On 28 February 2024, the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair organized a special lecture titled "The Middle East after October 7th". During the lecture Dr Gudrun HARRER, a lecturer on modern history and politics of the Middle East at the University of Vienna, examined the aftermath of Hamas' attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli war in Gaza, the two events that have profoundly changed political relations in the Middle East.
According to Dr HARRER, the assumption that Israeli-Arab normalization could proceed without addressing the political future of the Palestinians has proven wrong. Amid fears of the expansion of the war to other parts of the region, the US administration, but also the EU are renewing efforts to draw possible roadmaps to achieve a two-state solution, which had been the intended goal – at least from a Palestinian perspective – of the Oslo Process of 1993.
The special lecture also looked into questions such as governance in Gaza after the war, which remain unresolved.
About the speaker:
Dr Gudrun HARRER is lecturer on modern history and politics of the Middle East at the University of Vienna and at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, and a Senior Editor of Austria’s Der Standard. She holds an MA in Arabic and Islamic Studies and a PhD in International Relation Studies, with a doctoral thesis on the Iraqi nuclear program. She served as Board Member of the Austrian Oriental Society Hammer Purgstall (ÖOG) and of the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (OIIP), and as Advisory Board Member of CARPO (Center for Applied Research in Partnership of the Orient). In 2015 she was awarded the “Bruno Kreisky Award for the Political Book“ for her numerous publications on MENA.
Her main research interests revolve around the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region, non-proliferation and nuclear programs therein, and the Arab Spring.