25.11. 2010

“German-Arab Higher Education Dialogue”: First Steering Committee Meeting held in Cairo

Oliver Schlumberger and Stephanie Wagner organized and conducted the first Steering Committee Meeting of our cooperation network with three Arab partner institutions within the framework of the DAAD-funded “German-Arab Higher Education Dialogue” in Cairo last week. Our Arab partners are:

• the Center of Strategic Studies (CSS) at the University of Jordan, Amman,
• Cairo University (CU), as well as
• the American University in Cairo (AUC).

As Professor Schlumberger pointed out in his opening remarks, this scheme set up by the four partners represents the very first multilateral German-Arab cooperation network in political science that has seen the light. The program focuses on “shared goals” which exist between the partners’ respective polities and societies, but explicitly acknowledges that there are “different perspectives”. These “shared goals – different perspectives”, to quote the project title, are addressed with respect to the four crucial political areas of peace and security on the one hand as well as welfare and development on the other.

The range of meetings, which also included extended talks with the head of the science department of the German Embassy, Mr. Christopher Fuchs, as well as with the director of DAAD’s office in Egypt, Dr. Michael Harms, served to assess the current state of ongoing activities as well as to set the frame for preparations of planned additional components of the program scheduled to start in fall 2011, as well as to discuss further open questions such as how to diminish existing structural discrepancies between the funding organization’s requirements and academic exigencies in practical project work, or reflecting on possibilities of deepening and expanding the newly established cooperation network over the remainder of the decade that has started (2010-2020).

The talks were highly successful due to the presence of representatives of all four project partners and were conducted in a highly productive and focused atmosphere that was characterized simultaneously by an extremely amicable and collaborative spirit in which all partners shared the desire to achieve joint outcomes.

Day one of the discussions was held at Cairo University’s Faculty of Economics and Political Science (FEPS) and attracted also other colleagues from that faculty who are not directly involved in the program, but nevertheless attended the discussions, while the second day of the Committee Meeting took place on the premises of the Cairo DAAD office which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
The second day also included a three-hour meeting between Prof. Schlumberger and Ms. Wagner as well as partner institutions’ representatives and students and junior researchers from Tübingen University who are currently participating in the various program schemes and are studying and teaching and/or pursuing research in Egypt.

While compact and intense, the way is thus well-paved for our cooperation-network to move smoothly on to the next stages of our cooperation in 2011. Finally, it became during the talks that there is a general desire on all sides to continue the new cooperation (that has become operational only few months ago) beyond the current funding period (2010-2012), and if possible transform it into yet more institutionalized partnerships. We will therefore engage in an ongoing search for funds and resources to allow us to deepen and expand our network of cooperation in the future.