Where is the Security Middle East Conference held?

The conference is held in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

What is the primary focus of this conference?

The conference serves as a platform for dialogue and collaboration among experts, policymakers, and industry leaders on critical security issues in the Middle East.

Security Middle East Conference

Name: Security Middle East Conference
Start: 2026-11-29T00:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-11-29T00:00:00+00:00
Location: Riyadh

Nov 29–29, 2026Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaIn-person

Starts in 22 daysRegistration open

The Security Middle East Conference is a significant gathering held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It brings together professionals, policymakers, and industry leaders to discuss critical issues in security. The event focuses on fostering collaboration and sharing insights to address the evolving security landscape in the region and beyond.

Committees & topics

Topics
Regional Security Architecture in the Middle East · Cybersecurity in the Middle East · Airport and Aviation Security · Security Operations and Control Rooms · Artificial Intelligence and National Security · Cloud Computing and Data Sovereignty · Digital Transformation of Government and Critical Sectors · Zero Trust Architecture and Enterprise Security

Why it matters

The Middle East is a region of immense geopolitical importance, characterized by a complex interplay of regional powers and international interests. Events like the Security Middle East Conference are vital for understanding the multifaceted security challenges, ranging from traditional geopolitical rivalries to emerging threats like cyber warfare and climate-induced instability. The discussions at this conference can shape regional security policies and influence international cooperation.

For Model Diplomat, analyzing the outcomes and discussions from this conference provides crucial insights into the strategic priorities of key regional actors. Understanding the perspectives of countries such as SAU, IRN, ISR, and ARE, as well as global players like USA and CHN, is essential for our <a href="/learn/lessons/what-is-stakeholder-mapping">stakeholder mapping</a> and <a href="/learn/lessons/dynamic-analysis">dynamic analysis</a>. The conference serves as a barometer for regional tensions and collaborative efforts, offering a snapshot of the current security environment and potential future trajectories. It is a key forum for observing how different nations articulate their security concerns and propose solutions, which is invaluable for our research.

How to prepare

Delegates preparing for this conference should focus on understanding the current geopolitical landscape of the Middle East, paying particular attention to the security doctrines and strategic interests of key regional and international actors. Researching recent developments in cybersecurity, counter-terrorism, and regional conflict resolution will be beneficial. Familiarity with the security challenges faced by countries like SAU, ARE, and QAT, as well as the broader implications of global power dynamics involving USA, CHN, and GBR, is crucial.

Effective participation will require strong <a href="/learn/lessons/engagement-strategies">engagement strategies</a> and an awareness of the diverse perspectives present. Delegates should be prepared to discuss topics ranging from national security infrastructure to international cooperation frameworks. Understanding the nuances of regional alliances and rivalries, as well as the impact of technological advancements on security, will enable more informed contributions. Consider how different national interests converge or diverge on critical security issues, and be ready to articulate positions that reflect a comprehensive understanding of the regional context.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Saudi Arabia

Host nation, focused on regional stability, economic diversification, and countering threats.

Role in topic

As the host country, SAU plays a central role in shaping the conference agenda and discussions. Its perspective often emphasizes regional stability, economic security, and addressing threats from state and non-state actors. SAU is a significant player in regional security initiatives and investments in advanced security technologies.

Iran

Regional rival, often viewed through the lens of its nuclear program and proxy conflicts.

Role in topic

IRN's security posture is a major point of discussion in any Middle East security forum. Its regional influence, nuclear program, and involvement in various conflicts are key considerations. While IRN may not be a direct participant, its actions and strategic interests are frequently analyzed and debated by other attendees.

United States

Key external security guarantor and strategic partner for many regional states.

Role in topic

USA maintains a significant military and diplomatic presence in the Middle East. Its perspective often centers on counter-terrorism, maritime security, and maintaining regional balances of power. USA's role as a security partner to several Gulf states means its strategic priorities heavily influence regional security discussions.

United Arab Emirates

Proactive regional actor, focused on economic security, technological advancement, and counter-extremism.

Role in topic

ARE is an increasingly influential actor in regional security, known for its proactive foreign policy and investments in defense and cybersecurity. Its perspective often highlights the importance of technological solutions for security, economic resilience, and combating extremism.

Topics & background

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

Regional Security Architecture in the Middle East

The Middle East remains one of the most militarized and conflict-prone regions in the world, shaped by overlapping rivalries between Iran and the Gulf states, the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the ongoing war in Gaza since October 2023, and the fragmentation of states such as Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Iraq. The 2020 Abraham Accords reordered some alignments by normalizing relations between Israel and several Arab states, while the 2023 Saudi-Iranian rapprochement brokered by China signaled a partial diplomatic thaw that has since been tested by regional escalation. Layered onto these state-level rivalries are non-state actors — Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas, and various Iraqi and Syrian militias — whose activities have repeatedly drawn in outside powers. Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping since late 2023 have internationalized the security file, prompting Operation Prosperity Guardian and strikes by the U.S. and U.K. Energy infrastructure, maritime chokepoints (Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb, Suez), and proliferation risks tied to Iran's nuclear program continue to define the regional threat environment. There is no overarching regional security organization comparable to the OSCE or ASEAN; the GCC covers only part of the Gulf, and the Arab League has limited enforcement capacity. Debate today centers on whether a new inclusive security framework — covering arms control, de-escalation hotlines, and maritime security — can be built, or whether the region will continue to rely on bilateral deterrence and external security guarantees.

Key players

Cybersecurity in the Middle East

The Middle East has become a frontline theater for state and state-sponsored cyber operations. Landmark incidents — Stuxnet (2010), the Shamoon attacks on Saudi Aramco (2012, 2017), and repeated intrusions targeting Israeli water utilities and Iranian fuel infrastructure — established the region as a proving ground for offensive cyber capabilities. Since 2020, attacks on critical infrastructure, financial institutions, and ports have grown in both frequency and sophistication, often tracked to actors linked to Iran, Israel, and other regional states. Gulf states have invested heavily in defensive capacity, establishing national cybersecurity authorities (Saudi NCA, UAE Cybersecurity Council, Qatar NCSA) and aligning with international frameworks such as the UN OEWG on ICTs and the Budapest Convention (to which several have observer or signatory status). Israel remains a global hub for cyber industry and offensive tooling, while concerns persist about commercial spyware exports from the region. Ransomware, supply-chain compromises, and AI-enabled social engineering increasingly affect private-sector operators, especially in energy and aviation. The policy debate now centers on regional information-sharing, norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace, protection of critical infrastructure, and the regulation of dual-use cyber tools. The absence of a regional CERT-coordination mechanism and divergent positions on data sovereignty complicate cooperation.

Key players

Airport and Aviation Security

Middle Eastern airports are among the world's busiest transit hubs — Dubai (DXB), Doha (DOH), and Istanbul (IST) consistently rank in the global top tier for international passenger traffic — making aviation security a strategic regional priority. The legacy of attacks such as the 1985 EgyptAir and TWA hijackings, the 2016 Atatürk Airport attack, and persistent threats from non-state actors have shaped a layered security model combining ICAO Annex 17 standards, advanced screening technology, and intelligence-led passenger risk assessment. The environment has evolved rapidly since 2018 with the spread of drone and missile threats: Houthi attacks on Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia (2022), drone strikes on Abu Dhabi (2022), and concerns over GPS spoofing affecting commercial flights across the Gulf and Eastern Mediterranean. Insider threat, cargo screening, and the security of biometric and e-gate systems are additional priorities, as is the protection of air traffic management infrastructure from cyber intrusion. Current debates focus on harmonizing counter-UAS regulations, deploying AI-assisted screening and behavioral detection, securing airside cyber-physical systems, and balancing throughput with security in the face of mega-event traffic surges tied to Expo, World Cup, and Vision 2030 tourism targets.

Key players

Security Operations and Control Rooms

Control rooms — whether managing oil and gas SCADA networks, national power grids, water utilities, transport systems, smart-city platforms, or integrated public safety operations — are at the heart of Middle Eastern critical infrastructure. The convergence of IT and OT, combined with rapid smart-city deployments in Riyadh, Dubai, NEOM, and Doha, has dramatically expanded the attack surface of these facilities. High-profile OT incidents, including Shamoon and the 2020 attempted intrusion at an Israeli water treatment facility, demonstrated the real-world consequences of compromise. Modern control rooms increasingly integrate AI-driven video analytics, sensor fusion, real-time threat dashboards, and unified command-and-control platforms. Standards such as IEC 62443 for industrial cybersecurity, ISO 22301 for business continuity, and national OT-security frameworks (Saudi OTCC, UAE IAS) are shaping regional procurement and operations. Physical-cyber convergence — protecting both the human operators and the underlying digital systems — has become a core design principle. Key policy questions include workforce skilling for SOC and OT analysts, cross-border information sharing during incidents, vendor-risk management for control-room technology, and the resilience of redundant and backup command facilities during conflict scenarios.

Key players

Artificial Intelligence and National Security

Artificial intelligence has become a strategic priority across the Middle East, with the UAE (Falcon LLM, G42), Saudi Arabia (HUMAIN, ALLaM, SDAIA), Qatar, and Israel investing heavily in sovereign compute, foundation models, and AI talent. The UAE was the first country to appoint a Minister of State for AI (2017), and the region is now a significant node in the global AI hardware supply chain, with major deals involving NVIDIA, AMD, and U.S.-aligned export-control regimes shaping access to advanced chips. Security applications span autonomous systems, ISR, predictive policing, border management, and AI-enabled cyber defense. At the same time, AI introduces new risks: deepfake-enabled influence operations, automated cyberattacks, model poisoning, and dual-use concerns tied to military applications. Regional governments are also engaged in global debates on AI governance, including the UN High-Level Advisory Body on AI, the Bletchley and Seoul AI Safety Summits, and the U.S.–UAE and U.S.–Saudi AI partnership frameworks announced in 2024–2025. The core policy questions concern sovereign AI capacity, export controls on advanced compute, safety testing of frontier models used in security contexts, and the development of region-specific AI ethics and risk frameworks aligned with international standards.

Key players

Cloud Computing and Data Sovereignty

Cloud adoption in the Middle East has accelerated sharply, with AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle, and IBM all establishing in-region data center regions in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Israel since 2019. Governments have driven this expansion through cloud-first policies and national digital strategies, while concurrently introducing strict data-residency, classification, and sovereign-cloud requirements — notably Saudi Arabia's CCC framework, UAE's IA standards, and Bahrain's cloud-first program. Security concerns center on protecting government and critical-infrastructure workloads under foreign-headquartered hyperscalers, managing cross-border data flows, and ensuring that intelligence and defense workloads are hosted on appropriately accredited sovereign or air-gapped clouds. The rise of confidential computing, sovereign-cloud partnerships (e.g., G42–Microsoft, Google–Saudi PIF), and post-quantum cryptography readiness are reshaping procurement. Debate now focuses on harmonizing data-protection laws (modeled in part on the GDPR), enabling secure cross-border data flows for regional trade, defining what constitutes a 'sovereign' cloud, and managing the geopolitical implications of choosing U.S.- or China-aligned cloud stacks.

Key players

Digital Transformation of Government and Critical Sectors

Middle Eastern governments are among the world's most ambitious adopters of digital transformation. The UAE's TAMM and UAE Pass, Saudi Arabia's Absher and Tawakkalna platforms, Bahrain's eGovernment program, and Qatar's Hukoomi portal have moved the bulk of citizen services online, while Vision 2030, We the UAE 2031, and Qatar National Vision 2030 explicitly tie economic diversification to digital capacity. Diginfrastructure spending, fintech sandboxes, digital ID, and AI-driven service delivery have all expanded sharply. This transformation has security implications: expanded attack surface across government systems, dependence on digital ID and biometric databases, the security of digital payments and CBDC pilots (e.g., Project Aber, mBridge), and the resilience of e-services during conflict or crisis. Workforce shortages in cybersecurity, fragmented legacy systems, and inconsistent maturity across ministries remain challenges. Key debates concern interoperability of digital ID across the GCC, cross-border digital trade, the cybersecurity of e-government platforms, and protection of personal data under emerging national data-protection laws.

Key players

Zero Trust Architecture and Enterprise Security

Zero Trust — the security model premised on 'never trust, always verify,' codified in NIST SP 800-207 (2020) and mandated for U.S. federal agencies by Executive Order 14028 (2021) and OMB M-22-09 (2022) — has become the dominant enterprise security paradigm globally. In the Middle East, adoption has been driven by the convergence of cloud migration, hybrid work post-COVID, and a sustained wave of ransomware and supply-chain attacks against regional energy, finance, and government targets. Regional regulators are increasingly embedding Zero Trust principles into national frameworks: Saudi Arabia's Essential Cybersecurity Controls, the UAE Information Assurance Standards, and Qatar's National Information Assurance policy all push identity-centric, micro-segmented architectures. Implementation challenges include legacy OT environments that cannot easily support modern identity controls, the complexity of identity federation across government entities, and the maturity of Identity Governance and Privileged Access Management programs. The policy debate centers on standardizing Zero Trust maturity models regionally, securing machine and workload identities in AI and cloud environments, integrating Zero Trust with OT/ICS networks, and aligning national frameworks with international standards such as NIST, ISO 27001, and the CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for Security Middle East Conference.

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Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

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Security Middle East Conference

Nov 29–29, 2026Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaIn-person

Starts in 22 daysRegistration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Regional Security Architecture in the Middle East · Cybersecurity in the Middle East · Airport and Aviation Security · Security Operations and Control Rooms · Artificial Intelligence and National Security · Cloud Computing and Data Sovereignty · Digital Transformation of Government and Critical Sectors · Zero Trust Architecture and Enterprise Security

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Saudi Arabia

Host nation, focused on regional stability, economic diversification, and countering threats.

Role in topic

Iran

Regional rival, often viewed through the lens of its nuclear program and proxy conflicts.

Role in topic

United States

Key external security guarantor and strategic partner for many regional states.

Role in topic

United Arab Emirates

Proactive regional actor, focused on economic security, technological advancement, and counter-extremism.

Role in topic

Topics & background

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