February 7, 2019

IMES Regional Brief – February 2019

  Dear Reader, Karl Barth entreats us to “take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” This is exactly what we do in the IMES Regional Brief, as we read the events of our region in light of the Bible and discover […]
January 31, 2019

Education, Leadership, and Mission: A Critical View in a Critical Age

by Walid Zailaa In a Middle East where corruption has become an integral part of the social fabric, where oppression has become the language of the strong, where poverty has taken its toll on the majority; in a Middle East where everything is permissible to everyone, where leadership is a […]
January 24, 2019

Lebanon’s McKinsey Report: corruption, for a price of a sandal

by Robert Hamd In 2017, the Lebanese government brought in the international consultancy firm, McKinsey, to analyze Lebanon’s public and private sectors. On Wednesday, January 2, the Ministry of Economy released the report, describing what they saw as Lebanon’s crippling political stalemate in government. The 1,200-page report warns that the […]
January 17, 2019

East and West: Putting Our Best Foot Forward

by Mike kuhn I recently learned that Eugene Peterson, author, pastor and Bible translator, passed away. At the same time, I was also reflecting on the death of a cherished and esteemed leader of the church in the Middle East—Ghassan Khalaf, pastor, mentor, theologian and Bible translator who also served […]
January 10, 2019

A Shia Christmas and the Incarnate Word of God

by Wissam Nasrallah After an overdose of podcasts, I turned on the radio in the hope of finding something “light” to listen to, as I was desperately trying to make my way through the organized anarchy of traffic in Beirut.
January 3, 2019

IMES Regional Brief – January 2019

  Dear Reader, At the beginning of 2019, the IMES team would like to thank you for accompanying us on our journey over the past year through the various countries of the MENA region. Today, we are preparing for new tours, which we begin today. We always examine critical issues […]
December 20, 2018

A Christmas Message from the Institute of Middle East Studies

Taking a break from the hustle and bustle, the members of the IMES team reflected on the meaning of Christmas and how it is embodied in their work within the Institute. Our team members share their reflections below, along with their Christmas greetings.
December 13, 2018

Death in the Shadows of Displacement: forced migration, deathliness, and the hope for life

By Brent Hamoud How do we share a world with over 68 million victims of displacement?  This is a defining question of the 21st century as unprecedented numbers of individuals have been uprooted from their homes and thrust into precarious existences on the fringes of our global systems.  The phenomenon […]