Home>Middle East and North Africa Programme: Drawing Together All Area-Related Initiatives
26.09.2024
Middle East and North Africa Programme: Drawing Together All Area-Related Initiatives
Sciences Po's Middle East and North Africa (MENA) programme centralises initiatives relating to the study and research on this region. On 26 September, a one-day launching event was organised on the topic of the wars in the Middle East and their repercussions on the MENA societies.
As an interdisciplinary and cross-cutting structure, the main mission of the MENA programme is to promote, coordinate, and enhance the institution's activities relating to the Middle East and North Africa. By strengthening academic, scientific and cultural collaborations with partner universities, the programme supports student work at all levels (bachelor, master, doctorate), while creating a unique space for dialogue between researchers, artists and civil society members, thereby fostering an enriched understanding of the region.
Interview with the programme's two co-directors: Léa Albrieux, in charge of the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey, the Gulf, and Pakistan at the International Affairs Office, and Bayram Balci, researcher at the Center for International Studies (CERI).
Can you tell us about your background and your interest in the Middle East and North Africa area?
We both studied the Middle East and North Africa as part of our studies and spent many years there. Our interest also stems from the fact that this region, its conflicts, but also its culture – including its cuisine – are present in our daily lives in France and even in Europe. So the desire to understand this region, whose conflicts have repercussions that go far beyond its borders, played a central role in our decision to focus on it. This area also forms a bridge between several continents, which makes it all the more interesting to explore collaborations with Sciences Po's other regional programmes, covering Africa and South Asia.
What are the major contemporary challenges facing the region, and how does the new programme intend to tackle them?
The main challenge is to find a way back towards peace, stability, and democracy, which go hand in hand. As the cradle of three great religions, but also of several great cultures and civilisations, the region has been constantly confronted, since its emergence from colonial domination, with conflicts of varying intensity. Those security and political challenges regularly call into question the progress that has been made. Our programme is humble; it does not claim to resolve the tensions in the region concerned. Contributing to analyse and understand them, through research and teaching, would be our first step.
Can you explain your vision and ambitions as co-directors of the programme?
This structure gathers the diverse people who study and work on the region within Sciences Po's departments, research centres, campuses, as well as its undergraduate and graduate schools. Its mission is to support and highlight all the institution's scientific and educational activities and partnerships relating to the MENA area. To this end, we plan to develop a variety of activities combining teaching, research, and partnerships, as well as actions relating to the arts and culture of this region.
What topics will be highlighted at the launch event on 26 September?
Although the aim of our programme is not to comment on every event that shakes the region, the event on 26 September will be devoted essentially to the attack of 7 October 2023 and its effects on Middle Eastern societies. The unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel plunged the Middle East into a new phase of war. While this renewed violence is having profound effects on the regional balance, it is also having major consequences for local societies, in Israel and Palestine, but also in neighbouring countries. This conference will shed a light on this internal and local dimension of the ongoing conflict.
Sciences Po & MENA
Sciences Po has particularly strong ties to the vast region stretching from North Africa to Iran. This is reflected in its 35 institutional partnerships across 12 countries, and in a rich research output: with around 20 researchers as well as 20 PhD students and postdocs specialising in the area, Sciences Po is one of the leading European universities for Middle Eastern and North African Studies. The region is also present in academic programmes, for example through the Mediterranean-Middle East minor on the Menton undergraduate campus.
If 16 nationalities in the MENA region are represented within our student body, Sciences Po hosts about 700 students from the region every year. Meanwhile, about 120 Sciences Po students study abroad and 120 are on an internship in the region every year. At the end of their studies, 5% of our recent graduates employed abroad work in the area.
