Casa Árabe publishes Volume nº 15 of ”Awraq:  Journal for analysis and thought on the contemporary Arab and Islamic world,” with a monograph devoted to “A decade of transformations in the Arab world.” This issue of Awraq, published for the first half of 2017, is the result of a forum with the same name, which took place in April of 2017 at the Madrid headquarters of Casa Árabe, within the framework of the tenth anniversary celebration held by the institution.

For this occasion, we will enjoy the inestimable participation of Haizam Amirah Fernández, head researcher at the Real Instituto Elcano, and a specialist in international relations, political Islam and processes of transition towards democracy in the Arab world. Haizam Amirah will be showing us how, beyond just the discouraging news we tend to hear from the Arab world, mentioning only the negative contexts and conflicts existing throughout the region, a series of profound and important transformations are taking place there, as well. These transformations often go unnoticed by Western public opinion. Likewise, the demands for change in the way of governing Arab countries are not receiving satisfactory responses by States which are increasingly questioned internally, in a region that is becoming more and more fragmented. Ultimately, Haizam Amirah will discuss the implications which this combination of factors may have for the countries in the Mediterranean area, including our own.

Accompanying Haizam Amirah will be Javier Rosón, of Casa Árabe, who will be will be presenting the event.

Haizam Amirah Fernández is a head researcher at the Real Instituto Elcano and an associate professor at the Instituto de Empresa (IE). With a bachelor’s degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and a Master’s degree in Arab Studies and Political Science from Georgetown University in Washington DC, he was a Fulbright Commission fellowship recipient. He received part of his training at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He has been an educator at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) and the Universities of Georgetown, Saint Louis, San Pablo-CEU and Barcelona. He has worked at the United Nations (New York) and at Human Rights Watch (Washington DC). He is a regular commentator in the Spanish and foreign media. He speaks Spanish, Arabic, English and French. Haizam has had many articles and books published, including: ”El Magreb: Realidades nacionales y dinámicas regionales” (“The Maghreb: National Realities and Regional Dynamics,” published by Síntesis, Madrid 2008), and North Africa: Politics, Region, and the Limits of Transformation (London and New York: Routledge, 2008). Coordinator of the book ”La Asociación Euromediterránea una década después” (Madrid: Real Instituto Elcano and FRIDE, 2005), as well as its English language version ”The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: Assessing the First Decade.”