LSE Focuses New Centre on Collaboration With the People and Institutions of the Middle East

LONDON, May 24, 2010 - Today (May 24) - The London School of Economics and Political Science
(LSE) announces the launch of the Middle East Centre - a multidisciplinary
research centre focusing on modern Middle Eastern cultures, societies,
economies, and international relations.

The new Centre, which has received GBP9.2 million in initial support from
the UAE's Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy and The Aman Trust, will
collaborate with Middle Eastern universities, scholars, civil society, policy
makers, and speak to a global audience about the region's strengths and
challenges.

Under the leadership of its inaugural director, Professor Fawaz A Gerges,
and other prominent LSE scholars, the Middle East Centre will engage
intellectuals and experienced practitioners to analyse and report on the
region's economics, politics, and culture. The Centre will help train a new
generation of specialists drawn from within the region and from the rest of
the world. Throughout their careers, they will provide informed and balanced
analysis of the nations of the Middle East, and the region's place in the
international community.

Abdulrahman Al Owais, managing director of the Emirates Foundation,
commented: 'We are delighted that the new Centre will solidify LSE's academic
relations with leading Middle Eastern universities, including those in the
United Arab Emirates. Our Foundation supports knowledge creation through
research and high level training for young professionals, which are key
objectives of the new Middle East Centre.'

Arif Naqvi, whose family endowed The Aman Trust, added 'As an LSE
alumnus, I am delighted that the LSE has made an institutional commitment to
the Middle East. As someone who has spent his life in the Middle East, it was
important for me to help catalyse the Centre into being an important bridge
linking scholars, policy makers, and business leaders from Europe and the
Middle East, promoting constructive dialogue, mutual understanding and
cooperation, which are important challenges in today's polarised world.'

Howard Davies, LSE Director, said: 'With founding support in place from
the Emirates Foundation and The Aman Trust, we will be inviting other
stakeholders who share our values of impartiality and academic freedom to
examine the LSE's existing strength in Middle East studies, and to contribute
materially to the Centre's future development.'

The Centre is currently recruiting its core staff and will be based at
LSE from October 2010, the beginning of the 2010/11 academic year. It will
host its first major public event in spring 2011.

Notes

* LSE has around 245 undergraduates and 249 postgraduates from the Middle
East within its 9,000 strong student community. The School is also in touch
with around 1,500 alumni from Middle Eastern countries either living or
working in the Middle East or in the UK, including in the UAE. See
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/studentRecruitment/country/uae.htm

* Fawaz Gerges is a professor of Middle Eastern politics and
international relations at the London School of Economics and Political
Science. He earned a doctorate from the University of Oxford and an MSc from
the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gerges has taught at
Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia, and was a research scholar at Princeton and
chairholder (the Christian A. Johnson Chair in Middle Eastern Studies and
International Affairs) at Sarah Lawrence College, New York.

His special interests include Arab politics and Muslim politics in the
20th century, the international relations of the Middle East, the
Arab-Israeli conflict, state and society in the Middle East, Islam and the
political process, social movements, including mainstream Islamist groups,
American foreign policy towards the Muslim world, the modern history of the
Middle East, history of conflict, diplomacy and foreign policy, and
historical sociology.

*The Emirates Foundation for Philanthropy is one of the UAE's foremost
philanthropic organisations. It offers financial and technical support to
projects that enrich the lives of people in the Emirates, particularly in the
areas of youth development, knowledge creation, and society and culture.

The Foundation facilitates links between commercial businesses and the
public sector to devise new projects and strengthen existing nonprofit
initiatives throughout the country. Its funding comes from annual donations
and an endowment fund supported by the Abu Dhabi government and private
companies.

Launched on April 12 2005 by H.H Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan,
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, its Board of Directors is chaired by Sheikh
Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs.

*The Aman Trust is a philanthropic organisation operating in the fields
of healthcare, education and food security throughout the Middle East and
South Asia. Its sister organisation, Aman Foundation, is active in Pakistan.
The Aman Trust is headed by Arif Naqvi, CEO and Founder of Abraaj Capital,
one of the largest private equity firms operating in the emerging markets.

- LSE has strong connections with the Middle East through the work of
academics in its Departments of Government, International Relations,
International History, Anthropology and Social Policy; the Centre for the
Study of Global Governance; the Development Studies Institute; and the Crisis
States Research Centre. Examples of internationally focused work include the
translation of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance's Global Civil
Society Yearbook into Arabic. Visit
www2.lse.ac.uk/newsAndMedia/news/archives/2006/GlobalCivilSocietyYearb
ook2006-07Launch.aspx for further details.

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    Contact:
    Jess Winterstein
    LSE Press Office
    j.winterstein@lse.ac.uk
    +44-20-7107-5025

Contact: Jess Winterstein, LSE Press Office, j.winterstein at lse.ac.uk, +44-20-7107-5025