Resources

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...