The West Asia Conference (WAC) is an annual event of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi. The first West Asia Conference was held in 2014 and it has become an important forum for deliberating issues related to India and the WANA region. The WAC provides a platform for policy makers, scholars and security analysts, both from India and the region, to exchange their views on the issues facing the Asian countries in general and WANA in particular.

The West Asian region continues to be in a state of flux for more than four years since the beginning of the Arab Spring. The pace as well as nature of transition in the countries which witnessed regime change during this period has been different but all these countries have witnessed unprecedented violence and mayhem. Moreover, there has been a clear lack of consensus among different groups struggling for power about the future roadmap for their countries. Ideology combined with popular aspirations for liberty, dignity and equality played an important role in the beginning but the absence of viable alternative mechanisms and incapacity of states to manage the resulting disorder have led to further escalation of the conflict. The resolution of various intra-state conflicts seems like a distant dream. Ideological differences are, in many cases, clearly evident in providing stimulus to conflicts within as well as among states.