Intelligence and National Security Challenges in the Middle East

Overview

This course offers a deep dive into understanding and analyzing the challenges in and emanating from a region which has tremendous significance and impact on international and Canadian national security. Participants will be exposed to the main characteristics and dynamics of this region and its component states, its place in global affairs, international security and the international economy. Participants will explore the security challenges, both to its states, and emanating from the region to the international system, such as conventional conflict, state failure, refugees and mass migration, terrorism, and proliferation. Finally, participants will examine the balance of power between them, the interests and influence of external actors (including the US, Russia, and China), and scenarios for future developments.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the underlying dynamics and sources of conflict and crisis in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and the impact on it of global trends
• Recognize the politics, interests, decision-making systems and socio-economic dynamics of the players in MENA, and the complex interplays between them
• Recognize the effects of these conflicts on the international arena and Western security
• Analyze "wicked" international issues

Audience

• Officials and subject matter experts from government, who are not experts on the Middle East but who seek or require an in-depth understanding of Middle East issues and of the deep trends driving events in MENA.
• NGOs and relevant private sector bodies, as well as graduate students

Duration

Cost

• $1095 (plus tax)

Featured Instructor

Joshua Krasna retired in 2017 after 30 years of government service in Israel, including as a strategic planner, senior Middle East and strategic analyst, and diplomat. He served as counselor at the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, and was an instructor and team leader at the Israel National Defense College. Joshua Krasna is Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Center for Emerging Energy Politics in the Middle East, a Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the New York University Center for Global Affairs.

Sessions