Presented by Specialists from the Issam Fares Institute of Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut and the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore

Tensions in the Levant region of the Middle East have escalated to new heights. With the desire for Palestinian membership into the UN, the uprisings in Syria, the continuing tensions in Lebanon, and the rifts within the framework of Israeli domestic politics, the regional political stakes are increasingly fraught. Scholars from MEI and IFI examined these on-going hostilities and the concurrent instability in the region along with their local, regional, and global implications. The first panel discussed the dimensions of the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and its regional significance. The second panel examined the Arab Uprisings and the competing agendas of local players, regional powers, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, and global actors, including China, the United States and the European Union. The discussion then explored the possible consequences of these interacting forces.