Plenary Sessions

Session 1: A year since the start of the Gulf crisis: outcomes and potential courses

Nearly a year has passed since the start of the Gulf crisis on 5 June 2017 with a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar initiated by a media campaign executed by the besieging countries. Despite Kuwait’s concentrated diplomatic efforts and the support of regional and...

Session 2: Iran and the Gulf between cooperation, competition and confrontation

While Iran has surfaced as one of the main elements of the current Gulf Crisis, its relations with Arab Gulf countries were turbulent and dominated by mutual tension and suspicion rather than cooperation and common action for many decades. Crisis in various parts of...

Session 3: Will socio-economic difficulties in the Arab world explode into a new wave of change in the region?

More than eight years have passed since the beginning of the Arab Spring revolutions. The main demands of these revolutions were employment, development and social justice. However, despite the rapid changes witnessed by the region during these...

Session 4: The Middle East amid changing regional and global alliances

The crises and conflicts that erupted during the past number of years – with the Gulf crisis being the most recent – cover almost the entire Middle East, creating a high level of political and strategic liquidity. Accordingly, relations between the region’s...

Session 5: The Palestinian cause following US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the “deal of the century”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel led to a wave of popular resentment, provided a new push in diplomacy and reintroduced the Palestinian cause to debate on the Arab and Islamic fronts and at the level of regional and global organisations and...

Session 6: The media during times of crisis and transitional stages

While the media covers crises, conflicts and wars; narrates events and puts their developments and trajectories into frameworks; and relays the perspectives of the parties involve in them; it also sheds light on the human dimension. This is the core of humanitarian work.

The...

Session 7: Prospective scenarios facing the Middle East

This session will review the key ideas discussed in prior sessions from a futuristic perspective. Where is the Gulf Crisis headed to? Could the ‘deal of the century’ be a fair solution to and a permanent settlement for to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

On what basis will the...