Contours of Conflict in the 21st Century

ARABIC LANGUAGE PERSPECTIVES: POOR AND PRESENTIST• Civil society. The weak current status of Arab civil society is anotherfrequently lamented issue in the literature, in recent years evenincreasingly in the Arab world itself. 168 Of particular importance here isthe issue of (despite recent progress) continued low educationalattainment in most of the region 169 , which also implies that even if therewere better links between governments and civil society in the Arabworld, there would probably still be little demand from below for moreforward-looking types of activities. Insufficient investment of humanand financial resources into especially the social sciences 170 probablyalso plays an important role here. Finally, think tanks, which representone of the important transmission belts between civil society andofficialdom in many regions of the world, and are ideally placed forfutures work, are also few and far between in the Arab world. 171 Thuswrites Ezzat Ibrahim:‘Among civil society organizations, think tanks are particularly wellsituatedto develop new ideas pertaining to political, social, andeconomic reform in the Arab world. The role of think tanks in societyis to seek access to, and ideally improve, the policymaking process byinjecting new ideas into the debate. In order for any reform initiativeto be successful in the Middle East (particularly outside initiativesoffered by the United States or Europe) it must be subject to domestic168 Jacques Aswad, Arab Human Development Report 2009 Challenges to Human Security in theArab Countries (New York NY: United nations development programme (UNDP). Regionalbureau for Arab States (RBAS), 2009). See also S. Karajah, ‘Civil Society in the Arab World:The Missing Concept,’ The International Journal for Not-for-Profit Law 9, no. 2 (2007); Ibid.169 Aswad, Arab Human Development Report 2009 Challenges to Human Security in the ArabCountries. See especially Chapter 4 on education.170 There are only an estimated 5,000 Arab researchers looking into the full range of social andpolitical trends and issues that affect the Middle East. Only 2,000 publish on a regular basisthrough 85 research institutions that cover all domestic and international issues. Salim Nasr,‘Reform and Development in the Region: What Does the Past Tell Us About the Future?’(presented at the Think Tanks as Civil Society Catalysts in the MENA Region, The BellevuePalace Hotel, Broumana, Lebanon, 1999)., as quoted in Ezzat Ibrahim, Brookings Institution.,Arab and American Think Tanks New Possibilities for Cooperation? New Engines for Reform?(Washington D.C. Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, 2003), 12.171 Ibrahim, Brookings Institution., Arab and American think tanks new possibilities forcooperation?.HCSS Report 123