A Lecture in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolutions entitle "Post Arab revolutions and peace/stability in the middle east"

Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Institute of International Studies (IALIIS) hosted Dr. Rashid al-Khalidi on Saturday 11 June, 2011 as part of “Peace Studies and Conflict resolutions course”.

Dr. Khalidi discussed the current Arab revolutions, which represent a new era of the Arab political life, and constituted new possibilities Arabs have not witnessed for a very long time. Led to the overthrown of the dictatorial regimes in Arab countries. 

However, and as Dr. Khalidi emphasized, the most difficult phase is yet to come, with demands of freedom, dignity, social justice, economical prosperity, rule of law, accountability and democracy. 

What happened so far in Tunisia and Egypt should bring new possibilities for the entire Arab countries, this is what Dr. Khalidi believes in, however, he points out that it is impossible to arbitrarily apply what happened in Egypt and Tunisia in other Arab states, as each country has its own nature that should be considered. For example, there are civil society organizations in Egypt in addition to long legacy of the independent judicial system. While in Tunisia, there are very strong unions, which are not available for many other Arab states.  

Dr. Khalidi said that the interest of the Arab leaders led them to brutally react towards such revolutions as those leaders are so keen to maintain the status quo, to amass more wealth and gain more interests. In order to overturn such revolutions, the dictatorial regimes accentuate the Sunni and Shiie’ divisions, bringing up the Iranian interest in the region and therefore its threat to widespread the Shiie’.

Talking about opportunities that such revolutions might bring to Palestinians; Dr. Khalidi pointed out that there are some positive signals such revolutions brought, the most prominent is the change in the Egyptian foreign policy, especially towards Iran, as the latter is no more seen or perceived as an enemy. Some changes already happened towards  the Palestinian cause, through supporting the reconciliation and its serious effort to reconcile the Palestinian division.

Moreover, Dr. Khalidi said that the Egyptian revolution opened up new independent political horizons for Arabs. The new improvement in the Arab revolutions is the public movement that was absent for long time, which also paved the way for youth to play greater roles in forming their democratic systems and the overall regimes of their countries.