Introduction: Governance in the Middle East

This special issue of Innovation Journal: Public Sector Innovation Journal focuses on innovative measures in the Middle Eastern public sector by examining opportunities available for actors in to answer challenges through coordination, networking, and partnership that may facilitate innovation in both visions and practices. In this context, this issue observes public policy and administrative issues in Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Israel, Libya, Palestine and Iraq in order to present an argument in favor of innovation in the public sector as key for sound in the Middle East.Some of the articles in this volume were presented during the Inaugural Conference of the Association for Middle Eastern Public Policy and Administration (AMEPPA) held on November 8 and 9, 2012 at Al-Akhawayne University in Ifrane, Morocco. As president of AMEPPA and the editor of this special issue, it is an honor and privilege to work and to be associated with such outstanding scholars who, through their expertise, analyses and experiences, shed important light on complex issues related to public service in the Middle East.In this special issue, Michiel de Vries addresses trade-offs and dilemmas in citizens' responsibility for the development of policies where the basic right of each individual is respected while difficult choices can be made more democratically. His article, The Challenge of Good Governance, examines as a concept that includes phenomena related to the steering of societal developments by societal actors through networks in which hierarchy hardly plays a role. According to de Vries, the term governance is abused by using so many indicators that it becomes nearly impossible to achieve good governance. At the same time, many governments are also locked in conflicts of interests between trying to do the right things and doing the urgently needed things right. It is not self-evident that improving will result in a reduction in societal and managerial problems. innovations may provide short term responses to serious deficits, but may not provide long term solutions to them.Warigia Bowman and L. Jean Camp explore the interaction between Internet communications, activists, and the state in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Uganda and northern Sudan. Their paper, Protecting the Internet from Dictators: Technical and Policy Solutions to Ensure Online Freedoms, addresses the following problem: Under what conditions are authoritarian regimes able to disrupt Internet traffic in situations of a popular uprising, and what can be done to prevent it? Bowman and Camp illustrate that there are three critical variables in this interaction: redundancy in communications, distribution of power across organizations and individuals and geographic localities, and state regulation. They argue for a more resilient, redundant network and propose policies that can be implemented in more open states with greater influence on the development of the network. Finally, the authors illustrate that the same investments that empower dissidents actually strengthen the Internet for commerce and government, and against unauthorized attacks.In my article,The Middle East and Learning from Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC), I assert that the Arab Spring is a populous movement that is shifting the Middle East toward sound governance. basic principles of such reside in freedom, transparency, accountability, civic engagement, and economic prosperity. impact of the movement not only is measured on regional levels but also globally, such as in inspiring movements such Occupy Wall Street and Russia's Democratic movement. While Turkey, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates (TIE) provides successful economic and administrative models for the region, the Middle East can also benefit from other successful developing countries' models, especially those presented by Brazil, Russia, India, and China. …

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