Dubai Debates is an online video

debating Debate is a process that involves formal discourse, discussion, and oral addresses on a particular topic or collection of topics, often with a moderator and an audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for opposing viewpoints. Historica ...

forum based in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. According to its website, Dubai Debates offers "a platform for online

opinion leaders Opinion leadership is leadership by an active media user who interprets the meaning of media messages or content for lower-end media users. Typically opinion leaders are held in high esteem by those who accept their opinions. Opinion leadership com ...

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

academics Academic means of or related to an academy, an institution learning. Academic or academics may also refer to: * Academic staff, or faculty, teachers or research staff * school of philosophers associated with the Platonic Academy in ancient Greece ...

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

activists Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

and all interested users to exchange ideas through videos." In addition to video debating via its website, regular debates are also held in Dubai, bringing together opinion leaders for panel discussions.

History

The series was launched in early February 2011, in the midst of the Egyptian revolution. According to The National newspaper, the founder of Dubai Debates, Belabbes Benkredda, "drew inspiration from how opinions were circulated on Twitter and Facebook during the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings." Dubai Debates was conceived as a contribution to the global discourse in social media, adding a video element and putting a face to the people shaping that discourse. And A conflicting report in the New York Times states that Dubai Debates was conceived as a reaction to a

Doha Debates Doha Debates produces and distributes debate and interview programs, video reports and interactive content. The franchise's products include debates, interview series, podcasts, the #SolvingIt series, digital video reports, Deep Dive education c ...

panel on the motion "Dubai is a bad idea", held on 14 December 2009. The first Dubai Debates panel discussion was held on 23 February 2011.

Format

A current debate topic is defined and announced through the Dubai Debates website, its

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel, as well as on its

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

feeds. At the same time, a date is announced for a panel debate on the respective issue. Interested users are then requested to submit their video contributions to the topic, which are all featured on the website and on YouTube. The panel sessions are split into thematic segments, each representing a specific question. All debates are video-filmed and made available after the event on DubaiDebates.com and YouTube. During the panel session, selected videos uploaded by outside contributors are shown. A Twitter hashtag is defined, allowing live discussions about the panel to be incorporated into the discussion. The number of segments was six for the first two editions of Dubai Debates, each between 6–9 minutes in length.

Previous debates

Mark Zuckerberg - the new hero of the Arab people? (Dubai Debates 1)

The inaugural Dubai Debates topic was "Mark Zuckerberg - the New Hero of the Arab People?". A panel session on the topic was held on 23 February at the Media One Hotel in Dubai. Participants included Mahmoud Salem, the award-winning Egyptian blogger widely known as Sandmonkey, as well as

Daniel Gerlach Daniel Gerlach (born 1977) is a German author, journalist, publisher and Middle East expert. He is the current editor-in-chief of the German Middle East quarterly magazine zenith and director-general of the Candid Foundation. Career Gerlach s ...

of Zenith Magazine,

Al Arabiya Arabiya (, transliterated: '; meaning "The Arabic One" or "The Arab One") is a Saudi state-owned international Arabic news television channel. It is based in Riyadh and is a subsidiary of MBC Group. The channel is a flagship of the media c ...

TV anchor Mahmoud Abu Obeid, and

American University of Sharjah The American University of Sharjah (AUS; Arabic: الجامعة الأميركية في الشارقة) is a private university in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It was founded in 1997 by Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, Supreme Council Member a ...

scholar Mohammed Ibahrine. The debate was filmed and widely viewed on the Internet since. The

Goethe Institute The Goethe-Institut (; GI, ''Goethe Institute'') is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit German culture, cultural organization operational worldwide with more than 150 cultural centres, promoting the study of the German language abroad and en ...

was one of the first supporters of the debate.

After the Arab Awakening: Opportunities and Challenges for a New Arab World (Dubai Debates 2)

The second Dubai Debates topic was announced through Twitter on 12 May 2011 as "After the Arab Awakening: Opportunities and Challenges for a New Arab World". A panel debate on 31 May was initially planned to be held in co-operation with the American University in Dubai (AUD), in the main auditorium. On 28 May, three days before the debate, the event was moved to the Kempinski Hotel Dubai and co-operation with AUD terminated without further comment. Panelists at Dubai Debates 2 have been described as "star academics" and included: *

Dalia Mogahed Dalia Mogahed (born 1975), is an American researcher and consultant of Egyptian American, Egyptian origin. She is the director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) in Washington, D.C. She is also President and C ...

, Director of the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center and an adviser to US President

Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. Ob ...

* Shadi Hamid, research director of the

Brookings Doha Center The Brookings Institution, often stylized as Brookings, is an American think tank that conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics (and tax policy), metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, global econo ...

Abdel Bari Atwan Abdel Bari Atwan ( ', Levantine pronunciation: ; born 17 February 1950) is an Egyptian-born British journalist and the editor-in-chief of ''Rai al-Youm'', an Arab world digital news and opinion website. Previously he was the editor-in-chief of ...

, editor of

Al Quds Al Arabi ''al-Quds al-Arabi'' () is an independent pan-Arab daily newspaper, published in London since 1989 and owned by Palestinian expatriates. According to news reports in 2013, it is now owned by Qatar media interests, through intermediaries. The pap ...

and one of only five journalists who interviewed Osama bin Laden *

Tarik Yousef Tarik Yousef el-Magariaf is an economist who has worked as the chief executive of Silatech and as a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Arab World. He specializes in economies of the Arab world. Biography Education ...

, the Dean of the

Dubai School of Government The Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government, is a research and teaching institution located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Original founded in 2005 as the Dubai School of Government, public policy in the Arab world is the focus of the institu ...

. The debate was moderated by Matt J. Duffy, a media scholar from

Zayed University Zayed University (ZU; ) is a public university in the United Arab Emirates. It has campuses in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. History Zayed University was founded in 1998 to provide technical education for women. The school is named after Sheikh Zayed ...

. The debate was composed of the following six segments: # ''Is the Arab Spring over?'' # ''Where is Egypt headed after the revolution?'' # ''Can Arab and Islamic values be reconciled with democracy?'' # ''Do Western governments even care about democracy?'' # ''A new Arab world - new alliances?'' # ''Will Arab democracy bring Arab prosperity?'' Dubai Debates 2 was supported by the

Konrad Adenauer Foundation The Konrad Adenauer Foundation ('' German: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: KAS'') is a German political party foundation associated with but independent of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The foundation's head ...

, a think tank connected to German Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

's CDU party, as well as

CNN International Cable News Network International or CNN International (CNNi, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel and website, owned by CNN Worldwide. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates ...

. There was an audience of 200 guests.

Who’s got the power? The future of energy in the Arabian Gulf (Dubai Debates 3)

The latest Dubai Debates 3 took place at Knowledge Village Conference Centre in Dubai on 16 November. The panel of speakers constituted Michael Peel, Middle East Correspondent for the

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

, Robin Mills, Expert on Middle East energy strategy and economics to Dubai Government and columnist for The National and formerly

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

’s expert on

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, Kate Dorian Middle East editor covering energy developments throughout the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

and North Africa for

Platts S&P Global Commodity Insights is a provider of energy and commodities information and a source of benchmark price assessments in the physical commodity markets. The business was started with the foundation in 1909 of the magazine ''National Pe ...

. The moderator for Who’s got the power? The future of energy in the Arabian Gulf’ was Mishaal Al Gergawi a current affairs and commentator for Gulf News. The topic attracted students from Abu Dhabi (home of

Masdar Masdar (Arabic: مصدر‎), also known as the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, is an Emirati state-owned renewable energy company. It was founded and chaired by Sultan Al Jaber in 2006 as a subsidiary of Mubadala Investment Company. The compan ...

) at the universities of Sorbonne and New York.

Bjørn Lomborg Bjørn Lomborg (; born 6 January 1965) is a Danish political scientist, author, and the president of the think tank Copenhagen Consensus Center. He is the former director of the Danish government's Environmental Assessment Institute (EAI) in ...

Director,

Copenhagen Consensus Copenhagen Consensus is a project that seeks to establish priorities for advancing global welfare using methodologies based on the theory of welfare economics, using cost–benefit analysis. It was conceived and organized around 2004 by Bjørn ...

Center. Author of 'Cool It' and 'Skeptical Environmentalist' also took part via Skype and posed his questions to the panel. Dubai Debates 3 was divided into the following six segments: # ''The Arabian Gulf: What’s Next for Oil and Gas?'' # ''Energy for the World Economy: But from where?'' # ''Renewable Energies- Much Ado About Nothing?'' # ''Nuclear Energy: More risks than opportunities?'' # ''How Can We Waste Less Energy in the Gulf?'' # ''What Will Our Future Cities Look Like?'' The next debate is due to take place on 18 December on After the Arab Awakening: Women, Civil Society and Leadership in the New Arab World at Knowledge Village.

Women, Civil Society, and Leadership in the New Arab World

In cooperation with

Vital Voices Global Partnership Vital Voices Global Partnership is an American international, 501(c)(3), non-profit, non-governmental organization that works with women leaders in the areas of economic empowerment, women's political participation, and human rights. The organiza ...

Konrad Adenauer Stiftung The Konrad Adenauer Foundation (''German: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: KAS'') is a German political party foundation associated with but independent of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The foundation's headq ...

and

, Dubai Debates held its fourth edition on the topic Women, Civil Society and Leadership in the New Arab World. The panel brought together Amira Yahyaoui, a Tunisian blogger, Dr. Ebtisam Al Kitbi, professor of political science at UAE University, and Mohamed Abu Obeid a Palestinian women’s rights advocate and a TV presenter on

on 18 December 2011, for the first debate in Arabic language simultaneously translated into English, at the Dubai Knowledge Village Auditorium. The panel was moderated by

Gulf News ''Gulf News'' is a daily English language newspaper published from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. First launched in 1978, it is distributed throughout the UAE and also in other Persian Gulf countries. Its online edition was launched in 1996. Thro ...

columnist Mishaal Al Gergawi. The debate consisted of five motions, after each the audience voted. The motions were # ''The role of women in the Arab revolutions has been exaggerated'' # ''There should be quotas for women in Arab parliaments?'' # ''Arab women should choose between family and business'' # ''The Western model of “women’s rights” should be applied to Arab countries'' # ''Constitutional guarantees for women’s rights won’t change social attitudes'' Video contributors via

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

included Ms Almas Jiwani, Head of the UN Committee on Women in Canada and Manal Sharif a Saudi Arabian Women's rights activist.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.dubaidebates.com Organisations based in Dubai Political debates 2011 web series debuts Organizations established in 2011