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MENARA Global Policy Dialogue: Greater Middle East Perspectives on Restoring Trust in an Age of Uncertainty

Contributed by Doha Forum, Global Institute for Strategic Research, Hamad Bin Khalifa University

Posted 5 October 2026

   

📆 Monday, 7 December 2026

💻 Additional details, including registration details, are coming soon

🌐 Global Institute for Strategic Research at Hamad Bin Khalifa University and the Stimson Center

At a time of geopolitical upheaval, shifting alignments, and growing uncertainty around the future of regional and global institutions, trust remains the essential foundation that enables cooperation between states, societies, and other stakeholders. Without new kinds of leadership and reinvigorated institutions, combined with renewed respect for international norms, policies, and laws, the breakdown of trust within and between countries risks undermining steps toward a more prosperous, just, and peaceful world. Informed by the fourth annual edition of the Future of International Cooperation Report (FIC'26), this experts roundtable, co-sponsored by the Global Institute for Strategic Research and the Stimson Center (and held on Monday, 7 December 2026 at Hamad Bin Khalifa University) will critically examine growing trust deficits across the spheres of Middle Eastern and global politics (including diplomacy and mediation), economics (including business and technology), and security and justice (including defense and preventing violent extremism).

With a fresh reconceptualization of trust in the 21st century's second quarter and the attendant multiplier effect of social capital investments, policy researchers and practitioners will candidly discuss and chart a positive reform, peace, and accountability agenda for major Middle East and North African (League of Arab States, Gulf Cooperation Council, Arab Maghreb Union, and including but beyond MENA: Organisation of the Islamic Conference) and global (United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization) institutions. 

Specifically, and drawing-upon research undertaken for the FIC'26 report, the roundtable's assembled policy researchers and practitioners will propose a menu of innovative regional and global governance/cooperation responses, designed to renew and rebuild trust in today’s fractured world. Privileging the Doha Forum's decades-long commitment to bridging divides through Diplomacy, Dialogue, and Diversity, expert participants will also present and debate targeted measures for restoring global trust, by leveraging the confluence of a new UN Secretary-General (beginning on January 1, 2027) with World Social Summit and Summit of the Future follow-through, alongside initial steps toward a Post-2030 Development Agenda in the lead-up to the September 2027 SDG Summit in New York.

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