Events List

Dr. Abdulaziz participated in Session 1 of Tafahum 2nd Annual Conference: The Path Towards a Regional Security Process for WAAP Region: Obstacles and Opportunities at the end of 2020  

The second workshop for WG1 was a hybrid event entitled 'From Shared Challenges to Joint Venture: How the Energy Market and Entrepreneurial Initiatives have been Impacted by and Emerge from the COVID-19 Pandemic". This workshop focused on the ongoing economic transformation and energy diversification in conjunction with the COVID-19 pandemic 

This is the second workshop of the Tafahum WG2 "Environmental Issues and Climate Change in WAAP", which was held as a semi-virtual event on 22-23 September 2020 in Bonn, Germany. This working group was in cooperation with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). 

Two key topics were addressed. The first session discussed the latest developments of COVID-19, its impact on all countries of the region as well as its repercussions for environmental issues, in addition, the discussions also focused on the interconnectivity of environmental and health challenges and how to approach this nexus. The second session was dedicated to the topic of water security. water management as key challenges in the region and governance. 

Dr. Abdulaziz, Chairman of the Gulf Research Center will be speaking at the e-Policy Circle 12 organised by the Beirut Institute on the theme of 'Stability Redefined' on Wednesday July 22, 2020 2:00pm GMT http://www.beirutinstitute.org/

The first virtual roundtable in the Tafahum Working Group 1 will focus on economic transformations and questions of energy diversification in conjunction with Covid-19 pandemic in West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula 

The third Virtual Roundtable for the Tafahum peoject, focusing on the interrelations between COVID-19 and climate change & ways of boosting regional cooperation on measures to help curb severe effects of climate change 

The first Virtual Roundtable for the Tafahum project on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the regional order 

This is the second session of the Working Group 5. This closed workshop held under Chatham House Rule, will look at the theme on Reconstruction Efforts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. This workshop will look at the need for a regional stability paradigm and the importance of the role of education for post-conflict reconciliation 

This is the second session of the Working Group 3. This closed workshop held under Chatham House Rule, will look at the theme on Counter-Terrorism and Security Sector Reform. This workshop will look on the concept of a regional security paradigm, as an initial step towards more effective regional integration 

This closed seminar held under Chatham House Rule, looked at Austria’s relations with the GCC countries and especially Saudi Arabia, including diplomatic relations, economic relations and security and defense cooperation. In addition, speakers gave an overview of the various international organizations headquartered in Vienna that focus on international nuclear security and the member country dynamics within those organizations especially as they relate to the Gulf countries.

This is the second session of the Working Group 4. This closed workshop held under Chatham House Rule, will look at the theme on Media Narratives and Discursive Integration in West Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. This workshop will look at the discussions on how to develop education and training in media literacy and secondly look into whether or not (and how) such a regional media comfort zone can be created

This closed seminar held under Chatham House Rule, looked at the United Kingdom’s relations with the GCC countries and especially Saudi Arabia, including diplomatic relations, economic relations and security and defense cooperation. In addition, speakers gave an overview of the role of UK media in influencing domestic and foreign policy and how those dynamics can influence its relations with Gulf countries. During the seminar discussions, participants had the opportunity to engage with senior policy officials and academics on these key issues.

This closed workshop held under Chatham House Rule, will look at the theme on Security Sector Reform and Counter Terrorism. This workshop will try to examine the nexus between women and security through the lens of counter-terrorism. This is the first session of this working group 

This closed workshop held under Chatham House Rule, will look at the theme on Media Narrative and Discursive Integration. This workshop will appreciate the variety of media landscapes in the region to make better sense of public discourse and narratives on a national and regional level. This is the first session of this working group 

This closed workshop held under Chatham House Rule, will look at the theme on Reconstruction Efforts in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. This working group aims at developing a conceptual framework with concrete guiding principles for the reconstruction and reconciliation efforts in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. This is the first session of this working group 

This closed workshop held under Chatham House Rule, will look at the theme on Environmental Issues and Climate Change. This is the first session of this working group 

This closed workshop held under Chatham House Rule, will look at the theme on Environmental Issues and Climate Change. This is the first session of this working group 

The Gulf Research Center (GRC) in collaboration with the Middle East Institute will be holding a workshop on the issue of “Yemen: Finding a Way Forward” on Monday July 17, 2017 at the Middle East Institute Office in Washington D.C.

This timely event comes at a time while prospects for ending the Yemen conflict face persisting political and security challenges and the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen perseveres despite international aid pledges.

The workshop will attempt to shed light on the status of the political process and negotiations to settle the conflict, on the current humanitarian situation inside the country and to discuss a forward-looking development agenda to be implemented both while the conflict continues and ones a resolution to the crisis is found.

The workshop is particularly meant to provide a forum from which key Yemeni experts and stakeholders can provide their perspectives on the issues defining the Yemeni situation and to be able to engage with a wider audience on the prospects for conflict resolution mechanisms.

Five years have passed since the initial uprising against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen, the poorest nation in the Middle East. The failed political transition of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in 2011 has turned the state of Yemen into an arena of power struggles amongst various factions fighting for control. Yemen now suffers devastating humanitarian conditions, including 2000 deaths and counting, around one million displaced, and over 12 million on the brink of famine with no access to healthcare as political solutions over the years to resolve the conflict have proven to be nearly impossible. Therefore, ending the war in Yemen is vital and needs to become the international community’s priority for not only will it be for the future of Yemen’s own security and stability, but for that of the entire region, as conflict spillover remains to be a serious threat to neighboring countries.
It is in this context, throughout the next several months, the Gulf Research Center will be hosting a series of workshops in the United States and Europe, involving major stakeholders in the conflict, which will result in the publication of seminar reports on the best way forward to bring peace and security to Yemen. In order for workshops to be comprehensive of the multidimensional nature of the conflict, each event will address a specific theme or “layer” of the conflict, therefore ensuring that the debates are focused and lead to tangible conclusions and recommendations.
Over the years, the Gulf Research Center has been especially active in research on Yemen, and this expertise, in addition to its unique position among other think tanks to bring a “Gulf” perspective to regional politics, make it especially relevant in putting forward solutions to the ongoing conflict in Yemen.

The Gulf Research Center and Chatham House hold workshop on GCC-UK Relations

With the regional Middle Eastern environment facing a period of unprecedented turbulence, the Gulf Research Center and Chatham House held a two-day workshop in London on June 12 and 13 to explore the various dynamics of developments in the Middle East and the Gulf and the implications this holds for GCC-UK ties. While the UK and the GCC states can look back on a long period of close ties defined by many common interests, the discussion at the workshop pointed to the many new challenges that have emerged including the perception among the GCC states that the policies by the Western states including the UK have further exacerbated many of the regional crises. Participants agreed that mutual strategic interests still prevail, but there was also a sense from the GCC side that UK regional policy suffers from a degree of credibility and trust. The discussion further highlighted the fact that a return to some form of stability was an extremely complex undertaking and that one needed to look at regional issues from both a short- and long-term perspective.

The Gulf is experiencing significant new challenges to its security and to traditional thinking about its security policies. Some Gulf leaders fear a perceived reduction of American commitment to the region. The prospect of a negotiated agreement on Iran"s nuclear program has destabilized long-established security norms and practices.  Syria"s war has become an arena for proxy competition between Iran and the Arab Gulf states, with significant risks of blowback from new jihadist groups and an expanding regional battlefield. The Arab uprisings have driven controversial new domestic and regional political initiatives to ensure regime stability within the Gulf. A newly assertive effort by some Gulf states to influence political outcomes in key regional countries such as Egypt has included support for its new military government and a broad campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood.   Meanwhile, Gulf states have committed significant resources to these policies which could pose new challenges to fiscal security over the medium term. In response to these perceived new threats and opportunities, Gulf states have clashed with the United States and have considered new forms of regional integration and cooperation. 

This workshop, organized in collaboration with The George Washington University and Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Doha, will bring together scholars from the United States, Europe and the Gulf, and comes at an important time to consider in depth the new security challenges and responses. The three panels held over the course of the day will look at the GCC and Iran"s Nuclear Program; Islamist Movements and Sectarianism; as well as Transnational and Human Security Issues.

Based on the event, there will also be a panel organized at MESA 2014 in Washington. Other deliverables will include several policy briefs, a roundtable report and a journal article.

The policy briefs resulting from the Venice meeting have been published and can be accessed here:

http://pomeps.org/2014/03/25/visions-of-gulf-security/

The Gulf Research Center and the Al-Ahram Center are hosting a workshop on the issues of Gulf states unity to be held in Cairo, Egypt. The workshop will bring together specialists and policy officials to look in-depth at the political, economic, security and defense aspects of Gulf integration and provide recommendations on how to operationalize the Gulf union concept. During the discussion, the various Arab views on Gulf integration will be elaborated on which in turn with inform the policy process. The workshop is part of a larger project the Gulf Research Center is conducting on the issue of GCC unity.

Energy trade always constituted a major chapter in EU-GCC relations. The EU has established new, ambitious targets for reduction of emissions by 2050, which envisage a substantial decline of the role of traditional fossil sources such as oil and gas. In parallel, the GCC countries have manifested growing concern for their own energy future and excessive dependence on fossil fuels, and have launched multiple initiatives for improving the uptake of clean energy solutions.

As part of the EU-funded public diplomacy project on “Promoting Deeper EU-GCC Relations”, EPU-NTUA in cooperation with the Gulf Research Center and Masdar Institute are organising a Renewable Energy Policy Experts’ workshop hosted in Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi on November 26-27, 2013. The 2-day workshop is actively endorsed by the EU-GCC CLEAN ENERGY NETWORK, an initiative created jointly by the EU and the GCC to catalyse cooperation among the two regions on clean energy topics of common interest.
Within this framework, the event aims to discuss at high policy level the potential for cooperation in the promotion of clean energy. This will encompass both opportunities for bilateral agreements in various areas as well as exploration of common positions (or debate of points of divergence) with respect to negotiations in multilateral fora.

The workshop is divided into five sessions focusing on:
• EU-GCC energy policy co-operation in the field of Renewables: Status and Prospects
• Promoting co-operation on Energy Efficiency & Demand Side Management
• EU-GCC co-operation potential in the field of Renewables: Technology and Research perspective
• EU-GCC co-operation for integration of Renewables in the Grid
• Promoting EU-GCC co-operation on Water and Power generation

Each session will be introduced by a background paper followed by moderated discussion among the participants. Limited selected experts are invited to contribute to this high level event, including academics and specialists, members of various research institutes and policy officials from both the EU and the GCC side. The workshop will result in a publication to be produced in early 2014.

Twenty-seven students from the six GCC countries took part in this training session organized by GRC in the framework of the project “Promoting Deeper EU-GCC relations” funded by the European Commission. The students from the GCC were selected according to their fields of studies, either international relations or politics studies, and for their interest in issues linked to the European Union. The group included undergraduate students, graduate students, and young professionals. Five students from Brussels were also selected for the program to give the GCC students a different viewpoint on EU issues and a better insight into student life in Europe. The schedule of the training was divided between lectures, informative sessions, meeting with professionals, and visits. The training session provided GCC students with the opportunity to acquire deeper knowledge about the EU as well as to develop direct contacts with students from Europe, EU professionals and academics.

The Gulf Research Center (GRC) together with the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP) hosted the panel discussion on “Security Implications of the Arab Spring” as part of the 10th International Security Forum held from April 22 to 24, 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Christian Koch, Director of the GRC Foundation chaired the panel discussion with presentations from Prof. Bahgat Korany of the American University on Cairo; Prof. Mohammed-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, Head of the Regional Capacity Development Program at GCSP; and Dr. Mustafa Alani, Senior Advisor and Director of the Security and Defense Research Program at the GRC. The panel pursued three main questions – what security issues have been raised by the ‘Arab Spring’; how are these challenges playing out in the region and how are they been addressed by the different actors; and what are the implications in this changing security scene for the region’s international partners. All speakers highlighted the fluid nature of the situation while focusing on the phenomenon of the weakened state which in turn is highlighting the potential of an open-ended period of volatility for the entire Middle East. The presentations were followed by a lively debate and a question and answer session. 

“The Podcast and panel summary is available on the ISF web site www.isf2013.ch”

The first day of the workshop “Political Transformation in the Arab world and its relevance for EU-GCC relations” organized by the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE), the Gulf Research Center and the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) under the Project “Promoting Deeper EU-GCC relations” funded by the European Commission, concluded on Sunday, March 3, 2013 at GUST University, Kuwait.

More than 50 persons attended the 3 sessions, each followed by discussions with the attendants. As an outcome: high level presentations, interventions of great interest, and heated but fruitful debates!

After a welcome introduction from Robert Cook (Vice President for Academic Affairs, GUST University), Richard Youngs (Director of FRIDE), Christian Koch (Director of Gulf Research Center Foundation) and  Haila Al-Mekaimi (Center For Gulf Knowledge, Kuwait University),  the discussions moved to in-depth assessment of the political development in the Gulf region and what the implications are for the European Union. Given that the EU follows events in the region closely and the EU parliament has passed resolutions on the situations in Bahrain and the UAE, one of the objectives of the workshop was to allow for an exchange of views and provide a perspective from the GCC states about the impact that the Arab transitions are having on their part of the world. 

The first session dealing with the Geopolitical implications of the Arab uprisings was chaired by Richard Youngs with speakers N. Janardhan, a political analyst from the UAE and Mohamed Ghanem Alrumaihi from Kuwait University. The panel presented the diversity of the changes following the Arab uprisings, highlighting specifically the extreme complexity of the new situation as well as the resulting different implications. While there was agreement that the Gulf region has been impacted, there was a divergence of views on the degree that the geopolitical changes would force the GCC states to undertake their own reform effort in the near term. One participant mentioned that the GCC states were not facing an ‘Arab Spring’ but an ‘Oil Spring’. Much of the discussion also focused on the role of political Islam and what that means for the further developments impacting the Middle East.

The second session dealing with Domestic implications of the Arab uprisings was chaired by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen from the London School of Economics with speakers Prof. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla from the UAE and Hasan Al-Hasan, also from the LSE. The speakers explained how unlike other Arab countries, in the GCC there has been a strengthening of the status quo resulting in some change but also much stronger continuity. The monarchy system certainly has been challenged but they have also shown their resilience.  Overall, there is a need to put developments in their broader context.  To what degree the EU has handled the issue of human rights in a balanced way proved a serious point of debate. 

The third session entitled Beyond identity politics: a role for civil society? was chaired by Jane Kinninmont of Chatham House with speakers Guido Steinberg of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin, Germany and Ahmed Al Omran of RiyadhBureau.com. The speakers presented the role and the evolution of islamist movements as part of the civil society, focusing on non-violent actors, transnationalism and Sunnite-Shiite sectarianism. The role of social media was also presented, through the example of their development in Saudi Arabia, as a tool to bypass the governmental restrictions regarding civil society organizations.  Much of the discussion focused on the relationship between citizenship and entitlement and the impact this had had on the concept of national identity.

The workshop will continue on Monday, March 4 with the focus on the role of the youth in the Gulf and a wider discussion on what all of the developments mean for the relationship between the EU and the GCC

As part of the EU-sponsored project on "Promoting Deeper EU-GCC Relations" a 22-member group from the six GCC took part in a one-week training program on 'Understanding the Institutions and Policies of the EU and EU-GCC Relations.' The program is headed by the Gulf Research Center with the support of the Institute for European Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Global Governance Institute. In addition to lectures on aspects of the EU, participants held meetings with members of the European Parliament, the European External Action Service and the European Social and Economic Committee.

Bringing together regional, security, and policy experts in order to assess the current situation in the Middle East, the Gulf Research Center, the Geneva Center for Security Policy and the Crown Center at Brandeis University are once again hosting a roundtable in Gstaad, Switzerland. During the meeting, an assessment of the Arab Revolutions, the overall geopolitical and regional dynamics as it pertains to the Levant, Turkey, the Arab-Israeli issue and the situation in Iraq, Iran and the Gulf region will be discussed. A summary of the proceedings will be published as part of the Geneva Papers of the GCSP. The meeting is by invitation only.

This event held with the Middle East Institute will include an examination of recent developments in the Gulf in the wake of the Arab Spring. The speakers will address the crises in Yemen and Bahrain, US-Gulf relations and the question of reform in the region.

The Gulf Research Center will be holding a two-day roundtable discussion on the current situation in Yemen with a particular emphasis on how the current regional and international political situation will impact existing and future development trends in Yemen. The workshop will explore the different scenarios that could come into play when it comes to the future of Yemen, to analyze in-depth the various development implications involved and to explore the ways and means in which regional and international institutions and organizations can work together to target their assistance and to increase their effectiveness.

The workshop will take place on the sidelines of the 2011 Gulf Research Meeting from 7-8 July 2011 at the University of Cambridge, UK and is supported by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH, working on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The workshop will bring together specialists, policy officials and representative of donor agencies including numerous persons from the GCC states as well as from Yemen.

The Gulf Research Center (GRC) and the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) are holding a one-day workshop on “EU–GCC Relations and Global Economic Issues” in Brussels, Belgium. The event is being organized in the framework of the Al-Jisr project on EU-GCC Relations with the support of the European Commission. The workshop will bring together prominent economists and policy officials from both the EU and the GCC side as economic relations between the GCC and EU have been developing over a wide area of common interest, primarily defined within the context of a free trade agreement and economic diversification. The purpose of this workshop will be to analyze in more detail the dynamics of the global economic financial crisis, the related focus on currency issues, its impact on GCC economic integration as well as issues of international trade and financial regulation and how this impact the GCC-EU relationship. A particular focus will be on identifying areas in which the EU and the GCC can work together more closely and improve their coordination.

The Gulf Research Center is holding a week-long training program on “Understanding the Institutions, Agencies and Polices of the European Union” from Monday, September 26, to Friday, October 1, 2010 in Brussels, Belgium. The event is being organized in the framework of the Al-Jisr project on EU-GCC Relations with the support of the European Commission. The objective of the training program is to provide journalists from the GCC region a platform from which they will gain an insight into the workings of the EU. As such, the program will features in-depth presentations on key aspects of how the EU works and operates, field visits to various EU institutions like the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers as well as other organizations in Brussels.

A third research project workshop on the challenge and potential of economic growth and diversification in the GCC. A team of specialized researchers from both regions will be constituted and given access to all resources in the hands of the project’s partners. Once again, the strategy to establish such partnerships will prove to be precious as the resources and expertise of each partner will be fully used. The research project workshop will deliver a number of integrated future scenarios to judge the region’s regional and international economic role as well as the shifting functions of state and business in it.

The Gulf Research Center and the Institute for Diplomatic Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began on Sunday, April 18th, 2009, a 3 day long Training Session on the European Union (EU) and  the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) relations. The training session will focus on communicating basic facts about the EU, its history, policies and institutions. In addition to more specific issues between the two sides including political governance and dynamics as well as economic, trade and financial relations. Then conclude with recommendations for improving relations between the EU and GCC.

This workshop will be hosted and organized by Bertelsmann Stiftung in Berlin, focusing on issues of security and politics in current affairs. The coming years will bear witness to a potentially conflict-prone struggle over a number of resources, including access to raw materials and new markets. Regional partnerships and security structures must therefore be given adequate support, since a stable Gulf Region can serve as a reliable source of energy for Europe enabling prosperity, education and employment for its own citizens and neighbors. The conflicts in the Middle East and the Gulf region are interwoven with each other. In this context, Europe needs to be aware of the special security needs in the Gulf Region, with a particular emphasis on sub-regional structures for cooperation and security in the Gulf that are currently under discussion. Europe and the GCC thus have an interest in dealing with the conflicts in the region through the application of cooperation and dialogue, and the recent expansion of the European Union alongside the development of its foreign, security and defense policies can be used as an example for how to promote and initiate greater confidence-building among the GCC and its neighbors Iraq, Iran and Yemen. This is also relevant as the GCC continues to mature, opening the door to better prospects in the field of cooperative security measures. As in other workshops, recommendations will be formulated on how the security cooperation between the GCC and the EU can be improved and how a sub-regional security and cooperation structure for the Gulf Region can be established.

This workshop within the framework of the Al-Jisr Project on EU-GCC Public Diplomacy and Outreach Activities will explore the following questions: Can the Mediterranean become a field of cooperation between the EU and the GCC countries? If so, in which perspective should Mediterranean EU-GCC cooperation be developed? Should the Mediterranean become a dimension in the EU-GCC political dialogue or should it be a separated framework? Should it be an EU-GCC cooperation in or on the Mediterranean? If it were a dimension of EU-GCC relations, how should it be connected with EU political relations with Arab Mediterranean countries (i.e. belonging to the UFM)? Should the various fields of cooperation move on separated tracks or should there be linkages? What could the political and security rationale of EU-GCC cooperation in/on the Mediterranean be? Is it possible to consider possible issues of cooperation (e.g. the Arab-Israeli conflict; Lebanon; Western Sahara; social and cultural issues linked to migration; counterterrorism; maritime security, etc.)

The Gulf Research Center (GRC) in cooperation with the Nixon Center of Washington, D.C. is pleased to announce a workshop on November 11 and 12, 2009 on the subject of “China’s Growing Role in the Middle East: Implications for the Region and Beyond.” The workshop will take place in the GRC conference room in Dubai and bring together about 25 participants from the Gulf region, the China, India and the US. Relations between the Gulf region and China have taken on multiple dimensions in the past years and it is important and necessary to take a more in-depth look at the strategic implications of this developing relationship. In addition to economic and energy issues which certainly serve as a driver for closer ties, there are also political and security dimensions that must be considered. The purpose of this workshop is to explore in more detail the dynamics that define Gulf-China ties and to analyze the perspectives that are presenting themselves for both sides. The meeting is also part of a study on the growing role of the major Asian countries in the Middle East.

The workshop was organised by the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE) and the Gulf Research Center under the Al Jisr Project will focus on the status of political reform in the GCC states in order to provide a better understanding of the transition process occurring in these states. With human rights an integral part of the EU’s Free Trade Area negotiations, a thorough understanding of the drivers promoting political reform and an objective assessment of the reform measures being out in place is essential in order to better guide policy decisions. Among the issues to be discussed in this workshop are the roles of the Gulf monarchies as drivers of political reform, the role of parliaments and local councils, the prospects for judicial reform, the development of civil society, and the interaction between energy dynamics and political reform. A final discussion will look at how the political reform debate impacts on the overall GCC-EU relationship.

The Gulf Research Center, in association with the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, organized the second research workshop of the "EU-GCC Al-Jisr Project on Public Diplomacy and Outreach devoted to the European Union and EU-GCC Relations".

This conference will consider the role of nuclear weapons in sustaining or undermining the security of the Gulf region. Its focus is on three linked concepts: extended deterrence, security guarantees, and nuclear proliferation. Its aim is to consider what kinds of conditions will be required to insure that extended deterrence and security guarantees continue to promote regional stability in and around the Gulf, as they have (for the most part) in the past; and conversely, what can be done to avert nuclear proliferation among the Gulf states and their immediate neighbors, as well as among extremist groups that seek to operate there.

The idea of extended deterrence is a product of the early Cold War. It reflected the shared concern of the nuclear Superpowers that the spread of nuclear weapons would complicate their relationship with each other, and make it more dangerous. Each accordingly declared itself willing to extend the protection of its nuclear arsenal to allies and clients. The widespread acceptance of this idea may seem surprising, to the extent that its credibility depended on the willingness of non-nuclear states to believe that their protector would expose itself to potentially mortal perils on their behalf. Nevertheless, it was widely believed that neither of the US nor the USSR could tolerate the loss of prestige and credibility that would follow an unavenged nuclear attack on one of its partners. As a consequence the concept of extended deterrence proved robust. Even states for which nuclear weapons were within easy technological reach generally judged that the risk of owning them was greater than that of trusting the protection afforded by established nuclear powers.

Extended deterrence was supported by a system of security guarantees, most of which were of a  familiar and traditional kind: a declared willingness by states to cooperate in each other’s defense, and to fight side-by-side in given circumstances. In the nuclear era, however, a new form of guarantee was introduced, one that was extended not merely to friends but to rivals and adversaries as well. States known to possess nuclear weapons promised not to employ them against any that did not, in exchange for a countervailing promise that states without nuclear weapons would not attempt to obtain them. This exchange of promises lies at the heart of the nuclear non-proliferation regime established in 1968.

Nevertheless, nuclear proliferation remains a major threat to stability in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. The Cold War structure of extended deterrence was defined by the logic of nuclear confrontation. Except in a few specific contexts (e.g. the NATO alliance) it did not address conventional threats, to which some states may well regard nuclear weapons as an effective answer. Nor did it offer much comfort to states who associated the possession of nuclear weapons with prestige and influence, a perception that was reinforced by the general reluctance of states with nuclear weapons to given them up. The disappearance of the Soviet Union, finally, has (perhaps paradoxically) called into question the continued credibility of the extended deterrence offered by the United States. When there were two “nuclear umbrellas” it was easy (or at any rate convenient) to assume that each covered whatever the other did not. Now that there is only one, its exact extent has become uncertain, as have the conditions under which its protection might be withdrawn.

This conference seeks to explore the logic and functioning of extended nuclear deterrence and associated security guarantees in the Persian Gulf, a region that is currently free of nuclear weapons, but may not be for much longer. One state in the region, Iran, is widely believed to be in active pursuit of a nuclear arsenal, a prospect that has been declared unacceptable by many outside powers, ranging from the EU to China. Two of them—Israel and the United States—are thought to have developed plans for direct military intervention against Iranian nuclear facilities, in the event that diplomacy fails to halt Teheran’s weapons program (whose existence Teheran denies).

Such intervention, needless to say, would be profoundly destabilizing for the rest of the Gulf. So too would Iranian success. Saudi Arabia in particular is thought likely to seek its own independent nuclear deterrent to counter an Iranian nuclear arsenal (as might Egypt, slightly farther afield). While other Gulf states may not view the Iranian program with the same degree of alarm as Riyadh, their equanimity becomes markedly reduced when considering the possibility of a Saudi-Iranian nuclear standoff.

The politics of nuclear weapons are also influenced by the politics of nuclear energy. Its attraction to states in the Gulf is a source of suspicion for some observers, who fear that such projects, particularly when conducted by states floating on an ocean of oil, can only be a mask for weapons development. Historically the connection between nuclear energy and weapons proliferation is not strong—though the fact that the Iranians have explained their own interest in nuclear technology in terms of a desire for nuclear energy has muddied the water in this regard. A number of Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have declared that their programs would not include an indigenous uranium enrichment capability – the critical building block for a weapons program that the Iranians have so far refused to relinquish. At a minimum, the accelerating interest in nuclear power among Gulf states will complicate the task of detecting weapons proliferation, and restraining the spread of nuclear technology and materials beyond the control of regional governments.

Attitudes toward nuclear weapons among Gulf states are also shaped by the continued existence of Israel’s nuclear arsenal. Israel has been a nuclear power since the late 1960s. Its successful emergence as an “undeclared” nuclear weapons state, despite the expressed opposition of the United States and other major powers, is regarded as an affront by other governments in the region, and also, perhaps, as model for emulation. The Israelis, for their part, have a proven track record of military action to forestall the development of nuclear weapons by their neighbors, having demolished nascent nuclear programs in Iraq (1981) and Syria (2007) without apparent consequence to themselves. Few doubt their capacity to take similar action in the future.

Israel is, in any case, but one of three nuclear-armed states—along with India and Pakistan—that have slipped the leash of the Cold War non-proliferation regime, and whose proximity to the Gulf necessarily influences attitudes toward nuclear weapons there. The picture is further complicated by the fact that all three of these governments enjoy warm relations with the United States—a source of reassurance, perhaps, but one that also casts doubt on America’s ability to extend the deterrent effects of its own nuclear arsenal elsewhere in the region, should that become necessary. It also suggests, somewhat ironically, that successful proliferators may have less to fear from the United States than might be expected, given the adamancy of its professed opposition to the spread of nuclear arms.

Since the end of the Second World War protection from external threats in the Gulf region, for practical purposes, has been assured by the major oil-consuming states in the West. Their willingness to extend their military protection to the region was driven by their hunger for energy, and their determination to deprive the Soviets of influence and access there. The second of these motives has disappeared; though Russia’s recent, opportunistic intervention in Georgia is a reminder that it retains substantial freedom to act in proximity to its own frontiers. The first, in any event, is strong than ever; yet it is unclear, absent the overarching external threat posed by the Soviets, what kinds of policies it can support on its own.

The aim of this conference is to consider how, and how far, the logic and practice of extended nuclear deterrence and multilateral and bi-lateral security guarantees can be adapted to address current and future threats to stability in the Gulf. Military strategies calculated to ward off outsiders may not be readily applicable to the maintenance of regional stability, nor to containing rising regional powers like Iran. Conversely, the range of choices available to Gulf states, both in the marketplace and in terms of strategic partnerships, are far wider than they used to be. So too are the range of threats against which deterrence must be “extended.” to include not just the emergence of regional nuclear powers, but the suppression of conventional conflict, terrorism, subversion, and internal unrest as well. Certainly whatever strategies are adopted in the nuclear arena cannot be obviously incompatible with the requirements of these other realms, in which the threats, while smaller, are also more immediate.

Relations between the Gulf region and Japan are developing over a wide are of common interests. While primarily defined within the context of energy ties and economic trade, Japan is beginning to look at the region from a variety of additional perspectives including what kind of security policy Japan should pursue when it comes to the volatile Gulf region. The purpose of this workshop will be to explore in more detail the dynamics that define Japanese security policy and to analyze the perspectives that are presenting themselves for the GCC states in this regard. 

As part of the Al-Jisr project on GCC-EU Public Diplomacy and Outreach Activities, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University and the Gulf Research Center will hold a two-day conference entitled:  “The EU and the GCC: Challenges and Prospects under the Swedish Presidency of the EU” to be held in Lund, Sweden from June 8^th to 9th, 2009. The meeting will bring together around 30 academics and government representatives from Sweden, the EU member states, the GCC countries and regional institutions.  In addition, several corporate representatives from Sweden, the EU and the GCC will join these 30 individuals. The objective of this meeting is to closely analyse and promote topics that are of current mutual interest between the EU and the GCC. It comes at a critical time when the institutional relations between Europe and the Gulf region are growing in both their scope and intensity. In light of the Swedish presidency of the EU to begin in July 2009, the meeting will develop and put forward a policy catalogue of issues that can further enhance EU-GCC relations and lead to greater mutual cooperation. As such, topics exploring security/terrorism, economics/global crisis, development/FDI and culture/identity have been identified as key focal areas of the discussion. The meeting will particularly encourage and aim for a free exchange of ideas. European and Gulf experts will present three papers under the broad topics named above over the two days. The presentations are meant to be brief to allow for sufficient discussion by all participating members. Following the conference, the papers will be published in a book through the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University.

Abdulaziz Sager, Chairman of the Gulf Research Center on the occasion of the 12th Kronberg Middle East talks of the Bertelsmann Foundation and held in Riyadh with the cooperation of the Institute of Diplomatic Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Saudi Arabia and the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies launched the Arabic version of the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI).The BTI was translated from English and published in Arabic by the Gulf Research Center. The BTI is a bi-annual global ranking that measures and compares transformation processes worldwide on the basis of detailed country reports. The BTI is unique in the sense that is a qualitative rather than a purely quantitative assessment of how countries have progressed vis-à-vis one another in a number of categories. Speaking at the event that launched the Arabic version, Mr. Sager emphasized that the Gulf Research Center saw in the BTI a valuable tool for looking at transformation processes in the world but particularly in the Middle East where in recent years this transformation has gathered significant speed, especially as far as the GCC States are concerned. He also referred to the fact that the Bertelsmann Transformation Index has been uniquely designed to look at not only the status of political and economic development but more importantly on the management of transition and how well the changes have been integrated into existing systems. As such, the BTI become important as the GCC States themselves begin to look at how to shape and carry forward their impressive growth and development. In addition to the summary findings concerning all regions of the world, the Arabic version also includes all country reports that pertain to the GCC States. For a summary presentation of the report, please click here. The book can be ordered by clicking here.

Institutional relations between the Gulf Cooperation Council states and the European Union have to be filled with life by deepening cooperation between the people and institutions of both regions. In the context of the Al-Jisr project on GCC-EU Public Diplomacy and Outreach, the Gulf Research Center, the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Kuwait University want to contribute to this process with focusing on the issue of education. The Al-Jisr attempts to identify new constructive ways of cooperation in addition to reviewing the current status of relations. Within the framework of specifically focused workshops the project seeks to bring together a broad network of government officials, business leaders, academics and specialists, media personalities, civil society leaders, students and other engaged individuals to make sure that the project results will be disseminated among a wide group of people in order to allow recommendations to be implemented. In this context, the project partners are holding an Open Forum/Expert Workshop with the focus on Cooperation in Higher Education. For competing in a globalized world first-class educational systems are needed. To invest in education is an investment in the future. The target of our two-day initiative is to encourage dialogue and to formulate recommendations for actors involved in educational reform processes – Experts, Politicians and Students: what can the EU and the GCC do to improve educational systems, to strengthen exchange of experiences between both regions and how can institutions of both regions set up common initiatives?

• To enhance public and professional knowledge as well as understanding of the EU, its policies and institutions, among GCC citizens.
• To strengthen reflection and debate about EU-GCC relations and contribute to the future of effective policy-making cooperation between the two regions.
• To give policy-makers and practitioners of both regions the opportunity to discuss future policy outlines and possibly resolve current deadlocks on specific issues. As one of the main milestones of the current project, the workshop will be moderated by special expert staff from the different partners and highly recognised discussants. The events will be thematic in order to focus the discussion on specific issues

of special relevance to current affairs. The composition of the workshop participants will be balanced among EU and GCC representatives. Finally, tailor made dissemination activities will ensure that the widespread diffusion of the workshop outcomes will reach not only high level policy makers, but also academicians and key market actors from GCC and EU.

Nowadays, global warming poses certain constraints to energy usage with direct impacts on the international economic activity. In this respect, the determination of prospects and opportunities for the development of a sustainable energy economy is of outmost importance in order to pass from the current carbon constrained economy to new sustainable development paths.

In particular, the key shared interest on the above issues ranks high on the EU policy agenda and without a doubt the relevant cooperation with GCC Countries could be further developed. While there is a widespread view that the GCC region participates in the world energy scene through its vast oil and gas reserves, with little concern for environmental impact and with little incentive to invest in alternative sources of energy, there is a changing dynamic. Indeed, the use and development of Renewable Energy Sources (RES), Rational Use of Energy (RUE) as well as CO2 Capture and Sequestration could make a significant contribution to improving environmental protection and to guarantying continuation of oil supplies in conditions of stability and security. The GCC region offers massive business potential for national, regional and international companies involved in the power generation, lighting and RES energy industries. The potential development of RES in the GCC region would have mutual benefits for both the EU and the GCC countries. In this framework, both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have recently committed large funds to the climate fund from the last UN conference in Bali.

Based on the above, the current workshop envisions combining policy and technical expertise for the discussion of policy implications and opportunities of greater collaboration, in what has to be seen as a future green energy market. The final aim of the workshop is to further enhance the EU-GCC relations in key energy and climate change cooperation issues.

A first Al-Jisr research project workshop is the first in a series to look at the challenge and potential of economic growth and diversification in the GCC, including an analysis of how the benefits of the expected Free Trade Agreement (FTA) can best be reaped. The specific topics to be addressed within the framework of the larger research project are:

·         the GCC economies’ comparative strengths and weaknesses related to the labour market,  unemployment and migration; female participation in the economy; and education and economic development.

·         changes in the Gulf business environment with respect to privatisation and government ownership, business regulation, and the strengths and weaknesses of the private sector, as measured by global indicators.

·          the potential for economic diversification (downstream integration into refining, petrochemicals and other energy-intensive industries and its implications for EU industry and the global environment; the competitiveness of Gulf industry outside of the above-mentioned sectors; and the potential for specialisation in other services, including tourism).

·         domestic energy consumption in the GCC countries including domestic pricing of various hydrocarbon and the recent trends towards acquiring a nuclear power generation component.

·         the Gulf financial sector, focusing on trends of regulatory change, financial diversification, regional and international consolidation of banking intermediaries, the Gulf’s potential as regional and global hub, and the behaviour and future of the GCC’s Sovereign Wealth Funds.

·         GCC monetary unification, discussing future scenarios of exchange rate policy, currency pegs and monetary policy.

·         the Gulf region’s future position in the global economic context, with special reference to relations with the other Asian countries, with the European Union, the Mediterranean Arab countries, Iraq and Yemen.

On the basis of these sectoral and institutional lines of research, the project aims to arrive at a number of integrated future scenarios to judge the region’s regional and international economic role as well as the shifting functions of state and business in it.

Experts’ views of the capabilities and the potential role of the private sector in promoting economic and political reform in the Arab world are sharply divergent. Some view the private sector as still being primarily subordinated to the government and depending on government expenditure or other forms of government protection to be able to achieve profit in business. It is pointed out that there is a lack of international competitiveness except in sectors, such as petrochemicals, which are formally privatized but in fact still closely controlled by government; a lack of transparency and openness to international investment; excessive dependence on government contracts or other business opportunities essentially influenced by government decisions and initiatives. A contrasting view has emphasized that the private sector in the Arab world has come a long way since its beginnings in the 1970s and has now acquired capabilities that it did not have in the past. Therefore, while the picture of a business sector subservient to the government might have been correct 30 or 40 years ago, it is no longer accurate today. Besides, many private business groups have also greatly increased their financial capabilities through international investment and are increasingly engaging in business that caters to open and fairly competitive markets. The declared strategy of Arab governments to increasingly rely on the private sector is opening further opportunities for private sector investment and growth, progressively tilting the balance in the equation.

Pointing to this development, the Gulf Research Center Foundation (GRCF) and the Arab Reform Initiative have launched a two-year research project entitled “The Role of the Private Sector in Promoting Economic and Political Reform,” to explore ways in which the Arab business community can contribute to the progress and modernization of the region. In a comparative analysis, several Arab countries, including the GCC states, are being assessed. The overarching aim of the project is to conduct research on the capabilities and attitudes of the private sector towards economic and political reform, opening the door to a more sophisticated understanding of the evolving reality. The active involvement and participation of the region’s business communities therefore is of crucial importance and constitutes an integral element in guiding the academic work.

The project got off to a start on January 4, 2009, with a workshop at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry followed by a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Riyadh on January 5, 2009. Two introductory papers were presented which establish the framework for continuing debates. Dr. Steffen Hertog, Kuwait Program Chair at Sciences Po (Paris, France) and Senior Consultant at the Gulf Research Center, elaborated on private sector capabilities and the degree of government dependence/independence. In his paper “Private Sector and Public Policy Making” he described key parameters of the private sector and the significance and implications of the actual/potential role of the private sector in promoting economic and political reform. The ensuing debate evolved around the topic of how globalization and regional integration affect the relationship between public and private sector. Professor Giacomo Luciani, Director of the Gulf Research Center Foundation in Geneva, shed light on this subject paving the way for future discussions and wider and deepened policy debates.

The Gulf Research Center (GRC) in cooperation with the Nixon Center of Washington, D.C. will hold a workshop on November 12 and 13, 2008 on the subject of "Gulf-India relations." Relations between the Gulf region and India have long historical roots and stretch across many dimensions. As both India and the GCC countries are experiencing strong economic development, the traditional trade and business ties are now also being supplemented with a more comprehensive approach that includes political as well as security aspects as well. The purpose of this workshop is to explore in more detail the dynamics that define Gulf-India ties and to analyze the perspectives that are presenting themselves for both sides.

With relations between the Gulf region and East Asia expanding, the Gulf Research Center (GRC) in cooperation with Durham University and with the support of the Center for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW) organized a workshop to examine more in-depth some of the specific aspect of the ties that are shaping current policy debates. Overall, the meeting included a political, security as well as economic angle and focused on the specifics of regional integration, economic development and Japan's security policy. In addition to Chinese regional policies pursued within the context of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the opportunities and challenges of Shanghai and Dubai in the global financial system, as well as Japan's security policy with reference to the Iraq War and the Iranian nuclear issue were examined. Much of the ensuing debate focused on the regional perspective from the Arab Gulf States and the kind of role that is envisioned by East Asian countries to move the mutual ties forward.

The Gulf Research Center (GRC) in cooperation with the Henry L. Stimson Center of Washington, D.C., held a half-day workshop on October 9, 2008 to discuss the draft report of the National Intelligence Council entitled Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World. The National Intelligence Council (NIC) is the center for mid-term and strategic thinking of the US intelligence community. Every four years, the NIC publishes a study on global trends over the next 15-20 years. The next edition is due for publication in December 2008 but as part of the process of preparing the report, experts both in the United States and overseas are consulted to provide their insights and give their comments on the report"s comments.

The meeting included an introduction explaining the scope and context of the Global Trends 2025 report followed by a discussion of the overall approach, major trends and scenarios. The meeting then opened for a general discussion of specific issues of interest discussed in the report including the rise of emerging players, a new transnational agenda, the prospects for terrorism and conflict, the question of whether the international community would be up to the challenges that a shifting world presents, and role of the United States in a new multi-polar environment.

As part of the cooperation between the Gulf Research Center and the Henry L. Stimson Center, the GRC is participating in the Stimson Center’s project entitled Regional Voices: Transnational Challenges. This project seeks to gain understanding of emerging transnational challenges in the regions stretching from the Horn of Africa to the Straits of Malacca.  The boundaries of the Regional Voices: Transnational Challenges project are broad and includes a range of topics from transnational ideological movements, terrorism, transnational crime and political culture to natural resource exploitation, pandemic diseases, climate and other environmental change, water, and food security. The aim is to seek to understand the relationships among these, and to understand the capacities of states, societies and regional and international organizations to cope with them. 

The meeting on maritime issues is an open exploration of current realities and emerging concerns in the Indian Ocean region. Some of the topics are social and economic – from the rising importance of the region in global trade to the tragedy of human trafficking.  Other topics are scientific, such as fisheries and environmental degradation.  Yet others are in a more traditional security realm, with rising Asian powers looking to naval prowess as one aspect of their national power and influence, and the concern of all littoral states to protect energy supplies and prevent terrorism and proliferation of illicit weapons and materials. The meeting will explore all these issues, and try to illuminate how they interact and present new security dilemmas for states and societies. 

The objective of this meeting is to closely analyze and promote topics that are of current mutual interest between the EU and the GCC. It comes at a critical time when the institutional relations between Europe and the Gulf region are growing in both their scope and intensity. In light of the French presidency of the EU to begin in July 2008, the meeting will develop and put forward a policy catalogue of issues that can further enhance EU-GCC relations and lead to greater mutual cooperation. As such the topics of politics/security, education/culture, energy security as well as trade and investment have been identified as key focal areas of the discussion.

Given the increased factors of demography and population growth, this meeting will focus on GCC Migration and its History: Demographics and countries of origin, changes in the GCC expatriate population since the 1980s including from neighboring Arab countries to Asian countries as well as an estimation of the future population composition in the GCC. There will also be a comparison with the migration and integration experience of the United States, Western Europe and Asia (namely Singapore and Malaysia). IN addition, the meeting will analyze many of the social and legal issues such as the policy of non-integration and temporary residence, citizenship laws and labor laws in the GCC, the contribution of expatriates to GCC GDP, skill gaps and politics of workforce nationalization, the inter-linkages between investments and job creation. Finally, migration will be considered from a security point of view including whether the GCC policy of temporary residence and workforce diversification is feasible in the long run, how GCC free labor markets could work, and the spillover potential of political conflicts of sending countries (e.g. India/ Pakistan, Iran)

Workshop in Cooperation with Kobe University"s Research Institute of Economics and Business Administration (RIEB), Japan

The Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE), the Gulf Research Centre (GRC) and EGMONT - the Royal Institute for International Relations are organizing a seminar to respond to the publication of the EU’s new energy security strategy and to debate those aspects of energy security related specifically to European foreign policies.

Rationale
During the last year, the Ukraine-Russia gas dispute, greater global competition for diminishing hydrocarbon resources and higher oil prices have jolted the European Union into debating the development of a comprehensive European Energy Policy. Europe"s increasing energy dependency, decreasing energy production and reliance on a small number of external suppliers have added to the urgency of these debates.

The Commission’s March 2006 Green Paper committed the EU to integrating energy issues more systematically into the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). It also promised that energy security would not compromise the EU’s commitment to promoting democracy and human rights. The Commission’s Strategic Energy Review published on 10 January 2007 further reinforced these commitments to a more effective energy security policy; this Review will now be debated by member state governments at the March 2007 EU summit.

In focusing on the foreign policy dimensions of energy security, our one day seminar will be framed around three broad issues:

a) Market versus geopolitical approaches:
Should competitive power-politics, expressed in bilateral deals/relationships with key suppliers prevail, or alternatively should key suppliers be incorporated into an international energy market? The seminar will explore this debate and the complex linkages between internal and external dimensions of energy security.

b) Can member state interests be reconciled and streamlined within a common European energy policy?
Member states currently pursue differing approaches to energy security. How can these different views be reconciled in one common energy policy? As the perception exists that energy security is one of the areas of greatest divergence and competition between national governments, it must be asked whether member states will really be willing to compromise enough to define a unified approach.

c) Will external energy policy act to the detriment of democratic development?
Are EU policies of democracy promotion becoming weaker in states that are either energy producers or energy transit countries? Many certainly judge that new energy security imperatives sound the death knell for democracy promotion. On the other hand, would it be preferable to pressure producer countries for improvements in governance so as to achieve a more favourable and stable investment climate in which IOC’s could operate? Is this feasible given the recent trend towards greater resource nationalism?

The relationship between the member states of the European Union (EU) and those of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is multifaceted and has over the years taken on a number of increasing dimensions. In light of recent security issues such as those related to terrorism and the US-led invasion of Iraq and its aftermath, ties between the EU and the GCC have also taken on a security component that up to this stage remains largely undefined and understudied. Yet, with the emergence of the European Security Strategy in December 2003 and other initiatives such as NATO’s Istanbul Cooperation Initiative unveiled in 2004, Europe itself is trying to define more concretely what a future European security role in the Gulf region could look like and to what degree Europe can assist the Gulf States from overcoming their perennial security problem. This debate features a number of salient issues including weapons trade and proliferation, terrorism, bi-lateral as well as multi-lateral security approaches to the region and the promotion of the soft security realm as a means to move towards a more comprehensive notion of the term security itself. This conference will bring together experts and analysts from Europe, the GCC States and “interested” other countries to illuminate the problem areas that Europe faces in the Gulf and to put the different approaches on the table into their proper context. Of specific concern will be how to move from the current still vague and largely theoretical notions of GCC-EU security cooperation into more policy-applicable and relevant approaches that build on past European experiences. The papers presented at the workshop will be published in an edited volume following the workshop’s conclusion.        

The Geo-Economic Positioning of the GCC countries
Until the 1980s the position of the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the international division of labour was clear: oil was exported and manufactured goods were imported, mainly from Europe and the USA. Nowadays the situation has changed. Although the importance of oil and gas revenues is still paramount, the GCC countries command an increasingly diversified economic structure with new sectors emerging in the fields of petrochemicals, utilities, services and tourism. They are the world market leader in polymer production and lay specific emphasis on the development of energy intensive industries like aluminium, steel and fertilizer plants. For theses industries they have to import now raw materials themselves from countries like Australia and South Africa. On the other hand the focus of their trading relations has shifted and moves eastwards. The USA only account for roughly 10% of imports nowadays (2004) while the European Union is contributing one third and the Asian countries about a quarter of overall imports. Thus, they have become the most important trading partners for the GCC, most notably Asia, which purchases about two thirds of GCC energy exports. How could these interdependences of foreign trade be mapped out in detail? How will the GCC countries react to these challenges? How do they position themselves in the WTO process and the ongoing negotiations of free trade agreements with the EU and the USA? Which chances and which threats emerge from the opening of their economies? Which sectors and companies will benefit (e.g. petrochemicals) and which will likely face difficulties in facing increased competition (e.g. agriculture, so far monopolistic telecoms, banks)? Will petrodollar recycling move away from simple buying of US treasuries and move towards strategic investments and other currencies like the Euro? And finally: is there a realignment of foreign policy discernible along the lines of geo-economic positioning?

The Gulf Research Center (GRC) and the Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad (ISSI) will hold a joint workshop on Pakistan-Gulf Strategic Relations on March 8-9, 2007 in Islamabad. The aim of the workshop is to assess current strategic relations and forecast future trends in terms of the political, economic and security aspects of relations between Pakistan and the GCC States.  There have been critical developments in these areas which not only impact inter-regional relations but also affect the political and economic environment within these states.

Pakistan’s geo-strategic position as well as its close and long-standing relations with the GCC States are an important factor in shaping their respective policies vis-à-vis  other regional neighboring countries. For example, many states in South West Asia and Central Asia are keen on extending energy and trade links and developing crucial communication networks with the GCC States. Similarly, Pakistan’s importance as a key regional player in influencing and shaping developments in Afghanistan, as well as the significance of its close relations with China and Iran that could influence the regional security environment cannot be underestimated. The fact that Pakistan enjoys close relations with the GCC states could play a mutually beneficial role in political dealings with other regional players.

The workshop will provide a platform to look at some important issues that need to be explored in depth, considering the commonalities the two sides share. Some significant topics that will be addressed include the political environment in the region which remains threatened by the growing instability in Afghanistan, the Iranian nuclear program, and the forward movement in the peace initiative on Kashmir. The workshop will also focus on security issues. Terrorism, soft security issues such as narcotics and human trafficking, and the rise of militant Islam will be among the topics discussed. Another common security concern is the flow of illegal immigrants from Pakistan to the GCC states.

Pakistan and the GCC states have already demonstrated the need for a joint effort to combat terrorism. Collaborative efforts to counter terrorism and contain the threat posed by human and narcotics trafficking are already being made by the governments of both Pakistan and the GCC states. There is a further need to develop these efforts. Besides, it is necessary to devise a grassroots-level program and develop sustained long- term policies that will address the root causes of terrorism. Such policies should also be looking at developing a comprehensive educational curriculum for schools and religious institutions that by inculcating proper Islamic teachings could serve as an effective deterrent against vested interests seeking to incite hatred and violence by the misuse and abuse of Islamic education. It is also important to look at the rise of militant Islam and review measures which need to be implemented to combat the conflagration of extremism.

Pakistan has always played an active role in training and providing military education to officers in the armed forces and civic security institutions of the GCC States. The workshop will review the existing military ties including trade in arms and defense systems. It will also look at the possibility of extending potential support of the Pakistan armed forces for regional defense in case of external threat to the GCC States.  Another significant contribution Pakistan could offer to the GCC States is to provide nuclear technology for developing a peaceful nuclear program, with the approval and supervision of the IAEA.

Political stability and regional security are factors that are inextricably linked to the development of better economic relations between the GCC States and Pakistan. The recent surge in GCC investments in key sectors such as telecommunications, real estate and infrastructure development, energy, steel and shipping is an indicator of the growing confidence in the stability and future potential of the Pakistan economy.

The GRC-ISSI workshop hopes to highlight the significant themes that define the relations between Pakistan and the GCC States. This will be a useful endeavor to bring into focus the above-mentioned key themes and chalk out future development of ideas that are mutually beneficial not only to Pakistan and the GCC States but also other regional countries.