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Panel tackles U.S. strategy in Middle East

U.S. and the Arab world focus of weekend international conference at UMaine

By Cate Tiller

Posted on Monday, October 21st, 2002, 12:00 am

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National and international experts on the Middle East met at the University of Maine this weekend. They were here for a timely international conference to discuss U.S. relations with the Arab world.

Twenty-five internationally renowned scholars from varying fields spoke for 20-25 minutes each throughout Saturday and Sunday morning.

“It would be difficult to overstate the credentials of the presenters who will be part of this conference,” Diana Lawson, associate dean of the College of Business, Public Policy and Health said in a recent press release.

University of Maine System Chancellor Joseph Westfall opened the conference, expressing how uncommon it is to host a political debate of this sort outside of Washington, D. C. Introducing the theme that would recur throughout nearly every presentation, he said the Arab world is diverse and we cannot refer to it as a single entity.

Ann Joyce, editor of the “Middle East Policy” journal asked the question that has been on many people’s minds recently: “Is war [with Iraq] inevitable?” She hoped that the media’s recent airing of dissident voices would generate new discussions, before we have committed ourselves too far.

Judith Yaphe, the Middle East project director for the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, was not as optimistic. From her position in Washington, she said she sees the war as, unfortunately, inevitable.

“People underestimate the determination of the Bush administration,” Yaphe said. According to her, Washington has few choices. The sanctions against Iraq only harmed the population, not the government. Ignoring or accepting Saddam Hussein is an unacceptable position, she said. That leaves eliminating Saddam as the only option.

“We’re going to have to go in. We’re going to have to stay,” she said, even though she said she doesn’t want to see a U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Shafeeq Ghabra, director of the Center of Strategic and Future Studies at Kuwait University, stated his belief that, “this is going to be the biggest earthquake the Middle East has seen since the 1960s.”

Ghabra said he was saddened by the great potential that Arab countries hold, but are unable to utilize. According to him, they have an overall population of 270 million, 22 states, multiple religions, many well-educated people, and yet 70 percent of the population is under 25, 60 percent under 21 and 50 percent under 15. The Legislature needs development and the huge bureaucracy has “lost its zeal to do something new,” Ghabra said.

Alan Richards, professor of economics and environmental studies at the University of California Santa Cruz, continued with this theme.

“Remember, these are young people,” Richards said.

It isn’t poverty that causes terrorism. Young people living in crumbling cities are going to question what is going on around them. Even if they are not living in slums, they see others there. They don’t like what they see, and they despise their governments for failing them,” Richards said.

“It is quite impossible for the U.S. government to have peace with young Arabs as long as [the Palestinian-Israeli conflict] is an issue,” Richards said, acknowledging his own pessimism.

While moments of optimism glimmered every once in a while, a general pessimism about past and future U.S. policies toward the Middle East seemed to be the consensus among the lecturers.

Lawson and professor Bahman Baktiari, chair of the International Affairs Department, held most of the responsibility of organizing the conference.