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Consortium of Research Institutes' Project on
Regional Co-operation and Security in the Middle East and North Africa
In Arabic  |  In English

The Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies (Cairo), the Gulf Research Center (Dubai) the Institut Diplomatique et des Relations Internationales (Algiers), the Centre Tarik Ibn Zyad (Rabat) have agreed to form a Consortium of Research Institutes, with the participation of the Governments of Canada and Denmark. Their objective is to jointly run three major conferences in 2005 to consider the creation of a Framework for Regional Co-operation and Security in the Middle East and North Africa.

This Track Two project will build upon previous work on the subject, notably a project which was run at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute - SIPRI (1995-1999)1 and a project in 2003 to draft a Regional Security Charter for the Middle East, sponsored by UCLA and the Danish Government.

The Consortium will invite experts from across the Middle East and North Africa, acting in their personal capacities. Also invited to participate in their personal capacities will be experts from regional organizations, such as the Arab League, the Gulf Co-operation Council and the Maghreb Arab Union. Finally, experts, in their personal capacities, will be invited from certain countries and multilateral organizations external to the region.

The first conference will be hosted by the Centre Tarik Ibn Zyad in Morocco in June, 2005, on behalf of the Consortium. The second will be hosted by the Al Ahram Center in Egypt in the autumn of 2005, also on behalf of the Consortium. The date and location of the third will be announced shortly.

At the conclusion of the three conferences, the Consortium members will jointly release a policy paper summarizing the three conferences and outlining a possible strategy towards the creation of a Framework, or Charter, for Regional Co-operation and Security in the Middle East and North Africa. The Consortium members recognize that the success of any strategy to develop such a Framework is dependent on a number of factors, including the success of the Peace Process.

1. The SIPRI Report, entitled Towards a Regional Security Regime for the Middle East: Issues and Options, is available at http://projects.sipri.se/mideast/MEreport.pdf