12 October 2008 | Colombo, Sri Lanka
RCSS, together with Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) of the National Defense University in Washington D.C., hosted Working Group Meetings of the Regional Network of Strategic Studies Centers (RNSSC) on 12-15 October 2008, in Colombo. The working groups focused on Non-Traditional Security Issues (NTSI) and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)/ Border Security respectively. Experts from the Middle East and South Asia, together with Senior Officers from NESA attended the meetings. The leading participants from NESA were Dr. Robert Boggs and Col. (Retd.) Daniel E. Curfiss.
Pursuant to the decision made in the RNSSC Plenary Meeting in Istanbul, the NTSI Working Group discussed issues related to Small Arms and Light Weapons and Disaster Management to be presented at the next RNSSC Plenary Meeting in Doha. At the WMD/Border Security Working Group each participating country shared with the group a situation report, the main discussion points being, Border Baseline, Current Border Security Challenges, Current Border Doctrine or policies on Immigration, Customs and Frontier Borders, Border Management Organizational Structure and the status of UNSCR 1540 in each country. Based on the country reports the Border Security Challenges and WMD challenges were prioritized. This supported the refining of the group’s goals, definitions and topics and paved the way to develop a way for future action.
Ms. Gayathri Nanayakkara, Programme Officer and Ms. Nilakshi Gunatillake, Regional Liaison Officer GPPAC represented the RCSS at the two respective meetings.
