Post-Conflict Reconstruction:
A Window of Opportunity?
The role of external actors in the MENA region

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been convulsed by multiple wars and armed conflicts for decades. It is the civilian populations that bear the brunt of these complex conflicts, instability in the conflict countries also has major spillover effects in neighbouring states in the region – and beyond.

The Berlin Summer Dialogue will therefore consider how the international community’s engagement in the MENA region can have a sustained peacebuilding effect within these societies. What factors should international actors consider in order to avoid unintentionally entrenching existing lines of conflict or creating new ones through their short-term crisis response? Which specific priorities should they set for their contribution to the reconstruction of economic and social structures that sustain peaceful development? And what can be done to provide constructive support for discourses about a much-needed reform of the social contract in the MENA countries?

There will be a public evening event on the eve of the expert conference on “Conflict lines in the MENA Region – opportunities and risks for reconstruction”.

In cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)