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The Islamic State and the Necessary End of the Twentieth Century
January 20, 20167:30 p.m.
CORDOBA
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Samuel de los Santos Gener, 9).
7:30 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In Spanish.
Round table discussion with interventions by Javier Martín, a
correspondent for the EFE News Agency in Tunisia and writer, and
Alejandro Luque, a journalist and writer.
Casa Árabe, with the cooperation of the Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation, has organized this round table discussion, in which Javier Martín will be discussing the uprise of the Islamic State, a problem that goes back as far as the 1980’s, when the United States, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia created the “Mujahideen Bridge” to fight against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. The fall of the Berlin Wall turned these “holy warriors” into “orphans,” so they chose to take part in armed global fighting, giving rise to Al Qaeda. Shortly after, a new error by the United States (by forcing the invasion of Iraq) facilitated this group’s mutation into the Islamic State that exists today.
On the one hand, those participating will discuss how these old interventionist policies in the twentieth century shaped the Middle East (a strategic view of the region which has become dated and obsolete at the turn of the current century, due to key factors such as the Arab Spring and the nuclear deal with Iran), changing the balance of powers, and how the insistence upon implementing these twentieth-century policies to solve a twenty-first century problem will lead to further failures.
Javier Martín
Mr. Martín is an envoy of the Efe press agency in North Africa and one our country’s journalists with the most experience in the Middle East. A war correspondent in Iraq (2003-2005), Lebanon (2006), Libya (2011), Syria (2012) and Gaza (2014), he re-founded the Efe News Agency’s Arab Service in Cairo in 2006 and opened this agency’s first permanent correspondent’s office in Iran (2009-2012), where he covered the repression against the opposition Green Movement. He was also an envoy to Israel and Palestine. With a degree in Arabic and Hebrew Philology, he is a specialist in Shiite Islam and is the author of the books “Hizbulah: El brazo armado de Dios” (“Hezbollah: The Armed Hand of God”), “Los Hermanos Musulmanes” (“The Muslim Brotherhood”), “La Casa de Saud” (“The House of Saud”) and “Estado Islámico. Geopolítica del caos” (“Islamic State: Geopolitics of chaos”), all published by Los Libros de la Catarata. A conference speaker and contributing writer for newspapers such as El País, on two occasions he has been a finalist for the prestigious Cirilo Rodríguez Award for foreign correspondents. http://www.javier-martin.org
Alejandro Luque
Luque is a journalist and writer. For five years, he contributed to the cultural section of the newspaper El País, and since 2005 he has been a writer for the Culture section of the newspaper El Correo de Andalucía. From 1995 to 2006, Luque was the assistant director of the journal for literature and thought Caleta. He has also directed a large number of workshops, forums and cultural events in the province of Cadiz, including Frontera Sur. He is a co-founder of M’Sur.
On the one hand, those participating will discuss how these old interventionist policies in the twentieth century shaped the Middle East (a strategic view of the region which has become dated and obsolete at the turn of the current century, due to key factors such as the Arab Spring and the nuclear deal with Iran), changing the balance of powers, and how the insistence upon implementing these twentieth-century policies to solve a twenty-first century problem will lead to further failures.
Javier Martín
Mr. Martín is an envoy of the Efe press agency in North Africa and one our country’s journalists with the most experience in the Middle East. A war correspondent in Iraq (2003-2005), Lebanon (2006), Libya (2011), Syria (2012) and Gaza (2014), he re-founded the Efe News Agency’s Arab Service in Cairo in 2006 and opened this agency’s first permanent correspondent’s office in Iran (2009-2012), where he covered the repression against the opposition Green Movement. He was also an envoy to Israel and Palestine. With a degree in Arabic and Hebrew Philology, he is a specialist in Shiite Islam and is the author of the books “Hizbulah: El brazo armado de Dios” (“Hezbollah: The Armed Hand of God”), “Los Hermanos Musulmanes” (“The Muslim Brotherhood”), “La Casa de Saud” (“The House of Saud”) and “Estado Islámico. Geopolítica del caos” (“Islamic State: Geopolitics of chaos”), all published by Los Libros de la Catarata. A conference speaker and contributing writer for newspapers such as El País, on two occasions he has been a finalist for the prestigious Cirilo Rodríguez Award for foreign correspondents. http://www.javier-martin.org
Alejandro Luque
Luque is a journalist and writer. For five years, he contributed to the cultural section of the newspaper El País, and since 2005 he has been a writer for the Culture section of the newspaper El Correo de Andalucía. From 1995 to 2006, Luque was the assistant director of the journal for literature and thought Caleta. He has also directed a large number of workshops, forums and cultural events in the province of Cadiz, including Frontera Sur. He is a co-founder of M’Sur.
Javier Martín at Casa Árabe, October 2015.