QNA
Doha
The Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Forum, being organised by Arab Centre for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS), opens in Doha today.
Academics, researchers and experts will discuss two topics: education in GCC states and regional and international
environmental challenges.
The forum’s programme will feature a lecture on challenges facing GCC states in the new international and regional environment to be delivered by John Mearsheimer, a prominent American international relations
theorist.
The forum’s organising committee said that 60 researchers would participate with working papers during the sessions; almost half of them will be from Qatar and GCC states.
The Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies Forum comes in the wake of  the success of third annual Conference of Arab Research Centres held in
December last year.
The forum is organised on two tracks: the first will address a topic of significance to the GCC states and it will change each year. The second will discuss the broader challenges posed to the GCC states by the regional and international environment and will be a permanent item on the forum’s agenda.
This year, Education in the Gulf has been selected as the discussion topic in the first category.
The Supreme Education Council is scheduled to oversee a discussion panel. A session on Gulf relations with East Asia will be supervised by the Qatar
University.
The ACRPS is an Arab research institute with particular interest in the social sciences, applied social sciences, regional history and geostrategic affairs.
To this effect, the ACRPS co-ordinates and develops research, publications, projects and events on issues and challenges relevant to the Arab world.
The ACRPS primarily conducts its work in Arabic but publishes in both Arabic and English.
The ACRPS, established in 2010, is based in Doha, with a second office in Beirut. It is overseen by an executive board composed of Arab academics and
intellectuals.