The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) has printed its first edition of Omran, a quarterly journal devoted to the social sciences and humanities. Headed and edited by an independent advisory board comprised of a select group of Arab academics, researchers, and intellectuals, Omran blazes a new path in Arab scholarship, forming an integral, multidisciplinary unit that covers anthropology, sociology, social history, political science, political economy, population science, environment, and development studies. In its first edition, the theme selected is "From Hindered Growth to Sustainable Development: Which Social and Economic Policies for Arab countries?" featuring three separate research papers on this topic. Also discussed in this issue are pay discrepancies between the private and public sectors in selected Arab countries, youth religiosity, technology and hegemony, labor migration, Arab economic cooperation, and Syria’s contemporary history. In the book review section three book reviews are featured covering social conditions in Israel, the Coptic issue in Egypt, and church-state relations. This edition also contains two academic symposia organized by the ACRPS, one focusing on the Yemeni revolution and the other on relations between the Arab states and the Horn of Africa.