Newsletters

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.

In our feature Q&A, Professors Zoe Marks and Charli Carpenter tell us how the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is impacting Afghan women and how global advocacy groups and others can be most helpful to women in conflict areas. 

Highlights of recent Belfer Center program and project activities and recognitions.

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. 

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.

To say that the Middle East Initiative (MEI) has shaped Julia Martin’s life would be an understatement. When she was a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, Julia invited a friend to join her for an MEI film screening of The Band’s Visit. Amr accepted. Before long, they became husband and wife, and they are now raising three children together. 

Today, Julia serves as MEI’s Assistant Director, managing its programs, budgets, and strategic planning.