April 27: 'The Middle East in Crisis'
IGS teams with CGAS for third installment in UD Fulbright Lecture Series
6:20 p.m., April 23, 2015--Middle East experts Juan Cole and Bassam Haddad will speak on “The Middle East in Crisis: Causes and Prospects” during the third and final lecture in the inaugural University of Delaware Fulbright Lecture Series at 7 p.m., Monday, April 27, in Mitchell Hall.
Moderated by Islamic Studies program director Rudi Matthee, Cole and Haddad’s discussion will center on the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State: its origins, its aims, and its implications.
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They will address the regional dimension, involving the ongoing power struggle between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the various armed conflicts currently raging in the region — Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Libya. And they will discuss the global impact of these conflicts and their outcome: failed states, massive refugee and immigrant flows, spiraling despair and radicalization.
In line with the entire lecture series, this panel discussion will illustrate that globalization is a double-edged sword. Globalization has brought many benefits, including the enhanced flow of goods and ideas between countries, as well as advances in global communication. While fostering opportunities for mutual understanding, this same phenomenon has also led to increased cooperation and sophistication among groups connected to terrorism and transnational crime.
Cole is a public intellectual, prominent blogger and essayist, and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He also received two Fulbright awards, in 1982 (India) and 1985 (Egypt).
For three and a half decades, Cole has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context. His most recent book is The New Arabs: How the Millennial Generation is Changing the Middle East (Simon and Schuster, July 2014).
Haddad is a scholar of violence and terrorism, U.S. foreign policy, and the triangular crisis area in the Middle East. He directs the Middle East Studies Program and teaches in the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs at George Mason University, and is visiting professor at Georgetown University.
He serves as founding editor of the Arab Studies Journal and is co-founder/editor of Jadaliyya e-zine.
Those interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP online. All attendees are invited to stay for a post-lecture reception.
Jointly sponsored by the Center for Global and Area Studies and the Institute for Global Studies, “The Middle East in Crisis” is both the penultimate lecture in the Issues in Global Studies Lecture Series, "Globalization, Organized Crime and Terrorist Networks," and the final installment of the UD Fulbright Lecture Series.
For more information on the University’s Fulbright initiative and how to apply, visit the UD Fulbright website.
To see the full schedule of speakers in the Center for Global and Area Studies’ Lecture Series, visit the website and contact Bess Davis for more information.