Conference at RUSI

September 2012 

The Institute held a two-day invitation-only workshop at the Royal United Services Institute, Whitehall, to discuss Contemporary Security Challenges and Developing Relevant Capabilities. 

The workshop gathered key people from across the spectrum of government including the Cabinet Office, the Foreign Office, and the Ministry of Defence, regional experts, practioners, government strategists and others with both interest and expertise.  The delegates also included Prof Roy Godson from the US National Strategy Information Center, Washington DC. 

Over the two days the conference discussed the opportunities and complexities that face western democracies in supporting ongoing political changes in the Arab Middle East – changes which could ultimately secure a sustainable, democratic future and further Western democracies’ interests by building a region that enjoys representative politics and is economically dynamic and progressive.

The complexity of future problems for countries of the Arab Middle East is significant, and the capabilities of Western governments and society to engage with new partners in the region are in their infancy.  Capabilities developed during episodes of intervention – in Afghanistan and Iraq – and then during the subsequent stabilization have utility in particular settings, but the political, economic, and social landscape of the post-Arab Spring Middle East and North Africa suggests that Western democracies need to reflect on their current toolbox of capabilities and methods to engage, and consider how best to be of mutual assistance in the short and medium term.

The two-day workshop focused upon these problems and, with the enthusiastic engagement of interested parties attempted to put forward elements of a strategy for engagement in the region – identifying the capabilities that underpin present engagement, and those areas which require attention to allow for better future effectiveness.  The outcomes of the workshop will be drawn together and a paper published in due course.  The workshop was also attended by the ESRC lead for Global Uncertainties, Dr John Wand who was pleased to see such a diverse group of agencies, departments and experts involved at such an early stage or research.

Dr Steph Blair commented: “The pressing challenges that the multiple crises in the Middle East and North Africa region presents to the British government has been overwhelming. The Arab Spring has highlighted that this is a region which has been neglected for far too long. It is a region in which we have little political, cultural and developmental understandings or linguistic skills. Our responses have been overly cautious given our recent experience of large-scale interventions and a shortfall of relevant knowledge and capabilities. Thus, this event was extremely timely. It brought together a senior gathering of knowledgable and influential individuals to consider this gap and provide Whitehall with relevant analysis and thoughts on the way ahead. Some of the recommendations were counter-intuitive and provided a challenge function to current thinking on where and how best the UK can engage and via what entry-points. For example, the discussion on Tunisia highlighted the huge demand and thirst for education beyond the usual French institutions. Such a safe entry point could well provide a real strategic return.” 

Dr Andrew Rathmell presented a paper to the workshop. Download  Building our capabilities to support transformative change in the MENA region (pdf).

PhD students Hind Ghandour and Morgane Colleau from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies summarised their learnings from the event. Download Reflections on the RUSI conference (pdf).

The Institute will be going to Washington DC at the end of November to take part in a workshop led by the National Security Information Center to take this work forward and to look at the issues and capabilities from a US perspective.