Scope and Topics

The Middle East has long been a battleground for great power rivalry, where empires like the Ottoman and the British once clashed for dominance and, today, global powers like Russia, the US, and China vie for influence over its strategic heart. This region’s geopolitics have shaped the course of history, with every shift in power echoing across continents and generations. Accordingly, societal meetings explore major security trends in the region, spanning emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, grand strategy, religious extremism, proxy warfare, peacebuilding, energy politics, regime change and much more. Group sessions examine such monumental developments in an interdisciplinary way by drawing on the profound insights of security studies, political economy, psychology and geography, among others.