The Tumultuous Decade: Arab Public Opinion and the Upheavals of 2010-2019

The John Brademas Center of New York University, as part of the Young Leaders Network, co-hosted a virtual panel with the Arab American Institute and NYU Washington, DC Salon Series to discuss Dr. James Zogby's new book The Tumultuous Decade, which presents and analyzes the results of the last ten years of public opinion polling across the Arab World, Turkey, and Iran. Paul Salem, President of The Middle East Institute, joined the conversation as interlocutor.

The book delves into the responses of individuals from the region on a variety of issues including the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Israel- Palestine conflict, Iran’s regional role, and the fate of the “Arab Spring.”

How do respondents across the region view the proper role of religion? What are their top political priorities? And how do they assess the involvement of other countries in the Arab World? The Tumultuous Decade examines how views on these and other critical issues have changed during the past decade and then asks how the resultant findings can be integrated into the policy discourse relating to the Middle East, especially within the context of popular uprisings and conflicts.

This event was free and open to everyone. Registration was required in order to receive log-in information for the webinar. This webinar was recorded.

YOUTUBE MEDIA

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Dr. James Zogby

James Zogby co-founded the Arab American Institute in 1985 and continues to serve as its president. He is Director of Zogby Research Services, a firm that has conducted groundbreaking surveys across the Middle East. For the past 3 decades, he has served in leadership roles in the Democratic National Committee.

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In September 2013, President Obama appointed Dr. Zogby to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. He was reappointed to a second term in 2015 and concluded his service in May 2017. He was twice elected Vice Chair. He writes a weekly column published in 12 countries. He is featured frequently on national and international media as an expert on Middle East affairs. In 2010, Zogby published the highly-acclaimed book, Arab Voices. His 2013 e-books, Looking at Iran: The Rise and Fall of Iran in Arab Public Opinion and 20 Years After Oslo, and his 2020 book, The Tumultuous Decade: Arab Public Opinion and the Upheavals of 2010 – 2019, are drawn from his extensive polling across the Middle East with Zogby Research Services.

Dr. Zogby has also been personally active in U.S. politics for many years; in 1984 and 1988 he served as Deputy Campaign manager and Senior Advisor to the Jesse Jackson Presidential campaign. In 1988, he led the first ever debate on Palestinian statehood at that year’s Democratic convention in Atlanta, GA. In 1995, Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler appointed Zogby as co-convener of the National Democratic Ethnic Coordinating Committee (NDECC), an umbrella organization of Democratic Party leaders of European and Mediterranean descent. For the past 3 decades, he has served in leadership roles in the Democratic National Committee.

In 1975, Dr. Zogby received his doctorate from Temple University’s Department of Religion, where he studied under the Islamic scholar Dr. Ismail al-Faruqi. He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellow at Princeton University in 1976.

Paul Salem

Paul Salem is president of The Middle East Institute. He focuses on issues of political change, transition, and conflict as well as the regional and international relations of the Middle East. Salem is the author and editor of a number of books and reports.

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Paul Salem is the author and editor of a number of books and reports including Escaping the Conflict Trap: Toward Ending Civil Wars in the Middle East (ed. with Ross Harrison, MEI 2019); Winning the Battle, Losing the War: Addressing the Conditions that Fuel Armed Non State Actors (ed. with Charles Lister, MEI 2019); From Chaos to Cooperation: Toward Regional Order in the Middle East (ed. with Ross Harrison, MEI 2017), Broken Orders: The Causes and Consequences of the Arab Uprisings (In Arabic, 2013), "Thinking Arab Futures: Drivers, scenarios, and strategic choices for the Arab World", The Cairo Review Spring 2019; “The Recurring Rise and Fall of Political Islam” (CSIS, 2015), Bitter Legacy: Ideology and Politics in the Arab World (1994), and Conflict Resolution in the Arab World (ed., 1997). Prior to joining MEI, Salem was the founding director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, Lebanon between 2006 and 2013. From 1999 to 2006, he was director of the Fares Foundation and in 1989-1999 founded and directed the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, Lebanon's leading public policy think tank.