Rise of countries like Bahrain and Qatar will result in increasing strength and impact on regional foreign policy
The rise of countries like Bahrain and Qatar will result in increasing strength and impact on regional foreign policy, a Middle East scholar said in Manama.
“Over next 10 years, we will continue to see the economic ascendance of small Gulf states like Bahrain and Qatar,” Mehran Kamrava, Interim Dean of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, said at a lecture that examined anticipated regional developments over the next ten years.
The lecture, titled, “A 2020 Vision of the Middle East”, discussed the political and socioeconomic implications of policies currently held by governments in the Middle East and Gulf region in particular.
Kamrava offered three possible trends that the peace process in the Middle East could take and highlighted the future implications of an expanding American footprint in the region.
The lecture, sponsored by Georgetown’s Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS), was attended by diplomats and international relations experts and students.
“Students should realize their share of the responsibility to shape the region’s future and should take advantage of the governments’ invaluable efforts to enrich human capacity and facilitate access to education,” said Kamrava, who serves as Director of Georgetown’s Center for International and Regional Studies.
Kamrava, whose most recent books include Iran’s Intellectual Revolution and The Modern Middle East: A Political History Since the First World War, said that “Bahrain has already successfully navigated parliamentary and legislative restructuring and civil social reform.”
CIRS officials said that they were keen on organising a variety of regional and international experts through their lecture series to raise awareness of the socioeconomic changes the region is undergoing.
