In a conference in Doha ... the need to establish a Gulf security system away from zero-based approaches

Mohammed Al-Shayazami-Doha

If all indicators confirm the Gulf’s need for a new security system in light of the regional and international challenges that beset it, then this calls for eliminating zero-based approaches, re-understanding the region and the neighborhood in which it lives, and building a political discourse capable of absorbing contexts and emergency transformations.

This was the summary of the first day of a conference organized by the Al-Jazeera Center for Studies in cooperation with the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University - for two days - entitled "Towards a New Gulf Security System ... Exit from Zero Approaches" in the presence of researchers and academics from Qatar and abroad.

In addition to diagnosing the current security situation in the Gulf region and its ravaged crises, the conference will also discuss the threats it faces, security arrangements in the Gulf and their patterns, issues of economic security and protection of supply lines, the repercussions of the Iranian-American conflict on the countries of the region, and the role of regional powers such as Turkey.

Today, the Gulf region is experiencing crises that have reached a high level of hostility, especially after the assassination of the commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, General Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad, and the subsequent drumbeats of war, in light of reaching a state of political blockage on many of the region's issues.

In a first session entitled "The Gulf System and its Position in the International System", director of the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University Mahjoub Al Zouiri tried to diagnose the region's serious challenges, and said that tension remains the master of the situation in light of the flare-ups of Yemen and Iraq crises and the American conflict with Iran.

Al-Zuwairi has classified four challenges that have dominated the Gulf region since the last two decades related to political stability and rolling like a flame ball, the first of which is the inability to identify the source of the threat and distinguishing the enemy from the ally, and the second relates to the entry of new players such as armed militias, until it became active in achieving security stability.

The third challenge, Al-Zuwairi adds, relates to technological openness and knowledge development and how to deal with the liquidity in information, and the fourth challenge is linked to the chaotic state of the global system.

During the session, several questions were asked, such as: What is the location of the Gulf system? What is his role in the equation of international conflict today? What did the Gulf alliances achieve? And why did Gulf money fail to maintain Gulf security?

Here, Professor of Political Science at Qatar University Muhammad al-Misfer touched on the history of the Gulf alliances, considering that they failed to achieve the security of the region, and even the Peninsula Shield forces were unable to protect the Gulf states and did not resolve any conflict, except for their interference in Bahrain in 2011, even if their interference is incomplete due to the non-participation of all Members.

After the traveler asked about how to get out of the security impasse, he answered that this would be by building an internal Gulf front, avoiding internal conflicts between countries, and reviving the region's prestige and strategic position, all on the basis of equality between citizens and respect for freedoms, respect for the independence of the judiciary, and elections for parliamentary systems And the establishment of a sophisticated military industry, non-interference in the internal policies of countries, non-involvement in conflicts outside the region, and lack of dependence on external military power.

The decline of American protection
If the United States had increased its deployment of forces in the region, its influence in conflict resolution had eroded, and it could no longer translate its military strength into politics, and this was represented in many issues such as the Yemen war, the Gulf crisis, and the blockade of Qatar.

Here, Shafiq Al-Ghabra, a professor of political science at Kuwait University, spoke of the fact that America during the era of President Donald Trump lost the leadership status, and that its failures contributed to the rise of China and the emergence of new alliances in the Middle East.

Al-Ghabra concluded that the Arab people are going through a new phase, and the Gulf needs to change its external alliances, embrace political reforms and prepare for the post-oil era and beyond the United States, because the margin of surprises is great in the event that Trump is re-elected and engagement with the Iranian regime in dialogue, because the wager is to change or overthrow him. Through sanctions, they are an illusion, and only national steadfastness and unity increase it.

After I mentioned that the dangerous escalation between America and Iran threatens the general situation in the Gulf region, the expert on Gulf affairs at the French Ministry of Defense, Fatiha Dazi Hani, called on the Gulf states to rethink a new security system for the region, starting with the local level and ending with the institutionalization of relations between the Gulf states.

Noting that security in the region needs solid rules, she stressed that the current Gulf crisis should be an opportunity to draw lessons and lessons, and that small and medium countries have to maintain their balance, and that any Saudi-Iranian agreement would reduce tension after the attacks on Aramco facilities It is an endeavor for all the Gulf states, as the current military alliances of the Gulf states with the United States and its military bases are no longer a source of safety.

A new security approach
However, why have the Gulf states not succeeded in establishing a common defense structure within an integrated system? Here, Ibrahim Saidi, professor of international organizations at Qatar University explains that this is due to the absence of the political vision of the Gulf states, and the lack of agreement on the sources of the threat.

He said that there is a structural flaw in the strategic thinking of the countries of the Cooperation Council since its establishment, as we recall that the first Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Abdullah Bishara said at the time that the establishment of a Gulf military force came to confront the Iranian threat and would end with its end, and this proves that the Gulf countries had no vision Far-reaching from the nature of the transformations that the region may experience, or the sensitivity of its position in the global system. Note that this military force was only land, and did not exceed five thousand military, and does not include air or naval units, and this is one of the biggest reservoirs during it.

The conference shed light on other threats that are no less dangerous, such as cyber wars. Here, professor of cyber security studies at Qatar College, Muhammad Al-Durrani spoke about it is no less dangerous than conventional warfare, and that countries around the world bear major financial costs to protect their systems from malware, since the Gulf Threatened by electronic wars, there is a need today to develop Gulf protection systems to meet the challenges.

During the second day of the conference, which will continue until tomorrow, four research sessions will be held that deal with: security arrangements in the Gulf region, the Gulf and the American conflict, Turkey and Gulf security, pivot towards a new Gulf security system. Tomorrow's sessions will be attended by researchers and specialists from Iran and Turkey, in addition to Arab researchers.