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This report reviews the proceedings of the scientific symposium held by the Middle East Studies Center on Tuesday and Wednesday, 21-22/11/2023, entitled "The International Status and Role of the Arab World, Reality and Future." It presents the most essential conclusions in the opening speeches and scientific papers presented by academics, politicians, and experts from the Arab world in the different symposium sessions. The first session was titled The International Status and Role, political and Civilizational Elements and Tools in the Arab World, the second session was on the Repercussions of the Economic and Social Reality and Arab-Arab Relations, and the third session discussed the regional and international Transformations and their implications for the global status and role of the Arab world. The fourth session forecasted the potential of a renaissance in international status and role: opportunities, capabilities, and challenges, while the fifth session sought to present the Arab vision for achieving international status and role and its strategies. In the end, the report presents the most important conclusions and recommendations of the symposium and its discussions, including essential transformations at the Arab national levels in the political and economic structures to achieve geopolitical power capable of supporting international standing for Arabs. It also includes the necessity of adopting a new and advanced Arab vision in dealing with the ongoing regional and global transformations with depth and investment. The Arab world should have a role in influencing the outcomes of these transformations in a way that serves the highest interests of the Arab people. It calls for the crystallization of an Arab renaissance, a humanitarian and civilized vision that communicates with the countries and peoples of the region. And reconsidering the Palestinian issue as a central issue for the Arabs, as it is an element of consensus between peoples and official regimes. It called for reconsidering Israel as the primary source of threat to the security and stability of the region, especially after the battle of the "Al-Aqsa Flood." It called for adopting a new approach to support the Palestinian people in confronting the Israeli occupation, liberating their land and establishing their independent state on their land, achieving the return of refugees, and exercising their right to selfdetermination. It is to recall the need to formulate a comprehensive, global civilizational vision to achieve international status and role during 2024-2050. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the growing tension in Sino-American relations and its repercussions on Arab-Chinese relations. The paper assumes that the Arab countries have resisted the pressures exerted against their relations with China. As a result, they have achieved a reasonable balance in their relations with the United States and other major powers. The paper indicated that the Chinese-American tension would continue. Therefore, American pressure will continue on the Middle Eastern and other developing countries to curtail their relations with China. Moreover, the United States partners in the Middle East have realized the significant changes in the international political scene and the shifts in the policies of the United States. As a result, they adopted new diversifying foreign policy options, especially the Arab Gulf states. The paper showed that Chinese-Arab relations had reached an advanced stage of strength, linking economic, commercial, political, cultural, and popular interests and transferring relations to the stage of strategic cooperation partnership. Moreover, the level of these relations may soon be upgraded to the stage of comprehensive strategic partnership after the mutual summit in Riyadh on 9/12/2022. The paper concluded that Chinese-Arab relations had reached an advanced level of overlap. However, such overlapping does not prejudice these essential and mutually beneficial relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report results from the discussions of papers submitted by many researchers and experts from seven Arab countries. The discussions of participants also were inserted in this paper. The symposium was held by the Middle East Studies Center (MESC) in Jordan at its annual symposium in 2021. Twenty-three researchers, academics, and strategic experts from Jordan, Palestine, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, and Lebanon submitted their papers in front of distinguished participants and guests from different fields to discuss the Arab strategy in dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict. The report aims to study the opportunities, tools, and strategies to achieve the Arab and Palestinians' struggle goals. The symposium also aims to develop a strategic vision with specific features for the current decade (2021-2030) in confronting Israel and its expansion project, ending the occupation, and implementing refugees' return in the short and medium term. The outcomes would serve the Arab and Palestinian decision-making process regarding the conflict, which suffers from a vision absence. The symposium discussion for the last decade of the conflict provided an accurate and deeper understanding of the obstacles hider strategic conclusions of the conflict. It also highlighted the needed strategic components in managing the conflict with Israel. The symposium found out that the Palestinian resistance in Gaza Strip created an advanced situation in thwarting and defeating the Israeli army in four battles since 2008. Furthermore, the "Sword of Jerusalem" battle in May 2021 has significantly impacted the direction of many politicians and experts to reconsider the course of the conflict, the halted peace process, and the current controversial relationship with Israel. The symposium was organized in eight sessions. Each session discussed one ax, including Arab strategies and tools in conflict management and its consequences during the period 2011-2021, Palestinian strategies and tools, the opportunities and transformations imposed by the Palestinian-Israeli confrontations 2008-2021, the role of thought and ideology in conflict management, the vision and potential prospects for conflict trends and tools at the Palestinian, Arab and international levels during the period 2021-2030, and the features of a new Arab strategic vision to deal with the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli expansion project in the region. The report concluded with the main findings of the symposium and proposed a project for the new Arab strategy. The most important is the vision, objectives, means, and potential until 2030. Finally, 15 Arab researchers and experts reviewed the resulting vision draft from the participants. The strategic vision was to confront, contain and limit the Israeli aggression and its expansion project. The new strategy aims to reduce Israeli risks to the Palestinian cause, Arab national security, and the nation's higher interests in the short and medium-term by developing a new workable Arab strategy governed by precise objectives. It also concluded that the Arabs officially hold their responsibilities towards supporting the resilience of the Palestinian people and creating the necessary environment for an advanced situation to form a unified Palestinian National Front. The ground gains should support such a front during the recent battle named the "Jerusalem Sword" 2021. Therefore, it is essential to revive and redefine the Palestinian national project based on the national program and Palestinian priorities. Moreover, Arab countries, political forces, Palestinian factions, Arab research centers, and Arab civil society institutions were encouraged to adopt the symposium strategy. Research and studies centers also have to take on their duty to bridge the gap between the cultural and intellectual dialogue of the elite and the decision-makers choices to make any proposed strategy a reality and public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of Arab-Arab alliances at present, and with the circumstances that Arab countries are going through, including economic crises and a state of political instability, not to mention security risks and threats, has become an urgent necessity. Hence, the idea of the "new Levant alliance" between the three countries (Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt), which is important regionally and Arabian, to promote partnership relations and concepts of joint defense, economic integration, and structural stability in the light of balanced cooperative/reciprocal relations among them. And by an approach that is supposed to serve the present and benefit in developing the future to achieve the goals and objectives of these strategic countries . This paper focused on five axes, looking at the features of this alliance and the challenges it will face, in addition to the role of the external factor (international and regional), which varied between supportive or afraid of it. depending on the chronology of the formation of the blocs between the three countries, and the nature of the relations that governed them, leading to the "New Levant Alliance", which can reorganize the relationship between its parties to be able to modify the rules of international and regional relations and policies in the Arab region in particular, and the Middle East in general, in a manner that serves its higher interests and major issues. The paper concluded that Arab-Arab alliances remain a vital issue that has its positives for the Arab people. They are established on correct, logical, and studied foundations to ensure their sustainability. There should be a study and evaluation of these alliances to alert them to the potential risks that they may face. The paper also stressed the need for the three countries to alert the alliance's expansion to include other Arab countries that would strengthen it to achieve continuity. These projects should be linked to the Arab interest and stay away from attaining foreign agendas. Most importantly, the coalition countries should reduce their ties to the United States as the main supporter and ensure independence in making decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its establishment in the Jordanian capital in 1991, the "Middle East Studies Center"(MESC) has been keen to achieve its political, cultural, scientific, and media goals. The center's Journal, the "Middle Eastern Studies journal"(MESJ), is essential to achieving these goals. It was published for the first time in 1996. MESJ is the first Journal in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as a specialized refereed publication. The Journal is concerned with studies, analyses, and reviews related to the dynamic transformations in the Middle East and its future. In addition, the global changes related to the Middle East are under publication interest. This report overviewed the academic materials issued in the Journal and analyzed its content in the series of issues of the Journal; the 100th was published at the beginning of July 2022. The report concluded that the topics of the hundred numbers are divided into seven main axes: Jordanian issues and affairs by 11%, the Palestinian cause by 26%, Arab matters, experiences, and relations by 25%, international issues, positions, and concerns by 10%, regional issues, events and concerns by 6%, Israeli and Zionist events and affairs by 5%, and books and university theses and dissertations for review and bibliography files by 17%. The report recommends that the Journal is in the libraries of Jordanian and Arab official and private universities because it contains research papers, scientific studies, and political, economic, social, and cultural analyses that teachers, students, researchers, and readers have to know. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]