Conference: The Syrian War

The UiB Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies are organizing a one-day conference on the Syrian War.

The Syrian chaos triggered in 2011 is presently the world’s #1 problem which has been exacerbated by Saudi Arabia’s showdown with Iran.  It involves not only Syrian government and the armed opposition/rebel groups but also the U.S., Russia, Turkey and Islamic State, in addition to a host of other actors such as the Kurds, UK, France, Germany, NATO, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and China, as well as  Sunnis and Shias and others.

Opening speach by rector of the University of Bergen, Dag Rune Olsen.

Among the confirmed speakers are:

• Professor Knut Vikør, Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion
• Post.doc. Teije Donker, Department of Comparative Politics
• Professor Kariane Westrheim, Department of Education
• Senior Researcher and associate professor Kjetil Selvik, Chr. Michelsen Institut and Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo
• Mohammad Habeeb – Poet, writer, translator, human rights activist He has been living with his wife and children in Stavanger City of Refuge since August 2015 and will be addressing the war in Syria in his condition of long time activist for human rights in Syria.

Conference Programme
09:00 Opening Speech
09:10 Strategic Perspective – Root-causes and Motives
09:30 From peaceful Uprising to Civil War: Causes and Consequences of a Failing Syrian Revolution
10:00 The Kurds
10:30 Break
10:50 Religion and the Salafi rebel groups
11:20 Options and prospects for ending the war in Syria
11:50 View from the ground
12:20 Discussion panel
13:00 End

Date: February 15, 2016 (Monday) from 9:00 to 16:00
Venue: UiB Faculty of Law – Auditorium 1 (Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1)

Registrations are open and can be made by email to Jorge.Queiroz@student.uib.no (on a first come basis up to the auditorium capacity)