Girls in Syria. Photo: Yasin Akgul; resized. CC BY-SA 2.0
Ambassador Haim Koren, former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt and South Sudan, proposes a new framework for thinking about the region, one that includes the role of globalization, a shifting of terminologies and an understanding of the clash of ideologies and identities.
Monday, March 6, 20175:30 PM - 7:15 PMRoyce Hall, Room 314
Sponsored by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and co-sponsored by the Center for Middle East Development and the Center for Near Eastern Studies
A reception prior to the 6:00 PM talk will begin at 5:30 PM.
About the Talk
The political history of the Middle East faces a process of continuity and change. Identities and borders remain as the foremost issues.
The Middle East has undergone significant change since the second half of the 19th century under the Ottoman Empire and afterwards, under European colonial rule. In the 20th century, new identities – Pan Arabism and Pan Islam – as well as nation-states began to form, and towards the end of the 20th century, the superpowers exacting influence over the Middle East (the United States and later, the Soviet Union) began to face non-state actors, such as Al Qaeda, that opposed the formation of states. Now, in the 21st century, the battle is not only over borders, but also over ideologies and identities.
Ambassador Haim Koren will explore the consequences of this process in the Middle East and beyond.
About the Speaker
Haim Koren (Klein) served as Israel’s Ambassador to the Republic of Egypt between 2014 and 2016. He previously served as Ambassador to South Sudan and as the Director of the Middle East Division in the Center of Political Research in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During his tenure with the Ministry, his positions included serving as Director of the Political Planning Division and as Deputy Spokesman of the Press Division. He has also served in various other diplomatic capacities in Chicago, USA; Alexandria, Egypt; and Kathmandu, Nepal.
Ambassador Koren earned his Ph.D. from the University of Bergen in Norway. Since 2011, he has been a member of Advisory Board of IFIMES (The Slovenian Institute of Middle East and Balkan Studies) and from 2016 a member of the Board of the Ezri Center for Research of Iran and the Persian Gulf at Haifa University.
Between 1992-1994 Amb. Koren was a Member of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago. From 2008 to 2011, he as Instructor at the National Defense College of Israel. He has given lectures and seminars on Arabism and Islam, the Ideology of radical Islam, and the global dimension of the foreign policy in Israel.
Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, Center for Middle East Development