ShareKUWAIT: The Arab World Institute (AWI) is a cultural diplomacy project aimed to promote the Arab-French relations as well as the Kuwaiti-French relations by preserving Islamic and Arabic cultural heritage in France and Europe. The Institute was inaugurated in Paris in 1987 with the attendance of former prime minister and then information minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah after the idea was floated in Paris in 1974.
The Institute commenced its functioning in 1982 after its formation by France and 19 Arab League members. In the beginning, the Arab World Institute architecture project was initiated by Jean Nouvel and the French collective Architect Studio. “The architectural project of this institute stems from a will of creating a synthesis of western and eastern architectural designs,” said Melissa Tedafi, doctoral candidate in Contemporary Diplomatic History and Political Science at the University of Nantes, French Laureate of a PhD scholarship at the French Center of Research of the Arabian Peninsula (CEFREPA) headquartered in Dasman, Kuwait City for the region.
“This idea of creating a place which is based on a balanced cultural cooperation between the Arab world and the West is at the core of the Arab Institute World missions,” she added. Tedafi clarified that the institute was built on the continuity policies of French president François Mitterrand while former Prime Minister Jacques Chirac formulated the idea of creating an Arab World Institute (AWI) in Paris during the Council of Ministers on Dec 24, 1974. “His proposal followed a diplomatic trip he made earlier that sealed nuclear agreements with Middle Eastern countries,” she added.
She stated that in a context of the abandonment of the Bretton Woods agreements, the geopolitical reconfiguration of the Camp David agreements and of the Ramadan War in 1973 for the first time in history, oil is used as a weapon by the OPEC countries. “This event caused, in large part, the 1973-1975 recession. France and Europe have now become aware of their energy dependence and economic links toward the Arab countries and more specifically Gulf countries,” she explained.
Tedafi clarified that negotiations prior to the opening of the Arab World Institute are also opening at a time when the rise of the media was contributing to a massive Western media relay of Middle East crises. “This coupled with an increase in migratory flows from this region and the Maghrib has contributed to shaping a negative and stereotypical image of Arabs and Muslims in France.”
“In a post-colonial context, punctuated by military, political and energy crises, the creation of the Arab World Institute shows an innovative desire for an evolution of the Franco-Arab diplomatic ties through the third route of culture,” she reiterated. “The creation of an institute constitutes a long-term choice of establishing a sustainable loyalty through crises and events that occurred both in national and international contexts,” Tedafi stressed.
She stated that the rise of stereotypical views on Arab countries and Islam in France increased with the rise of immigration, wide media coverage of crises and wars in the Middle East and the rise of the far-right electorate. “Between France and the Arab countries relationships are inevitable at least for reasons of geographical order and movements of persons,” she said adding that in this configuration, the Arab World Institute has got the essential and permanent mission of converging cultures in times of war and conflict.
She added that Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah, alongside Sheikha Hessa Al-Sabah manifested a large interest since the beginning of the project which continues till this day as evident by the number of French-related occasions attended by them. Former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac said during the inauguration week in 1987 that the institute is a witness to friendship, which is essential in narrowing that gap between the French and Arab people. “The Orient in the past centuries has passed its wisdom in the field of humanities and sciences,” he added.
