EWI’s Regional Security Initiative aims to defuse tensions and build trust in the world’s most volatile neighborhoods. EWI’s regional security work has its roots in the end of the Cold War, when local and ethnic conflicts erupted across Eastern Europe. Working from its Prague offices, EWI developed programs to foster economic stability, encourage cross-border cooperation and prepare a new generation of leaders for new states.

Today, EWI’s regional security work focuses on Southwest Asia, with an emphasis on Afghanistan and Pakistan, whose complicated relationship has wide implications for global security. Through confidential dialogues, EWI is working to build person-to-person trust and contribute to stability in the region.

Trust-building between Afghanistan and Pakistan: The Abu Dhabi Process

Since 2009, EWI has facilitated confidential, Track 2 meetings between Pakistani and Afghan leaders. Sponsored by the Abu Dhabi government, and endorsed by the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan, these  meetings aim to build bilateral trust and contribute to  security solutions for the region. 

In past meetings, held alternately in Kabul and Abu Dhabi, participants made an early call for speeding reconciliation efforts with the Taliban. They also elaborated a set of concrete proposals to build trust between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

As the Abu Dhabi meetings discuss highly sensitive aspects of the bilateral relationship, they are governed by the Chatham House Rule, which protects participants’ identities but allows their remarks to be shared. To learn more about their ideas, please consult EWI’s series of reports, Seeking Solutions for Afghanistan. The Abu Dhabi Process will continue throughout 2011.

The Parliamentarians Network for Conflict Prevention

The Parliamentarians Network is an integral part of EWI’s programmatic work on conflict prevention. Established in 2008 by EWI’s International Task Force on Preventive Diplomacy, the network connects parliamentarians to advocate for conflict prevention and organize joint efforts through diplomatic initiatives. The network, always growing, is currently comprised of more than 170 parliamentarians from 58 countries. Members convene two to three times a year and stay connected through the Parliamentarians Network Newsletter.

Today, the network is connecting female lawmakers from Afghanistan with their peers in Pakistan. The aim: to strengthen the political position of Afghan women parliamentarians as they govern and work for peace. Network members are convinced that in order to safeguard human rights in Afghanistan, Afghan women must have a central role in the country’s leadership, and that Pakistani women parliamentarians can offer practical lessons and vital support.

Connecting Afghan and Pakistani Women Parliamentarians

At a 2010 international conference convened by EWI at the European Parliament, Pakistani and Afghan female lawmakers agreed to meet for a standing dialogue. In addition to providing practical support for Afghan lawmakers, according to participants, regular meetings would help build trust between the countries’ political communities.

In June 3 and 4, 2011, EWI facilitated the first-ever visit of a delegation of Afghan women parliamentarians to Islamabad. There, they met with their female colleagues in the Pakistani National Assembly and leading political figures in Pakistan, including Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari, and the Speaker of the House, Dr. Fehmida Mirza. Participants  adopted the Islamabad Plan, which maps a path for future cooperation. A return visit of Pakistani women lawmakers to Kabul is scheduled for October 2011.

Cooperation on Water in Afghanistan and Central Asia

Water is a pressing and delicate security issue in Southwest Asia. Afghanistan sits at the head of five rivers including the Amu Darya, which supports the livelihoods of 43 million people. However,  there is very little cooperation on the region’s many trans-boundary water issues. Identifying the seeds of possible conflict, EWI is encouraging cooperation on water in the region.

To create a place for key stakeholders to discuss trans-boundary water issues, forge agreements and share knowledge. EWI created the Amu Darya Basin Network, which links experts, researchers and policy makers from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Europe. Partnering with DPRN (Development Policy Review Network), EWI launched the website www.amudaryabasin.net. Today, the network is working to develop strategies for local and national capacity-building, with an emphasis on training and retaining professionals to implement an integrated water management system in the Amy Darya Basin.