Round table “Dilemmas of Strengthening State Resilience in the Middle East and North Africa before the Arab Spring”

The CSDS Director Vladimir Bartenev opened the round table discussion and emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary approach to the problems of state building and integration of efforts of experts in International Development Cooperation and in particular regions and states. In his report he accentuated main dilemmas of strengthening state resilience in the Arab East through the eyes of developmentalists of 1990-2000s.

Vasiliy Kuznetsov, Director of the CAIS, concluded the conceptual and theoretical part of the discussion with an accent on strengthening state resilience in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in light of the theory of social orders of D.North. Dynamics of political evolution of Arab states from the perspective of the author can be analyzed as dynamics of Limited Access Orders (LAO) evolution. In this case support of the LAO institutes must be provided in different ways on each stage of their transformation. Author distinguishes several types of LAO in countries of the region and proposes a nuanced approach to their strengthening.

Lida Oganisyan opened a second part of the round table discussion dedicated to the approaches of “traditional” and “untraditional” donors. She presented the approaches of the EU and the USA to democratization assistance in Arab states before the Arab Spring. Altunay Aliyeva made a presentation about the role of Turkey in strengthening state resilience and post-conflict reconstruction in the Middle East on the eve of the Arab Spring. Andrey Derbenev closed the second part with his report on main approaches of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to the development cooperation in foreign countries.

Luiza Khlebnikova opened the last part of the discussion dedicated to the analysis of separate cases. She presented her paper about the US assistance in strengthening state resilience in the Palestinian territories during the George W Bush administration. Alexey Solomatin made an evaluation of the World Bank’s work in Palestinian territories before the Arab Spring. Philipp Trunov examined the role of Germany in security sector reforming of Lebanon, primarily in creation of functional Lebanese naval forces (especially inshore security). Oleg Bulaev closed the round table discussion with the Libyan situation analysis.