CEMMIS: Centre for Mediterranean, middle east and Islamic studies

CEMMIS is a research group in the framework of the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Peloponnese. A trip from Greece to the Middle East seems always short and safe. However, Greek policy and decision making community has yet to undertake a genuine exploration mission concerning the Middle East. Geographical and cultural proximity substitutes for the lack of serious analysis of the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean affairs and for the absence of academic and scientific discourse on modern Islam and Euro-Middle East relations. There have been some attempts to initiate the study of these issues albeit sporadic and unsystematic, due mainly to the unwillingness of both the public and the private sector to support them.
Since 2000 a group of young scholars, researchers, postgraduate and graduate students embarked on an ambitious plan to initiate an academic dialogue on the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Understanding the crucial needs of both the Greek state and society facing the Middle East and the broader region of the Mediterranean, CEMMIS was established in the framework of the Institute of International Relations of Panteion University Athens. Since 2008, the same research and analysis team transformed itself into a Centre for Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (CEMMIS), broadening its interests to include Muslim societies and communities in South Asia, Africa and Europe and working in the framework of the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Peloponnese.
The CEMMIS research and analysis group is designed to form a Political Risk Evaluation Unit, which geographically covers the countries of North Africa, from Morocco and Mauritania to Egypt, the countries of the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf including Iran, Pakistan  and Afghanistan. In addition it covers the Horn of Africa from Sudan and Somalia to Ethiopia and Eritrea. There is special focus on general economic, cultural and political trends in the whole of the Muslim world, in societies of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.