The Centre for Geopolitics’ Westphalia for the Middle East (WME) programme explores the difficulties and obstacles that impair the establishment of a durable peace in the Middle East, and how these can be tackled and addressed.
By taking inspiration from the Peace Treaties of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War in Europe in 1648, the aim of the Westphalia programme is to explore how an equitable, inclusive, and robust peace in the Middle East can be established. To this end, the Centre undertakes various activities and organizes academic and policy-relevant workshops, conferences, and roundtable discussions which bring together leading experts on the Middle East, including scholars, policy practitioners, civil society groups, activists, and other relevant stakeholders. Through these activities various questions are explored that can offer lessons for peace processes in the Middle East. These vary from tactics and techniques in diplomacy and peace negotiations to the inclusion of civil society organizations and women’s movements in peace processes in the Middle East, ongoing (geopolitical) developments in the region, and more historically oriented explorations of questions pertaining to war and peace in the long and rich history of the Middle East itself.
While the Peace of Westphalia certainly offers lessons for peace processes in the Middle East, the WME programme itself is not limited to this, since other cases, experiences, and practices in history integral to the robust settlement of conflicts in the region itself and beyond it are also explored.