Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, Chairman of the GRC, and Dr. Mustafa Alani, Senior Advisor and Program Director for Defense and Security Studies participated in the 163rd Bergedorf Round Table of the German Körber Foundation on the topic of “A ‘Westphalia’ for the Middle East?. The event held in Berlin was attended by 30 high-ranking politicians, senior members of administration as well as experts and historians from the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. Discussions were opened by Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, Chairman of the GRC, participated in the workshop entitled “Yemen: Drivers of Conflict and Peace” organized by Chatham House and the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael and held in The Hague, Netherlands. The meeting brought together experts on Yemen, the wider Middle East and Europe, to analyze the underlying domestic, regional and international political economy drivers of conflict in Yemen, and to address future policy options.
Dr. Koch participated in the discussion of the Tawila Middle East Group on the topic of "Saudi Arabia and Iran: Ideological-Political Power Struggle and Crucial Test for the Middle East." The lead speaker was Omid Nouripour, Foreign Policy Spokesperson for the Green Party in the German Parliament where is a member since 2006.
Dr. Christian Koch, Director of the GRC Foundation held a meeting with Thomas Schneider, Head of the Middle East Division at the German Federal Foreign Office and Veronika Beutin, Deputy Head of the Division for Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. The meeting was held at the Foreign Office in Berlin.
Dr. Koch also attended a book presentation on Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf Region: Fifty Years of Transformation by Dr. Frauke Heard-Bey held in Berlin and attended by the UAE Ambassador to Germany.
As a member of the Council of Councils (http://www.cfr.org/councilofcouncils/), the Gulf Research Center participated in the 9th Regional Conference held in Berlin, Germany. The conference was held under the theme of “Regional Security in a Turbulent World” and featured discussions on European Regional Security, Migration Challenges, Terrorism, the U.S. Elections, Implication of BREXIT for the EU and the World, and Populism as a Challenge for Political Stability and Globalization. In addition to taking part in the entire meeting, Dr. Christian Koch, Director of the Gulf Research Center Foundation, also spoke on the session of “Migration as a Challenge for Regional Security.” Both Dr. Koch and Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, Chairman of the GRC, provided short written policy documents to the session of the conference. The Council of Council brings together leading foreign policy institutes from around the world in a common conversation on issues of global governance and multilateral cooperation. The Council of Councils draws on the best thinking from around the world to find common ground on shared threats, build support for innovative ideas, and introduce remedies into the public debate and policymaking processes of member countries. The membership of the Council of Councils includes leading institutions from twenty-five countries, roughly tracking the composition of the Group of Twenty (G20).
Dr. Christian Koch participated and spoke in the conference on "Iranian-Saudi Perspectives on the Post-Oil Economy" held in Leuven, Belgium on October 26 and 27, 2016. The meeting was organized by the Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient (CARPO) and the East-West Institute (EWI) and brought together a number of experts including from Saudi Arabia and Iran.
