Participants: 35 participants from 17 countries 






NISA Summer Session (NSS) took place in Crescent Beach Hotel (Baku) from the 3rd till the 9th of July 2011. NSS officially started on the 4th of July. After opening ceremony, with participation of diplomats, officials, experts and media the academic part of the session. 




(Panel I) “Middle East unrest: what happened?” started with the lecture of Dr. Youcef Bouandel (Professor, International Affairs Department, Qatar University). Professor Bouandel, spoke generally about the politico-historical background of the Middle East region and chronology of the current unrest. Mr. Ziad AklMoussa (Senior Analyst, Al-Ahram Foundation, Cairo, Egypt) continued the lecture discussing the stages of political developments and political regimes in Egypt and other  countries in the Middle East. Following that, Dr. Reshad Karimov (Research Fellow, Center for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan) pointed out the preconditions of recent developments and turmoil to international security.



Panel II, “Roots and causes” took place on July the 5th. The speakers of the panel Dr. Youcef Bouandel (Professor, International Affairs Department, Qatar University), Mr. Jean-Yves Camus (Research Fellow, International and Strategic Relations Institute, Paris, France) and Dr. Dawit Toga (Senior Political Analyst, African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) talked about the causes and conditions of uprisings and discontent among general population. Main theoretical hypothesis had been discussed in the light of approaches that had been mentioned in previous panel. Participants took active part in the discussions and proposed their own theories. Later on, Mr. James Appathurai, NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, was hosted by NISA. During the working dinner Mr.Appathurai as a guest speaker of the NISA Summer Session briefed the participants and experts of the Summer Session on NATO-Azerbaijan partnerships, NATO recent activities and operations, and answered numerous questions of the participants. 









Later on that day, participants listened to the “Role of information technologies, social networking and mass media” (Panel III). Dr. Henner Furtig (Director, GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies, Hamburg, Germany) gave information on how cyber means are broadly utilized by number of parties: starting from ordinary citizens and ending with international terrorist organizations. Mr. Ziad AklMoussa touched the specificity of social media usage during events in Egypt and told how in fact it has been carried out. H.E. Mr. Hasan Hami (Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to Azerbaijan) shared Morocco’s approach to the recent developments and estimated the role of media and social networking in the actual events.



Panel IV, “International response (individual states)” took place on July 6th. Speakers Mr. Jean-Yves Camus, Dr. Youcef Bouandel, Dr. Henner Furtig, Dr. Dan Schueftan (Director, National Security Studies Center, Haifa, Israel), Dr. Boris Dolgov (Senior Researcher of the Centre of Arabic and Islamic Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia) sounded the position of their countries regarding the uprisings in the region and shared the views on how their countries can be effective in favorable resolution of the turmoil. 
 

Panel V. “International response (regional and international organizations”. Panel was moderated by V.ADM (r) Mario Rino Me (Professor, High Defense Studies Institute, Roma, Italy) who emphasized the role of major international organizations, such as UN and NATO in the resolution of some tense uprisings, particularly in Libya. Mr. Bulent Aras (Director, Strategic Studies Center, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkey) highlighted the key role of international organizations in general and pointed out the efforts of Turkey, particularly as a part of this organizations. Dr. Dawit Toga (Senior Political Analyst, African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) shared the views and position of African Union organization to recent events and expressed this organization’s strong desire to positively participate in elimination of unrest.



Panel VI, Human rights and democracy vis-à-vis rule of law and security (internal aspects) took place on July 7th. Mr. Bulent Aras, Mr. Ziad AklMoussa, Mr. Anar Azimov (Head, East-West Department, Institute for Oriental Studies, National Academy of Sciences, Azerbaijan) touched the issues of internal rule of law and its contradiction with human rights issues and on how the governments should maintain that balance. Mr. AklMoussa, specifically touched the large range of human rights violations in Egypt.



Panel VII, Human rights and democracy vis-à-vis rule of law and security (international aspects). The panel was launched by speech of V.ADM (r) Mario Rino Me, who strongly supported the position of European Union in protecting of human rights in the region. Dr.Yuriy Kochubey (Professor, Diplomatic Academy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine) and Dr. Boris Dolgov supported the idea of maintenance of the rule of law and nations’ sovereignty in the region. Dr. Farhad Mehdiyev (Professor, Qafqaz University, Baku, Azerbaijan) emphasized some international judicial issues and strongly supported the preservation of rule of law in the region. Participants took active role in the discussions and challenged the positions of speakers.
 

Panel VIII, Implications and perspectives. Dr. Dan Schueftan expressed his deep concerns regarding the future of the Middle East and demanded international community to take active part in the resolution of unrest. Ambassador Hasan Hami, on the other hand expressed his positive excitement regarding the future of this region, which from his opinion is expected to be promising.