Brookings to Open Doha Center

The Brookings Institution announced that it will open a center for public policy research and current affairs programming in Doha, Qatar, the first Brookings facility in the Muslim world. The center – a project of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings – will undertake research on the socio-economic and geopolitical issues facing the Muslim world, and encourage more understanding between U.S. and Muslim policy-makers.

The Brookings Institution extends its sincere gratitude to His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, and thanks His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al-Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs for the generous support to establish the Brookings Doha Center.

The new center will contribute to scholarship and dialogue between the United States and the Muslim world through a partnership between one of America’s oldest and largest think tanks, Brookings, and a visionary Muslim state, Qatar.

“Through the Brookings Doha Center, we will continue to expand the Brookings tradition of independent, in-depth research and quality public policy programs to Doha,” said Strobe Talbott, president of Brookings. “At the same time, it further establishes Brookings as a truly global think tank.”

Events sponsored by the center will begin this fall, in anticipation of an official opening ceremony in February 2008, to coincide with the U.S.-Islamic World Forum—a unique annual dialogue in Doha that is co-organized by the Brookings Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World and the Permanent Committee for Organizing Conferences of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar.

“The Brookings Doha Center will seek to forge a lasting partnership between the leading policy makers and scholars of the United States, and those of the Muslim world,” said Martin Indyk, director of the Saban Center at Brookings and former assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs under President Bill Clinton. “It will also host visiting fellows both from Brookings and the Muslim world.”

This is the second time in its history that the think tank has established a presence outside of Washington. A Beijing location was opened last year.

“At a time of great tension between America and the Muslim world, the center will serve as a model of true, productive partnership,” said Hady Amr, the director of the Brookings Doha Center, a former appointee at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at National Defense University . “Open to a broad range of views, the Brookings Doha Center will be a meeting point for the leading minds from government, business, academia, the media and the public to debate public policy in the Muslim world, including its relations with the United States.”

The Center will host leading scholars who will conduct independent research on the socio-economic and geopolitical issues facing the Muslim world; host forums, workshops and seminars to engage in the public policy debate on these issues; and help organize the annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha.

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