Muslim World Initiative

Wasat Generation Dialogues: Easing Sectarian and Ideological Conflicts in the Middle East

The Wasat Generation Dialogues build on the work begun at USAID-funded conferences on Political Oppositions in the Arab World, which USIP has conducted over the past two years in Yemen, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco. The dialogues are intended to encourage alliance-building among moderate political parties and civil society groups, toward the goal of preventing simmering ideological and religious tensions from escalating into violence.

Each of the dialogues, to be conducted in Egypt, will focus on the institutional and ideological challenges to political participation particular to the host countries. The dialogues will bring together key players from past conferences, as well as new groups of participants. On the U.S. side, USIP's specialists will be joined by experts on regional political issues from the U.S. Department of State, USAID, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the International Republican Institute (IRI), and other relevant agencies and institutions. Arab participants will come from legal political parties and NGOs that advocate dialogue and peaceful resolution of conflicts.

A subcommittee drawn from each dialogue will be asked to present concrete recommendations for promoting political cooperation and alliance-making between Islamists and secularists. Daniel Brumberg and Dina Shehata will summarize the discussions and conclusions of these meetings in a Special Report, to be presented during a USIP public event in September 2008.

The objectives of the dialogue are:

• Assessing the effects of the Islamist-Secularist divide on the capacity of Egyptian activists to build alliances and to act collectively to advance political and democratic reforms.
• Examining previous attempts at alliance building and cooperation between different factions in the Egyptian opposition and identifying the lessons learned from experiences such as the Egyptian Popular Committee for the Support of the Palestinian Intifada and Kifaya in fostering cross-ideological cooperation between various forces on the Egyptian political arena.
• Formulating recommendations to inform U.S. policy debates on how to best support indigenous efforts for political reform in Egypt and throughout the Arab world.

USIP is proud to co-sponsor the dialogues with the Al Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies in Cairo, and gratefully acknowledges funding support from Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. Daniel Brumberg serves as the dialogues' director.