Engulfed in the Gulf? – Online Conference

Thomas MÜLLER-FÄRBER, Program Director International Affairs, Protestant Academy Loccum

HOW MIGHT THE GULF REGION LOOK LIKE IN 2030 WHEN LOOKING UPON ITS…

… SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATE

Eckart WOERTZ, Director, Institute for Middle East Studies, GIGA (German Institute for Global and Area) Hamburg, (confirmed)

… POWER RELATIONS

Dina ESFANDIARY, Fellow, The Century Foundation, Washington D.C./London (confirmed)

… RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STATES AND SOCIETIES

Simon MABON, Professor for Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancester University and author of the recent book “Houses Built on Sand: Sovereignty, Violence and Revolution in the Middle East”, Lancester (confirmed)

Moderation: Ali FATHOLLAH-NEJAD, Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, Afro-Middle East Center (AMEC) and author of the forthcoming book "Iran in an Emerging New World Order: From Ahmadinejad to Rouhani", Berlin (confirmed)

IMPULSES FROM …

JEDDAH

Abdulaziz SAGER, Founder and Chairman, Gulf Research Center, Jeddah (confirmed)

TEHRAN

Nasser HADIAN, Professor of International Relations at the University of Tehran (confirmed)

THE PAST – What Are Key Takeaways from the History of Europe’s Involvement in the Gulf Region?

Anoush EHTESHAMI, Professor of International Relations in the School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University (confirmed)

INTERESTS & DESIRES – What Are the Goals of Europe’s Current Policy towards the Region?

Gabriel Munuera VINALS, Head of Division Arabian Peninusla and Iraq, European Action Service, Brussels (confirmed)

(MIS)PERCEPTIONS – Walking on Edward Said’s Trail and Exploring Europe’s (Mis)Understandings of the Region

Susanne KOELBL, Journalist, Foreign Correspondent at Der Spiegel and Author of the Book “Behind the Kingdom’s Veil”, Hamburg (confirmed)

Elisa CATALANO EWERS, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security and former Director for Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council, Washington D.C. (confirmed)

Soli SHAHVAR, Founding Director of the Ezri Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies and Professor at the University of Haifa (confirmed)

Russia and Turkey play an important role in the Gulf region. In recent years both have invested political capital in the region and have build alliance networks on the ground that provid them with influence on the future development of the region. The purpose of this 4th interview round is to elaborate on the question how the EU’s policy towards the Gulf region is perceived in Moscow and Ankara?

IMPULSES FROM …

MOSCOW …

Irina ZVIAGELSKAYA, Head of Center for the Middle East Studies at IMEMO and Professor of the Oriental Studies Department of the MGIMO University, Moscow (confirmed)

ANKARA …

Galip DALAY, Richard Weizäcker Fellow at the Bosch Foundation and non-resident fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, Berlin (confirmed)

Apart from presenting the findings steeming out of the hybrid roundtable discussions, held on the second conference day in Loccum (see 26 November), the purpose of this concluding panel is to elaborate on how Europe’s policy towards the Gulf region shall evolve in the future.

Hannah NEUMANN, Member of the European Parliament (Greens/EFA), Chair of the Delegation for the Relations with the Arab Peninsula, Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence Policy, Brussels/Berlin (confirmed)

Dorothée SCHMID, Head, Turkey and Middle East Program, IFRI (French Institute of International Relations), Paris (confirmed)

Niels ANNEN, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office and Member of the German Parliament (Social Democrats), Berlin/Hamburg (confirmed)

Cornelius ADEBAHR, Non-Resident Fellow, Carnegie Europe, Berlin/Brüssel (confirmed)

Moderation: Thomas MÜLLER-FÄRBER, Program Director, Protestant Academy Loccum