Doha: The School of Public Administration and Development Economics at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies concluded today, Monday, November 8, an international workshop entitled " Governance during crises and after conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa ".
24 speakers participated in the workshop, which was held on November 7-8, in six sessions that discussed various topics such as: governmental and non-governmental entities, the unheard voices in public policy during and after crises in the Middle East, crises and governance after the crises in the Middle East, Post-America: How has the world changed in the midst of the failure of the war on terrorism?, Recovering from conflicts and the role of regional and international actors, identifying potential cooperation opportunities and various resources, and defining the topic of the next international conference.
The former Finnish Foreign Minister, Par Olaf Steinback, gave a special lecture on the first day of the workshop under the title: “The Global Order after the Pandemic: Some Observations about the Middle East”, in which he referred to the changes that are likely to occur in the world order after the end of the Corona pandemic, especially Those that will affect the international coordination system, such as the work of the United Nations, which he called for its modernization in line with the nature of the requirements imposed by the pandemic and the political developments of the past two decades, especially in light of the rise of some global powers such as China, and the fact of its competition with the United States of America.
Steinback indicated that a different world will be shaped after the pandemic, as he believes that the world will not abandon the path of globalization, but its manifestations will continue in a different way, with more restrictions and limitations. He also noted the need to give greater attention for the sectors related to health, food and education in the future, and the need for these same sectors to become cooperation projects at the international level, in the context of raising the preparedness for any future emergency.
In the political context, Steinbeck discussed several obstacles to improving coordination at the international level, the first of which was the result of the pandemic in inflaming national isolation sentiments, as countries closed their borders, and each decided to protect its interests, even if it was at the expense of others. Several solutions were proposed to confront these obstacles, one of which was to work to raise the level of readiness at the level of multilateral organizations that bear the responsibility of supporting countries in need, and to address the refugees crisis in the world, whether by improving their conditions in their countries, or logically distributing them among the receiving countries ; So that the increase in their numbers does not cause reactions that abort efforts to increase cooperation.
Steinback also called for coordinating resources and working on post-pandemic projects, especially if this was in the context of establishing international institutions with the ability to adopt binding decisions to their members, regardless of whether they are democratic or non-democratic countries, noting that there is no single democratic model to which everyone must adhere to in order to achieve institutional work, and that all countries can cooperate regardless of the nature of their political system.
Steinback concluded his lecture by calling on small and medium-sized countries to create a cooperative framework for them; So that these countries are not easy prey for the expected global system in the post-Corona pandemic stage.
The workshop concluded on its second day with a discussion session, that shed light on aspects of potential cooperation between regional and international bodies in investing their various resources to confront the post-pandemic stage. The session was moderated by Dr. Hamid Ali, Dean of the School of Public Administration and Development Economics, and the workshop coordinator, Dr. Moosa Elayah, Assistant Professor at the School of Public Administration and Development Economics, and Laurent Lambert, Associate Professor in the Institute's Master of Public Policy program.
It is worth noting that the papers selected to participate in this international workshop were carefully selected by a specialized scientific committee, which had previously coordinated similar conferences, such as the conference on “The Governance of Public Policies During and After Conflicts in the Middle East” which was held last academic year, with 15 researchers from all over the world participating in this year’s workshop.
