ABU DHABI // The role of GCC countries in a changing world threatened by extremism and terrorism will be discussed at Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate.
The event, which starts tomorrow and is in its second year, will be a gathering of more than 300 decision-makers, researchers and academics – from 40 countries – 70 of whom are expected to share their insights.
“The diversity of the topics and their high relevance to the concerns and interests of the UAE and GCC makes the debate a platform for inspiring public policies and helping the decision-making process,” said Dr Ebtisam Al Ketbi, chairwoman of the Emirates Policy Centre, which organised the event.
“It is aimed at generating clear, realistic and achievable recommendations to help formulate an adequate response to challenging and changing situations,” she said.
“It will help identify the trends and anticipate the shocks and is founded on the idea the GCC countries, and the UAE in particular, are significant actors in shaping a new regional order.”
Other subjects include political and security challenges, the changing notions of power and state in the new digital age and the perspectives for the Middle East, in particular the Arab Spring countries. “The debate is always focused on the most important issues whether terrorism, the ramifications of the Arab Spring, the civil war in Iraq and Syria, political stability of the regimes that were spared the Arab Spring and how to manage this turbulent period,” said Dr Khalid Al Dakhil, political science professor at King Saud University in Riyadh, who will attend the event.
Taufiq Rahim, a Dubai-based political analyst, said it was important to air competing viewpoints at a time when the region faces complex crises.
“The most salient issue facing the region is the breakdown of state order and the potential for widening chaos creating a vacuum that violent non-state actors and extremists fill,” he said.
cmalek@thenational.ae