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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June 2008, pages 73-74 Waging Peace A “Flaming Torch” for the Next U.S. President
BEIRUT’S DAILY STAR’S editor Rami Khouri discussed “Passing a Flaming Torch: The Middle Eastern Issues That Will Confront the Next American President” at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) on Feb. 20. Khouri is also an author, political writer, and director of the Issam Fares Institute of Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. His talk focused on 10 issues that will not only impact the next American administration but will “also confront the people of the Middle East.” A key demographic issue is “polarization” in Middle Eastern society, caused by urbanization, which has led to “two different worlds living side by side.” An enormous growth rate in cities is producing highly educated and “politically frustrated” youth, he noted, who come up against power, corruption and wealth consolidated in the hands of a few. This centralization of influence and wealth in an elite few, which Khouri termed “perpetual autocracy,” ultimately leads to weaker Arab centralized governments with lessening spheres of control, yielding a “state slowly frayed,” Khouri said, citing Iraq, Sudan, Yemen and Lebanon as examples. Moreover, he added, “reconfiguring state power and legitimacy” in the Middle East is leading to competition within states (such as between Hamas and Fatah in Palestine), and a demand to define the legitimacy of rulers without the involvement of foreign powers. Khouri pointed to violence in the Middle East as another pertinent issue. Violence is not only prevalent in the region, but the conflicts are linked. In the past there were intermittent outbreaks, he noted, but now there is a cycle in place with Western armies in situ and a decades-long Israeli occupation. According to Khouri, there is not a single country in the region that does not use violence. This is the “chronic reality” that is normalized and mimicked by teenage groups. Because of this, Khouri asserted, the U.S. (and other foreign actors) need to develop new ways of engagement. Referring to the continued centrality of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Khouri argued that “the more that this goes on, the more it radicalizes more parts of the Middle East.” This issue plays into the new security balance in Iraq, he stated. The powers involved in conflict negotiations consist of Israel, the U.S., Turkey, the Islamic Republic of Iran—all are non-Arab states. This “vacuum must be filled” with self-definition, Khouri maintained, enabling the acceptance of Hezbollah, WMDs, etc., until “a process of shared security defined by its particulars” is achieved in the region. As for how the current “war on terror” will affect the next U.S. administration, Khouri believes the new president will “need to assess and fight terror more legitimately” and that the “U.S. needs to look at more win-win strategies” in order to emerge from its “triumphantalist military Cold War state.” The U.S., he concluded, “must pay attention to [the] respect and dignity of people of the Middle East.” —Nina Hamedani |
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