Academicians and thinkers from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Morocco as well as from the US, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and Italy have gathered here for a two-day conference to discuss the future of Arab Spring and its regional and global ramifications.
The conference is being hosted at Sapru House by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) in association with the New York-based International Research Network on Religion and Democracy (IRNRD) and Developing Countries Research Centre (DCRC).
Being held for the first time, the conference is to deliberate upon the wider political, socio-economic and religio-cultural implications of the democratic transformation in and around the region that began in Tunisia and spread to other countries.
In his opening remarks, ICWA director general Rajiv Bhatia observed that the developments in the Arab world in the past two years have changed the contours of the political and socio-cultural landscape of the region. He underlined that the Arab world, which strategically os significant for India, is undergoing transition. That has generated democratic impulses for the people in the region and beyond.