The UAE-Israel Rapprochement and the Question of Palestine
Date and time: Friday, September 11, 2020, 10 to 11:30 am Australian Western Standard Time (UTC+8)
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The United Arab Emirates is the third Arab country after Egypt and Jordan to conclude a peace agreement with Israel. However, unlike the other two, the UAE does not share borders with Israel and has never been a direct participant in the two Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, although in the past it has stood fast in support of the Palestinian cause. Professor Amin Saikal’s seminar will discuss the following questions: What has motivated the UAE leaders to normalise relations with Israel? What implications will this have for the Palestinian struggle for independence and freedom? What does it entail for regional stability and security?
About the Speaker
Amin Saikal AM, FASSA is Adjunct Professor of Social Sciences (affiliated with the Centre for Muslim States and Societies) at the University of Western Australia.
He has been a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in International Relations, and Visiting Fellow/professor to Princeton University, Cambridge University, the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, Zayed University, Nanyang Technological University (RSIS) and Indiana University. He is a Non-Resident Fellow of the Lichtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Princeton University, member of the International Advisory Council of the Institute of Islamic Civilization and Thought, International Islamic University of Malaya, and member of the Advisory Board of the Encyclopedia Princetoniensis.
He has won many prestigious awards, including the Order of Australia (AM) ‘for service to the international community and education through the development of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, and as an author and adviser’, and he is an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
Professor Amin Saikal AM is also the author of numerous articles in refereed international journals and chapters in volumes published by highly reputable publishers. In addition, he has published in major international dailies and websites, including The New York Times, The New York Times International Edition (previously International Herald Tribune), The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Project Syndicate. He is a frequent commentator on national and international TV and radio networks on issues pertinent to his field of specialty.
His latest books include:
Iran Rising: The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019)
Islam Beyond Borders: Umma in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, co-authored with James Piscatori)
Iran at the Crossroads (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015)
Zone of Crisis: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq (London: I.B. Tauris, 2014)
Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival (London: I.B. Tauris, 2012)
The Rise and Fall of the Shah: Iran from Autocracy to Religious Rule (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009)
Islam and the West: Conflict or Cooperation? (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)
Weak States, Strong Societies: Power and Authority in the New World Order (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016) – editor
The Arab World and Iran: A Turbulent Region in Transition (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) – editor
Afghanistan and its Neighbors After the NATO Withdrawal (New York: Lexington Books, 2016) – co-editor.