Combating Terrorism Executive Seminar
"Conflict Without Borders: Confronting Violent Non-State Actors in Today's Security Environment"

The Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA Center) will host a two-week Executive Counter Terrorism Seminar this December for 33 mid-career (O-4 through O-6 and their civilian equivalent) government leaders from North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. The NESA Center holds three counterterrorism seminars each year to engage current and emerging leaders in direct dialogue on international security issues in the NESA Center area of interest. Seminar participants will also learn about the institutions of the United States Government and their impact on U.S. foreign and counterterrorism policy formation through lectures, discussion and observation. They will visit the Pentagon, where they will participate in discussions with senior U.S. government officials, scholars and advisors. The goal is to facilitate discussion and debate on a broad range of the most pressing regional and international security issues pertaining to transnational security threats, particularly terrorism.

Who:
Thirty-three (33) military officers and civilian officials drawn primarily from ministries of foreign affairs, defense, and interior, representing 24 North African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian countries from Morocco to Bangladesh. These officials are some of the best and the brightest from the region whose primary responsibilities include counterterrorism, national security strategy, and policy planning.

Why:
The purpose of the seminar is to encourage informal and constructive dialogue among national security professionals of differing backgrounds and perspectives with the goal of generating ideas and suggestions for cooperative problem solving.

How:
About thirty-three (33) U.S. Government officials and experts will speak to the participants in plenary sessions. Small seminar discussion groups, led by experienced facilitators from the NESA Center faculty, offer participants the opportunity for more detailed exchange on key issues. Simultaneous interpretation in Arabic, French, and Dari is provided to embrace the largest possible group of regional leaders. All NESA Center seminars apply the Chatham House Rules of non-attribution.

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 substantive theme for this course will be “Conflict Without Borders: Confronting Violent Non-State Actors in Today’s Security Environment”. The seminar will explore how the globalization of terror networks and the various international support mechanisms that sustain them require integrated international responses at all levels of engagement to disrupt and dismantle these networks. Success will depend to a large degree on the level of cooperation between the U.S and other countries and, most significantly, on the efficiency of all countries in combating these networks. It will be equally important for other countries to understand the organizational arrangement being introduced in the U.S for responding to international terrorism and other transnational security threats.

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