A new Egyptian centre for strategic studies is promising solutions to many of the country's problems. Magda El-Ghitany reports Three months after its establishment, the International Centre for Future and Strategic Studies (ICFS) finally became operational when it announced the official launch of its activities at a press conference held at the centre's headquarters in Cairo. The centre, which is an independent Egyptian think-tank, aims to study "issues of a strategic nature associated with global changes and their impact on the domestic, regional and international [status of Egypt]." Ahmed Fakhr, ICFS chairman and Head of the Executive Board, stated that the centre's research activities will focus on Egypt's "vital circumference", which he defined as internal issues relating to many sectors, such as environment, culture, investment, politics, health, and education, as well as other domestic fields. The centre has designed several programmes covering issues related to these areas. These programmes will include one on "peace culture" and another looking at the role of Egyptian women in a socio cultural context. "Egyptians have to extend their definitions of peace beyond political peace treaties," Fakhr told Al-Ahram Weekly. The ICFS, he explained, will seek to explain that "peace culture" implies that "conflicts are to be ended through discussions, negotiations and dialogue, and not necessarily through military solutions." Adel Suleiman, ICFS executive director, told the Weekly that "peace culture" also includes the idea that people need to cultivate "peace within themselves and with their environment as a whole" as a pre-condition for attaining global peace. The centre will also work on new ways of ensuring that women actively occupy political positions and influence the decision-making process. "Egyptian women have the right to have their voices heard, especially when it comes to their own issues," Fakhr said . In addition, ICFS may conduct research on regional issues such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Sudan, and Egypt's neighbours -- but only in the light of their relations with Egypt. According to its founders, ICFS will differ from other Egyptian strategic studies centres which focus exclusively on academic research, by seeking to provide "creative" alternative solutions to the problems they study. In this way, they will be able to ensure that the decision-making bodies concerned have "choices available to them when they are looking for solutions." ICFS, Fakhr argued, will provide both the "what" and the "how". In addition, the centre will make sure that "its solutions actually reach the hands of the decision-makers," Suleiman said . Another point that, according to its founders, differentiates ICFS from other centres, is the advanced information technology tools the centre will use to gather information to feed into the research process. To ensure that its work is based on comprehensive date, "ICFS has satellites, and other advanced technology that will extend the centre's access to any information we need wherever it may exist, without needing to ask for help from any third party," Fakhr told reporters. ICFS also aims to stand out from the crowd when it comes to making its work public. Unlike many Egyptian research centres, it will produce publications that will discuss the issues the centre is working on, the solutions they are proposing, as well as analysing more generally how the world perceives such issues. They will also work to produce unified definitions of "terminology" relating to key issues for Egypt. Nowadays, according to Fakhr, many concepts such as "terrorism", "violence", and "economic crisis" have multiple definitions: "We need at least to agree on our own definitions of these concepts." In this way, he added, ICFS will be able to help improve public understanding of many contemporary issues. As an independent foundation, ICFS's main sponsors include members of its board of trustees, Egyptian businessmen and Egyptian organisations . "To ensure our credibility and freedom to criticise and discuss, ICFS does not accept money from the Egyptian government, nor does it accept money from any foreign source," Fakhr insisted. Egyptian businessmen are keen to support such a project, because "improvements in the social and political spheres will boost the Egyptian economy and investment," said Galal El-Zorba, a prominent ICFS sponsor . On Tuesday, ICFS held its first symposium devoted to the role research centres now play in Egypt and their impact on the "decision- making process". Although many obstacles still prevent research centres from being as effective as they could be, ICFS's founders seemed optimistic regarding their own venture. In the words of ICFS Board of Trustees member Mona Makram Ebeid: "Our debates, dialogues and research will [help to] address the growing need to understand the interests, rules and political mechanisms which govern life in Egypt today, for we believe we are at a crossroads."
