The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies will be hosting the first Annual Conference for Strategic and Policy Studies in the Arab World, from December 15 to December 17, 2012. The meeting shall aim to bring together a select few of the Directors within such centers, researchers and academics working within them and whose work focuses on such centers, and representatives of funding bodies.

The decisive, leading and advanced role played by such policy-centered research centers in a number of countries throughout the world in the formulation of public policies, and the ACRPS’ belief in the importance of the role which similar institutions can play—particularly in light of the Arab Spring—have inspired the convening of this conference at this time. This first Conference, and successive future conferences in the same series, shall be divided into two separate broad topics: the first, perennial theme, will be “Issues and Challenges Facing Policy Research Centers in Arab Countries”, while a different, supplementary topic will be presented in successive years.

For 2012, in addition to unchanging topic covering matters related to Arab policy research centers, the second topic of discussion shall focus on the “The Arab revolutions and geostrategic changes”. Themes to be covered within these two broad topics shall include:

•  Geopolitics: Geopolitics and Geopolitical relations in the Arab world on the eve of the Arab Revolutions

•  Geostrategy: The interplay between the Arab Revolutions and the Geostrategic Environment

•  The Reality Facing Arab Strategy and Policy Research Centers: Evaluating their relationship with governments, legal and legislative factors defining this relationship and issues of financing