On the afternoon of May 15, 2023, the 9th session of the Middle East Studies Society hosted by the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University was held at Songjiang Campus. Zhang Yuan, a researcher of the Middle East Studies Institute, gave a lecture entitled Regional Cultural Responses to the Security Deficit. The lecture was hosted by Wen Shaobiao, an assistant researcher of the Middle East Studies Institute, and more than ten graduate students attended the event.

Taking the Concept Paper of the Global Security Initiative as the starting point, researcher Zhang Yuan introduced the contextual analysis of the concept of security deficit with the multiple risks and challenges faced by the international community, and then took religious security and Iran's diplomatic strategy as examples to explain the response to the security deficit, emphasizing the importance of solidarity and win-win thinking to solve the problem.

Afterwards, researcher Zhang Yuan analyzed the connotation of cultural identity and cultural conflict, and sorted out the characteristics of regional conflicts since the period of U.S.-Soviet hegemony to the 1990s around the logic of regional culture. In the future international security cooperation, China's proposal of promoting coordination and benign interaction among major powers and promoting the construction of a pattern of peaceful coexistence, overall stability and balanced development of major power relations has great potential.

At the end of the lecture, Researcher Zhang Yuan interacted with the students present on how to alleviate the security deficit and the strategic security cooperation between China and Middle East countries, and answered the questions raised in detail.

Assistant Researcher Wen Shaobiao summarized the lecture and expressed his gratitude to Researcher Zhang Yuan for his wonderful lecture and the active participation of the students present.

As one of the important academic exchange platforms of the Middle East Studies Institute, the Middle East Studies Society is dedicated to deepening the understanding and research of the key regions, countries and major realities of the Middle East and related frontier theories, and realizing the positive interaction of academic research, academic discussion and academic dissemination.