The research carried out within the Contemporary History of the Arab World chair, under the responsibility of Prof. Henry Laurens, covers a chronological period from the second half of the 18th century to the present day. Relations between the Arab East and the West continue to be the main focus. Themes such as national trajectories (Egypt, Syria, Palestine), international relations, whether bilateral (Palestine and Egypt ; Syria and France) or multilateral (France and Mediterranean countries) remain at the heart of the Chair's scientific output. These issues are addressed from a variety of angles, including a global history of the Mediterranean, a history of Arabs and Muslims in France, a history of power dynamics in the Arab world, the making of diplomacy between the Arab East and the West, the question of the " frontierization " of the world in the 19th century, and a grasp of Arab political cultures based on Arab memorial literature. Scientific papers have already been published or are in the process of being published on all these themes.
Lectures are a key component of the Chair's activities, and have covered, at the Collège de France, the entire Palestine question from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the present century, Europe and the Muslim world in the 19th century, and the evolution of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. Since 2019, lectures by Pr Henry Laurens have focused on how international relations have shaped societies in the Middle East over the past two centuries and a half, and have been devoted to the various crises in the East : the origins of authoritarianism from 1949 onwards and the failure of Arab unity in 1956 and of Arab nationalism.
Seminars on Arab political culture, the Chair's annual colloquia and various scientific events (study days, conferences, workshops, etc.) provide the public with keys to understanding the region's immediate current affairs. These analyses are enriched by the cross-disciplinary contributions of researchers and stakeholders (diplomats in particular).
