Welcome to the new Fares Center Blog!

The Fares Center Blog is a platform through which the Center will engage with specialists from Fletcher, Tufts, and beyond to analyze and discuss interdisciplinary and cross-cutting issues relevant to the Eastern Mediterranean region. The goal is to connect students, faculty, and practitioners who share a common interest in issues relating to the region.

The Fares Center’s interests are broad: in an interconnected world, geographic boundaries have far less meaning. The Eastern Mediterranean is as affected by developments in its immediate neighborhood as it is by changes in policy thinking in far away places like Washington. There is more to the region than the disasters that dominate media coverage and the research agendas of both academia and think tanks. News headlines and crises tend to illuminate the worst and at times the best situations. If we concentrate on doomsday scenarios, we risk making them self-fulfilling prophecies and prevent ourselves from seeing alternative options or possibilities. Furthermore, we must avoid being preoccupied with the crisis of today if it means ignoring the underlying factors that might cause the crisis of tomorrow.

The region is at a crossroads and policy choices taken now will have long-term consequences. We should aim to inform current thinking so that the resulting policies will lead to movement in the right direction. This is an immense challenge which requires deep understanding and an ability to see regional developments in perspective.   

In the short time that I have been here, I have come to realize what an advantage it is to belong to the Fletcher School network. I have encountered a community with a collective will and serious commitment to making the world a better place. This, I think, is the distinctive characteristic of Fletcher and what makes it such a unique institution. We hope that this blog will channel some of that energy toward a region that needs such commitment and perseverance from a community of thoughtful and informed minds.

I invite you all to engage in any of the following three ways:

• To showcase your work and share ideas on the blog, contact our editor at lauren.emerson@tufts.edu
• Follow us on Twitter @FaresCenter and Facebook
• If you are part of the Fletcher community, subscribe to the Fares e-list to stay up to date on the Center’s activities and active discussion

Thank you for joining the conversation.

Nadim Shehadi

Director, The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies

The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University