Center Announces Initiative to Promote Middle East Governance

This past December, the Belfer Center announced the launch of the Governance Initiative in the Middle East, an effort to promote improved governance in the Middle East. Topping the initiative's agenda is assisting the government of Dubai as they establish a new Dubai School of Government (DSG) that will promote training and research in regional governance issues.

Ceremonies commemorating the new school of government's founding took place in Dubai on December 14 as part of the Arab Strategy Forum. Belfer Center Acting Executive Director for Research Juliette Kayyem took part in the ceremonies along with former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine, whom she introduced as the first executive director of the initiative.

Ambassador Bodine will work with representatives of the Dubai government to assist in the development of DSG, which will train a new generation of Middle Eastern scholars and leaders in governance issues and methods. The governance initiative will ensure that the new school is working with the latest and best scholarship on governance issues by conducting extensive education programs in Dubai and providing access to the Kennedy School's materials and faculty, as well as hosting DSG scholars for extended periods of study at Harvard.

"This is a truly groundbreaking project to bring the research and training resources of the Kennedy School and the regional expertise of the Dubai School to bear on the critical issues of governance in the region," said Ambassador Bodine. "I'm looking forward to working with my new colleagues both in Cambridge and in Dubai."

"We are delighted to be able to contribute to this first-of-a kind effort to improve governance in the Middle East, and especially delighted that Ambassador Bodine has agreed to join us to head up the effort," said Belfer Center Director Graham Allison, who will serve as faculty chair of the new initiative.

"The Belfer Center's arrangement with the Dubai School of Government will allow Harvard scholars to play a key role in the evolving debate about improving governance in the Middle East. At the same time, we are there to learn as well as to teach.

Improving our understanding of the challenges faced by this critical region will be vital to improving international relations in the decades to come." Ms. Bodine, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service who had been based primarily in the Middle East, served as Ambassador to Yemen from 1997 to 2001. (For more information on Ambassador Bodine, see Q&A.)