Participating in the round table discussion will be Pedro Villena, the General Director of Casa Árabe; Michel Bertrand, the director of the Casa de Velázquez; Makram Abbes, a professor of political philosophy at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon; Nabil Mouline, a professor and researcher at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris; Karima Dirèche, director of the Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain (IRMC) in Tunisia, and Éric Gobe, a researcher with the Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain (IRMC).

At this round table discussion, we will be analyzing the recent political changes in the Arab world, mainly since the demonstrations of a popular and political nature in 2011, also known as the Arab Spring, focusing on them from a broader historical perspective. To do so, the event will include the participation of French philosopher and historian Makram Abbès, an eminent specialist in Islamist political thought, and Nabil Mouline, one of the most important analysts of the political history of Islam and the caliphate, a political/religious institution that contributed to forming Muslim civilization. Also taking part will be Karima Dirèche and Éric Gobe (IRMC, Tunisia), specialists in the contemporary history of the Western Arab world. 

This conference coincides with the holding of the doctoral workshop Justice and Political Transition in the Western Mediterranean: Role-players, memories and archives, which will be held at the Casa de Velázquez from March 7-10, 2016, to analyze the topic of transitional justice within the framework of the political challenge comprised by the construction of democracy and, in certain cases, the re-founding of nations.