NIMEP INSIGHTS: Volume IV, Spring 2009

Welcome to the fourth edition of NIMEP Insights. Now in its sixth year, the New Initiative for Middle East Peace continues on its mission to adapt to the changing nature of world events, as well as the needs of its members and the broader community, in order to face the challenges presented by the 21st century. Every year, NIMEP publishes this journal of student-written academic articles in order to add to the constantly evolving dialogue that seeks to promote peace in the most tumultuous region on Earth. This edition contains articles written by a diverse student group; authors come from all four years of undergraduate education at Tufts University as well as one student at the Fletcher School for Law and diplomacy. This issue highlights our latest fact-finding mission to Syria as well as primary research conducted in Israel, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. We hope that this issue is both enjoyable and thought-provoking. We are always hoping to strengthen the quality of the dialogue, and so we welcome any feedback on this year's publication. It has always been our goal to incorporate the world community-at-large into the debate, for an on-campus student group can only do so much. New Initiative for Middle East Peace Medford, Massachusetts Spring 2009 ***Due to the length of each article, they are available as a pdf, if you have any issues please contact info@tuftsgloballeadership.org***

Foreward Sherman Teichman, Director, Tufts Institute for Global Leadership
Sixty-five million Americans voted for the President of the United States, barack hussein obama. As hendrik hertzberg wrote in the New yorker, “The President of the United States will be a person whose first name is a Swahili word derived from the Arabic (it means ‘blessing’), whose middle name is not only that of a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad but also of the original target of an ongoing American war, and whose last name rhymes nicely with ‘osama’. That’s not a name; it’s a catastrophe, at least in American politics.” ...more

Helsinki Agreement Representatives of Iraqi parties and blocs held discussions in Finland from August 31 through September 3, 2007 and agreed to consult further on the following recommendations to start negotiations to reach national reconciliation: ...more

The New Initiative for Middle East Peace Fact-Finding Mission to Syria, January 2008

Like Father Like Son -- Personalized Succession: Bashar al-Assad and the New Challenges to the Ba'thist State Ethan Corbin, Ph.D. Candidate, Fletcher School Of Law and Diplomacy
Syria has always had a unique position in the Arab world. Today, its status is no different. Though overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, Syria is run by a nominally Shi’a Islam, Alawi minority. Its population is a virtual ethnic and religious mosaic, comprised of Arabs, Alawis, druze, kurds and Armenians each belonging to various Muslim and christian denominations. ...more

Looking Beyond the Golan Heights: Examining The True Impediments to Syrian-Israeli Peace Khaled Al-Sharikh, International Relations and Economics, '11James Kennedy, Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies, '10
Aside from Lebanon, which has been in a unique predicament since the start of its civil war in 1975, the only neighboring country that has not yet signed a peace treaty with Israel is the Syrian Arab republic. Although Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979 and jordan did so in 1994, Syria has yet to follow suit, and so the two countries technically remain in a state of war to this day. ...more

The Case for Economic Reform in Syria Victoria Gilbert, International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies, '11
Syria was once at the crossroads of a global network of trade where goods on camels came from the east to be traded in damascene markets for goods brought from across the Mediterranean. It is said that the Prophet Mohammed even brought a caravan to the lands of Syria before he heard the call to spread the message of God. ...more

A World of Shifting Sands: Will Oil States Lead the Clean Energy Revolution? Daniel Enking, International Relations, '10A
“The World Future Energy Summit is no less than a summit for the future of the world itself.” This was the feeling that seemed to radiate through the thousands of energy ministers and business executives that gathered in the Abu Dhabi Conference Center on January 21, 2008 for the start of the first annual World Future Energy Summit, or WFES. As the conference attendees took their seats for the opening keynote speech, the excitement was further elevated by a big-screen video depicting the proposed Masdar Development, a completely sustainable city powered entirely by renewable energy... more

Health Inequality Between Arabs and Jews in Israel Jessica Herrmann, Economics, '09
The inequality in Israel can be seen as easily as looking at the differences in the physical communities where Arabs and jews live. The distinctions in the layout of the streets, the traffic patterns and the general density of the towns is clear to any outsider. ...more

To Be an Arab in Israel Hana Agha, International Relations, '10
During the hezbollah-Israeli war in 2006, two rockets launched by hezbollah landed in the city of Nazareth, a city home to 65,800 Arab citizens of Israel. Two young Arab children, aged 9 and 3, were killed in the attack, but the reaction of their mother to the attack stood in stark contrast to the predominant reactions of jewish Israelis. ...more

The History of the Muslim Brotherhood: The Political, Social and Economic Transformation of the Arab Republic of Egypt Michelle Paison, Middle Eastern Studies and Comparative Religion, '08
Islam is no longer exclusively a religion, but an ideology that provides a total framework for all aspects of political, social, economic, and cultural life in the Muslim world. Although Islam has continuously demonstrated the theme of resurgence throughout its history in response to the internal and external forces that challenge Muslim faith and society, the assertion of Islamism has strongly reemerged. ...more

U.S.-Israeli Relations In the Future: A Response to The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy Amit Paz, International Relations and Political Science, '11
In September of 2007, Professors john Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, esteemed academics and prolific members of the realist school of thought of international relations, co-authored a book denouncing the unparalleled and unconditional support the United States gives to the State of Israel. In their book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, they argue that the “Israel Lobby” has a “stranglehold” on American foreign policy and that the lobby’s disproportionate influence is directed at passing policies that are against the interests of the United States. ...more

Guide to Preparing International Arab-Israeli Peace Summits Ian Matthew Bomberg, Political Science and History, '08
On November 27, 2007, Arab, Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. delegations met, alongside representatives from the international community, in Annapolis, Maryland, with the hope of reviving a peace process that had laid dormant for seven years. both sides hoped to embark on a path toward peace that would eventually lead to the creation of an Arab-Palestinian state by 2011 – a state that would enjoy peaceful bilateral relations with the neighboring jewish state of Israel. ...more

It's Not Rocket Science: America's Future and the Necessity for Interagency Cooperation Based on an interview with Gregg Nakano David Mou, International Relations and Economics, '10
When one meets Gregg Nakano, one does not realize that the soft-spoken Inspire Fellow at Tufts’ Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) and mentor of the IGL’s Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) has nearly a decade of field experience dealing with reconstruction and stabilization operations – as a uniformed officer in the United States Marine corps, as a disaster response coordinator in the United States Agency for International development (USAID), and as a civilian in the private sector. Gregg served in kuwait and Iraq during both invasions, first as an infantry platoon commander and then as a civil-military liaison officer for USAID...more

NIMEP is a non-polemical student think tank and outreach initiative devoted to finding progressive solutions to historic conflicts in the Middle East. NIMEP provides a forum for productive dialogue, scholarship and exploration of the region. The diverse group of individuals who spearhead this initiative are committed to contributing to future leadership and to inspiring others to realize the powerful results such a model of thinking and action can produce. The contents of this journal are the work of NIMEP members and academics. NIMEP Insights is the culmination of months of research and preparation, thousands of miles of travel, and immense dedication on behalf of our members and supporters. NIMEP INSIGHTS NIMEP takes no institutional position on policy issues. All statements of fact and expressions of opinion contained in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author or authors. The material in this journal may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. copyright law and excerpts by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the author(s). For information, write the New Initiative for Middle East Peace, c/o Tufts Institute for Global Leadership, 96 Packard Ave., Medford, MA 02155. http://www.tuftsgloballeadership.org/programs/NIMEP © 2009 by the New Initiative for Middle East Peace.