GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (Feb. 26, 2014) – The Partnership for Peace Consortium (PfPC) and the Qatar Armed Forces Security Studies Center (SSC) recognize that the international security landscape is vastly different from that of the immediate post Cold War period.   On February 26 the two organizations put this acknowledgement into action and formed a new strategic partnership to mutually address contemporary security challenges.

Major General Sanad Ali Al-Nuaimi, Commander of the Strategic Studies Center, represented the Security Studies Center and in kicking off the new partnership with the PfPC spoke about the practical cooperation envisioned between the organizations. Envisioned cooperation includes jointly published policy recommendations and academic articles on contemporary matters of international security.

According to the PfPC Executive Director, Dr. Raphael Perl, “We are excited about our new partnership with Qatar’s Strategic Studies Center and look forward to practical cooperation at a time when the security landscape in the Middle East and beyond is amidst rapid change."

Today’s security landscape is marked in part by radicalization of vulnerable populations to join extremist causes worldwide. To better understand the nature of radicalization and therefore to counter it, the PfPC and the SSC will unite their efforts to produce actionable policy recommendations for the international community. These efforts will be in close connection to the PfPC’s Combating Terrorism and Emerging Security Challenges Working Group, which welcome Qatar’s involvement in helping the groups develop policy recommendations.

In partnering with the Security Studies Center, the PfPC is opening a new chapter in its organizational history. The PfPC was formed in 1998, and even its name was a reflection of the times. While the PfPC was established to pursue defense institution building in the spirit of NATO’s Partnership for Peace Program, the PfPC today realizes that a radically different security landscape requires new partnerships.

Qatar represents the PfPC’s first partnership with an Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) country. The ICI Program was established by NATO to facilitate practical cooperation with non-NATO countries. Today, perhaps more so than ever, NATO and the international community rely on partnering with ICI and other non-NATO countries. In this spirit, the PfPC hopes that Qatar will be the first in a series of new strategic partnerships, all with a singular goal of helping move the world towards greater stability.