Saudi-US Relations: The Defense & National Security Piece | Jul 19

GLOBAL DIALOGUE

via Zoom

Saudi-U.S. Relations: The Defense and National Security Piece

Commodore Abdulateef Al Mulhim, Royal Saudi Navy (Retired)

Professor David Des Roches
Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) at National Defense University
and Colonel, U.S. Army (Retired)

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

1200 CT | 1300 ET | 2000 SAST

About Abdulateef al Mulhim

Abdulateef Al Mulhim is Vice President at Saudi Consulting Services-Saudi Consult. He served in the Royal Saudi Navy for over 27 years reaching the rank of Commodore. He was commissioned following his undergraduate education at the State University of New York Maritime College in New York City. Commodore al Mulhim served in numerous operational and staff assignments including duties in the United States. He has been active in talking about Saudi-US relations at conferences and in the media in the U.S. and in the Middle East. He has been a regular columnist for newspaper including the widely read English language “Arab News” and Alyaum newspapers.

About David Des Roches

David B. Des Roches is Associate Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA) at National Defense University, where he specializes in countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf Cooperation Council Regional Security, Border Security, Weapons Transfers, Missile Defense, Counterinsurgency, Terrorism and emerging trends.

He joined NESA in 2011 after serving the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy in numerous positions, including as Director of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula, the DoD liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, the Senior Country Director for Pakistan, the NATO Operations Director (where he drafted the NATO comprehensive approach directive), the Deputy Director for Peacekeeping, and the spokesman for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.  Prior to that, he served in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy as an International Law Enforcement Analyst and Special Assistant for Strategy.

Professor Des Roches has lectured at the Qatari Staff College, the Saudi War College, and is the author of numerous articles and chapters on Gulf security. He is the editor of The Arms Trade, Military Services and the Security Market in the Gulf: Trends and Implications (Berlin: Gerlach, 2016), and a contributing author of the NATO curriculum on counterinsurgency [Link] as well as the NATO curriculum on counterterrorism  [Link].   He regularly presents at various Washington and international think tanks on Middle East and security issues.

Professor Des Roches holds advanced degrees from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies and Kings College London, which he attended as a British Marshall Scholar.  He also holds an advanced degree from the U.S. Army War College, and a bachelor of science degree from the United States Military Academy, West Point, where he was selected to Phi Kappa Phi. He is also a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute, the US Government education center for senior civil servants. He is a non-resident academic fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a non-resident senior fellow at the Gulf International Forum, and senior international affairs fellow at the National Council on US Arab Relations.

He had a thirty year career in the US Army and Army reserve, serving in conventional and special operations parachute units as well as on the Joint Staff, the US Special Operations Command staff, and deployed to Bosnia and Afghanistan, where he was awarded the Bronze Star. He retired as a Colonel and is a Ranger and Master Parachutist.

Professor Des Roches is a regular commentator on regional affairs on various Arabic and English language television networks including Sky News Arabia, al-Hurra, al-Jazeera, al-Araby, and al-Mayadeen, and on radio networks such as the Voice of America.