Council Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 4 (Fall – Winter 2011) (.pdf file)
WHITHER THE ARAB-U.S. RELATIONSHIP IN THE PERIOD AHEAD? POLICY IMPLICATIONS FROM THE LEAGUE OF ARAB STATES
Chair:
Ms. Barbara G. B. Ferguson - Washington Bureau Chief, Arab News; Co-Chair, International Correspondents Committee, The National Press Club, Washington, D.C.; author, “Country Reports” on Bahrain, Morocco, and Kazakhstan for the Washington Times; embedded war correspondent during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Kuwait in 1990-1991 and in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
Speaker:
H.E. Ambassador Dr. Hussein Hassouna - Chief Representative of the League of Arab States to the United States.
Commentators:
Mr. Bill Corcoran - President, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA).
Mr. John Moran - Career Member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, United States Department of State; Distinguished Diplomat-in-Residence, National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations.
GEOPOLITICAL DYNAMICS (V): Iran
Chair:
Dr. John L. Iskander - Chair, Near East and North Africa Area Studies, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State.
Speakers:
Mr. Afshin Molavi - Senior Fellow, New America Foundation; Senior Middle East Advisor, Oxford Analytica; and author, The Soul of Iran.
Dr. Janne Nolan - Director, Nuclear Security Programs, American Security Project; former Professor of International Affairs and Deputy Director of the Ridgway Center, University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Flynt Leverett - Director, Iran Initiative, and Senior Research Fellow, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation; and author, Dealing with Tehran: Assessing U.S. Diplomatic Options toward Iran and Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial by Fire.
Dr. Kenneth B. Katzman - Specialist in Middle East Affairs in the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.
GEOPOLITICAL DYNAMICS (IV): Palestine
Chair:
Mr. Yousef Munayyer - Executive Director, Palestine Center and the Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development.
Speakers:
Ms. Michelle Steinberg - Counterintelligence Editor, Executive Intelligence Review (EIR).
Dr. Ghada Karmi - Co-Director, Centre of Palestine Studies, University of Exeter.
Dr. Norton Mezvinsky - Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Connecticut State University; President, International Council for Middle East Studies.
LIBYA: THE WAY FORWARD
Introduction of Speaker:
Ms. Harriet Fulbright - President, J. William & Harriet Fulbright Center; Founder, Harriet Fulbright College.
Speaker:
H.E. Ambassador Ali Aujali - National Transitional Council of Libya Ambassador to the United States.
VIDEOKEYNOTE ADDRESS BY HRH PRINCE TURKI AL-FAISAL
HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal Al Sa’ud - Chairman, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; former Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United Kingdom and to the United States of America; former Director General, General Intelligence Directorate, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL (GCC) DYNAMICS (III)
Chair:
Dr. John Duke Anthony - Founding President and CEO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, and author, inter alia, of Arab States of the Lower Gulf: People, Politics, Petroleum and Historical and Cultural Dictionary of the Sultanate of Oman and the Emirates of Eastern Arabia.
Speakers:
Dr. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla - Professor of Political Science, Emirates University (Abu Dhabi); lead author, 2008 Arab Knowledge Report. (UAE)
Dr. Abdulla Al-Shayji - Chairman, Department of Political Science, Kuwait University, and author, Kuwait’s Ceaseless Quest for Survival in a Hostile Environment. (Kuwait)
Mr. Jeremy Jones - Author of Negotiating Change: The New Politics of the Middle East and the forthcoming Oman, Culture and Diplomacy; Senior Associate Member, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies; National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations Distinguished International Fellow. (Oman)
Dr. Thomas Mattair - Executive Director, Middle East Policy Council; former Research Scholar, Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research; author,The Three Occupied UAE Islands: The Tunbs and Abu Musa and Global Security Watch — Iran: A Reference Handbook. (Bahrain)
Commentator:
Mr. Robert Lacey - Historian, and author of, inter alia, The Kingdom: Arabia & the House of Sa’ud (1982) and Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia (2009). (Saudi Arabia)
BUSINESS, INVESTMENT, AND FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT DYNAMICS AND PROSPECTS
Chair:
Mr. Michael Markland - Vice President for Private Wealth Management, Morgan Stanley (Dubai).
Speakers:
Ambassador Ford Fraker - Senior Adviser and Chairman for the Middle East and North Africa Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P.; former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
Ambassador Joseph LeBaron - Senior Adviser, Patton Boggs LLP; former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar and Mauritania.
Mr. Danny E. Sebright - President, U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council.
Mr. Lionel C. Johnson - Vice President, Middle East and North Africa Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
A VIEW FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Speaker:
Dr. Tamara Wittes - Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs and Deputy Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions, U.S. Department of State.
GEOPOLITICAL DYNAMICS (II): Arab North Africa (The Maghreb) / Syria / Yemen
Chair:
Ms. Jennifer Salan - Senior Producer, The Stream, Al Jazeera English.
Speakers:
Dr. Néjib Ayachi - Founder and President, Maghreb Center. (Tunisia)
Dr. Michele Dunne - Director, Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East; former Member, White House National Security Council Staff and the Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff, as well as Bureau of Intelligence and Research; and service as a Diplomat in Cairo and Jerusalem. (Egypt)
Mr. Christopher Blanchard - Middle East Policy Analyst, Congressional Research Service. (Syria / Yemen)
Ms. Randa Fahmy Hudome - President, Fahmy Hudome International; former Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy; Member, Board of Directors, National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. (Libya)
Dr. Esam Omeish
GEOPOLITICAL DYNAMICS (I): Iraq
Chair:
Dr. Kenneth B. Katzman - Specialist in Middle East Affairs in the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.
Speakers:
Dr. Eric Davis - Professor of Political Science and former Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Rutgers University; author of Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq and the forthcoming Taking Democracy Seriously in Iraq.
Dr. Juan Cole - Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History, University of Michigan; author of Engaging the Muslim World and Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East; former President, Middle East Studies Association of North America.
Dr. Paul Sullivan - Professor of Economics, Industrial College of Armed Forces, National Defense University; Adjunct Professor of Security Studies and Science, Technology and International Affairs, Georgetown University.
Ms. Shameem Rassam - Media Expert and Analyst, Alhurra Television-Iraq.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Introduction of Speaker:
Dr. John Duke Anthony - Founding President and CEO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, and author, inter alia, of Arab States of the Lower Gulf: People, Politics, Petroleum and Historical and Cultural Dictionary of the Sultanate of Oman and the Emirates of Eastern Arabia.
Speaker:
H.E. Ambassador Sameh Shoukry - Ambassador of Egypt to the United States.
Remarks by:
H.E. Dr. Adnan Ahmed Al-Ansari - Ambassador and Observer, Permanent Mission of the Gulf Cooperation Council to the United Nations; former Director, Research Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sultanate of Oman.
H.E. Nasser Tammimi - Political Counselor to the Ambassador and Observer, Permanent Mission of the Gulf Cooperation Council to the United Nations; formerly, Senior Political Adviser to the Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, Secretariat General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
H.E. AMBASSADOR SHOUKRY AUDIO (.mp3)
H.E. DR. AL-ANSARI AUDIO (.mp3)
ENERGY DYNAMICS
Chair:
The Honorable Molly Williamson - Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations; Adjunct Scholar, Middle East Institute; Immediate Past Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to the Secretary of Energy (2005-2008); former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the Middle East, South Asia, Oceania and Africa (1999-2004); former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (1993-1995).
Speakers:
Dr. Herman T. Franssen - Executive Director, Energy Intelligence Group; Senior Associate, Energy and National Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Mr. Jay Pryor - Vice President for Corporate Business Development, Chevron Corporation.
Ms. Randa Fahmy Hudome - President, Fahmy Hudome International; former Associate Deputy Secretary of Energy; Member, Board of Directors, National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations.
DYNAMICS OF DEFENSE COOPERATION
Chair:
Ambassador James Larocco - Director, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University; former U.S. Ambassador to the State of Kuwait.
Speakers:
Dr. Joseph Moynihan - Chairman, Board of Directors, National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations; Vice President, Northrop Grumman Electronics Systems.
General Joseph Hoar (USMC, Ret.) - Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Central Command with planning and operations responsibility for 27 countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, and the Horn of Africa; Chairman, J.P. Hoar & Associates, a consulting firm engaged in business development in the Middle East and Africa.
Commentators:
Col. David Des Roches (USA) - Professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University; National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations Malone Fellow in Arab and Islamic Studies.
Mr. Bob Sharp - Assistant Professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University.
THE MESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. - Chairman of the Board, Projects International, Inc., a Washington, D.C.−based development firm specializing in international joint ventures, acquisitions, and other business operations for its American and foreign clients; former President, Middle East Policy Council; former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (1993-94), earning the Department of Defense’s highest public service awards for his roles in designing a NATO-centered post-Cold War security system and in reestablishing defense and military relations with China; former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm); Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the U.S. mediation of Namibian independence from South Africa and Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola; and author of the newly published America’s Misadventures in the Middle East as well as The Diplomat’s Dictionary (Revised Edition) and Arts of Power: Statecraft and Diplomacy.
Council Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 3 (Fall – Winter 2010)
(.pdf file)
POLICY DIRECTIONS FROM THE LEAGUE OF ARAB STATES
H.E. Ambassador Dr. Hussein Hassouna – Chief Representative of the League of Arab States to the United States.
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S ‘NATIONAL EXPORT INITIATIVE’ AND ARAB MARKETS: Growing Relationships
Mr. Francisco J. Sánchez – Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade and Head of the International Trade Administration
BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT
CHAIR:
Ms. Barbara G. B. Ferguson – Washington Bureau Chief, Arab News; Co-Chair, International correspondents committee, The National Press Club, Washington, D.C.; author, “Country Reports” on Bahrain, Morocco, and Kazakhstan for theWashington Times; embedded war correspondent during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Kuwait in 1990-1991 and in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
SPEAKERS:
Ambassador Ford M. Fraker − Senior Adviser and Chairman for the Middle East and North Africa Group at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P.
Dr. Hani K. Findakly – Investment Banker and Director of Clinton Group, Inc.; former Vice Chairman of the Clinton Group; Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and its task forces on “The Balkans 2010” and “Middle East Trade and Investments.”
Mr. Brad Bourland − Chief Economist at Jadwa Investment Company.
Dr. Lama Suleiman − First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI).
