Conflict prevention and security
Today, conflict prevention and security are key concerns for Southern countries facing crises, but also for their partners in the North. There is a shared responsibility and a common interest in bringing stability to conflict zones, especially when they hinder commercial routes and primary resource supplies.
Emerging countries, whose interests are more threatened because of their geographical proximity, bring support to conflict-stricken countries and constitute new regional mechanisms of conflict prevention. In Africa, peacekeeping forces are mostly composed of individuals from developing countries.
Today, conflict management is regionalized. However, while responsibility is increasingly born by Southern countries, the North has an important role to play, especially with regards to providing financial assistance. We thus need to find action-oriented processes that meet these challenges. The Amadeus Institute has suggested, during its latest conferences, a conflict monitoring process for the African continent, home to the largest number of conflicts.
These issues are discussed every year during the MEDays forum and are examined by scholars and experts from the Center of Analysis and Publications. At the core of our analyses are conflicts in the Mediterranean and African regions, but more specifically the two conflict zones which directly impact Morocco’s region: the Sahel-Sahara zone and the Israel-Palestine issue.
Security in the Sahel-Saharan zone
The growing instability in this region is an incentive for the Amadeus Institute to examine the important geopolitical stakes of this conflict zone. Drugs and weapons trafficking, smuggling and terrorism flourish and lead to destabilization and conflict. This land - made up of approximately 3 million square kilometers, located south of Arab countries, bordering sub-Saharan Africa and nearly uncontrollable - is one of the poorest and most isolated on the planet. Morocco and neighboring countries must devise appropriate cooperation mechanisms to face this security challenge.
The Israel-Palestine issue
One of the most intractable conflicts on the planet has not yet, in 2010, been resolved. The Amadeus Institute, creator of debate, seeks to contribute concrete recommendations and follow up with their implementation. The Middle East conflict thwarts all possible dialogue in the Mediterranean region and is an impediment to all forms of cooperation on common challenges faced by the South and the North.
The Amadeus Institute believes that conflict resolution should be based on international joint decisions. Regardless, dialogue between Arabs and Israelis is an imperative. Arab countries will engage in the peace process when Israel shows Arab leaders and society that they are ready to comply with the 1967 borders and guarantee the rights of Arab Israelis. Such a display of common willingness is crucial.
The analyses and conferences organized by the Institute play an important role in the peace process in the Middle East, and the MEDays Forum has been an opportunity for moderate Palestinian and Israeli politicians to congregate.
