Documentation

One of the most important focal points of overlapping and competing interests of both established and emerging powers is the Middle East. This region is an arena where the new rules of the game are being developed and acted out. This publication attempts looking at the effects of the global shift of power on the Middle East to explore the perspectives of the region to become a partner in an emerging multi-polar system, rather than a stomping ground or even a battlefield for the interest and the prestige of others.  With contributions by Azmi Bishara, Parag Khanna, Hermann Schwengel, Vitaly Naumkin, Ibrahim Saif, Yasmeen Tabaa, Sven Behrendt, Mingjiang LI, Praful Bidwai, Ziad Abdel Samad, and Kinda Mohamadieh.

 As the six-year transitional period defined in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement draws to a close, Sudan is sliding into another crisis. The Heinrich Böll Foundation, which has been working both with civil society partners in Sudan and on Sudan-related issues in the German context for several years, has put together this publication in order to reflect on such scenarios. With contributions by Alex de Waal, Atta El-Battahani, Marina Peter, John Yoh, Roland Marchal, and Peter Schumann.

This conference was held on November 2-3, 2007 and tackled the darker side of the environment-conflict-nexus, but also the opportunities for find common ground over environmental issues.

Homosexuality is a subject that induced the persecution of a lot of individuals and the shed of their blood. The situation in Lebanon is not as dangerous as in other countries in the Arab world for those individuals whose sexual orientation does not comply with that of the majority, but it is not less serious. Threats of death, humiliations, blackmails, attacks, marginalization, discriminations, rejections, depressions, suicide attempts, shame, guilt, emotional life ruined, isolation, are in great majority the load of the openly or clandestinely homosexual persons living in homophobic societies.

The study assesses the perceptions of youth concerning the theme of intercommunal relations, intercommunal special dynamics and the nature of the political system. The study reveals the alarming trend of social and territorial enclaves among youth and the distrust and resentment powered by intercommunal stereotyping. The study concludes with a number of recommendations that have been construed to mitigate the ever-growing scourge of communal tensions. They revolve around curtailing the incessant regeneration of the exclusive and politicized communal identity; de-compartmentalizing intercommunal social relations; addressing the challenges of exclusionary spaces of social relations, and other vital themes that serve to promote social cohesiveness, and peaceful co-existence. Recommendations for future research have also been made.  

This publication describes a new start of cooperation between Europe, the United States, and regional partners in the Middle East to tackle the challenges in Iraq and to help bring peace, stability, and sustainable development to the wider region. With contributions by Layla Al Zubaidi, Bülent Aras, Megan Chabalowski, Richard Gowan, Faleh Jabar, Daniel Korski, Sami Moubayed, Daniel Serwer, and Heiko Wimmen

How to restore the credibility of a country whose foundations and self-understanding are based on the universality of freedom and human rights, but that has violated precisely those rights by practicing torture in Guantánamo and other prisons around the world?