The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS)’s Regional Programme Gulf States and KAS’s Department for International Politics and Security Affairs together organised a dialogue programme in Berlin for young security experts from Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS) from 11-14 June 2024. Over the course of this three-day dialogue programme, ten security-sector professionals from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain who are enrolled in NAUSS’s national-security and counter-terrorism master’s courses met with renowned German researchers and policymakers to discuss how the country addresses challenges to its homeland security, broadly defined. Dr Hesham Alghannam, Director of NAUSS’s Security Research Center, and Mohammed Alabdulsalam, Lecturer at the Security Research Center, accompanied the delegation.
The visit included conversations with representatives of the Federal Criminal Police Force (BKA), German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Brandenburg Institute for Society and Security (BIGS), Counter Extremism Project, National Committee on Religiously Motivated Extremism, Federal Ministry of Defence (BMVg), Federal Ministry of Interior and Homeland (BMI), the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and KAS’s own Division for Analysis and Consulting. On the second evening of the dialogue programme, members of the NAUSS delegation had the opportunity to have dinner with a former high-level official at Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), who shared anecdotes with them from his illustrious career at the pinnacle of Germany’s intelligence apparatus.
The dialogue programme succeeded in facilitating an initial transfer of knowledge between German and Saudi professionals on topics as diverse as information manipulation using artificial intelligence (AI), inter-institutional coordination in a federal system of government, countering extremism, intelligence-sharing between allies, protecting critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks, and migration. The delegation from NAUSS showed particular interest in learning about German approaches to preventing the spread of religious and political extremist ideologies, as well as integrating migrants into the society of the Federal Republic.
