Details

When

April 7, 2015, 3:00 pm - March 28, 2024, 12:29 pm

Where

Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Rome Auditorium, 1619 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, District of Columbia 20036 (Map)

As Iraq tries to re-take territory from ISIS, what are the challenges it faces? How are efforts to re-integrate Sunni fighting forces proceeding, and what steps have been taken toward a more inclusive government? Baghdad's relations with Iraqi Kurdistan are still fraught. Oil prices are dramatically lower than once expected. The country's most important friends - the United States and Iran - are trying to reach a nuclear deal even as they support opposing forces in Syria and Yemen. How will lraq manage in this turbulent and challenging environment?

The Middle East Institute (MEI) and the Conflict Management Program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) welcomed the Ambassador of Iraq, His Excellency Lukman Faily, and Abbas Kadhim (SAIS) for a discussion about Iraq and its future.

Biographies:

Amb. Lukman Faily has served his country as Ambassador to the United States since July 2013. His previous diplomatic service was as Iraq’s Ambassador to Japan (2010-2013) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Prior to his government service, Mr. Faily lived in the United Kingdom for 20 years, working at senior levels in the information technology industry. He was an active leader in the large Iraqi exile community and served as a trustee for several non-governmental Iraqi organizations. He played an active role in opposing Saddam’s dictatorship and advocated for democracy and the rule of law in Iraq. Ambassador Faily holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Manchester Metropolitan University, a Master in Business Administration in Technology Management and a postgraduate degree in Computing for Commerce and Industry.

Abbas Kadhim (Discussant) is a senior foreign policy fellow at SAIS. He specializes in Iraq, the Persian Gulf, and Islam. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. His recent publications include Reclaiming Iraq: the 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State (The University of Texas Press 2012), The Hawza under Siege: A Study in the Ba‘th Party Archive, (Boston University Institute for Iraqi Studies 2013), and Handbook of Governance in the Middle East and North Africa (Routledge, 2013). He is currently engaged in a research project examining the Ba’ath Party Archives hosted by the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

Daniel Serwer (Moderator) is a senior research professor of Conflict Management and senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, as well as a scholar at the Middle East Institute. Formerly vice president for centers of peacebuilding innovation at the United States Institute of Peace (2009-10), he led teams there working on rule of law, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance, and gender.  He was also vice president for peace and stability operations at USIP (1998-2009), where he led its peacebuilding work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and the Balkans and served as executive director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group. Serwer has worked on preventing inter-ethnic and sectarian conflict in Iraq and has facilitated dialogue between Serbs and Albanians in the Balkans.