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Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies

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The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies (MDC)
PredecessorReuven Shiloah Institute
Formation1966 (as the Reuven Shiloah Institute); 1983 (as the MDC)
HeadquartersTel Aviv, Israel
Executive Director
Prof. Uzi Rabi
Parent organization
Tel Aviv University
Websitedayan.org
David Ben-Gurion addresses members of the Reuven Shiloah Institute. Date unknown.
The Arabic Press Archives at the MDC for Middle Eastern and African Studies
The Arabic Press Archives at the MDC for Middle Eastern and African Studies

The Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies (MDC) is an Israeli think tank based in Tel Aviv, Israel, focused on the contemporary study and analysis of the Middle East and Africa. The idea for the Center was originally proposed by Reuven Shiloah, who was the first Director of the Mossad. Following Shiloah's death, the Reuven Shiloah Institute was created, and existed independently for a brief time before becoming incorporated into Tel Aviv University in 1966.[1] In 1983, the University established the Moshe Dayan Center, which combined the Shiloah Institute and other documentation units dealing with the Middle East.[2] Its stated primary mission is to serve as a resource for decision makers and the public at large, both in Israel and internationally, though it differentiates itself from other similar organizations by refraining from recommending specific policies outright.

The MDC’s team of over thirty researchers comes from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, and collectively possesses a command of English, Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, and Farsi. In the wake of the 2011 ‘Arab Spring,’ and the effective collapse of many Middle Eastern states, the MDC has been active in developing new interpretive frameworks for understanding the region’s complex dynamics.[3][4]

Activities

The MDC publishes eight analytical publications on a monthly or semi-monthly basis, each dealing with a particular facet of the contemporary Middle East. Additionally, it publishes several books annually under its own imprint, and frequently sponsors symposiums, events, and public lectures.The Center maintains its own specialist library housing an extensive collection of journals, articles, archival materials (including the British Archive's Archive Editions), economic source and statistical data, and other reference materials.[5]

The MDC Arabic Press Archives includes more than one thousand reels of microfilmed newspapers, the first of which appeared in 1877, as well as a hard-copy collection containing more than 6,000 newspapers, magazines and periodicals from all over the Middle East.[6]

The Center also runs a workshop for university faculty whose work revolves around Israel and the Middle East.[7] The workshop is a ten-day seminar on the geopolitics of Israel and its neighbors, and the history of the region and its significance in contemporary world affairs.[8]

The Reuven Shiloah Institute, and later the Moshe Dayan Center, was notable for its publication of the now-defunct Middle East Contemporary Survey, itself a descendant of the earlier Middle East Record, which was reviewed as "the most comprehensive and authoritative annual review of developments in the Middle East."[9]

The MDC for Middle Eastern and African Studies
Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin delivers one of his last public lectures at the MDC for Middle Eastern and African Studies, November 1995

Periodical Publications

  1. Tel Aviv Notes: a bi-monthly analytical update on current affairs and regional developments in the Middle East. It has a regular distribution schedule on the 10th and 26th of each month.[10]
  2. Middle East Crossroads: Edited by Dr. Mira Tzoreff. A Hebrew-language analytical publication similar to Tel Aviv Notes.
  3. Bayan: The Arabs in Israel. A quarterly publication of the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies.[11] The goal of Bayan is to enrich the knowledge of the general public about issues that involve Arab society within Israel.[12]
  4. Beehive: Middle East Social Media. A publication of the Doron Halpern Middle East Network Analysis Desk at the MDC, which studies noteworthy trends on Arab, Turkish, and Iranian social media.
  5. Bustan: Middle East Book Review. Published through the Penn State University Press, and includes "at least three long-form review essays that review new literature. These essays explore broad themes or issues on a particular topic that go beyond the content of the books under review. The journal also includes ten to fifteen short traditional book reviews, as well as review articles in translation."[13]
  6. Ifriqiya: An analytical publication focusing on sub-Saharan Africa.[14]
  7. Iqtisadi: Middle East Economy. Analyses economic developments in the Middle East and North Africa.[15]
  8. Middle East Newsbrief: Released weekly, the MENB summarizes the English-language Arab, Turkish, and Kurdish press, with a particular focus on editorial, versus news pieces.

Governance and Partnerships

The Moshe Dayan Center is governed by an Israeli Board of Governors, on the advice of an International Advisory Council. It is administered by an academic director. The Center is funded entirely by endowments, research grants, and private and institutional donations.[16]

Some of its programs are in partnership with the Council of Higher Education of the Republic of Turkey and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Its other foreign connections include the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the Turkish Foreign Policy Institute in Ankara, Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, Emory University, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara.[16]

In 2014, the MDC began a five-year cooperative program with the George L. Mosse / Laurence A. Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In August 2015, the MDC signed a cooperation agreement with the Center for Israel Studies (Jordan).

Selected Recent In-house Book Publications

  • Inbal Tal, "Spreading the Movement’s Message: Women’s Activism in the Islamic Movement in Israel," (2016)
  • Itamar Radai, "A Tale of Two Cities: Palestinians in Jerusalem and Jaffa, 1947-1948," (2015)
  • Ed. Brandon Friedman and Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, Inglorious Revolutions: State Cohesion in the Middle East after the Arab Spring, (2015)
  • Eds. Uzi Rabi and Shaul Yanai, "The Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula: States and Societies in Transition," (2014)
  • Joshua R. Goodman, Contesting Identities in South Sinai: Development, Transformation, and the Articulation of a "Bedouin" Identity under Egyptian Rule, (2014)
  • Jason Hillman, "A Storm in a Tea-Cup": The Iraq-Kuwait Crisis of 1961 From Gulf Crisis to Inter-Arab Dispute, (2014)
  • Fouad Ajami, "The Syrian Rebellion," (2013)
  • Joseph Kostiner, "The Gulf States: Politics, Society, Economy," (2012)

Notable Staff

  • Uzi Rabi, Ph.D. Current Director of the MDC. His specialisations include the modern history of states and societies in the Persian Gulf, state building in the Middle East, oil and politics in the Middle East, Iranian-Arab relations, and Sunni-Shi’i tensions.[17]
  • Itamar Rabinovich,[18] Ph.D. Former Ambassador to the United States. Researcher in the history and politics of Syria and Lebanon.
  • Shimon Shamir, Ph.D. Former Ambassador to Egypt and Jordan, and former director of the Reuven Shiloah Institute.
  • Irit Back, Ph.D. Head of African Studies at the MDC, and author of "Intervention and Sovereignty in Africa: Conflict Resolution and International Organisations in Darfur," (2016).
  • Ofra Bengio, Ph.D. Head of Kurdish Studies at the MDC,[19] and editor of "The Kurds: Nation-Building in a Fragmented Homeland," (2014).[20]
  • Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, Ph.D. Senior Research Fellow at the MDC, and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
  • Asher Susser, Ph.D. Senior Research Fellow at the MDC, Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University, and a former director of the Moshe Dayan Center.[21]
  • Paul Rivlin, Ph.D. Senior Research Fellow at the MDC, and editor of Iqtisadi: Middle East Economy.[22]
  • Mira Tzoreff, Ph.D. Research Fellow at the MDC
  • Esti Webman, Ph.D. Senior Researcher at the MDC
  • Eyal Zisser, Ph.D. Senior Researcher at the MDC, former MDC Director, and currently the Vice-Rector of Tel Aviv University

References

  1. ^ Hazi Karmel,Intelligence for Peace: the Role of Intelligence in Times of Peace, Frank Cass, 1999, p. 13
  2. ^ "Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies - CFTAU". CFTAU. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  3. ^ http://dayan.org/content/about-mdc
  4. ^ Amoyal, Noa (7 March 2015). "Israel Simulation Highlights New Thinking". DefenseNews.com.
  5. ^ "About the MDC Library". Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  6. ^ "About the MDC Arabic Press Archives". Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  7. ^ "Countering single-narrative academic tours of Israel | +972 Magazine". 972mag.com. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  8. ^ "Professor Uzi Rabi". The Common Good. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  9. ^ Clawson, Patrick (March 1998). "Review of Middle East Contemporary Survey: Volume XIX, 1995". Middle East Quarterly. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  10. ^ http://dayan.org/journal/tel-aviv-notes-contemporary-middle-east-analysis
  11. ^ http://www.kas.de/israel/en/about/partners/
  12. ^ http://dayan.org/journal/bayan-arabs-israel
  13. ^ http://www.psupress.org/Journals/jnls_Bustan.html
  14. ^ http://dayan.org/journal/ifriqiya-africa-research-and-analysis
  15. ^ http://dayan.org/journal/iqtisadi-middle-east-economy
  16. ^ a b The Moshe Dayan Center
  17. ^ "Uzi Rabi". Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  18. ^ Itamar Rabinovich
  19. ^ Middle East Forum, http://www.meforum.org/3838/israel-kurds
  20. ^ http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/benkur
  21. ^ "Professor Asher Susser". Coursera. Coursera.org. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  22. ^ "Dr. Paul Rivlin". The Hertzl Institute. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
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