A Report Launch with
Bilal Y. Saab
Resident Senior Fellow for Middle East Security,
Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security
Atlantic Council

Mary Beth Long
Founder and CEO
Metis Solutions

Moderated by
Vago Muradian
Editor
Defense News

Dramatic changes in the world of defense, coupled with increasing political, financial, and fiscal pressures in the transatlantic community, have forced some of the most advanced US industrial allies and partners to make tough choices regarding their national defense programs, leaving them either more dependent on the United States or with capability shortages.

Facing even more stringent circumstances, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—two modernizing US partners in the Gulf —confront a challenging path to domestic military industrialization. But with carefully articulated goals, modest expectations, smart strategies, effective financial management, and cooperation with Washington, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi can navigate some of the complexities of defense industrialization and overcome some of its key challenges.

This event will launch a report by Bilal Y. Saab entitled The Gulf Rising: Defense Industrialization in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In it, Saab provides new analysis of and key policy insights on military industrialization in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and adds an important, though often overlooked, dimension to the US policy debate on the US-Gulf partnership.