MERI Forum 2025
Shaping the Future: Visions for Peace and Prosperity
7 – 8 October, 2025
The MERI Forum is the Institute’s flagship annual event, bringing together local, national, and international policymakers, academics, opinion leaders, civil society activists, journalists, and diplomats. It provides a platform to debate the most pressing issues affecting the region and to offer practical solutions for decision-makers. The Forum’s ultimate goal is to promote peace, stability, and prosperity in Iraq and the wider Middle East through constructive dialogue, inclusive engagement, and shared investment in the future.
MERI Forum 2025 will focus on Iraq’s immediate policy challenges, the shifting regional landscape, and emerging opportunities for international cooperation. A series of timely and strategic themes will be explored through policy debates and in-depth analysis. These include evolving global and regional power dynamics, U.S. policy in the Middle East, prospects for peace in the Levant, addressing Iraq’s fragility, reforming key state institutions, institutionalising centre-periphery relations, promoting ethno-religious coexistence, and more.