The landscape of conflict and security is shifting across the Middle East and demands new approaches. Our work aims to support a new, inclusive approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict by opening new space for consultations among legitimate yet opposed stakeholders through high-level political dialogue, analysis and engagement. The goal is to explore accommodations grounded in real support in the societies. The action will engage rooted elements of Palestinian and Israeli societies and stakeholders from the wider region, including faith-based movements.

It also includes an integrated programme of research, consultations, publication, workshops and dissemination. Our work will:

• Build up relationships with all the parties involved in the conflict.
• Where appropriate, bring together conflicting parties for informal roundtables in a conducive atmosphere.

Our approach includes:

• The pursuit of non-military options to the resolution of conflict.
• The application of human security principles to the understanding of conflict.
• The need to address the root causes of conflict in order to bring an end to political violence.
• The use of sustained dialogue methods.
• The pursuit of rigorous research with the aim of a practical application to the resolution of conflict.

Human Security in Military Interventions

Many recent military interventions would not have been necessary if more effective diplomacy had been conducted, and better systems were in place for the rigorous and consistent application of non-military tools.

Nonetheless, military interventions do take place, and when they do, it is important to consider how they are conducted in order to best protect civilian populations. Interventions cannot be deemed successful if they achieve the political or other goals of intervening nations, but the security of people on the ground is not enhanced. Human loss and suffering breeds bitterness and resentment against the intervening forces and fuels a cycle of violence.

ORG concluded a programme of work (funded by NATO, and the Alan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust) to analyse how recent military operations have unnecessarily jeopardised human security, and to promote recommendations for how military forces are used in interventions in ways which respect and protect local populations rather than make them more vulnerable.

For more information, see our report of a recent high-level roundtable - 'What would military security look like through a Human Security Lens?' Outcomes from this roundtable are being carried forward in the context of our project on inclusive approaches to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Civilian casualties are one of the most unacceptable outcomes of any conflict. Yet in many wars there is no definitive or official tally of the numbers killed or wounded. Accurate casualty knowledge is important for humanitarian, moral and political reasons. In collaboration with Iraq Body Count, ORG is undertaking a research and advocacy project, Recording Casualties of Armed Conflict, to make casualty monitoring a requirement in international law.