Today the MENA finds itself at the crossroads of multiple global fault lines of instability - whether we're looking at geopolitics, demographics, socioeconomics, climate change, foreign policy paradigms, political paradigms, or otherwise. However bad things look like now, they could get much worse. But problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them; they requires us to expand the scope of our thinking.
Our research program seeks to understand the root causes of our region's interconnected crises and unsustainabilities, as well as ideas, technologies or paradigms with the potential to improve the future of the MENA. Research areas include:
- The MENA's political and governance systems. The Middle East Crisis Factory, our team's first book, is a primer into the history and future of the region.
- Future Economics, an attempt to develop an economic paradigm to address massive wealth inequality in the 21st century, relying on principles from the history of the Muslim world - including wealth redistribution, sound money, anti-rentierism and alternative economic institutions.
- Radicalization and populism, including the universal psychological underpinnings of these phenomena, their cultural manifestations in every human community, and how we can build resilient communities.
- The Future of Palestine, development of a detailed and implementable vision for a one-state solution based on justice, equality and pluralism; a homeland for all its descendants.
- Authoritarian Methods, the strategies and tactics used by the powers of our region, their similarity across authoritarian contexts globally, and how activists can counteract and overcome them.
- Islam and Liberty, a long-term research project on the future of Islam and its role in our region's future.
