Middle East & North Africa

This discussion is the third installment of our Building a Platform for Moderates series is part of the EastWest Institute’s Countering Violent Extremism Initiative, which is being supported by Donald Kendall, Chairman Emeritus of the EastWest Institute and a former Chairman of Pepsi Co. This event will be held in Partnership with the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta.

The Countering Violent Extremism Initiative is examining how religious identity plays a role in public life, and we are working towards developing a truly global perspective. Violent extremism takes many forms, but some well-known examples use religion as a key marker to enhance and further their agendas. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the global phenomenon of violent extremism and how it relates to religious leadership.

A few discussion topics have been chosen to explore how this particular community views these issues and have been used in prior sessions. This process, if successful will be duplicated at a variety of locals in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia in order to draw upon the lessons, guidance, and experience of different communities. Feedback from these communities is being logged and synthesized for reporting at years end. The discussion is by invitation only.

The results of the meeting in Chicago were compelling and thought provoking. The session was hosted by and held in partnership with the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) and was attended by Muslim, Christian, and Jewish participants. An encouraging trend running through the meeting was the keen lack of desire to speak on issues of policy dilemmas in a negative light (in fact nearly any dilemma was discussed with positive and constructive examples of how to counter or prevent it). The entire tone of the meeting was geared toward policy responses and recommendations for best practices. Far from blind optimism, the group as a whole, with a heavy youth component, put an impetus on social change and positive action by engaging in and striving to meet achievable goals.

EWI recently convened a small and select group of influential opinion leaders, decision makers, and media for a briefing of the new publication, “Countering Violent Extremism.” The report is the result of EWI’s work on violent extremism and radicalization, which aims to provide new understandings of this reality, and new techniques for prevention and counter-extremist work. The meeting, held on October 19, 2007, in New York, provided a briefing on the highlights of the publication to EWI senior staff members, project leaders and special guests followed by an open discussion and Q&A on the findings.

Participants included but were not limited to: Amb. Abdul Wahab of the Organization of the Islamic Conference mission to the UN, Brandon Declet of the U.S. House of Representatives, Michael German, Policy Counsel at the ACLU, George Schwab, President of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, Amb. S. Azmat Hassan of Seton Hall University, Samantha Job, First Secretary of the UK mission to the UN, and Msgr. Bernadito Auza, First Counsellor of the mission of the Holy See to the UN. Mr. Roger Parkinson, Chairman of the University of Toronto Press, chaired the event. The event was also attended by members of the press (Financial Times, Reuters, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies).

EWI conveened a meeting in Alabama that went extraordinary largely due to the excellent work of the participants. The participants consisted of 8 Methodist, Baptist, and Episcopalian faith and community leaders in the city of Birmingham.

The EastWest Institute (EWI) convened a roundtable of international policymakers and academic experts on April 17, 2008, to evaluate the need for a more consistent and permanent regional security apparatus in the Middle East. Seeking to address the critical deficiencies of past structures—which been largely ad hoc and excluded key actors—Mr. Sundeep Waslekar, president of the Strategic Foresight Group (SFG) made the case that as the region continues to fragment, it will become ever more difficult to arrive at universally amenable arrangements. It is therefore urgent and imperative that an inclusive, sustainable, and open-ended security mechanism be created if the further deterioration of the region’s security is to be stemmed.

The EastWest Institute (EWI) convened a roundtable of Middle East experts on April 16, 2008, to discuss the Arab Islamic Renaissance Initiative, a project led by the Strategic Foresight Group (SFG), to formulate a strategy to restore the intellectual and economic prominence of the Middle East on the world stage. The initiative highlights the necessity of finding a strategy rooted in the region’s own cultural and historical traditions and that addresses the threat of an emerging ‘dignity gap. Speakers were:

• John Edwin Mroz (chair), president and CEO of the EastWest Institute
• Sundeep Waslekar (presenting), president of the Strategic Foresight Group
• Shamil Idriss (respondent), acting director of the UN Office of the Alliance of Civilizations

The roundtable was held in conjunction with EWI’s Global Security Program, which partners with key thought leaders around the world to explore new solutions to pressing regional and international security dilemmas.

During his recent visit to Amman, Ambassador Ortwin Hennig met with political and business leaders to further the Institute's search for common ground between the Arab and Western worlds. Key global issues and possibilities for Jordan's active participation in EWI projects were explored.