The MED Report 2020, Navigating the Pandemic, provides analyses, policy recommendations and a vast array of data and infographics to stimulate discussion and inspire innovative ideas during the 6th edition of Rome MED Dialogues. Following MED’s four traditional thematic sections – shared security; shared prosperity; migration; civil society, culture and media – the Report focuses on a selection of topics that are crucial to the region, highlighting both the challenges and the dynamics taking shape in an area that has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The aim of this publication is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the prospects and policy options for the Middle East and North Africa, where COVID-19 has impacted on a context already marred by socio-economic vulnerabilities and instability.
Table of Contents
SHARED SECURITY
The impact of the pandemic on geopolitics in the MENA region
Vali Nasr (Johns Hopkins University)
The sad demise of Europe’s imagined Mediterranean
Rosa Balfour (Carnegie Europe)
Russia’s uneasy role in the broader Mediterranean
Andrey Kortunov (RIAC)
The COVID-19 pandemic and China’s Middle East gains
Jonathan Fulton (Zayed University and Atlantic Council)
Defusing US-Iran tensions and building security in the Gulf: a roadmap
Annalisa Perteghella (ISPI)
Turkey’s assertiveness on the regional stage
Valeria Talbot (ISPI)
Syrian and Lebanese economy: a push for political compromise?
Lina Khatib (Chatham House)
A window of opportunity for an EU negotiated settlement in Libya
Matteo Colombo (ECFR and ISPI), Arturo Varvelli (ECFR)
SHARED PROSPERITY
Times of economic crisis in the MENA region
Marek Dabrowski (Bruegel, HSE and CASE), Marta Domínguez-Jiménez (Bruegel)
COVID-19: a harbinger of greater inequality
Intissar Fakir (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Sandy Alkoutamy (Tsinghua University Program)
Economic diversification in Saudi Arabia in the wake of COVID-19
Karen Young (American Enterprise Institute)
Global cities in the desert: the challenge of sustainability
Andrea Tobia Zevi (ISPI)
The geopolitics of gas in the Eastern Mediterranean
Gabriel Mitchell (Mitvim and Virginia Tech University)
The food security challenge
Eckart Woertz (GIGA and University of Hamburg)
MIGRATION
Migration trends in the Mediterranean and the COVID-19 pandemic
Matteo Villa (ISPI)
Irregular migration and Libya: is the crisis over?
Nancy Porsia (Freelance journalist and researcher)
EU-Turkey: towards a new deal?
Daniele Albanese (CARITAS)
Internal displacement and children’s psychosocial needs in Syria and Iraq
Silvia Gison, Laura Kivela, Orlaith Minogue, Miya Tajima-Simpson, Amjad Yamin, Anne Mitaru (Save the Children)
CIVIL SOCIETY, CULTURE, AND MEDIA
Protesters’ creative response to the coronavirus pandemic
Georges Fahmi (EUI)
Balancing control and freedom of expression in the times of COVID-19
Viviana Mazza (Corriere della Sera)
The necessity for women’s participation in the Syrian peace process
Kholoud Mansour (IMMAP and Lund University)
Does a North African internet governance model exist? Evidence from Egypt and Morocco
Samuele Dominioni (ISPI)
