Arlington, Virginia: Navanti’s Director of Analysis, Mary Hackman, traveled to Northeastern University June 28-29 to brief at OSAC’s fourth annual Middle East and North Africa Regional Conference. Her panel titled, “Reassessing Risks in Countries Affected by the Arab Spring,” was part of two days of briefings and exercises attended by 190 Middle East-focused private sector security representatives.
Highlights of her briefing included revisiting key challenges faced in 2011 in Libya – such as the potential for rival governments to form and for armed militia groups to splinter and multiply – and discussing current atmospherics on these issues.
She also discussed the challenge Arab Spring countries faced related to violent extremist groups capitalizing on insecurity and lawlessness in order to gain influence and territory, and used examples from Libya and Syria to discuss the current state of this threat.