Prospects of Destabilization Processes in the Middle East and North Africa: Before and After the Pandemic

The work is the result of a conference held on December 2, 2020 by the Center for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the topic «Prospects for destabilization processes in the Middle East and North Africa: before and after the pandemic». The conference program consisted of four working sessions. The problems of the organized conference went beyond the issues stated for discussion and were of an interdisciplinary nature. In particular, several conflict points were identified that arose during the events of the Arab Spring and have not been resolved until today. First of all, these are the Syrian, Libyan and Yemeni crises. COVID-19 has not spared any region of the world. For obvious reasons, developing countries have been particularly hard hit. This includes the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The effects of years of poverty, authoritarianism, corruption and other serious long-term shortcomings have intensified against the backdrop of the pandemic. The partnership between the West and the MENA countries is more necessary than ever.

The structure of the work consists of an introduction, which reflects the topic, problems, purpose, as well as the issues stated for discussion. Below are the short theses of the conference participants, representatives of the leading scientific and educational centers of Russia. At the end of the work, a conclusion is given, which summarizes the main results of the conference.