Executive Summary
The first anniversary meeting of the Levant and Iraq Forum (LIF), held on 6 October 2025, marked a turning point in regional policy brainstorming. It moved the debate beyond the familiar question of why regional cooperation is necessary to the more urgent challenge of how it can be delivered. Governance deficits, political exclusion, weak institutions, and unresolved grievances – not security concerns alone – are the principal drivers of regional fragility.
Rebuilding state legitimacy through inclusive governance was seen as essential to reducing the influence of armed non-state actors. Rather than waiting for comprehensive political settlements, the Forum advocated incremental, functional cooperation, beginning with cross-border initiatives such as border management and disrupting illegal trafficking to build confidence.
Economic recovery should proceed alongside reconciliation and governance reform, while decentralisation should be pursued through context-specific institutional design rather than ideological debates over federalism. Climate change and water security were recognised as shared regional security challenges requiring collective action.
Lasting stabilisation depends on stronger state institutions, sustained dialogue, youth engagement, and practical, locally owned reforms that build trust and resilience over time.
This report ends with a series of practical policy recommendations that remain effective under the ever-evolving regional dynamics.
Policy Recommendations
The LIF positions itself as a platform that not only generates ideas but also translates them into policy-ready recommendations and sustains engagement long enough for incremental progress to build credibility. The 2025 LIF meeting in Erbil produced several areas of broad convergence that can inform future policy.
- A pragmatic path to regional stabilisation.
A region seeking a middle ground between two unsuccessful models: (a) rigid centralisation, which often breeds exclusion and conflict, and (b) fragmented de facto governance, which entrenches non-state actors and external interference. Rather than pursuing an ambitious regional security architecture in the short term, a layered approach should be adopted. One that begins with practical cross-border cooperation, builds confidence through measurable achievements, and gradually evolves into deeper political and economic coordination rooted in inclusive governance and stronger state institutions.
- Prioritise implementation over vision.
While strategic visions are often readily available, states typically fail during implementation. Future policy efforts should therefore focus on the institutional and legislative mechanisms that translate dialogue into action, including legal drafting, institutional development, and politically feasible sequencing of reforms.
- Build confidence through functional cooperation.
Incremental, results-oriented cooperation is the most effective way to generate trust. Border management, particularly cooperation to combat illicit economies such as Captagon trafficking, was identified as a practical area where visible successes could pave the way for broader political collaboration.
- Depoliticise shared existential challenges.
Climate adaptation, water security, and environmental degradation are areas where cooperation should be insulated from political disputes. These transboundary challenges provide opportunities to pool expertise, strengthen technical collaboration, and create habits of regional cooperation.
- Anchor connectivity in governance.
Economic corridors and regional connectivity initiatives should complement, not substitute for, governance reform and political inclusion. Infrastructure investments are unlikely to deliver lasting stability without an accompanying social contract, while connectivity alone cannot overcome the exclusion, weak governance, and marginalisation that fuel radicalisation and the resurgence of non-state actors.
- Pursue pragmatic decentralisation in Syria.
Rather than becoming constrained by debates over terminology, focus should be on designing a decentralised governance model that accommodates diversity while safeguarding equal citizenship, institutional coherence, and state unity. The emphasis should be on legal and administrative design rather than labels such as federalism.
- Strengthen dialogue and diplomacy.
Sustained dialogue at track 1.5 and track 2 among policymakers, technical experts, academics, and advisors is essential for addressing politically sensitive issues, including decentralisation, resource sharing, constitutional reform, and transitional justice. Such mechanisms should be structured to generate practical policy options and maintain momentum beyond one-off meetings.
- Link stabilisation to humanitarian recovery.
Regional stability is inseparable from creating conditions for the safe, voluntary, and dignified return of refugees and reversing humanitarian decline. Unfortunately, declining international assistance across several Levant and Iraq countries has exacerbated fragility. Sustainable return cannot be achieved through improved security alone; it also requires economic opportunity, functioning institutions, reliable public services, accountable governance, and continued international support to address the underlying drivers of displacement and enable long-term reintegration.
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About MERI
The Middle East Research Institute (MERI) is internationally ranked as Iraq’s leading think tank and policy research institute. As an independent, non-profit, grant-funded organisation, MERI advances evidence-based policymaking, democratic governance, and sustainable development through research, policy analysis, dialogue, and public engagement.
MERI’s research focuses on Iraq, the Levant and the wider Middle East, covering governance, state-building, foreign policy, regional security, post-conflict recovery, violent extremism, displacement, minority rights, women’s rights, civil society, Baghdad–Erbil relations, and broader geopolitical developments. Through its publications, policy dialogues, and the annual MERI Forum, MERI brings together policymakers, diplomats, academics, and civil society leaders to promote informed debate and practical policy solutions for the region’s most pressing challenges.