On May 14, Willem Oosterveld gave a guest lecture at the Department of International Studies at the American University of Sharjah (UAE), the Gulf region’s premier university, to speak about EU-Middle Eastern relations. While trade between the two sides is extensive, history and the recent upheavals in the Middle East complicate their mutual relations. In a context of the US slowly withdrawing from the region and China being ascendant, the lecture specifically centered on the prospects for democratic reform in the Middle East, and how the EU could contribute to this.
