"Arab Wars: A Tale of State Survival & Resurgence" by Dr Florence Gaub

A light sandwich lunch is provided for seminar participants at 12:50. 

War and conflict are a common feature of the Arab world: more than seven interstate wars, eight intra-state conflicts, at least ten counterinsurgency operations and uncountable terrorist incidents have shaken the region since World War II. As the stereotype goes, Arab armies are politically strong and militarily weak, and numerous non-state actors hollow out the state's monopoly on violence.

As so often the case in this region, reality is more complex: Arab states are not only reclaiming an area previously lost to them, the air space, they are also adapting to a changing strategic landscape; more importantly, non-state actors are frequently used by the state to achieve security objectives. Although Arab states & their military forces appear to be on the defensive, they are in fact on an offensive learning curve.

Dr Florence Gaub is a Senior Analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies where she heads the Middle East and North Africa programme. In her work, she focuses on conflict, strategy and security, with particular emphasis on Iraq, Lebanon and Libya; she also works on Arab military forces more generally, conflict structures and geostrategic dimensions of the Arab region. Previously employed at NATO Defence College and the German parliament, she wrote her PhD on the Lebanese army at Humboldt University Berlin and holds degrees from Sciences Po Paris, Sorbonne and Munich universities.  

Dr Gaub is widely published and testifies regularly at government and parliamentary hearings on the region. She has conducted extensive field studies in Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and currently teaches at SciencesPo in Paris.