The Arab World and Iran: A turbulent region in transition, edited by Amin Saikal, was launched by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, The Hon. Julie Bishop MP, on 12 December 2016. In launching the book, Ms Bishop said that Prof. Amin Saikal and CAIS have been providing high-quality work to inform the debate on the Middle East and the wider region for the past 20 years. She said that the collaboration between CAIS and the government on the challenging and contentious issues of the region is highly regarded. She congratulated Prof. Saikal on the publication of the timely, well-reasoned book, which will make a great contribution as to how Australia will manage its interests in the region.
In her assessment of the situation in the Middle East, Ms Bishop said the region was suffering from high numbers of conflict-related deaths, terrorist acts, and refugees. She said in hindsight the term 'Arab Spring' as a 'one-size fits all' understanding of the changing geopolitics of the countries of the region was ill-founded. She said the great differences between countries, the sectarian fault-lines, the emerging non-state actors, the age-old tensions and intractable problems have all re-emerged as new challenges for the global community. Ms Bishop explained that the Australian government was expanding its presence in the region with a recently opened embassy in Doha, Qatar and another embassy soon to open in Rabat, Morocco. She also outlined the developing relations between Australia and Iran following the recent lifting of sanctions from that country.
The event was opened by ANU Chancellor, Professor The Hon. Gareth Evans, who remarked that as Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (CAIS), Professor Amin Saikal is an outstanding scholar with great academic entrepreneurial skills. He added that CAIS, as the leading Centre of its kind in Australia, indisputably holds a unique role in contributing to the debate on the affairs of the Middle East and the wider region. Professor Evans also said that the contributors to the book have provided a deeply informed analysis which is an outstanding contribution to the knowledge of the dynamics of a problematic region.
ANU Chancellor, Professor Brian Schmidt, introduced Ms Bishop and thanked both the Minister and the Government for the continued support of the university.
In his address, Professor Saikal thanked the authors who contributed chapters to the book. He said one of his ambitions in editing the volume was to inform readers of the key variables that have placed the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) regions in the positions they are in today. He said that although the Islamic State is in retreat, and may cease to exist in its present form, this on its own will not end the region's deep-seated problems. The fact is, there are too many internal and external actors, with conflicting agendas. The current military operations will work up to a point, but there needs to be a comprehensive political strategy to address the conditions that have given rise to violent extremism in the region. These conditions include authoritarian rule, social and economic disparities and injustices, and occupation, as in the case of Palestinian lands. Also in need of redress are the local power rivalries and the repeated major power interventions designed to shape the region to their ideological and geopolitical preferences. A viable resolution of these conditions requires national structural reform and regional cooperation, with the assistance but not military interventions by outside powers. He warned that unless the current transition is handled prudently, a more disturbing MENA region may arise.
Professor Saikal said that during his long years of studying the Middle East and the role of Islam as a global religion, he had not witnessed as much pain and despair as there is today. He said the rise of Islamophobia, bigotry, and protectionism in Western democracies make it more incumbent upon CAIS and ANU to promote a better understanding of Islam and the Middle Eastern, North African and Central Asian regions so as to foster academic bridges in these areas.
Professor Saikal thanked Ms Bishop for taking time from her busy schedule to launch the book. He also thanked the Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor for being so supportive of the Centre and himself personally, he then invited the V-C to introduce five other important books that the staff of the Centre have published this year. The books are:
Amin Saikal, Iran at the Crossroads, (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016, pp 160.)
Amin Saikal, (ed.) Weak States, Strong Societies: Power and Authority in the new world order, (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016, pp 288.)
Amin Saikal & Kirill Nourzhanov, (eds) Afghanistan and its Neighbors after the NATO Withdrawal, (New York: Lexington Books, 2016, pp. 240.)
Raihan Ismail, Saudi Clerics and Shi'a Islam, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp 328.)
France Meyer, Frankenstein à Bagdad - Ahmed Saadawi, (Piranha, Paris, 2016, pp 378.)