conflict but ranged rather far from that excellent account of how Turkey has repeatedly turned to war when its government has become more authoritarian.

Eric Edelman, Co-Chair of BPC’s Turkey Initiative and former ambassador to Turkey, discussed the mutual misreading of priorities and interests between Turkey and the US. Amberin Zaman, Public Policy Fellow at the Wilson Institute, recalled how the peace talks between the PKK and Turkish government in February 2015 raised hopes for reconciliation that were then dashed by President Erdoğan. Ceng Sagnic, Junior Researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, considered how the Kurdish situation in Syria has thwarted Turkey’s foreign policy and prompted its interventionism. Aliza Marcus, Communications Consultant for the Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund at the World Bank, assessed the relationship between the YPG/PYD (the dominant Syrian Kurdish organizations) and the PKK (the dominant Turkish Kurdish organization) as well as Turkey’s position on the question.  Ishaan Tharoor, a reporter for the Washington Post, moderated a lively discussion spanning Turkish domestic politics, the fight against the Islamic State (IS), and more.

Amberin Zaman elucidated how domestic and international factors have influenced Turkey’s position on Syria and the Kurdish question. She maintained that peace talks with the PKK faltered in part because of rising tensions with the YPG/PYD in Syria and also in response to Erdoğan’s presidential ambitions. Growing Kurdish autonomy in Northern Syria has emboldened Kurds everywhere. In the words of Aliza Marcus, no matter how hard the Turkish government hits the PKK domestically, now there will always be a powerful Kurdish presence across the border in Syria.

The conversation then turned to Turkey’s descent into authoritarianism. Ambassador Eric Edelman argued that the US has a vested interest in shaping Turkey’s domestic politics.  Long-term US interests and Turkey’s status as a NATO ally—an alliance intended to be a union of liberal democracies— demand that US use its position to speak out publicly and privately on Turkey’s civil rights violations.

Aliza Marcus explained how the YPG grew out of networks of support for the PKK in Syria. However, despite clear evidence of ties between the two, she said that it is unclear to what extent the PKK and the YPG/PYD are independent decision-makers. She added that, from Turkey’s perspective, the question is irrelevant. The two are one and the same, and nothing will diminish Turkish fears of Kurdish nationalism.

After hearing from audience member and representative of Rojava Cantons, Sinam Mohamed, on Kurdish governance and long-term strategy, Ceng Sagnic contended that Kurdish-controlled areas show more signs of functioning governance than the rest of Syria currently does. He also commented on current Syrian Democratic Force movements into Sunni-Arab areas in northern Syria. Marcus countered that Kurdish forces are not expanding for expansion’s sake, they are simply going where the Islamic State already is–namely Sunni areas.

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Is Islam exceptional?

Posted in Katie Preston - June 14, 2016 - 0 Comment

At last Thursday’s Brookings event celebrating the launch of his new book on Islamic Exceptionalism, Shadi Hamid laid out the historical and religious reasons for Islam’s resistance to liberal secularization. He argued that the differing contexts of Christianity and Islam’s founding moments shaped the histories of interactions between the state and religion in European and Islamic civilizations.

Jesus and Mohammed, Hamid argues, had different historical roles. Jesus was a radical dissident in the Roman Empire. He avoided politics. The New Testament has little to say about governance, making it easy to divorce Christianity from political life. Mohammed was the author of a constitution and for part of his life a head of state. The Qur’an guided governance in the Middle East and North Africa for well over a thousand years, with the reign of the Prophet serving as an example to live and rule by. Liberal ideas like the inevitability of progress and secularism have no analogues in traditional Islam.

The end of the Ottoman Caliphate left the Middle East struggling to create a new, legitimate form of government. Mainstream Islamism is the latest successor to generations of Muslim thinkers attempting to parse the legacy of Islamic governance beyond its eighth century origin. The current Islamist project of reconciling pre-modern Islamic law with the modern nation-state has never been attempted before. Islamism is inherently modern in a way few conservative religious movements can claim to be.

Brooking’s Isaiah Berlin Senior Fellow in Culture and Policy, Leon Wieseltier, joined Hamid in discussing one of the most controversial arguments in Islamic Exceptionalism. Islam does not fit with Western concepts like secularism. This exceptionalism challenges the liberal tendency to explain away difference and argue that all peoples and civilizations are fundamentally the same—or are at least similar in fundamental ways. Hamid contended that the differences between the Islamic world and ‘our’ largely Christian world tangibly affect what forms of government and policies are feasible or practical.

Wieseltier and Hamid then dove into the questions of Islam’s compatibility with liberal democracy and the values essential to it, namely equality. Hamid argued that Islam is compatible with democracy, but it runs into some problems with liberal democracy. Islamic concepts such as Shura can be adapted into democratic structures, but equality doesn’t fit neatly into Islamic law or many Islamic societies. Wieseltier challenged this point; he claimed that certain concepts like equality are as universal as algebra, and therefore can be compatible with a ‘modernist’ vision of Islam.

In Hamid‘s view, the ‘metaphysical’ nature of this discussion reflected the political debate happening all over the Middle East. Rather than contesting budget reports, Islamists and their opponents are dealing with big questions about the role of religion in public life. The conversation about that will not be over soon.

Here is the video of the event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylbkgHBW0pw

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