Resources

تسعى هذه السلسة إلى أن تكون مدماكا في بنيان الذاكرة الجمعية السورية في زمن الأزمة الكبرى التي تعصف بها . السلسلة مفتوحة أمام الجميع دون أي تمييز في الميول السياسية أو الإيديولوجية .

أصوات سورية من زمن ما قبل الثورة – المجتمع المدني رغم كل الصعوبات يتضمن هذا الكتاب، مجموعة من الدراسات، وهي مقتطفات أدبية مدنيّة، بأقلام بعض ناشطي المجتمع المدني، يتحدثون فيها عن تجاربهم وآفاق عملهم المدني، ومعضلاته وإنجازاته. ولا شكّ في أنّ تجارب السوريين الماضية في بناء مجتمع مدني قائمٍ على مواطنيّة فاعلة وتشاركيّة، والإنجازات التي تحققت رغم كل العقبات، قبل ولادة الثورة، سوف تُساعد على تحديد آفاق الجهود المستقبليّة الرامية إلى إعادة الإعمار والمصالحة والتنمية.

Working Paper | September 2013
A Changing Regional Order: The Arab Uprisings, the West and the BRICS by Christina Lassen
The Arab uprisings have thrown the regional order of the Middle East into disarray and are challenging traditional actors and alliances. Notably, regional actors, both governments and the region’s people, are driving developments to a much larger extent than before. This paper will explore how the European Union (EU) 1 and the United States, in the following referred to as “the West”, reacted to the Arab uprisings and whether the West has managed to play an active role and...

2013 كتاب | آب
آفاق الدولة المدنية بعد الانتفاضات العربية من إعداد طارق متري, عطالله السليم, عماد الحوت, رضوان السيد, محمد علي مقّلد, و آخرون
 

Working Paper | March 2013
Lebanon: The Legacy of Sectarian Consociationalism and the Transition to a Fully-Fledged Democracy by Samir Makdisi and Youssef El-Khalil
Since independence in 1943 Lebanon’s political system has been based on a power sharing arrangement among its religious communities. Referred to as a consociational democracy, it was embedded in an unwritten national pact by the leaders of the independence movement which specified the division of parliamentary seats among the Christian and Muslim communities on the basis of a six to five ratio in favor of the Christian community.3...

Background Paper | March 2013
“Nabiha 5”: A Kuwaiti Youth Movement for Political Reform by F. Gregory Gause III
Among Arab states Kuwait is a leader in terms of political freedoms and the importance of its civil society organizations. Thus it should not be surprising that one of the few successful Arab youth movements advocating political reform should have arisen in the country. The success of the “Nabiha 5” movement (Kuwaiti colloquial Arabic for “we want it to be five”) in bringing about the change in the Kuwaiti electoral system from a 25 district to a 5 district configuration certainly...

ملخص نقاش | شباط 2013 
الطاولة المستديرة الثانية لـ"معهد عصام فارس" حول "الدولة المدنية" و"الربيع العربي
استكمل "معهد عصام فارس للسياسات العامة والشؤون الدولية" ما بدأه من بحث في مفهوم "الدولة المدنية"، خصوصاً بعد تطورات طاولت أكثر من بلد عربي. ولهذا الهدف، كان المعهد قد نظّم، في أيلول )سبتمبر( الماضي، طاولة مستديرة جمعت أكاديميين وباحثين وعاملين في الشأن العام، في محاولة لوضع أسس علمية لهذا المفهوم الذي قد يبدو إشكالياً وحديثاً في التداول العربي. والحاجة لبحث هذا المفهوم تزداد بعد جدل مستمر في بعض الدول، حول مواد معينة من الدستور تتعلق بدور الدين في الحياة العامة وما إذا كانت الشريعة مصدراً...

Summary | February 2013
Summary Report of the 2nd Roundtable Discussion on the “Civil State” Discourse
Within the framework of the Arab Public Policy Roundtable, a second session on the civil state was organized on February 21st after the first roundtable was held in September. Number of academicians and researchers participated in this session, which aimed at discussing the aspired nature of states in light of current events happening in the Arab World nowadays.
Discussion around this topic gains considerably increasing momentum in light of the current debate over the role of religion in...

The Foundation & UNHABITAT analyzed the row results of  the Municipal Observatory (MO) which is a tool that aims at evaluating the performance of the Lebanese municipalities through four different aspects:

1. Administration & Management;
2. Financial Resources;
3. Governance; and
4. Municipal Development & Services

The questionnaire contains a total of 84 questions distributed across 6 sections. Those questionnaires were filled by the “Municipal Guides”, a group of municipal employees established within the context of the UN-Habitat Decentralization Project implemented in partnership with the...

Summary | September 2012
The Question of the 'Civil State': An Arab Public Policy Roundtable Discussion in Light of the Arab Uprisings
On September 4, 2012, the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (IFI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) convened a roundtable discussion on the 'Civil State'. A highly topical subject due to recent Arab uprisings, IFI and the participants hoped that ideas tabled during the discussion would generate further research and working papers. It was also hoped that the discussion could provide the inspiration for a more...

2012 ملخص |  أيلول
"​طاولة مستديرة حول السياسات العامة العربية نظمها معهد عصام فارس: إشكاليات "الدولة المدنية" في ظل "الربيع العربي
دعا معهد عصام فارس للسياسات العامة و الشؤون الدولية في الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت ، إلى "طاولة  مستديرة حول السياسات العامة العربية

Summary Booklet | June 2012 Arab Uprisings Symposium Summary Critically Assessing the Changing Landscape of Power and Players IFI by Maureen Ali This symposium is part of the AUB-wide Arab Uprisings Research Initiative, which was launched and is supported by the Office of the Provost and managed by the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs. AUB has invited over twenty scholars from the Arab world and abroad to this Symposium to discuss critical themes that have emerged to date, and to help shape our future research agenda. The symposium will highlight shifting power...

Paper | June 2012
Beyond a Seat in the United Nations: Palestine’s U.N. Membership and International Law by Martin Wählisch 
Looking from the speaker’s podium, Palestine’s seat in the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly Hall is at the very left corner in the last row for delegations. The wooden desk and ocher-blue chairs are like any other of the interior from the 1950s, including the grey plastic headphones. Only one element is missing: the green, red, and yellow voting buttons, which are replaced with a silver metal plate. Other permanent observers, such as international and non...

Study | December 2011
Restoring Dignity: The Raison D’etre of the Youth Movements in the Arab Citizen Revolt? by Rima Afifi, Ziyad Mahfoud, Rami Khouri, Sara Bittar, and Ahmad Younis
Dignity (in Arabic: Al Karama) is a slogan that has been chanted regularly during the Arab Citizen Revolt1 and a concept that continues to be a central theme as events unfold. In this paper, we explore the concept of dignity, identify a conceptual framework for thinking about dignity, and connect dignity to youth and the current situation. We then use data from the Gallup World Poll of Arab youth to assess the fit...