The Arab Spring has brought together several societal actors who have ushered in a significant socioeconomic and political transformation of the Middle East and North Africa. Amongst these, civil society movements have arguably been in the driver’s seat. Research has demonstrated, however, that civil society often loses its decisive role in the phase after immediate transition. 

A team of Professors and faculty members currently working on a project entitled “Arab Spring: Challenges during political transitions and comparative lessons for civil societies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)” a project of the Institute’s Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP), will discuss these issues during a News Briefing presentation at the Graduate Institute. The team will present their project and explore the changing nature of the current transitions; the tensions between different segments of civil society; the relationship between the civil and the political sphere; internal and external factors that block civil society in their efforts towards meaningful participation in the transitions as well as the potentially problematic nature of external funding in the region.

The briefing will be moderated by Professor Andre Liebich, and will include presentations by Thania Paffenholz, Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, and Professor Riccardo Bocco.

Andre Liebich is Professor of International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute. His interests lie in political ideas and ideologies and Central and East European studies. He has been working on citizenship, nationality and minority issues in post-communist Europe, most recently on the Roma Question, as well as on self-determination in a historical perspective.

Thania Paffenholz is Senior Researcher at the Centre on Conflict, Peacebuilding and Development at the Graduate Institute. In addition to her academic work, she was peacebuilding officer within the Delegation of the European Commission in Kenya (1996-2000) and became Director of the Center for Peacebuilding (KOFF) at Swisspeace in 2003. She also works as an advisor to the UN, the OECD/DAC as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations. Her latest book is Civil Society and Peacebuilding: A Critical Assessment (2010).

Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou is Visiting Lecturer of Development Studies, Visiting Professor of International History at the Graduate Institute and Head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He was previously the Associate Director of the Harvard University Programme on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, former Foreign Minister of Mauritania and Director of Research of the International Council on Human Rights Policy.

Riccardo Bocco is Professor of Anthropology and Sociology of Development at the Graduate Institute. His main research interest is on the role of international organisations and the impact of their humanitarian and development programmes. From 2000 to 2007, he headed several research projects on Palestinian refugees in the Near East. In 2008, he co-founded the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Graduate Institute and his current research focuses on peacebuilding policies in the Middle East.

Free entrance
Registration required. Please contact michael.savage@graduateinstitute.ch
Salle S1, Site Barton, 132 rue de Lausanne
Access map