On Wednesday, the Brookings Institution hosted a discussion about the state of the Egyptian revolution. Panelists included Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Tamara Wittes, Woodrow Wilson Center Fellow Robin Wright, Director of Research at the Brookings Doha Center Shadi Hamid, and Brookings Institution Vice President for Foreign Policy Martin Indyk. The moderator was David Gregory from NBC’s Meet the Press. For full event notes, continue reading below. ...

On Monday, The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) hosted a discussion concerning the Syrian Crisis in light of the recent failure of the draft resolution by U.N. Security Council (UNSC). The panel featured Senior Fellow for Regional Security at IISS Emile Hokayem, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy Dana Allen, and Senior Fellow for Land Warfare Brigadier Ben Barry. The discussion was chaired by Adam Ward, Director of Studies ...

On Friday, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted an event discussing the implications of the Arab Uprisings for Lebanon’s future. The event hosted speaker Mohamad Chatah, foreign policy advisor to former Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Hosting the event was Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Marwan Muasher. For full event notes, continue reading below. Or, click here for the  PDF The event began with a lecture ...

On Wednesday, December 14, 2011, the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center and Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East co-hosted an event entitled “Iran’s Hand in the Levant.” The discussion was moderated by Michele Dunne, Director of the Rafik Hariri Center at the Atlantic Council, and Barbara Slavin, Senior Fellow at the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council. The panel featured Randa Slim, a scholar at the Middle East ...

POMED is excited to be a participating organization in J Street's upcoming national conference. The event, called "Making History," will take place March 24-27 in Washington, DC. To see last year's impressive conference schedule, click here. To register for the 2012 conference, click here (more details on speakers and panels will be available soon). We hope to see you there!

On Thursday, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted an event entitled “The Price of Freedom and Democracy: Defiant Bahrainis and the Arab Spring.” The event honored Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, with the Ion Ratiu Democracy Award. The panel featured Mr. Rajab, Wafa Ali, a Bahraini journalist and public policy scholar at the Wilson Center, Carl Gershman, the president of the National Endowment for Democracy, ...

On Tuesday, the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted an event with the Project on Middle East Democracy and the Atlantic Council entitled “Egypt’s Parliamentary Elections: Expectations and Challenges.” The discussion featured Ibrahim Houdaiby, a freelance columnist and researcher for the Middle East, Michele Dunne, the director of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center on the Middle East, Magdy Samaan, a freelance journalist and MENA Democracy Fellow at the World Affairs Institute. ...

On Monday, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace held an event entitled “Will Economic Disruption Derail the Arab Spring?” The discussion featured Masood Ahmed, the International Monetary Fund’s Director of Middle East and Central Asia Department, Caroline Freund, the Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank, Robert D. Hormats, Undersecretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs, and Marina Ottaway, a Senior Associate ...

On Friday, The Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East in conjunction with Freedom House hosted a discussion panel regarding the potential outcomes of the current transitions taking place in several countries in the region, and the potential outcomes of several revolutionary struggles taking places in several more countries in the region. Freedom House also released their 2011 Countries at the Crossroads report, which reviews the current status ...

On Friday, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace held a panel discussion entitled “Previewing Tunisia’s Historic Elections.” The panel included Mongi Boughzala, professor of Economics, University of Tunis El-Manar and Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum Chiheb Ghazouani, Attorney at Law and Vice President of the Tunisian nongovernmental organization Afkar and Steven McInerney, Executive Director at the Project on Middle East Democracy, and moderated by J. Scott Carpenter, principal ...

On Tuesday, the Middle East Institute hosted a presentation by Randa Slim, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and Levant expert, which discussed the future of Hezbollah in the context of the Arab Spring. Slim addressed the way that Hezbollah views the Arab Spring, the domestic strategies of Hezbollah in the changing landscape of the Middle East, and how the Arab Spring affected the standing of Hezbollah in the ...

On Friday, the Middle East Policy Council hosted an event entitled "A Reawakened Rivalry: the GCC vs. Iran." The panel was moderated by Omar Kader, Chairman of the board at the Middle East Policy Council, and featured Thomas Lippman, former reporter, editor, and Middle East correspondent at the Washington Post, Thomas R. Mattair, executive director at the Middle East Policy Council, and Alex Vatanka, a scholar at the Middle East ...

On Thursday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted several Tunisian Ministers to discuss the future of U.S.-Tunisian relations and cooperation. Mr. Lionel Johnson, Vice President of Middle East and North Africa Affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce moderated the discussion and expressed his pleasure at the increase of Middle East and North Africa region events recently due to the Arab Spring. For full event notes, continue reading or click here for ...

On Thursday, the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia held a hearing about U.S. approaches to human rights policy in Syria and Iran. The panel included Michael Singh of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Mehdi Khalaji, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Alireza Nader of the RAND Corporation, Tony Badran, a Research Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, ...

On Friday, the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center held a discussion with David Ottaway, senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, with a welcome by Dr. Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, who opened the discussion by describing Ottaway’s new paper and how it relates Saudi Arabia to the Arab Spring.  For full event notes, continue reading. Or, click here ...

On Tuesday, the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and the National Security Network (NSN) hosted a panel discussion with Dr. James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, Geneive Abdo, fellow at the Century Foundation and the National Security Network, and Ted Piccone, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The event was moderated by Heather Hurlburt, executive director at NSN, with a welcome by Stephen McInerney, executive director ...

On Wednesday, the U.S. Institute of Peace hosted a discussion with Dr. Esther Brimmer, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, moderated by Dr. Abiodun Williams, Vice President of the Center for Conflict Management at the U.S. Institute of Peace, with a welcome by Dr. Richard Solomon, President of the U.S. Institute of Peace. For full event notes, continue reading. Or, click here for the PDF. On Wednesday, the U.S. Institute ...

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems announced their 2011 Democracy Awards Recipients. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT.), Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Judge Johann Kriegler of South Africa have been selected and will receive their awards on September 15 at IFES' annual Democracy Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C. In the announcement, IFES's chairman Peter Kelly said, "Senator Leahy embodies Chuck Manatt’s commitment to ensuring that everyone, regardless of their social status or country, ...