NAPLES, Italy -- Allied Joint Force Command Naples hosted its first Middle East workshop, April 13, 2017, with the topic "From War to Peace in the Middle East: What Lessons for Today".

 

At NATO’s Wales Summit in 2014, Allies agreed to develop a framework for NATO’s adaptation to the challenges and threats from the Alliance’s Southern Flank. As part of the framework, a Southern Hub is being established at JFC Naples to improve the ability to anticipate crises and respond to them, in continued close coordination with regional partners and other international organizations.

 

Organizers said the workshop was another step to contribute to understanding in the region in preparation for the establishment of the Southern Hub.

 

Opening the Workshop, U.S. Navy Adm. Michelle Howard, commander of JFC Naples, underlined the need to educate ourselves on the myriad challenges to the Alliance’s south, and to understand how conflict resolution mechanisms have worked there in the past in order to inform our responses to conflict now and in the future.

 

Some of the foremost practitioners of peacemaking and peacekeeping in the region, including Robert Serry, former U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Maj. Gen. Denis Thompson, former force commander of the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai, and former head of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon and current JFC Naples chief of staff, Italian Lt. Gen. Luciano Portolano, shared their experiences and offered their insights.