« Governing is foreseeing », says an old wise quote. Given the growing and intricate complexities of today’s world, decision-making and governance have become an increasingly difficult art. At every step inside the public realm, the need for evermore global knowledge is felt. As is felt the importance and difficulty of integrating a variety of facts, of analyzing a large array of data, in order to preview the trends that will unfold into future constraints and opportunities.
In today’s Middle-East, this state of facts is even more acute. The amount of rapid changes, of urging challenges, and of growing dangers and complex threats, is truly unprecedented here. Both at the internal and at the external levels, Arab societies and political systems are entering an age of existential struggle for their mere continuity and prevalence. Thus, never has it been so crucial to have a proper way to, as accurately as possible, assess our political, economic, and socio-cultural environment. Such an endeavour needs a tool, one that draws as possibly as it could upon scientific research methodology.
At the same time, however, experience has taught us that, as far as truth is concerned, monopoly is a dangerous game to play. Sharing ideas and testing hypotheses can not only bring about better knowledge and more accurate judgement; it also builds greater consensus, the first prerequisite to more efficient public action.
This is why we have had the idea of this Forum, as the most appropriate tool to our surrounding world’s intelligence. By doing so, our aim is also to revive the spirit and culture of public debate, and to help recreate and widen the boundaries of our common public space.
Let us all embark together on foreseeing and forecasting the dynamics of change in our Middle-Eastern Region. The Middle-East Prospects Forum is now yours. It is an open-space for ideas, debates, and constructive controversy. You are more than welcome to join us in shaping and preparing a better future.
