The Middle East What Next? 2013 Camden Conference Part 1

26th Camden Conference
by Doug Mills
World and National News Editor
RCN America Network

As a writer I am always happy When I cover a convention or meeting with high expectations and those expectations are met. Then there is that rare instance when those high expectations are not only met but are blown away! Such was the case for the Camden Conference this past week. So often the hype does not match the reality.

The 26^th Camden Conference included an amazing array of speakers who were the best in their field from Egypt, Israel, Iran and many others. If you think these were long dry speeches you should have been there when R. Nicholas Burns one of our former top diplomats in the State Department sat down on the same stage with Seyed Hossein Mousavian Iran’s former diplomat in charge of nuclear negotiations with Europe you would be dead wrong, the fireworks had everyone in the auditorium on the edge of their seats. But I am getting ahead of myself.

As a writer I am always happy When I cover a convention or meeting with high expectations and those expectations are met. Then there is that rare instance when those high expectations are not only met but are blown away! Such was the case for the Camden Conference this past week. So often the hype does not match the reality.

The topic for the 26th Annual Camden Conference, “The Middle East - What Next?”. The keynote address was presented by Robin Wright. Robin Wright is a journalist, author, and foreign policy analyst. She has reported from more than 140 countries on six continents for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Sunday Times of London, CBS News, and the Christian Science Monitor. She won the National Magazine Award for The New Yorker. She has also written for The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Magazine, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and many others. Wright has been a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and spent several years as a roving correspondent in Asia and Latin America. She most recently covered U.S. foreign policy for the Washington Post. Besides a long career in journalism, Wright has been a fellow at the Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Yale, Duke, Stanford, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Southern California. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan. Wright has held a joint appointment as a United States Institute of Peace Senior Fellow and Wilson Center Distinguished Scholar during which she produced three books: The Iran Primer: Power, Politics, and U.S. Policy (2010), Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World (2011), and The Islamists Are Coming: Who They Really Are(2012).

Rock The Casbah: What Next In The Middle East?

It had been two years since the Arab Spring movement. What is the state of the Middle East today? Are things better or worse? Robin gave us 5 Positives of Change in the Middle East.

1. Music: Music has helped to fuel change especially in the rap community. Music very often plays a part in social change.
2. New Roll Models: Young people are being presented new positive roll models to follow.
3. New Muslim Comedians: A new crop of Muslim comedians have emerged providing comic relief and pointing out some of the more negative aspects of jehadism.
4. New Muslim Theater: Many new theater productions are being produced teaching the positive side of the Muslim religion.
5. Women are on the front lines of the change that is taking place.

However after two years there is still very much to be concerned about.

1. 120,000,000 are now struggling to gain rights. The old order is gone and the new order has not taken shape. It is “the law of the jungle” in the streets of the Middle East.
2. Every one of these countries is worse off economically today than it was two years ago.
3. The proliferation of democracy. This new freedom has caused the rise of hundreds of political parties, all with different priorities.
4. The proliferation of Islamist ideas. Many new Islamist groups have emerged and with the old line groups are all seeking to foll the vacuum left by the Arab Spring Movement.
5. Security of the region has been affected by the rise of new militant groups.
6. Tribes are reemerging as a defining forge in society.
7. Demographics, government leaders are older, the population is young and the economy is down.
8. Corruption is rampant.
9. Women are not fairing well and are often targeted for violence.
10. The map of the Middle East could change drasticly as countries break up into tribal factions.

Bad news? Scarey news? Robin reminded us how long after the American Revolution it was till all people in this country were truly free. “Change takes time.”