As with the Marshall Plan, Pathways to Progress is built around the importance of developing regional partnerships. The project is partnering with key institutions in the region to develop innovative solutions and policy options that foster peace and stability and encourage broad-based, inclusive economic growth, with a particular focus on job creation. Pathways to Progress looks to cultivate and catalyze new thinking and creative solutions percolating in the region. It seeks to promote an active dialogue between the United States and the Arab world in which new ideas and innovative thinking flow in both directions. Our institutional partners are engaged in the key issues at the forefront of the region's transitions, representative of the "new thinking" that characterizes the Arab transitions. In particular, Pathways to Progress is reaching out to newly-empowered voices and institutions in the region, engaging not only those in official structures, but also those within the private sector and civil society. 

Stimson and the Marshall Foundation, together with our regional partners, will convene a series of four conferences in the Arab world, each linked to one of the key Marshall Plan themes. The conference on Regional Economic Integration will be held in Tunis. Beirut will host the Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The conference on Regional Security Partnerships will be held in Amman, while the United Arab Emirates will host the conference on Multilateral Cooperation and Coordination. Each conference will generate policy recommendations for key constituencies in the region, as well as for US policymakers.

REGIONAL CONTEXT

Poised between the promise of momentous transformation and the peril of failed revolutions, the Arab world faces a critical window of opportunity to ensure that the region's transitions meet with successful outcomes. Now entering a third year, the Arab uprisings mark a watershed for the region, initiating an era of historic transformation that will require at least a generation to complete.  

While the demise of authoritarianism is far from certain, the Arab revolts – from Tunisia to Yemen – are altering the traditional social contract governing relations between rulers and the ruled. They have unleashed a powerful dynamic agitating for change. New voices, including cyber-activists, entrepreneurs, youth, and non-traditional opposition forces, have become empowered and are helping to shape the public debate over the region's future. Certainly, transition to free-market democracies is far from assured, and the process of change will be complex. Across the region a variety of models are being tested, resulting in a diverse set of political choices, economic policies, and security strategies. 

The initial euphoria of the region's popular revolts has given way to more sober assessments of the deep-seated challenges embedded in these complex transformations. Change has not come quickly enough, and the instability that accompanied the uprisings has exacerbated economic ills. Youth unemployment across the region now averages 25 percent, while economic growth continues to stagnate. As a result, popular expectations for jobs and a better life remain unmet, compounding the anger of those who rioted in the streets.

Today, the Arab world balances precariously between two divergent paths. One leads toward the development of vibrant democracies that are engaged in the global economy; the other entails a descent into chaos and disorder that could set the region back decades and leave popular aspirations for change unfulfilled.   

As the region grapples with these myriad challenges, an important and timely opportunity exists to generate new thinking, promote innovation, and foster creative solutions that ensure that the region moves along a pathway marked by peace and prosperity. The region's transitions will necessarily need to address the intertwined challenges of building democratic governance, economic growth and development, and security. Working in close collaboration with thought-leaders in the region, Pathways to Progress: Peace, Prosperity and Change in the Middle East hopes to help ensure that the Arab transitions meet these challenges.