Coping with the complex security problems arising in the MENA region requires multi-faceted approaches for the simple reason that the challenges themselves are highly complex and resist simple solutions.
This was one of the central insights of a Joint Seminar of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Mediterranean and Middle East Special Group (GSM) and the Sub-Committee on Transatlantic Defence and Security Cooperation (DSCTC) held in Rome, Italy on 23-25 November. The GSM Seminar, which the Assembly organised in conjunction with the Italian Delegation to the NATO PA, considered a range of topics including the situation in Libya and North Africa, the migration crisis, the situation in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist threat to Europe and the Western Balkans, and countering radicalisation and violent extremism. Participants also considered and adopted a report presented by Senator Andrea Manciulli on the threat posed by ISIL/Daesh and Al Qaeda to Europe. One hundred members of parliament from 35 countries attended the Seminar, including MPs from NATO Member and Associate Member States, associated Mediterranean countries, Gulf states, and countries on the southern rim of the Mediterranean.
