The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs convened a special workshop in Triesenberg, Liechtenstein, March 17-20, 2011. The meeting brought together over fifty participants including diplomats, parliamentarians, practitioners, academics, and representatives of the private sector and the media from the US, EU, and the region for off-the-record discussions about issues relating to the recent uprisings in the Middle East and democracy in the region, and to generate policy recommendations. 

The Arab Spring and related protests through the wider Middle East have made it an imperative for the US and the international community to develop a grand strategic culture that is functional in a globalized, interdependent world with real-time information, and which fosters stability, peace, human rights, and prosperity in an increasingly multi-dimensional world. Participants in the LISD workshop eschewed the creation of short-term policy recommendations in favor of considerations for medium- and longer-term issues and strategic objectives.