Another of the Munk School/Canada Centre for Global Security Studies collaborative research projects continues to grow. “The Arab Spring in Comparative Perspective: Dramatic Transitions in Recent Decades” began with a scale workshop in Istanbul in November 2012, co-organized with the Istanbul Policy Center (Sabanci University). The objective then was to consider how Turkish experiences in recent decades might have relevance to understanding dramatic events now unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa.
The success of that effort led to an expanded agenda and the launch of a longer-term, multi-national research project – with the aim of the project being to consider how multiple dramatic transitions in recent decades may illuminate what is (or isn’t) happening in the “Arab Spring.”
Working with co-organizing partners American University and the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the expanded project was launched with a Washington conference on June 4-5. The focus in this case was on experiences in Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, and Eastern Europe. (A follow-on conference will take place in Toronto, to consider South Africa, China, India, and Indonesia.) In both cases, the gatherings draw extensively on scholarly expertise within the Munk School’s wide-ranging network of international partners.
The June 4-5 conference program can be seen here: Arab Spring in Comparative Perspective – Agenda (PDF)
The video-recorded proceedings can be seen here:
Day 1, at American University: http://www.american.edu/sis/events/ArabSpring.cfm
Day 2, at the Woodrow Wilson Center: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/the-arab-spring-comparative-perspective
(Photo by AK Rockefeller)