The National quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Chairman General James L. Jones, Jr. on possibilities for regional corporation against terrorism between Gulf Cooperation Council countries:
Experts drew parallels between the Gulf in 2015 and Europe in 1949. “Europe united over the idea of collective defence due to common threat,” said James Jones, former US national security adviser to president Barack Obama.
Mr Jones, chairman of the Brent Scowcroft Centre on International Security at the US-based Atlantic Council, said: “For many years, Nato had both a civilian and military component to it based on collective defence. The strategic question for this region is, if it is faced with an existential threat which I believe [it is], then what does it do about that collectively?”
He said Iran’s continued sponsorship of non-state actors and the threat of ISIL raised regional concern. “I think a legitimate, logical question is, would it be useful to think of a more formal arrangement Nato-like with GCC countries uniting under the previous model of Nato? I believe that would make American policy easier to articulate instead of dealing with many different countries on a bilateral basis. If we united around a policy that an attack against one is an attack against all, then I think you have the elements of bringing stability and more predictability into the region.”
The first step for the GCC was to identify economic, political, military, technological, cultural and social threats, said Ibrahim Al Marie, a security and strategic affairs expert from Saudi Arabia. He said: “If we have clear answers to these questions, then we can build efficient strategies to safeguard our security.”