Mediterranean Programme - [02/05/2008]

CIDOB Foundation attends the 11th meeting of the Forum of Researchers on the Arab and Muslim World

Lisbon, 2 February 2008

On 1 and 2 February, the 11th meeting of the Foro de Investigadores del Mundo Árabe y Musulmán (Forum of Researchers on the Arab and Muslim World, or FIMAM) took place in the Portuguese capital, an event that brought together almost 100 researchers from different disciplines, regions and countries. FIMAM is a scientific and information cooperation initiative that was founded in April 1995 by a group of university researchers in Spain, and which has become a focus for debate and discussion aimed at promoting knowledge between different lines of research and exchanging information and experiences.

At the meeting, a number of different research projects were presented that had either been carried out within the CIDOB Foundation or with its support. Eduard Soler, Coordinator of the CIDOB Foundation's Mediterranean Programme, gave an address in which he explained the main themes of his doctoral thesis (presented in December 2007) on the evolution of Euro-Turkish relations. Soler argued that his research shows that the reforms carried out in Turkey were a necessary yet insufficient condition for the EU’s decision to commence membership negotiations with Turkey. Furthermore, his thesis demonstrates that the political changes that have taken place at the heart of the EU have proved decisive in terms of explaining the changing stances of different European actors and the EU as a whole with respect to the Turkish issue.

Daniel Shenhar, a research assistant on the CIDOB Foundation’s Mediterranean and Migrations Programmes, presented the preliminary findings of a research project on the evolution of the culture of security in Israel. This culture is marked, Shenhar claims, by the concepts of self-sufficiency and dissuasion. Shenhar explained that without an understanding of how the State of Israel was founded, it is very hard to comprehend the Israeli perception of its security and how it should be ensured. And without understanding this point, it is impossible to understand Israel's decisions in terms of its relations with its neighbours and its decision to take part ─ with varying degrees of enthusiasm ─ in regional cooperation initiatives. Israel's desire for self-sufficiency and dissuasion continues to be ─ Shenhar argues ─ the dominant trend in the culture of security, and which takes the form of a clear unilateralism. Even so, Shenhar highlighted the existence of signs that some sectors in Israel are beginning to question the results that are produced by this approach.

Laia Carbonell, a collaborator on the Mediterranean Programme at the CIDOB Foundation, presented the research study that is soon to be published as a Foundation Work Document. The study attempts to clarify whether European policies to promote democracy in Morocco have been an important element in the process of the country achieving greater political openness. Carbonell stressed that in both the 1990s and at present, a correlation of interests has existed between the monarchy and the EU. The EU wants political reform, but not necessarily a radical change in the political system and the possible destabilising effects that this might have on the Maghreb region. The monarchy, meanwhile, is prepared to take certain steps towards greater openness, provided that such measures do not question its own prominent role in the Moroccan political system. During her address, Laia Carbonell pointed out that with the current negotiations for an advanced statute, the EU could offer the Moroccan elites more incentives to carry out reform, given that abstention figures for the 2007 elections highlighted the system's growing loss of legitimacy.

Meanwhile, Ferran Izquierdo, Lecturer in International Relations at the UAB, presented the main themes of the project (for which he is head researcher) financed by the CIDOB Foundation on the subject of political transition in the Arab world. The project included participation from several different members of FIMAM whom, using a common framework of analysis of the power structure, assessed the greater or lesser predisposition of different Arab countries toward reform.

These and many other addresses confirmed, once again, FIMAM’s importance as a framework for academic dialogue, an event which on this occasion included the participation of a number of Portuguese researchers. FIMAM continues to be a point of reference for new generations of researchers, as well as for established academics specialising in the study of the Arab and Islamic world.

>> See programme (pdf 71kB)

>> For more information: http://www.fimam.org/

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