By Mehmood-Ul-Hassan Khan
Three day 16th Annual regional security conference “Global Strategic Developments: A Futuristic Vision was organised by the prestigious Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR). It was held at the ECSSR Abu Dhabi from 21-23-March 2011. Ministers, high officials, business tycoons, prominent research scholars, think-tanks, heads of the research institutes, politicians, strategists, and intelligentsia rigorously contributed and actively participated in the conference.
Many thoughtful speeches were delivered. Purposeful interaction was also made in the answer& question session throughout the conference. Honorable speakers gave their inputs for the betterment of socio-economic growth, political harmony and above all how to protect national hood and sovereignty. They warned the policy makers about the various emerging geo-political and geo-strategic scenarios in the world especially in the Middle East and MENA region. They suggested workable solutions for many conflicting realities in the GCC and Middle East.
The well-known economists thoroughly evaluated the diversified but integrated reasons of the ongoing global economics recession and financial crunch. They shared their expertise in the fields of banking and finance and suggested complete overhauling in the existing international trade and monetary systems for the upholding of fair and free trade system for all the nations in the world. They shared the success stories of many countries and talked how these countries initiated macro-economic policies along with the institutionalization of banking and finance reforms to militate the worsening effects of global economic meltdown and financial debts.
The stressed the need to have sustainable development models for the betterment of marginalized communities and poor nations too. They shared the importance of regionalism for the reduction of poverty, generation of employment opportunities and providing of basic necessities of life.
Experts from the GCC stressed the need to have a closer socio-economic integration, with better political understand and crystal clear geo-strategic harmony among the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. They strongly recommended the joint platform to fight against terrorism, radicalism and separatism. They demanded to have mechanism to cope with the non-state security threats in the GCC i.e. human & drugs trafficking, climate change and the last but not the least water resources conservation.
The war experts and geo-strategists spelled out excellent research papers and valuable deliberations about the emerging serious security concerns and its ramifications in the region and around the globe. They pinpointed the drastic changes in the state-of-the-art weaponry and war systems. They highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the conventional war tactics. They spoke about terrorism, counter-terrorism strategies, along with its root causes and remedies.
The famous planners in the conference said about the feasibilities of cyber cities and its importance in the days to come. They strongly recommended the wide spreading of education, health and small and medium enterprises for the general masses in the region and around the world. They talked about the importance of telecommunications and space satellites systems in the days to come.
The three day regional security conference “Global Strategic Developments: A Futuristic Vision was a great effort of the prestigious ECSSR and its high officials. They managed to hold a masterpiece international conference which covered all possible aspects of modern day’s politics, civility, media, democracy, economics, war strategies and defence systems.
The said conference also succeeded to highlight the importance of green energies, alternative energy resources, and the last but not the least alternative delivery/governance systems in and around the globe.
It was indeed a giant step towards interfaith harmony, regional strategic dialogue, persuasion of peaceful means to overcome the existing and emerging geo-political and geo-strategic conflicts, articulation of better public policy and moreover, optimal utilization and its easy and smooth supply of energy reservoirs, strengthening of socio-economic ties among the emerging centers of powers (emerging economies/markets