Conflict Prevention

EWI’s Martin Fleischer Speaks at First World Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE) Conference in Tehran

The EastWest Institute took part in the first conference on World Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE), held in Tehran, Iran, on December 9-10, 2014.

EWI’s Vice President for Regional Security Martin Fleischer spoke on the panel on Violence and Extremism in the Asian context, together with the deputy foreign ministers of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Armenia.

Outlining EWI’s Afghanistan Reconnected initiative, which aims at stabilizing post-2014 Afghanistan and its neighbors through revitalizing the regional economy, Fleischer encouraged a more active Iranian participation in this process. On the challenge of politically countering the so-called Islamic State, he called for a regional dialogue which would include influential actors not present at this conference (alluding inter alia to Saudi Arabia) and offered EWI’s good services in that regard.

Ambassador Fleischer also gave an interview to Iranian state-TV IRINN, expressing the view that a major responsibility for countering Islamic State ideologically lies with Muslim communities both in the region and in Western countries. Asked for his assessment of the conference, he appreciated the Iranian WAVE initiative within the United Nations as a move towards Iran’s assuming its role as a responsible regional power that constructively engages with its neighbors and the international community.

High-level policy makers, including current and former heads of government, ministers, and parliamentarians from across the globe, but mainly from the Middle East, Asia, and Europe attended the conference. It was chaired by Foreign Minister of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and inaugurated by President Hassan Rohani.

The invitation to EWI was conveyed by the Institute for Political and International Studies, a think tank linked to the Foreign Ministry of Iran, in light of EWI’s work on Countering Violent Extremism and its outreach to and engagement of Iran on a regional security issues. The conference provided an opportunity for the institute to present the scope of its trust-building work, expand ties with Iranian officials and develop its network in the MENA region.

 

For more information on the WAVE, visit the conference website.

Afghanistan Reconnected: Businesses Take Action to Unlock Trade in the Region

Fifth Abu Dhabi Process Meeting takes place in Istanbul.  

The EastWest Institute convened the fifth Abu Dhabi Process Meeting, “Afghanistan Reconnected: Businesses Take Action to Unlock Trade in the Region,” in Istanbul on November 26-27, 2014. The Abu Dhabi Process is a series of high-level consultations that address regional economic security issues in Afghanistan post-2014.  

EWI’s Istanbul consultation was held in cooperation with The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB). Over 40 high-level representatives of private sector and Chambers of Commerce and Industries, CEOs of transport and logistic companies and Members of Parliament from the region and beyond were jointly welcomed by TOBB’s President, M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and EWI’s Vice President Martin Fleischer.

The aim of this meeting was to assess trade and transit challenges, as well as opportunities in the trans-Afghan transit and trade corridors, and to agree on a list of policy actionsrequired to unlock regional trade. The conference also assessed regulatory frameworks for investment, and highlighted potential economic gains for the region in the Afghan economy. 

Click here to read the full report. 

Reconnecting Afghanistan

EWI Board Member Ikram Sehgal, in an article published in The Express Tribune, discusses the need for economic resurgence in Afghanistan. Sehgal highlights EWI's recent Istanbul conference, which encouraged businesses in South and Central Asia to take necessary initiatives to unlock trade and kick-start the war-ravaged Afghan economy.

The lack of economic opportunities for the populace in Afghanistan is a major impediment to peace and stability. Without an adequate industrial base and/or agriculture infrastructure, guns-for-hire in abundance as a means to finding income is neither conducive for foreign direct investment nor for domestic entrepreneurial initiatives. That a small elite cabal with fixed mindsets returned after the fall of the Taliban to occupy seats of power in Kabul, does not help.

Economic resurgence for land-locked countries requires facilitating trade to and through their territory.  The EastWest Institute (EWI), a New York-based leading US think tank, headed by Ross Perot Junior, initiated the “Abu Dhabi Process” — a cross-border trade dialogue co-funded by Abu Dhabi and Germany — between Afghanistan and the countries on its periphery. Hosted by the EWI, the recent Istanbul conference encouraged businesses in South and Central Asia to themselves take necessary initiatives to unlock trade and kick-start the war-ravaged Afghan economy.

For the short-term, the recommended ways forward included: a) a regional business council comprising influential business leaders from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, CARs, Turkey and Iran; b) one-window custom clearance systems by Afghanistan and improved border sources at Torghundi, Hairatan, Torkham, Chaman, Wagah and Sher Khan Bandar and other border points to reduce time and cost of crossing; c) a generous visa regime to enable businesses to move around easily (under Saarc for the short-term and the Economic Cooperation Organisation for the long-term); d) regional entrepreneurship exchange programmes to promote trade and investment opportunities.

The mid-term recommendations included: a) a unified transaction mechanism system and a regional banking framework; b) standardising the Afghan tax structure to entice business investment; and c) a free trade zone Fata. The long-term recommendations were: a) a regional infrastructure trust fund, with India, Turkey, China, Russia, Pakistan and Afghanistan as donors to invest in designing, developing and expanding transport means, such as railways; and b) the implementation of CASA-1000, TAPI projects and other regional energy projects (without mention by name of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline). The threat of US sanctions remain, and while Pakistan has no intention of bucking that, the Iranian portion is in place at the border at two places, 70 kilometres from Gwadar and 250 kilometres to connect into the extensive Pakistani gas pipeline infrastructure, with planned connections into Fata and Swat.

Recent significant and symbolic events confirm that Ashraf Ghani is a game-changer in the context of the Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship.  To quote a recent article of mine,“Throwing aside diplomatic norms, the Afghanistan’s President visited GHQ immediately after landing at Islamabad. A foreign Head of State heading straight towards a military HQ on arrival carries a lot more than ceremonial importance, the Afghan President means business because he well understands where the real power concerning national security rests. Ashraf Ghani described his discussions later with the Pakistani PM as ‘a shared vision to serve as the heart of Asia, ensuring economic integration by enhancing connectivity between South and Central Asia through energy, gas and oil pipelines becoming a reality and not remaining a dream. The narrative for the future must include the most neglected of our people to become stakeholders in a prosperous economy in stable and peaceful countries, our faiths are linked because terror knows no boundaries. We have overcome obstacles of 13 years in three days, we will not permit the past to destroy the future’.” How will the Afghan president overcome the ‘hate Pakistan’ mindset of a few Kabul diehards, some of these ingrates even born and educated in Pakistan, who must even now be conspiring to cut him down to size?

That the future would not be held hostage by the past was symbolised by the US repatriating (with Afghan consent) Latif Mehsud along with two other militant commanders from Bagram into Pakistani custody. In another one of my articles, I had said, “The capture of the senior leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakeemullah Mehsud’s No 2, by US Special Forces represents the ‘smoking gun’ about the Afghan regime’s sustained involvement in terrorism in Pakistan. In the company of the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) agents taking their prized asset to Kabul to meet senior government officials, Latif Mehsud was simultaneously on the American ‘most wanted list’. India’s RAW is using the NDS as a proxy to sustain and support the TTP’s brutal campaign within Pakistan. To its credit, despite Karzai’s fury at the US for his capture (Daily Telegraph, October 13, 2013), this cut no ice with the US, and it signalled that as its enemy, Latif Mehsud would remain in its custody.” The act of handing over this terrorist is a confidence-building measure that will reduce the trust deficit and build on the excellent fast developing working relationship.

Realpolitik is the product of cold, calculated pragmatism based on economics. Afghanistan will make billions of dollars from system-collected royalties from the Central Asian Corridor passing through its geographical location. Without a continuous flow of gas and power, economic resurgence in Pakistan will remain moribund. The EWI’s Abu Dhabi Process emphasises that the entire region stands to gain exponentially from constructive trade and commerce engagement.

Afghanistan has finally found its man of destiny in Ghani. How long before a leader in Pakistan rises above selfishness and greed for the sake of the country? 

Austin Presents "Cyber Policy in China" at Brookings Institution

On December 9th, the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution will host a book event marking the publication of Cyber Policy in China by EWI Professorial Fellow Greg Austin.

China will not become an advanced cyber power without radical changes in policy and politics. This is the conclusion of Australian scholar, Greg Austin, whose new book, Cyber Policy in China, will be launched next week at the Brookings Institution, December 9, in a public seminar from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. 

Cyber Policy in China offers a general overview of the country’s domestic processes for cyber policy from 2000 to 2014. It has several main messages:

  1. China is relatively weak in cyber military power compared with the United States and its global alliance system;
  2. China’s leaders are deeply concerned about U.S. and Western technological superiority in the ICT sector and about China’s difficulty in building a high-performing national innovation system;
  3. China’s censorship policies, including on the web, may be damaging to its ambitions to become an advanced technology country;
  4. China will not keep pace in the advanced science of the ICT sector without radical changes in education policy and freedom of information.

Details of the book can be found here. For event registration, click here. 

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Dr. Austin is a Professorial Fellow with the EastWest Institute and a Visiting Professor with the Australian Defence Force Academy at the University of New South Wales in Canberra. This is his sixth book—as author or editor—that addresses Chinese or Russian security policy. His contacts are +44 7577677205 and gaustin@ewi.info.

EWI Speaker Series: Two States, One Land: Is It Possible?

EWI’s Speaker Series highlights provocative approach to Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Watch the full event here:

As part of the New York Center’s EastWest Institute’s Speaker Series, Dr. Mathias Mossberg and Mark LeVine discussed Two States, One Land, on November 20.  In the center’s packed conference room, the editors discussed their new book, a compilation of essays from leading Palestinian and Israeli experts, which  puts forth a parallel state solution to this deep and seemingly intractable conflict. The far-ranging essays discuss the concept of two distinctive states, one Israeli and one Palestinian, sharing and governing over the same land. This solution, according to Mossberg and LeVine, would offer an answer to the failures of previous attempts at a two-state solution at Oslo, for example.

Also speaking on the panel were Hiba Husseini, Managing Partner of the law firm Husseini & Husseini and legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiations team in the Oslo, Stockholm and Camp David peace processes, and Dr. Dror Ze'evi, a visiting scholar and instructor at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, Bosphorus University and on the faculty at Ben Gurion University since 1992 and one of the founders of The Department of Middle East Studies at Ben Gurion University.

“It is incumbent upon us to think of a new solution, because of the long-standing nature of the stalemate.” Ze’evi said.

Mossberg is a retired Swedish ambassador, the president of the Swedish North-African Chamber of Commerce and senior fellow, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden. Mossberg was also a vice president of EWI and responsible for its Middle East Program. LeVine is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, a co-editor a contributing editor for Tikkun and a senior columnist for Al Jazeera. With recognizable members of both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conversation, as well as a number of dialed-in listeners from around the world, the speakers began by explaining what they called the “Parallel States Project.”

“The Parallel States Project is a way to think outside the box.” Mossberg explained. “It is an intellectual provocation to Israelis and Palestinians.”

The Parallel States Project, by proposing the sharing of one land and integrating many areas of both the Israeli and Palestinian state systems, would require widespread cooperation and confidence from both camps. Furthermore, a system of two states sharing one land requires careful consideration of the basic needs of both sides: security, identity and access to land. A two state-one land system would need a high-level of cooperation between both peoples, on a common Israeli-Palestinian security structure, widespread economic integration and the preservation of the national identities of both states.

"Challenges would be enormous, but the proposal would also address many of the biggest issues." Husseini stated.

Another important aspect needed to make this system viable is the concept of separating statehood from land. This radical way of thinking, a negation of our traditional notion of statehood introduced many centuries ago by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, is absolutely integral to the success of any system that attempts to create two distinctive but integrated and cooperative nationalities in one land. Any success of Mossberg and Levine’s idea of a two-state system sharing the same land could set a precedent for avoiding future conflicts around the globe.

“This plan would not only work in Israel-Palestine,” LeVine stated. “Perhaps it could be applied to eastern Ukraine."

In places where previous attempts of a two-state solution have failed, two separate national states sharing the same land offers a challenging but viable solution to the Israel-Palestine question. All speakers emphasized that if there is a genuine will to work and live together, necessitating security and economic cooperation, there can indeed be two distinctive national identities sharing, peacefully, the same land on the same terms.

“If we have provoked leaders to think in a new way, we have succeeded in some way.” Mossberg said.

A Post-Snowden Cyberspace

Overview

On November 18, the EastWest Institute and Georgetown Journal of International Affairs hosts the publication release of the 4th edition of “International Engagement on Cyber: A Post-Snowden Cyberspace."

Featured speakers include:

  • Richard B. Andres, Institute for National Strategic Studies
  • Charlie J. Dunlap, Jr., Center of Law, Ethics, and National Security
  • Amitai Etzioni, The George Washington University
  • Franz-Stefan Gady, EastWest Institute

The Journal will be available for purchase for $10. 

Advancing the Role of Women Political Leaders in Peace and Security

Overview

The conference “Advancing the Role of Women Political Leaders in Peace and Security,” jointly organized by Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND) and the EastWest Institute’s Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention (PN), will bring together female political leaders and legislators from the United States, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the MENA region, including Egypt, Libya, and Morocco. The conference will be held at the Hotel Le Diwan in Rabat, Morocco, on November 18-20, 2014.

“Bringing together women peacemakers in Morocco, land of tolerance, peace and diversity, links the west to the east on common issues and challenges about conflict prevention and peace management.” 
– Loubna Amhaïr MP, Member of the Moroccan House of Representatives  

Countering Violent Extremism in Syria and Iraq: A regional Approach

Overview

On November 13-14, experts from Iraq, Syria, the MENA region and Europe will meet at the EastWest Institute’s Brussels center to identify key elements to help reduce violent extremism in Syria and Iraq. Participants will also explore the potential for regional cooperation between neighboring states on confronting the threat of ISIS and other insurgent extremist groups in Syria and Iraq. Attendees include experts from think tanks, as well as and members of the diplomatic community, the European Union and the academic community in Brussels. 

The meeting will be held under The Chatham House Rule. 

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