Fung Seminar | Laila Omar, Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS)

Laila Omar, 2023-24 Fung Global Fellow Alumni, will discuss the results of the 9th Arab Opinion Index (AOI). (Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies 12/7/25 press release:) With the release of these results, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies marks more than fourteen years of regularly tracking public opinion across the Arab region, producing an unprecedented comprehensive, open-access database available to all those interested in studying Arab public opinion - researchers, academics, policymakers, journalists, and anyone requiring precise empirical data to understand the Arab region and its transformations. Dr. La​ila Omar, an Arab Center researcher working on the AOI, noted that the 2025 survey was carried out through face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of Arab public opinion comprising 40,130 respondents across 15 Arab countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and Syria. Survey implementation required more than 413,000 hours of work, involved 1,000 researchers (half of whom were women), and saw field researchers travel more than 900 thousand kilometres across the Arab countries. This makes it the largest survey of its kind ever conducted in the Arab region; whether in terms of sample size, number of participating countries, the breadth of variables examined (over 540), or the volume of data collected. She added that the 2025 AOI includes Syria, making it the first survey of its kind in the country to include political, economic, and social topics. Its results also incorporate important questions concerning the situation in Sudan and the Gaza Strip. The AOI data covers a wide spectrum of economic, social, and political matters affecting the daily lives of citizens, including assessments of general conditions in Arab countries; citizens' perceptions of state institutions and government performance; levels of trust in these institutions; and public attitudes towards democracy, citizenship values, equality, and civic and political participation. This AOI includes topics examining the use of social media and the internet in detail, as well as levels of trust in these platforms. It also explores public attitudes in the Arab region towards the Palestine question, the Israeli war on Gaza, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Further topics include the policies of international and regional powers, and public perceptions of Arab peoples and of the countries considered to pose the greatest threats to Arab national security. The AOI also dedicates a set of important questions to gauging Arab public opinion on the United States, its society, and its foreign policy towards the region - part of a long-standing AOI tradition, as the topic was last examined ten years ago in the 2014 survey. DR. LAILA OMAR is a 2023-24 Fung Global Fellow Alumni, and is currently a Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS), and Adjunct Professor in Sociology & Anthropology Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. This event is co-hosted by the Workkshop on Arab Political Development, Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice --- Event Details: https://my.princeton.edu/rsvp?id=1972741