Gulf Research Center’s Think Tank Security Forum

Geneva, June 10-11, 2015

At the second annual think thank symposium on terrorism sponsored by the Gulf Research Center, participants discussed some of the root causes for the eruption of instances of political instability in the Middle East.  Mehran Kamrava’s contribution focused on the sectarian framing of nationalist aspirations by state actors across the region. Sectarianism, he argued, has become an equal opportunity phenomenon effecting virtually all communities in the region. This spread is being fanned by many regional actors, including states whose own bases of social, economic, and political legitimacy tends to be fragile. Track-two dialogues, as well as informing regional policymakers of the dangers of their own framing for the long term stability of their states.