Newsletters

The Middle East Initiative's annual Mosaic newsletter showcases the vibrancy and breadth of activities taken up by our faculty, fellows, students, and staff throughout the academic year. The 2021-2022 edition celebrates the 20th anniversary and enduring impact of the Kuwait Program at Harvard University. Additional highlights include features on our Faculty Chair’s field-based course on development in the Gulf, Senior Fellow-led learning opportunities, our public events series, and the research and policy analysis of our faculty, fellows, and students.

Belfer Center Communications Fellow Ada Ezeokoli interviewed Marsin Alshamary, Research Fellow with the Middle East Initiative, about her research interests and experiences that have driven her life. 

In March, a 13-member delegation of Harvard students traveled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to participate in a Harvard Kennedy School experiential field course on “Leadership and Social Transformation in the Arab World.”

Conceived and designed by Tarek Masoud, Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Governance and faculty director of the Middle East Initiative (MEI), the original model was a comparative, two-week January-term course visiting several Middle Eastern countries. However, due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in late 2021, Masoud and his co-instructor, MEI Senior Fellow Sultan Al-Qassemi, reshaped the course into a condensed module—held March 11-20, 2022—focused on the UAE.

This fall, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, an Emirati columnist and researcher who specializes in social, political, and cultural affairs in the Arab Gulf and the founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation in the UAE, joined the Middle East Initiative as the Kuwait Foundation Visiting Scholar. One of the ways he has engaged with the Harvard community and shared his expertise is through his study group, “Investigating the Politics of Modern Middle Eastern Art.” 

In the fall, the Middle East Initiative (MEI) launched a new event series titled USA 2020: The View from the Arab World. Co-hosted by MEI Faculty Director Tarek Masoud, Sultan Qaboos Bin Said of Oman Professor of International Relations, and MEI Visiting Fellow Karim Haggag, Professor of Practice at The American University in Cairo, the series features dialogues with Arab thought leaders on the 2020 US elections and America’s changing role in the Middle East. Here we focus on Mina Al-Oraibi, Editor-in-Chief of The National, an English language newspaper based in Abu Dhabi. 

Brief news and information on recent activities, special events, and recognitions at the Belfer Center.

The 2019-2020 issue of the Middle East Initiative Mosaic newsletter highlights MEI programs and activities during the academic year. This year's issue features the work of students, fellows, faculty, and staff on public policy issues in the Middle East, including a focus on innovative research on the challenges and opportunities facing the region from our scholarly community, Kennedy School students' remarkable contributions on campus and in the region, a dynamic year of public engagement, milestones for our community, and more!

The Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative (MEI) is tackling changes in the Middle East with a multi-pronged approach. By bringing together the world’s top academic and policy experts to debate issues at the core of the transformation, and by providing a range of on-campus, field experiences, and other opportunities for students and research fellows, MEI is helping develop the next generation of Middle East leaders and scholars and providing policy-relevant research on challenges facing the region today.

While the Middle East Initiative is focused entirely on the MENA region, several other Center programs are also working on issues related to the Middle East, including Future of Diplomacy, Geopolitics of Energy, and the Managing the Atom.

The coronavirus pandemic has slowed the economy, but it hasn’t put dozens of other major global issues on pause. From a rapidly changing Middle East and Brexit to great power rivalry and 2020 election security, Belfer Center scholars have been active in the classroom and out in the field sharing impactful research. This issue of our newsletter, produced before COVID-19 became a full-fledged pandemic, shares highlights from this work.