AUC President Ahmed Dallal Opens Inaugural PEMENA Conference
“Pathways Beyond Neoliberalism: Voices From MENA” program at the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP), The American University in Cairo (AUC), launched its first annual Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa Conference (PEMENA) under the theme: "Beyond Neoliberalism: Industrial Policy and Regional Integration in MENA." The conference brought together scholars, researchers, and practitioners from across the MENA region, including Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey.
AUC President Ahmad Dallal inaugurated the conference at AUC Tahrir Square, emphasizing the need to revisit development paradigms that have shaped the region. "Over the past decades, market-oriented reforms have generated growth in some sectors while revealing persistent challenges: inequality, debt vulnerability, and limited social protection," he noted. President Dallal highlighted the global revival of industrial policy as an opportunity to address fragmented value chains, environmental pressures, and the need for just transitions.
Noha Mikawy, Dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and Amr Adly, Principal Investigator of the Pathways Program, welcomed participants, highlighting AUC’s commitment to bridging research and practice.
The conference featured a keynote by Professor Robert H. Wade, Professor of Political Economy at the London School of Economics, author of "Governing the Market" and recipient of the 2008 Leontief Prize. Professor Wade addressed the "return of industrial policy" after decades of neoliberal dominance, examining how East Asian states successfully used industrial strategies to catch up with the West, while highlighting the challenges of implementing effective industrial policy in today's era of geopolitical rivalry and fragmented globalization.
Key sessions explored:
● Economic diversification beyond oil in MENA economies;
● Industrial Policy in MENA: Examining Transitions , Conflict, and Social Inequality; ● Green industrial policy and sustainable development, including Egypt's green bonds and Morocco's policies;
● Green colonialism: tensions between climate imperatives and national sovereignty; ● Food sovereignty and the impact of global trade and Gulf investments on regional agriculture and water use, and;
● Special Economic Zones (SEZs) examining over 100 SEZs across MENA, addressing both opportunities and challenges.
The conference represents a milestone for AUC's "Pathways Beyond Neoliberalism: Voices from MENA" program, supported by a five-year Ford Foundation grant (2022-2027). The Program challenges neoliberal economic dominance and develops alternative models prioritizing equity and sustainability, in collaboration with partner universities in Colombia, India, Mexico and South Africa.
The conference concluded on November 11 at AUC's New Cairo campus with the announcement of the second cycle of two awards presented by the Pathways Program: the Samer Soliman Book Award and the PhD Critical Thinkers Award. Farah Ramzy received the Samer Soliman Book Award 2025 for her inspiring book "Egyptian
Students and Politics Beyond Protest," while Bassem Elbendary received the PhD Critical Thinkers Award for his thought-provoking thesis "Class in Class: Exploring the Development of the Transformative Potential Between Socioeconomically Privileged Students in Egypt.”
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