The EastWest Institute (EWI) convened a roundtable of international policymakers and academic experts on April 17, 2008, to evaluate the need for a more consistent and permanent regional security apparatus in the Middle East. Seeking to address the critical deficiencies of past structures—which been largely ad hoc and excluded key actors—Mr. Sundeep Waslekar, president of the Strategic Foresight Group (SFG) made the case that as the region continues to fragment, it will become ever more difficult to arrive at universally amenable arrangements. It is therefore urgent and imperative that an inclusive, sustainable, and open-ended security mechanism be created if the further deterioration of the region’s security is to be stemmed.