The KAS Regional Program Political Dialogue South Mediterranean has launched the Mediterranean Advisory Group (MAG) as a series of dialogue rounds to contribute to the strategic debate on the ongoing processes in Europe’s Mediterranean neighborhood to help in better coping with the various changes and challenges. MAG is a network of experts and practitioners from both shores of the Mediterranean, which reviews and analyzes developments in the region connected to security, foreign policy and migration. The meetings take place on a bi-annual basis and are held alternately in Europe and in the southern Mediterranean region. The findings and recommendations of MAG are intended to inform decision-makers and are published regularly in the Mediterranean Dialogue Series.
US Middle East Policy after the Presidential Elections
MAG-Treffen 11/2020
Im Hinblick auf die US-Präsidentschaftswahlen hat die Mediterranean Advisory Group der KAS PolDiMed die Auswirkungen auf den Nahen Osten und Nordafrika kritisch diskutiert und dank der Senario-Workshops mögliche Entwicklungen für die Zukunft erörtert. Die verschiedenen Experten konnten feststellen, dass die ersten Monate der neuen Biden-Regierung vor allem mit der US-Innenpolitik beschäftigt sein werden und dass es großer Anstrengungen bedarf, einige Entscheidungen der Trump-Politik rückgängig zu machen. Der Grundtenor war jedoch, dass die USA nach wie vor den Wunsch haben, sich mehr und mehr aus der Region zurückzuziehen.
Game Changers in the Mediterranean
MAG Meeting 09/2020
The Mediterranean Advisory Group of KAS PolDiMed took place for the first time in a digital format where the participants discussed the most important developments in the Mediterranean region in 2020. Not only the developments in Libya were the focus of the discussion, but also the normalization of the relations of some states with Israel as well as the further geopolitical developments in the Eastern Mediterranean were critically discussed by the different experts.
Mapping Middle Eastern Alliances
MAG Meeting 10/2019
The workshop organized by the Regional Program South Mediterranean of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in cooperation with the Casa Árabe, took a closer look at old and new patterns of Middle Eastern alliances. It assessed the major changes in regional cooperation trends both among states and between states and non-state actors. It further identified clusters of new alliance paradigms, and discussed the impact that the combination of these new patterns may have on the future of the region’s geopolitics and security. Read more here...
MENA 2030: Scenarios for Security and Defense Cooperation
MAG Meeting 04/2019
The Mediterranean Advisory Group of the KAS Regional Program South Mediterranean met in Cadenabbia, Italy, at the banks of Lake Como for a strategic foresight exercise on the prospects for multilateralism concerning security and defense cooperation in the broader Middle East and North Africa region. Read more here...
Drifting Apart: Transatlantic Relations in the Middle East
MAG Meeting 12/2018
The Mediterranean Advisory Group of the KAS Regional Program South Mediterranean came together in Berlin for an expert meeting on transatlantic relations in the Middle East to discuss US and European approaches towards the region and elaborate on shared interests and new fields for cooperation. Read more here...
The Future of Middle Eastern Cyber Warfare
MAG Meeting 05/2018
Expert workshop on cyber security and cyber warfare in the MENA region. Discussions in the framework of the workshop focused on the cyber capacities and vulnerabilities of state and non-state actors in the MENA region, the developments to be expected in this regard, as well as how these issues are treated in international law and through international norms. Read more here...
Options for Cooperative Security Solutions in North Africa
MAG Meeting 02/2017
Security challenges in the Maghreb-Sahel belt are becoming ever more pressing. While collective security schemes falter in the face of regional and global rivalries, ad hoc cooperative security arrangements are on the rise. Experts discussed what forms of security cooperation can be conceived that avoid the pitfalls of well-known political obstacles that traditional schemes have been struggling to overcome. Read more...
Russia in the Mediterranean: Strategies and Aspirations
MAG Meeting 01/2017
The regional balance in the Mediterranean has been changing over the last years, with uncertainty regarding US involvement, the role of regional actors and increasingly also Russia’s presence in the region. During a closed-door expert workshop in Tunis, participants discussed Russian aspirations in the Mediterranean and the geopolitical implications of its engagement. Read more...
Power Beyond the State: Non-State Actors in the Broader Southern Mediterranean
MAG Meeting 02/2016
Arab states today face a situation in which their weak institutions are besieged by a myriad of newly empowered non-state actors. Spanning across widely diverse groupings, from peaceful political and social grassroots movements to violent extremists, non-state actors put pressure on the flawed Arab state by demanding accountability, justice, revolutionary change. Experts from MENA and Europe discussed non-state actors in the south Mediterranean. Read more...
