Category Archives: Oman

“Regional Geo-Political Dynamics: The Arabian Peninsula (GCC Countries and Yemen)” at the 2012 Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference

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Dr. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, Professor of Political Science, United Arab Emirates University (Abu Dhabi) and lead author, 2008 Arab Knowledge Report, at the 2012 Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference

Dr. John Duke Anthony, Dr. Abdel Aziz Abu Hamad Aluwaisheg, Dr. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, and Dr. Abdullah K. Al-Shayji  gave remarks on “Policymaking Opportunities and Lessons Learned From Regional Geo-Political Dynamics: The Arabian Peninsula (GCC Countries and Yemen)” at the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations’ 21st Annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference. The conference, on the theme “Arab-U.S. Relations Amidst Transition within Constancy: Implications for American and Arab Interests and Policies,” was held October 25-26, 2012 at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, DC.

Watch session in the C-SPAN Video Library

Listen to a podcast of the session

Read a transcript of remarks as delivered

Malone Fellow Linda Pappas Funsch on Lebanon

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Professor Linda Pappas Funsch (far right) and a student delegation from the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations visits the remains of the great forest of cedars of Lebanon, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

From June 21-July 3, 2012, the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, in partnership with the Lebanon Renaissance Foundation, organized and escorted ten students on a study visit to Lebanon. The delegation was led by National Council Malone Fellow and Model Arab League advisor Professor Linda Pappas Funsch, who lived in Beirut for three years in the 1970s while working for the Ford Foundation. Professor Funsch contributed several stories about this summer’s visit to the Frederick News-Post, which can be access through the link below.

Linda Pappas Funsch, “Lebanon,” The Frederick News-Post, 2012.

Professor Funsch previously contributed a series of stories to the Frederick News-Post on Oman drawn from her experiences participating in the National Council Malone Fellowship Oman Cultural Immersion Program.

Linda Pappas Funsch, “Oman Rediscovered,” The Frederick News-Post, 2006.

Seventeenth Annual Oman Cultural Immersion Program — February 13-27, 2013

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Applications Now Being Accepted for the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations’

Seventeenth Annual
Oman Cultural Immersion Program

February 13-27, 2013

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations is pleased to offer, through its Joseph J. Malone Fellowship in Arab and Islamic Studies Program, the Seventeenth Annual Oman Cultural Immersion study visit to the Sultanate of Oman February 15-27, 2013. Fellows are required to participate in and complete a pre-departure orientation in Washington, D.C. to be held on February 13-14. This unique opportunity will provide a privileged first hand exposure to one of the Arab world’s most demographically, geographically, and socially diverse countries.The National Council is currently accepting applications to participate in this study visit. APPLY NOW!

American professionals in academia, government, the military, non-governmental organizations, business, religious institutions, the media, civic associations, as well as the fine arts, humanities, and the social sciences are invited to apply.

The Seventeenth Annual Oman Cultural Immersion study visit will provide participants an educational experience that few Westerners and even fewer Americans have had. The program is choreographed to provide Malone Fellows an unparalleled diverse exposure to Oman — one of the most historically and culturally rich of all Arab and Islamic societies. Until relatively recent times, the Sultanate languished in its status as one of the most forgotten corners of all Arabia. Anyone in doubt about the extraordinary opportunity that being able to visit Oman in this manner presents need only consult any of the several National Geographic Magazine features on the country in the past two decades.

 

End Pictures: inlaid Islamic niches at the Grand Mosque in Oman's Capital Territory; Middle Pictures: Bedouin Omani girls in the Sharqiyyah Sands.

End Pictures: inlaid Islamic niches at the Grand Mosque in Oman's Capital Territory; Middle Pictures: Bedouin Omani girls in the Sharqiyyah Sands.

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Oman, Culture, and Diplomacy

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Oman, Culture, and DiplomacyNational Council Senior International Affairs Fellow and previous speaker at the Council’s annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers’ Conferences Jeremy Jones has authored a new book, Oman, Culture, and Diplomacy, published by Edinburgh University Press. The book provides a portrait of Oman through its diplomacy. For Oman, the idea of diplomacy refers not only to the country’s interactions in the global community, but also to the way in which Omani life itself is shaped by principles and practices of social and political engagement that are essentially diplomatic, grounded in ideals of tact and tolerance that have developed over a long historical period. The book draws upon key research into Omani religious and social traditions and ethnographic studies of language and  social customs, conducted expressly for the project, and argues that this culture is not only where Oman’s contemporary foreign policy has been nurtured, but also where, within this culture, a specific conception and practice of diplomacy has been developed.

Review of Oman, Culture, and Diplomacy in Middle East Policy, Summer 2012, Volume XIX, Number 2

“A Window onto the Gulf Cooperation Council” – Remarks by His Excellency Abdul Latif Bin Rashid Al Zayani

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“A Window onto the Gulf Cooperation Council,
Together With a View Regarding Its
Involvement Of Late With Yemen”

Remarks by

His Excellency Dr. Abdul Latif Bin Rashid Al Zayani,
Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council

to the

Gulf Research Center’s Third Annual Gulf Research Meeting,
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

July 11, 2012

Introduction by Dr. John Duke Anthony,
Founding President and CEO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations

 

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations is privileged to publish the remarks made earlier today by H.E. Dr. Abdul Latif Bin Rashid Al Zayani, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, who has granted his permission.   The occasion is the three-day Third Annual Gulf Research Meeting (GRM) presented by the Gulf Research Center (GRC) with offices in Jeddah, Geneva, and Cambridge, UK.   Founded by Dr. Abdalaziz Sager less than two decades ago, with the overriding strategic maxim of “Knowledge for All,” the GRC has rapidly become a leading institute specializing in research, education, seminars, workshops, publications, and consultancy.

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NCUSAR Sixteenth Annual Oman Cultural Immersion Program, February 2012

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From February 17-28, 2012, the National Council escorted a delegation of seven U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) officers and several scholars on a unique Malone Fellowship visit to Oman. This Sixteenth Annual Oman Cultural Immersion study visit provided the participants a privileged first hand exposure to one of the Arab world’s most demographically, geographically, and socially diverse countries.

The Future Significance of the Gulf Cooperation Council

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By John Duke Anthony

DOWNLOAD “The Future Significance of the Gulf Cooperation Council” (.pdf)

The world today faces numerous challenges, including ongoing fallout from the international financial crises and instances of interstate conflict. Combined with the many changes affecting the regional and global balances of power these challenges raise questions about how power will be distributed in the coming two decades.

With this in mind, the Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) held its 16th Annual Conference on “Global Strategic Developments: A Futuristic Vision” in Abu Dhabi in March 2011, and recently published the conference’s papers. Available from the ECSSR through the link provided below, the volume provides a professional and academic investigation of the global challenges that lie ahead.

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