The Arab world is facing challenging conflicts whose causes and manifestations vary and which have been exacerbated following the eruption of the Arab Spring. Some of these conflicts took violent turns and had profound effects on the lives of the peoples in the region as well as threatened entire regimes and reshaped regional and international ties and alliances. Fragile Arab states, their escalating failures, and the vulnerability of regional order, whose political aspects were formed at the end of World War I, have given rise to new cross-border powers that compete with states over their territorial and military sovereignty. This has caused the conflicts to become even more acute with the addition of denominational and sectarian dimensions in the political and strategic equations, thus affecting change movements and the future of the region tremendously.
Due to the overlapping interests, intermingling roles, and discrepant strategies of the main actors in these conflicts, it has become necessary to analyze the implications and understand the trajectories and repercussions of conflicts in the Arab world in light of the regional roles played by influential states like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey and the international roles played by global powers like the United States, Russia, France, and China.
In this context, the session entitled "Regional and International Scope of Conflicts in the Arab World" seeks to discuss the following issues:
- What is the nature and scope of conflicts in the Arab world and who are the primary actors?
- How are conflicts in the Arab world managed? What roles do regional and international powers play in them?
- What is the future of strategic balances in the Middle East amidst the ongoing conflicts?
- What is the future of movements seeking change in light of regional and international struggles?
