On Tuesday, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a panel titled “An Israeli-Palestinian Agreement? What’s Possible and What Isn’t.” Haleh Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center, introduced the panel, which was moderated by Washington Post deputy editorial page editor Jackson Diehl. Panelists included Brandeis University professor Shai Feldman, author and Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar Aaron David Miller, and Hussein Ibish, a ...

On Tuesday, the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center and Gallup World Poll presented the key findings from a new poll entitled, “Egypt from Tahrir to Transition.” The event featured Gallup World Poll Deputy Director Jon Clifton and Mohammed Younis, senior analyst from the Abu Dhabi center. Clifton opened explaining the context of the World Poll initiative which began in 2005 and seeks to measure life evaluation trends across the globe. With ...

On Thursday, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a panel discussion on the future of women in the Middle East, with a specific focus on Tunisia and Egypt. The panelists included Lilia Labidi, Minister of Women’s Affairs, Republic of Tunisia, and Moushira Khattab, former Minister of Family & Population of Egypt. To see full notes, continue below. Or click here for the pdf. Lilia Labidi focused her comments on the ...

On Tuesday, the Carnegie Endowment in partnership with Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government hosted a conference entitled, "Middle East Uprisings: Options for the United States." The first panel was chaired by Stephen Walt, professor of international relations, Harvard Kennedy School, and featured Marina Ottaway, director, Carnegie Middle East Program, Marwan Muasher, vice president for studies, Carnegie Endowment, and Tarek Masoud, professor of public policy, Kennedy School. Continue reading ...

On Tuesday, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a debate to be aired on BBC's The World Debate on U.S. foreign policy in response to the uprisings in the Middle East. Matt Frei, anchor for BBC's World News America moderated the event and introduced the following panelists: Marwan Muasher, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment; Tamara Wittes, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Bureau of Near Eastern ...

Last week, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) held an all-day conference entitled “Democratization and Conflict in the Arab World: Challenges, Opportunities and Dangers.” The first panel featured USIP’s own Steve Heydemann and Daniel Brumberg, as well as Peter Mandaville of the US State Department and David Waldner from the University of Virginia. Continue reading below or click here for the pdf. The second panel featured USIP’s Sheldon Himelfarb as chair, ...

On Tuesday, the United States Institute of Peace, the National Democratic Institute, the Solidarity Center, and Human Rights Watch hosted a live video-conference with senior representatives of the Bahraini opposition including: Khalil Almarzooq, a leading member of the Al Wefaq Islamic National Society and its bloc’s official spokesperson; Dr. Muneera Fakhro, parliamentary member and senior leader of the leftist Wa’ad party; Mohammed Al Maskati, head of the Bahrain Youth Center ...

On Thursday, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a discussion with Iranian Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi about her new book, The Golden Cage: Three Brothers, Three Choices, One Destiny about the Iranian revolution and the struggle of activists and the human rights movement. Jessica Matthews, President of the Carnegie Endowment made opening remarks and Karim Sadjadpour moderated the event. To read full notes, continue below or click here for ...

On Thursday, April 14th and Friday, April 15th, the Managing Global Order project at the Brookings Institution and the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy hosted a conference on the foreign policies of emerging-market democracies and their efforts to advance human rights and democracy. The conference, called “Foreign Policies of Emerging-Market Democracies: What Role for Democracy and Human Rights?,” featured leading experts on Brazil, India, ...

On Friday, the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID) held their 12th Annual Conference under the theme “Tunisia’s and Egypt’s Revolutions and Transitions to Democracy.” CSID President Radwan Masmoudi opened the conference by giving special attention to discerning real and fake stability and development in Egypt and Tunisia. The first panel, chaired by George Washington University Visiting Scholar and Program Committee Chair for the event, Radwan Ziadeh, was ...

On Thursday, Freedom House, in partnership with the Democracy Coalition Project and the Open Society Foundations, hosted a briefing on the importance of U.S. engagement at the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.  Advocacy Director at Freedom House Paula Schriefer moderated the event and introduced the following panelists: Dr. Thaung Htun, Representative for UN Affairs from the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma; Hadi Ghaemi, Executive Director at the ...

On Thursday, the Middle East Institute (MEI) hosted Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Middle East Bureau at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Thomas Garrett, Vice President for Programs at the International Republican Institute (IRI), to discuss “Reform and Development in Egypt: U.S. Goals and Priorities.” The event was moderated by Kate Seelye, Vice President at MEI.   For full notes, continue below.  For pdf version, click here.   Seelye opened ...

On Tuesday, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Yemen Working Group and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) hosted a live video conference with leaders of the Yemeni opposition. The event which was moderated by Tara Sonenshine, Executive Vice President of USIP and Les Campbell, Senior Associate and Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at NDI featured the following panelists:  Tawakkol Karman, head of the Yemeni NGO, ...

On Monday, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted a discussion on the unsolved “democratic question” in Iran in light of the recent regional developments. Director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center Haleh Esfandiari, introduced the speaker, Roberto Toscano, Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and Former Italian Ambassador to India and to Iran. To read full notes, continue below or click here for pdf. Roberto Toscano began by ...

On Tuesday, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) held a discussion for the release of the new IFES desk study entitled “Duality by Design: The Iranian Electoral System,” which provides insight to the “rules of the game” for Iran’s electoral politics. The event was moderated by John D. Lawrence, Congressional Affairs Manager at IFES, who made opening remarks and introduced panelists: Yasmin Alem, author of the desk study; Andrew ...

On Tuesday, the Stimson Center hosted a discussion--organized by Knowledge Programme Civil Society of the Dutch organization Hivos that aims to gain insights on civic activism in authoritarian settings in Syria and Iran--on the future of non-democratic regimes in the Middle East and the policy implications of the unprecedented, and unexpected, recent popular uprisings in the region. Ellen Laipson, President and CEO of the Stimson Center made opening remarks and introduced ...

On Thursday, March 10, 2011, IRI hosted a video teleconference discussion with several leading civic and political actors in Egypt. On the call were Abdullah Helmy of the Reform & Development Party; Shady Taha, a leader in Al Ghad Party; Hossam El Din Ali from the Egyptian Democratic Academy; Israa Abd El Fatah, a founding member of the April 6 Youth Movement; and Kamal Nabil, a human rights activist in ...

On Wednesday, the Stimson Center hosted a Chairman’s Forum with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) where he discussed pragmatic approaches to national security. The event was moderated by Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr, chairman of the Stimson Center’s Board of Directors. To read full notes, continue below or click here for pdf.Senator Graham began by discussing the legal quandary of Guantanamo Bay detainees before moving on to discuss the situation in Libya.  The senator ...

The Brookings Institution hosted a forum on Monday with moderator Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Vice President and Director of the Foreign Policy program at Brookings and featured speaker Foreign Minister Nasser S. Judeh.  Martin Indyk made brief introductory remarks acknowledging the presence of the ambassadors from Morocco, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority in the audience.To read full notes continue below, or click here for pdf.   ...

On Wednesday, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted presentations by three of the authors of the United States Institute of Peace’s (USIP) Iran Primer. Shaul Bakhash, Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History at George Mason University, Geneive Abdo, Director of the Iran Program at The Century Foundation, and Robin Wright, joint Senior Fellow at USIP and the Wilson Center all delivered presentations on Iran’s domestic political scene. Director ...