On Sunday, 3 January 2021, the second round of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies Winter School will be launched remotely via internet to address the theme of “The State in Flux”. The second Graduate Winter School during the period 3-11 January 2021 thus builds on the success of its inaugural round in January 2020, which established a new academic tradition in the Arab world.

Ten researchers will participate in the Winter School with research papers addressing problematics related to concepts of the state and its transformations. Their specializations and research topics are numerous and varied, extending from the Cold War to sovereignty restrictions and post-colonial state building.

Experts and academic specialists in the topic of the state provide Winter School participants with in-depth and critical readings of their research projects and studies through sessions in which the participants present their research papers and obtain direct feedback.

The Winter School addresses a set of intricately woven topics arising from the following questions: What does it mean to be a “sovereign state” at a time of escalating direct foreign intervention? Does the definition of sovereignty relate solely to geographical boundaries or must it mean something in addition? Can weak states be truly sovereign? What are the most important variables explaining the trajectories of state formation in the Arab world and beyond? How do they explain the political development of these countries and their sovereignty or lack of sovereignty today?

The ten days of the winter school include lectures by Arab Center and external specialists on the state-building project in the Arab world, American hegemony, and challenges to state sovereignty.

*** Winter School Program Timetable.

*** Winter School Program Booklet.