More than a century before it was showered by outsiders with mantras about “freedom agendas” and “good governance,” the Arab world had a figure for whom these concepts represented imperatives for stanching the decline of the Arab-Muslim realm and restoring its position in the world. So argues Ryuichi Funatsu (AM 2005) in “Al-Kawākibī’s Thesis and its Echoes in the Arab World Today.” This article appears in the latest issue of the Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review.

CMES Alumna, Hülya Canbakal (PhD, 1999), recently published her book Society and Politics in an Ottoman Town: 'Ayntab in the 17th Century, based on her dissertation.

Ordinary Japanese people think of the Middle East as a somewhat strange and ‘dangerous’ area, mainly because of the daily news on Middle Eastern conflicts. One of the main purposes of the First International Symposium of the Afrasian Center for Peace and Development Studies is to promote the public’s understanding of real-life conditions in the Middle East, by inviting renowned scholars and specialists from various countries including the U.S. and Israel.

From Baghdad to Tripoli, from Beirut to Foggy Bottom, Ambassador David Mack (AM '64) has been at the forefront of events in the Middle East and helped to shape US policy in the region for over thirty years. In an interview with AM candidate Kyle McEneaney, Ambassador Mack, now Senior Vice President of the Middle East Institute (www.mideasti.org), discusses how determined observation, adventuresome curiosity, and his training at CMES supported him throughout a distinguished career as a diplomat and educator.

John Gault (PhD '75) shares memories of his friend and colleague Dr. Thomas R. Stauffer.