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Climate change and environmental perils in the Middle East and North Africa
October 21, 2025 7:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
7:00 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In Spanish.
Julia Choucair, a senior non-resident researcher at the Arab Reform Initiative and assistant professor at IE University, will be giving the fourth conference in the Aula Árabe Universitaria 7 event series. It will be taking place in Madrid on Tuesday, October 21. Come listen to it or watch the live broadcast on YouTube.
Environmental struggles are becoming increasingly relevant within the Arab world. From protests over land use in Egypt and fracking in Algeria to waste management in Lebanon and Tunisia, along with poor water management in Iraq and Morocco, we have witnessed the emergence of mobilizations resulting from environmental damage and degradation in recent years. In some cases, environmental issues have led to massive nationwide protests or have become intertwined with broader demands for socio-economic and political change.
Non-governmental organizations devoted to environmental issues have also increased greatly in number throughout the region. Other civil society organizations that focus on economic policy and human rights issues are now also growing more active when it comes to environmental issues: their members campaign at the national level and represent the region more visibly at international meetings on environmental causes. In addition, both activists and scholars have increasingly drawn connections between environmental issues and long-standing political-economic problems which have spurred social conflicts. At the same time, the discourse on environment and climate action has changed at the State level all over the region. At the same time, Green Deal policies introduced by State powers (especially in Europe) are causing some concern over a new sort of “green colonialism.”
Julia Choucair, a senior non-resident researcher at the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) and assistant professor at IE University, will be analyzing these trends which seem to indicate a process of “environmentalization” of the public sphere in the MENA countries. This term refers to both the adoption of environmental discourse by different social groups and the specific incorporation of environmental justifications in order to legitimize certain institutional, political and scientific practices. Throughout her talk, she will be addressing conceptual issues related to the fight for environmental improvement, as well as proposing categories and frameworks for understanding the activities, motivations and threats faced by environmental activists and social movements in the region.
Organized with the cooperation of the Master’s degree program on the “European Union and the Mediterranean: Historical, Cultural, Political, Economic and Social Basis” (UCM), the bachelor’s degree program in International Studies (UCLM) and the bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (UAM) Representing the Master’s program, there will be participation and an introduction of the speaker by Alfonso Casani, professor of Political Science and Administration at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, with an initial speech after the conference by Bárbara Azaola, representing the UCLM bachelor’s degree program. Moderating the session will be Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economics Coordinator.
Julia Choucair
Julia Choucair is a non-resident senior researcher at the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) and an adjunct professor of International Relations at IE University in Madrid. She specializes in comparative politics in the Arab world, with a focus on political reform processes, governance and participation by the people in the Middle East and North Africa.
She earned her PhD in Political Science from Yale University and a Master’s degree in Arab Studies after getting a bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. Throughout her career, she has held various academic and research positions, including Vice-President of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley (2016-2019), researcher at Stanford University (2014-2016) and associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., where she was also editor of the journal Sada.
Non-governmental organizations devoted to environmental issues have also increased greatly in number throughout the region. Other civil society organizations that focus on economic policy and human rights issues are now also growing more active when it comes to environmental issues: their members campaign at the national level and represent the region more visibly at international meetings on environmental causes. In addition, both activists and scholars have increasingly drawn connections between environmental issues and long-standing political-economic problems which have spurred social conflicts. At the same time, the discourse on environment and climate action has changed at the State level all over the region. At the same time, Green Deal policies introduced by State powers (especially in Europe) are causing some concern over a new sort of “green colonialism.”
Julia Choucair, a senior non-resident researcher at the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) and assistant professor at IE University, will be analyzing these trends which seem to indicate a process of “environmentalization” of the public sphere in the MENA countries. This term refers to both the adoption of environmental discourse by different social groups and the specific incorporation of environmental justifications in order to legitimize certain institutional, political and scientific practices. Throughout her talk, she will be addressing conceptual issues related to the fight for environmental improvement, as well as proposing categories and frameworks for understanding the activities, motivations and threats faced by environmental activists and social movements in the region.
Organized with the cooperation of the Master’s degree program on the “European Union and the Mediterranean: Historical, Cultural, Political, Economic and Social Basis” (UCM), the bachelor’s degree program in International Studies (UCLM) and the bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (UAM) Representing the Master’s program, there will be participation and an introduction of the speaker by Alfonso Casani, professor of Political Science and Administration at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, with an initial speech after the conference by Bárbara Azaola, representing the UCLM bachelor’s degree program. Moderating the session will be Olivia Orozco, Casa Árabe’s Training and Economics Coordinator.
Julia Choucair
Julia Choucair is a non-resident senior researcher at the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) and an adjunct professor of International Relations at IE University in Madrid. She specializes in comparative politics in the Arab world, with a focus on political reform processes, governance and participation by the people in the Middle East and North Africa.
She earned her PhD in Political Science from Yale University and a Master’s degree in Arab Studies after getting a bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University. Throughout her career, she has held various academic and research positions, including Vice-President of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley (2016-2019), researcher at Stanford University (2014-2016) and associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C., where she was also editor of the journal Sada.
