Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi’s illustrated talk looks at ways in which Arab youth — and specifically young artists from North Africa and West Asia — engage with diverse types of media to comment on and interact with current social and political events. He explores how new digital tools and platforms are instrumental in creating a network that connects artists to one another and to their community. Read more »
Arab World
Why the Middle East is making giant leap with Mars mission
A project to launch a Mars probe is the Middle East’s chance to make a giant leap to the present, both symbolically and scientifically. The fact that it is staffed by young Middle Easterners and based in the region makes the project twice as important. Read more »
Social Media in the Arab World
Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, of the MIT MediaLab, speaks on social media and broadening of India-GCC relations. Read more »
Euro-Arab Dialogue Forum
In November 2014 the Lutfia Rabbani Foundation organized a conference on ‘The Arab Future & the role of Europe’ as part of the Dialogue Platform. The conference in the Peace Palace was a gathering of Arabs and Europeans to reflect upon the Euro-Arab relationship. Under the leadership of BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet and with a keynote presentation by United Nations diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, panelists from a broad spectrum of fields addressed the challenges of political transition, economic development, education and social engagement. Read more »
The shifting soft power of the Arab world
Over the past decade the Arab world has witnessed a shifting of not only hard power — which saw the traditional armies of the Arab world in Syria, Egypt and Iraq consumed in internal turmoil — but also of what Harvard professor Joseph Nye termed “soft power,” which has moved from these countries to the resource rich Gulf states. Read more »
Regional strife destroying historical Arab treasures
Sadly, over the past few decades, much of the heritage of the Arab world has come under threat or has been destroyed. During the 1990-1991 Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, the National Museum was ransacked and looted. Even today, hundreds of treasures remain lost, possibly forever. Read more »