With many political and economic factors pulling apart traditional allies Saudi Arabia and the United States, Duke and Saudi universities are trying to keep relations closer.
Organizers of the Jeddah Economic Forum recently invited Duke to be its academic partner in the conference that some call the "Arab mini-Davos," after the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. At the center of that partnership was a rare Saudi-Duke student exchange.
Bruce Lawrence, director of Islamic studies at Duke, worked with former student Ken Close, who grew up in Saudi Arabia, and with Duke Corporate Education to set up an exchange between Saudi and Duke students. The three-week program culminated in their participation at the JEF, where they shared their perspectives on the summit's economic themes.
To prepare for their presentations at the JEF, students talked shop with business leaders at companies in the Triangle, Washington, D.C., and cities in Saudi Arabia that do business in one another's country. The video they made and presented at the JEF gave their perspective on how trade between the two countries might look 10 years from now.
"It worked beautifully," Close said. "The JEF helped create new opportunities that will lead to future business opportunities with these young people, and the kids got something out of this academically. Everybody was extremely happy with how this turned out."
The exchange was a first for both sides and arranged at lightning speed. The contract between the JEF and Duke Corporate Education was signed in November for the exchange that took place in February. As part of the exchange, Saudi and Duke students met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to discuss innovative industries, energy and sustainable development. They had dinner with Gen. Barry McCaffery, who led the American invasion of Iraq, and he gave a geo-political discussion. They listened to other conference speakers, such as former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, Britain's Prince Charles and global financier George Soros.
Close, the former senior policy adviser to Prince Turki Al Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, tapped some of his business connections to sponsor the 11 Saudi students and 11 Duke students, a mix of graduate students and Focus program undergraduates. Among those chosen were Nick Donowitz and Julia Bunting, graduate students in the Nicholas School pursuing joint business and environmental management degrees.
Donowitz said he expects to make a career in the energy sector. He had visited Saudi Arabia as a teen and was surprised to see the "unbelievable growth" in some of the cities in the past 14 years.
"The exchange gave U.S. and Saudi students the chance to bridge gaps that politics and economics and business weren't bridging," Donowitz said. The Saudi students felt that Muslims around the world were getting a bad reputation, he said. The cultural lessons he learned from living with a group of students from the other side of the world for three weeks were "lessons that can't be taught; it has to be experienced," he said.
"The youth are a vehicle for connecting cultures. Young folks sometimes have minds that are less closed than adults," he said.
The Saudis are courting better business relationships with the United States and China, said Bunting. Ninety percent of the Saudis' export market is oil, and the country wants to diversify to reduce its economic volatility, she said. She applied for the exchange program as a way to understand how business is done in the Middle East, the pace of business and subtle complexities.
"You have to know who you're working with to engage in business with them," she said.
As a woman, she found the culture of Saudi Arabia challenging, but she kept an open mind. She gave credit to the Saudis for participating in the student exchange, the first exchange that would mix genders. Remaining sensitive to cultural cues was a learning process, she said, because the country is changing so quickly. "In some cities it was OK to sit together; in others, it wasn't," she said.
Bunting would like to see the exchange developed into a longer course with more preparation before the exchange and continuing the connection after the trip ended.
"I wonder what Duke's involvement will be in the Middle East over the next few decades," she said. "I'd love to see a Duke center over there and more and longer opportunities to go there."