Unlocking Opportunities, Overcoming Challenges

Established in June 2014, New-Med is a research network of Mediterranean experts and policy analysts with a special interest in the complex social, political, cultural and security-related dynamics that are unfolding in the Mediterranean region. The network is developed by IAI, in cooperation with the OSCE Secretariat in Vienna, the Compagnia di San Paolo of Turin, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the German Marshall Fund (GMF) of the United States. At the core of the New-Med activities stands the need to rethink the role of multilateral, regional and sub-regional organizations, to make them better equipped to respond to fast-changing local and global conditions and to address the pressing demands coming from Mediterranean societies all around the basin.
Beyond the narrow focus on security concerns dominating debates on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), there is a dire need for local perspectives on the many pressing socio-economic and political challenges impacting the “youth” and broader societies in the region. This volume brings together such perspectives offered by eight outstanding young scholars from the region on a broad range of issues: from political activism, to women’s empowerment, from environmental challenges to unemployment, all paying attention to youth-inclusiveness. Their accounts highlight the need for policies that are human-centric and not merely state-centric, and for going beyond reproducing “politics as usual”, and instead responding to the changing problems and aspirations of societies with their younger and older cohorts.