- 05 Apr 2016
Official Launch of Books by Dr Ali Kadri and Dr Linda Matar
The NUS Middle East Institute is extremely pleased to invite you to the official launch of two books authored by our very own Senior Research Fellows, Dr Ali Kadri and Dr Linda Matar. Dr Kadri and Dr Matar are experts in the field of political economy and have produced two excellent works published this year by Palgrave Macmillan.
Dr Kadri’s book is an edited collection entitled Development Challenges and Solutions After the Arab Spring, comprising of, among others, selected papers presented at MEI’s 2014 Annual Conference by renowned Middle Eastern Studies experts including Professor Samir Amin, Director of the Third World Forum and Professor Samir Makdisi from the American University of Beirut. The book examines the socioeconomic conditions and contests the received policy framework to demonstrate that workable alternatives do exist since the first uprisings in the Middle East began in 2011.
Dr Matar’s book, on the other hand, investigates the failure of investment in Syria prior to the ‘Arab Spring’. Employing a political economic framework, Dr Matar proposes that in spite of efforts to liberalise the market and introduce incentives to local and foreign investors, investment performance in Syria remained poor, dragging down with it economic and employment growth.
Attendance to the launch is free via compulsory registration [click here to register]. We look forward to receiving you!
About the Speakers
Before joining the Middle East Institute in 2011, Ali Kadri was Visiting Fellow at the Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and previously head of the Economic Analysis Section at the United Nations regional office for Western Asia. His current research is on the political economy of development in the Arab World. During his work at the United Nations, he was the lead author of the UN flagship publication dealing with the economic and social conditions of Arab Western Asia, and he has published widely on aspects of the labour process in the Arab world. His recent book, Arab Development Denied (2014), discusses the formidable obstacles facing development in the Arab world. His latest edited volume is Development Challenges and Solutions After the Arab Spring (2015).
Linda Matar’s research involves the political economy and economic development of the Arab Near East with particular emphasis on Syria. She obtained her PhD in Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Her research at MEI focuses on the political economy of the Arab Spring. She is the author of The Political Economy of Investment in Syria (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
