April 24, 2014
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Wednesday, April 30, 2014
6:45 p.m. Presentation; 7:30 p.m. Reception and Book Signing
Institute of International Education, 809 United Nations Plaza, Kaufman Center
RSVP to Raquel Battle rbattle@iie.org by April 28th

Marwan Muasher's new book The Second Arab Awakening and the Battle for Pluralism is founded on his long experience as a diplomat and on a deep understanding of Arab history. Many in the West are profoundly disappointed that the euphoria of the "Arab Spring" has not yielded the results of their expectations.

While his important book is not about immediate events or policies or responses to the Arab Spring, it instead takes a long, judicious view of political change in the Arab world, beginning with the first Awakening in the nineteenth century and extending into future decades when—if the dream is realized—a new Arab world defined by pluralism and tolerance will emerge.

Marwan Muasher, former foreign minister of Jordan, asserts that all sides—the United States, Europe, Israel, and Arab governments alike—were deeply misguided in their thinking about Arab politics and society when the turmoil of the Arab Spring erupted. He explains the causes of the unrest, tracing them back to the first Arab Awakening, and warns of the forces today that threaten the success of the Second Arab Awakening, ignited in December 2010.

Hope rests with the new generation and its commitment to tolerance, diversity, the peaceful rotation of power, and inclusive economic growth, Muasher maintains. He calls on the West to rethink political Islam and the Arab-Israeli conflict, and he discusses steps all parties can take to encourage positive state-building in the freshly unsettled Arab world.
 
Written by a veteran diplomat with years of experience in governance in the Middle East, The Second Arab Awakening is both a practical guide and a wakeup call, urging all people who care about democracy toward more informed positions and effective actions on behalf of pluralism.
 
IIE and the United Nations Association welcome this presentation by Dr. Muasher, whose previous book, The Arab Center, was asserted by President Bill Clinton as "a must read to understand how to address the challenges facing the Middle East today."
 
MARWAN MUASHER is vice president for studies at Carnegie, where he oversees research in Washington and Beirut on the Middle East. Muasher served as foreign minister (2002–2004) and deputy prime minister (2004–2005) of Jordan, and his career has spanned the areas of diplomacy, development, civil society, and communications.
 
Muasher began his career as a journalist for the Jordan Times. He then served at the Ministry of Planning, at the prime minister's office as press adviser, and as director of the Jordan Information Bureau in Washington.
 
In 1995, Muasher opened Jordan's first embassy in Israel, and in 1996 he became minister of information and the government spokesperson. From 1997 to 2002, he served in Washington again as ambassador, negotiating the first free-trade agreement between the United States and an Arab nation. He then returned to Jordan to serve as foreign minister, where he played a central role in developing the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East roadmap.
 
In 2004, he became deputy prime minister responsible for reform and government performance and led the effort to produce a ten-year plan for political, economic, and social reform. From 2006 to 2007, he was a member of the Jordanian Senate.
 
From 2007 to 2010, he was senior vice president of external affairs at the World Bank. In 2011, he took seat in the advisory council of The Hague Institute for Global Justice.
 
Muasher is the author of The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation (Yale University Press, 2008). His new book, The Second Arab Awakening: And the Battle for Pluralism was recently published in January of this year by Yale.
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