Rights, respect, resistance, and righteousness: Understanding the new power equations throughout the Middle East

Rami Khouri is the Director of the Issam Fares Institute of Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut as well as editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper. He is an internationally syndicated political columnist and author.

The Middle East is defined today by a new set of issues and actors that often seem incomprehensible to both local and foreign observers. Most of the conflicts or tensions in the region are easily understood if one grasps the significant changes that have taken place throughout the region in the past two decades. The driving forces for many of these new actors comprise more intangible factors such as respect and righteousness, while resistance is invoked to achieve a set of rights that have not been achieved through traditional diplomacy or politics. These forces balance each other and provide intriguing new opportunities for citizens to express themselves and engage in a form of political contestation that is new to the modern Arab world.

This event is co-sponsored by the International Policy Center and the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies.