Perspectives #1 April 2011: Nuclear Energy and the Arab World - Ambition and Peril

Perspectives - Political Analysis and Commentary from the Middle East, a publication series of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s offices in Beirut and Ramallah provides a platform for analysis and viewpoints of experts from the region. In this edition the focus lies on the civilian use of nuclear energy in the Arab World. Democratic change and protest movements introduced an element of irreversible change and open debate to the Arab World, and a sense that democratic participation is not limited to forming political parties and competing in elections. It includes public debates over decisions that may affect the very future of societies. The transfer and use of nuclear energy requires such decisions. The nuclear disaster in the Japanese city of Fukushima on 11 March 2011 brings again the destructive potential of this technology to the forefront. A leading industrial nation, Japan was not able to prevent the exposure its citizens to massive hazards and risks as a result of the nuclear meltdown. Should Arab countries with less advanced technological capacities invest in nuclear energy production that proved uncontrollable in Japan? Why do Arab decision makers perceive nuclear energy as bridging technology to the solar age and as potential to decrease the dependency of external resources? Why is nuclear power so popular, despite its negative reputation in other parts of the world? Under the title “Ambition and Peril: Nuclear Energy and the Middle East”, activists and decision makers in the region and Europe discuss critically these and other questions in the first edition of Perspectives Middle East. With contributions from Mohamed Abdel Raouf, Hamed Beheshti, Ali Darwish, Leila Ghanem, Dennis Kumentat, Nikolaus Supersberger, Najib Saab, Larbi Sadiki, and Jürgen Trittin.