Nuclear Issues in the Middle East and North Africa

This three-day, international conference, which developed from conversations about regional nonproliferation policy, takes a wide view of Nuclear Issues in the Middle East and North Africa. It examines nuclear energy alongside nuclear weapons, and investigates the conceptual and material processes that enforce this divide. It broadens the regional scope to connect the Maghreb, the Levant, and further East, while also expanding the disciplinary purview to consider possible futures and trace historical roots. It explores ongoing changes in great power attitudes toward the region and the role of nuclear technologies in these shifts.

At the same time, it takes seriously the perspectives of smaller states and non-state actors, featuring not only regional experts but also experts from the region itself. The first conference aiming to consider all aspects of the atomic age in the Middle East and North Africa, it incorporates a wide range of historical, political, diplomatic, cultural, and technological approaches to the question — reflecting the insights of scholars, policymakers, and practitioners alike.

International Conference at the University of Pennsylvania’s Middle East Center ; April 27-29, 2023

Program Committee:

John Ghazvinian (Chair), Harun Küçük, Austin Cooper, Ibrahim Bakri, Tomisha Bino, Joe Cirincione, Hassan Elbahtimy, Giordana Pulcini, Heba Taha

Co-Sponsors:

Penn Global; Christopher H. Browne Center for International Politics; Kleinman Center for Energy Policy; International Relations Program; Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy; Department of History; Department of History and Sociology of Science