ShareKUWAIT: Centre Français de Recherche de la Péninsule Arabique (CEFREPA) of the Institute of the Arab World (IMA) held a conference to discuss French cultural diplomacy through the lens of the creation of the IMA in Paris. The conference focused on “States, Power, and Societies in the Arab and Muslim East” and examined different dimensions of power in the modern Arabian Peninsula. This includes the foreign policies of Gulf countries, their approaches to war and peace, diplomacy, changes in foreign relations, and new trends in citizenship.
Dr Makram Abbès, head of the CEFREPA and doctor in Arab philosophy, said that this type of academic research is new. “I aim to cross analyze archives from GCC countries and France to have ‘a history in equal parts’,” he said. The CEFREPA, founded in 1982 by the Institute of the Arab World, is a regional research center whose main objective is to promote studies on the Arabian Peninsula as a whole including the GCC states and Yemen. Dr Abbès, said the center studies several topics, including archeology, politics, languages and literature, early history and the renewal of religious thought in Islam. He said that this type of academic research is new.
The conference was presented by Melissa Tedafi, Nantes University PhD researcher at the CEFREPA. “In a post-colonial context punctuated by military, political and energy crises, the creation of the Institute of the Arab World (IMA) in Paris in 1974 demonstrated an innovative will, that of a development of diplomatic relations between Arab countries through the third channel of culture,” she said.
“The establishment of the IMA was at the intersection of national, regional and international tensions in France’s relations with the Arab states. At the crossroads of multilateral policy and diplomacy, the Arab World Institute aims to redraw the links between them,” she clarified. The IMA was founded in Paris in 1980 by France with 18 Arab countries to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural and spiritual values. The Institute was established because of a perceived lack of representation for the Arab world in France and seeks to provide a secular location for the promotion of Arab civilization, art, knowledge, and aesthetics.
“The institute has been a tool for the development of France’s Arab policy through cultural diplomacy as a tool for reconciliation — a place for dialogue and informal meetings, a symbol of bilateral cooperation, to promote a positive image of the Arab world in France, support for peace efforts and international cooperation, as well as a strengthening economic and cultural ties,” Tedafi explained.
