Addressing the Material Struggle of Young People: A Message for the New Administration

"In the past eight years, Washington has viewed the struggle of Arab youth as political, theological and ideological,” Navtej Dhillon, director of the Middle East Youth Initiative at Brookings, described to Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National ("Look to the Arab youth, Mr Obama," 13 Nov 2008). According to Dhillon, the material struggle of young people in the region deserves more attention: “It is therefore time for Washington to rethink its foreign aid and find new ways of co-operation in promoting education and employment in the Middle East.”

Two recent surveys - one by Gallup and one by Asda’a Burson-Marsteller - and the outcomes of a recent event hosted by the Middle East Youth Initiative at Brookings demonstrate high levels of optimism among young people in the Middle East. Despite this positive news, "there are worrying signs for [President-elect] Obama to heed," The National reports. For example, a median of 23 per cent of the youth polled by Gallup responded affirmatively when asked if the area where they lived was conducive to finding a job.

During a recent panel at Brookings, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani had another way of characterizing the everyday struggle of young people in the region - borrowed from scholars Alan Richards and John Waterbury. While policymakers are often consumed by "Great Game" politics, Salehi-Isfahani explained, young people and their families are more focused on the "Quiet Game:" or the "everyday game of life where families get up in the morning, have plans for themselves, for their children. They go to work. Men and women have to decide on whether they’re going to have another child or whether they want to invest more on the education of their existing children." Unfortunately, Salehi-Isfahani claims that the "Great Game," i.e. power politics, often dominates our dialogue. Salehi-Isfahani is a professor of economics at Virginia Tech and nonresident guest scholar at Brookings.

More on this topic:

Read “Look to the Arab youth, Mr Obama” in The National >

Access “Arab Youth” event transcript and presentation by Ahmed Younis (Gallup) >