Where will this academic meeting take place?

Name: Morocco – International Diplomacy: An Academic Meeting in Istanbul
Start: 2026-06-06T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-06-06T00:00:00Z
Location: Istanbul

This academic meeting will be held in Istanbul, TUR.

Morocco – International Diplomacy: An Academic Meeting in Istanbul

Jun 6, 2026Istanbul, TurkeyIn-person

Registration open

This academic meeting in Istanbul, Turkey focuses on the international diplomatic strategies and influence of Morocco. It provides a platform for scholars, researchers, and practitioners to delve into the nuances of Morocco's foreign policy, its historical contributions to international relations, and its contemporary role on the global stage. The discussions aim to shed light on how Morocco leverages diplomacy to advance its national interests and contribute to regional and international stability.

Committees & topics

6 committees
Confronting Digital Threats in the Global Information Environment · Strengthening Global Cooperation in a Fragmenting World Order · Governing Cybersecurity: Norms, Capacity, and Accountability · Digital Citizenship: Rights and Responsibilities Online · Addressing Cyberviolence and Online Harms · Combating Cyberbullying and Protecting Children Online

Why it matters

Understanding the diplomatic landscape of Morocco is crucial for comprehending broader geopolitical dynamics, particularly within the African continent and the Mediterranean region. Morocco has historically played a significant role in fostering dialogue and cooperation, and its diplomatic efforts often have far-reaching implications for international relations. This meeting offers a valuable opportunity to analyze these contributions and their impact.

The discussions will likely explore how Morocco navigates complex international challenges, including regional conflicts, economic partnerships, and multilateral diplomacy. By examining specific case studies and theoretical frameworks, participants can gain insights into effective diplomatic practices and the challenges faced by states in an interconnected world. This academic gathering serves to highlight the strategic importance of Morocco's foreign policy and its relevance to contemporary global issues.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the themes of this meeting, participants should undertake a thorough review of Morocco's foreign policy objectives and its historical diplomatic trajectory. Familiarity with key bilateral and multilateral relationships involving Morocco, particularly with countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, will be beneficial. Consider researching Morocco's positions on major international issues, such as climate change, migration, and regional security.

Reviewing academic literature on these topics, as well as specific analyses of Morocco's diplomatic strategies, will enhance participation. Consider how Morocco's approach aligns with or diverges from broader trends in international relations. Furthermore, understanding the internal factors that shape Morocco's foreign policy, including its economic development, cultural heritage, and political system, will provide a more nuanced perspective. Lessons such as "Engagement Strategies" and "Dynamic Analysis" can offer valuable frameworks for understanding the complexities of international diplomacy.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 2 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Morocco

A key player in regional diplomacy, focusing on stability and economic partnerships.

Role in topic

The central subject of the academic meeting, with its diplomatic strategies and influence being the primary focus of analysis and discussion.

Türkiye

Host nation providing a platform for academic discourse on international relations.

Role in topic

The host country of the academic meeting in Istanbul, facilitating the exchange of ideas and research on Morocco's international diplomacy.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

6 committees

Confronting Digital Threats in the Global Information Environment

The category of 'digital threats' has expanded dramatically since the early 2000s, moving from isolated computer viruses and financial fraud to a layered ecosystem that includes state-sponsored intrusions, ransomware-as-a-service, disinformation campaigns, deepfakes, and attacks on critical infrastructure. Landmark incidents — Stuxnet (2010), the Sony Pictures hack (2014), NotPetya (2017), SolarWinds (2020), and the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack (2021) — illustrated that digital threats can cause kinetic, economic, and political damage on par with traditional security shocks. The 2024 UN Global Digital Compact and successive reports of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) and Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on ICTs have sought to clarify how international law applies in cyberspace. The core dispute is normative and structural: liberal democracies emphasize protection of an open, interoperable internet, applicability of existing international humanitarian law, and accountability for malicious state and non-state actors, while Russia, China, and several non-aligned states push for a new binding treaty under UN auspices that would also address 'information security' — language Western states fear could legitimize censorship. AI-generated content, election interference, and the targeting of hospitals and energy grids have intensified the urgency. Negotiations on a UN Convention against Cybercrime concluded in 2024 but remain contested over scope and human rights safeguards. Today, the issue sits at the intersection of national security, economic policy, and human rights. Capacity gaps in the Global South, attribution challenges, and the proliferation of commercial spyware (e.g., Pegasus) keep digital threats high on the agenda of nearly every UN organ.

Key players

6 committees

Strengthening Global Cooperation in a Fragmenting World Order

Global cooperation as an organizing principle was institutionalized after 1945 through the UN system, Bretton Woods institutions, and a network of treaty regimes covering trade, arms control, health, and the environment. The post–Cold War decade saw a high-water mark of multilateralism, but the 2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, escalation in Gaza, and intensifying U.S.–China rivalry have exposed the fragility of these arrangements. Vaccine nationalism, export controls on semiconductors, weaponization of financial systems, and paralysis in the UN Security Council have all signaled a shift toward 'minilateralism' and bloc-based cooperation (G7, BRICS+, SCO, Quad). The central debate is whether the existing multilateral architecture can be reformed — through Security Council expansion, IMF quota reform, and initiatives such as the UN Pact for the Future (2024) — or whether it is being structurally displaced by parallel institutions reflecting a multipolar order. Developing states, organized through the G77 and African Union, demand greater voice and resources, while major powers disagree on the rules governing trade, technology transfer, climate finance, and conflict mediation. Today, cooperation is uneven: robust in narrow technical domains (civil aviation, postal services, meteorology) but strained on peace and security, AI governance, and the green transition. The challenge is to rebuild trust and deliver tangible public goods amid geopolitical competition.

Key players

6 committees

Governing Cybersecurity: Norms, Capacity, and Accountability

Cybersecurity entered the UN agenda formally in 1998 when Russia tabled the first General Assembly resolution on information security. Successive GGE reports (2010, 2013, 2015, 2021) established that international law, including the UN Charter, applies to cyberspace and produced eleven voluntary norms of responsible state behavior. The parallel Open-Ended Working Group, created in 2018, broadened participation but also exposed deep divisions over whether new binding instruments are needed. Major incidents — WannaCry (2017), the Microsoft Exchange compromise (2021), and recurring attacks on healthcare and energy systems — have repeatedly tested these norms. The core dispute is twofold. First, on substance: should cyber operations against critical infrastructure during peacetime be prohibited outright, and how should countermeasures and attribution work? Second, on process: should the OEWG continue indefinitely, transition to a 'Programme of Action,' or yield to a new treaty? Western states generally favor norm consolidation and accountability mechanisms; Russia, China, and allies favor a comprehensive convention. The 2024 UN Convention against Cybercrime added a criminal-law dimension but drew criticism from human rights organizations. Most developing countries face acute capacity deficits, lacking CERTs, legal frameworks, and trained personnel. Cybersecurity policy therefore intersects with development assistance, trade in dual-use technology, and human rights protections online.

Key players

6 committees

Digital Citizenship: Rights and Responsibilities Online

Digital citizenship refers to the rights, responsibilities, and competencies of individuals participating in digital society. UNESCO's frameworks, the Council of Europe's 2019 Recommendation on Digital Citizenship Education, and the EU's Digital Education Action Plan have all defined it as encompassing media literacy, online civic engagement, data protection awareness, and respectful conduct. The 2011 La Rue Report to the UN Human Rights Council and Human Rights Council Resolution 20/8 (2012) affirmed that human rights apply online as they do offline, anchoring digital citizenship in international human rights law. The contemporary debate centers on how to equip populations — especially children and youth — to navigate platforms designed around attention capture, while preserving freedom of expression and avoiding state overreach. The EU's Digital Services Act (2022) and Online Safety regimes in the UK and Australia represent regulatory approaches; other states emphasize education, parental controls, or platform self-regulation. Generative AI, algorithmic amplification, and the collapse of local news ecosystems have made information literacy a frontline civic skill. Disparities in access — the digital divide — mean billions remain excluded from digital citizenship altogether. The issue today balances three goals: universal connectivity, meaningful education for digital life, and protection of fundamental rights, particularly privacy, expression, and non-discrimination.

Key players

6 committees

Addressing Cyberviolence and Online Harms

Cyberviolence encompasses online harassment, gender-based violence, image-based sexual abuse (including non-consensual intimate imagery and AI-generated deepfakes), doxxing, stalking, and incitement targeting individuals or groups. The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women's 2018 report and subsequent General Assembly resolutions identified cyberviolence as a growing and gendered phenomenon: women, girls, LGBTQ+ persons, journalists, and human rights defenders are disproportionately targeted. The Council of Europe's Budapest Convention on Cybercrime (2001) and its Second Additional Protocol (2022) provide the most developed multilateral legal framework, though many states are not parties. The central tensions are jurisdictional and definitional. Platforms operate transnationally while criminal law remains national; definitions of harassment, hate speech, and intimate-image abuse vary widely; and enforcement is uneven. The 2024 UN Convention against Cybercrime addresses certain forms of cyberviolence but was criticized for insufficient human rights safeguards and risk of misuse against journalists and dissidents. Generative AI has sharply increased the volume and realism of synthetic abuse imagery, prompting new laws in the UK, Korea, and several U.S. states. Responses today combine criminal law, platform regulation (notification, takedown, design duties), survivor support services, and digital literacy. The challenge is to protect victims without enabling censorship or surveillance.

Key players

6 committees

Combating Cyberbullying and Protecting Children Online

Cyberbullying — repeated, intentional harm inflicted through digital means — emerged as a recognized social problem in the early 2000s with the spread of mobile phones and social networking. UNICEF's 2019 global poll found that one in three young people across 30 countries had experienced online bullying, and WHO's Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study has tracked rising rates in many regions. High-profile suicides linked to cyberbullying prompted national legislation in the United States, Canada, the UK, Japan, and elsewhere, while UNESCO declared the first Thursday of November the International Day against Violence and Bullying at School including Cyberbullying. The core dispute is how to balance child protection, freedom of expression, and platform accountability. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's General Comment No. 25 (2021) extended Convention on the Rights of the Child obligations explicitly to the digital environment, requiring states to protect children from violence online. Regulatory approaches diverge: the EU's Digital Services Act imposes risk-assessment duties on very large platforms; the UK's Online Safety Act sets a children's safety duty; the U.S. relies on sectoral laws like COPPA and state-level statutes. Critics warn against age-verification regimes that risk surveillance, and against criminalizing minors. Today cyberbullying overlaps with mental health, school policy, and platform design. Effective responses combine prevention through education, supportive reporting tools, mental health services, and proportionate legal remedies.

Key players