Executive Seminar

The Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies will host a three-week executive seminar for civilian executives and military officers from the NESA region. This seminar focuses on a broad range of regional and international strategic issues through candid discussion between participants and a variety of distinguished scholars, American policy advisors, and defense officials.

Who:
Forty-five (45) civilian officials and military officers of grades equivalent to lieutenant colonel and higher from the NESA region and the U.S. will participate. Participants in this seminar should be drawn from official and civilian members of the military, diplomatic, and law-enforcement communities whose primary responsibility includes public policy decision making on strategic issues of concern in their country and the NESA region.

Why:
International dialogue is essential in developing effective strategies for countering extremist ideologies and militant actions against innocent civilians. As such, it has become imperative that U.S. officials and NESA participants address key issues affecting both the U.S. and the NESA region. This seminar will offer the opportunity to develop connections and exchange perspectives on strategic vision, security policy, and global challenges in an academic environment which is unavailable in other forums.

How:
About forty-five (45) U.S. Government officials and outside experts, together with the NESA Center faculty, will speak with the participants in plenary sessions. An experienced group of facilitators, made up of NESA Center faculty, will help guide the numerous breakout discussion groups. In this light, participants will be encouraged to discuss issues which relate specifically to their country or its partners. Simultaneous interpretation into Arabic, French, and Dari, will provide assistance at all plenary sessions and consecutive interpretation will be available in breakout discussion groups.

Content:
This seminar will address mutual national security concerns of the U.S. and the NESA region and the opportunities for international cooperation in improving strategic planning and addressing global challenges. During the three weeks of this seminar, participants will have access to experts and policy advisors with the opportunity to challenge concepts and discuss issues of concern.

The focus of the first week will be the concerns of the region against a broader tableau of current and future security challenges. Substantial discussions concerning Iraq, Israel, Syria and the Palestinians, Lebanon, North Africa, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, India and Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal, will set the stage for greater appreciation of potential opportunities for regional collaboration. The second week will focus on the intricacies of the U.S. governance. Emphasis will be placed on the development and communication of U.S. policy and initiatives in the NESA region through visits to the Pentagon and Capitol Hill for discussions with key American policy advisors thus exposing participants to a number of different channels of communication and resources available to them that may be new to many of them. The third and final week of the seminar will focus on the challenges of international interdependence as it impacts political and economic developments. Among these challenges are global issues of corruption, proliferation, disaster management, pandemics, and changes in demographics. A central focus of the final week is how to deal with these challenges in the development of effective national security strategies. A simulation exercise, e.g., a natural disaster, a nuclear accident, a pandemic infection, etc., will task the participants to put to use the concepts learned during the seminar, regardless of political boundaries or political differences.

In addition to discussing policy making in an age of international interdependence, the seminar will explore current strategic challenges, such as terrorism, weapons of mass destruction proliferation, demographic changes, responses to natural disasters, media and public diplomacy, etc. It also engages the participants in examining the elements of statecraft and good governance. A discussion of religion as a potential intercultural bridge instead of a barrier stimulates deep intellectual contemplation. The seminar should furthermore give insight and access to U.S. government officials to increase information and communication on efforts undertaken by the U.S. as part of the campaign in the Global War on Terrorism. To that end, all exchanges within the seminar are non-attributable and participants are encouraged to be candid in expressing their concerns.

For a schedule and information about how to register, click here.