WASHINGTON, DC – The Atlantic Council releases today “Youth in the Middle East: Liability or Opportunity?” discussing the potential for youth in the region to be an opportunity to bring the region out of chaos given particular conditions. The video is part of the Council’s Middle East Strategy Task Force, a bipartisan initiative under Co-Chairs Secretary Madeleine Albright and Mr. Stephen Hadley, that aims to better understand the underlying dynamics behind the current crises in the region. The Co-Chairs final report, to launch November 30, 2016, details a strategy for engagement with the region to help end its destabilizing civil wars while aiding its citizens—including its youth—to realize their potential.

After an election process that left the United States largely divided and major questions unanswered–such as the future of the US role in the world–bipartisan recommendations on foreign policy issues will be critical. After extensive consultations with experts and policymakers from the United States and the Middle East, the Co-Chairs conclude the crisis in the Middle East is not containable, and that isolationism is a dangerous illusion.
 
Ambassador Frederic C. Hof, director of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, says of the upcoming report: “This report outlines a smart and sustainable approach to the global crisis emanating from the Middle East. It’s all about people and partnerships. It’s about the Middle East region, with the support of outsiders, unleashing its amazing human capital while ending wars and defeating terrorism. It’s a positive approach that Americans, their allies, and their regional partners will find sensible, compelling, and doable.”
 
Please join us on November 30 for a discussion with Sec. Albright and Mr. Hadley on the report’s findings, or watch it live.
 
For more information and interview requests, please contact Andrea Taylor at PRESS@AtlanticCouncil.org.