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A RENOWNED American think-tank, the Brookings
Institution, plans to open a branch in Qatar which has
been seeking to attract top tier US academic institutes.
The decision was announced late Monday at the end of a
three-day US-Islamic World Forum in Doha attended by
public figures and academics from both the Muslim
countries and the United States.
Further US-Islamic conferences would be held, one in
Europe and the other in Southeast Asia, to debate such
issues as “security, Islamophobia and globalisation”, a
final statement said.
It said the Brookings Institution would open an office
in Doha, which “will be the first branch ... to open
outside of the United States and introduce the
international model of independent think-tanks to the
region”.
It did not specify when the branch of the
Washington-based institute would open.
The US think-tank Rand already operates in Doha as the
Rand-Q Policy Institute, and a number of prestigious US
colleges have opened branches at an Education City
launched in October 2003.
Striking a claim as the Gulf’s learning hub, Qatar is
pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into drawing an
array of the world’s best centres of excellence to
Education City.
The city hosts Virginia Commonwealth University, Texas A
and M University, and Weill Cornell Medical College, a
branch of the renowned New York school.
The US-Islamic World Forum was jointly organised by the
Qatari Foreign Ministry and Brookings. – AFP |
