Report of the Focus Group with Stakeholders in the Middle-East

<p>As part of the MENARA project, the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs&nbsp;at the American University of Beirut (IFI &ndash; AUB) organized a focus group in Beirut (Lebanon) on 2&nbsp;November 2018 with twelve scholars, experts, civil society leaders and activists from Lebanon and&nbsp;the Arab Middle East.&nbsp;</p> <p>The&nbsp;discussions were linked to the general aims of the MENARA project &ndash; characterizing the regional&nbsp;order, defining scenarios and discussing policy options for the EU &ndash; and was initially (informally)&nbsp;structured in four parts (though participants themselves were allowed to take the discussion in&nbsp;directions that made sense to them):</p> <p>1. Regional rivalries and new regional order<br> 2. State&ndash;society dynamics<br> 3. The role of the EU and other external actors<br> 4. Future scenarios</p> <p>This report contains the summary of the discussion during the focus group.</p>