Middle East Institute & Israel Policy Forum are honored to co-host Aaron David Miller to discuss his new book "The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace." For nearly twenty years, Miller has played a central role in U.S. efforts to broker Arab-Israeli peace. His position as an advisor to presidents, secretaries of state, and national security advisors has given him a unique perspective on a problem that American leaders have wrestled with for more than half a century.

Middle East Institute is honored to host Aram Roston, to discuss his new book,"THE MAN WHO PUSHED AMERICA TO WAR: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE, ADVENTURES AND OBSESSIONS OF AHMAD CHALABI," an explosive biography that tells the untold story of the man who is largely responsible for the war in Iraq.

Middle East Institute is honored to host Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi to discuss the "Situation in Iran."

Ebrahim Yazdi lives in Tehran with his wife, and presently serves as Secretary-General of the Freedom Movement of Iran.

Middle East Institute is honored to host Michael Ware, to discuss the "Situtation on the Ground in Iraq." Ware is a CNN correspondent based in the international news network’s Baghdad bureau.

Ware joined CNN in June 2006 and quickly established himself as one of the foremost on air experts on Iraq, providing in-depth analysis and reports across all CNN networks.

Since joining CNN, Ware has also reported from Lebanon where he was involved in the network’s coverage of the Israel-Hezbollah crisis in the summer of 2006.

J. Stephen Morrison, Director, Africa Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)
Ali Richi, Deputy Secretary General of Foreign liaisons and international Cooperation in charge of Migration.
Miloud Mehadabi, Director of International affairs, Green Book Centre
Moderator: Herman Cohen, Cohen and Woods International and former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

Introduction by Wendy Chamberlin, President of the Middle East Institute
Jeffrey Feltman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs

Ibrahim Aboukhazam, Rector, Nasser University
Ronald Bruce St. John, Historian of US-Libyan Relations
Ali Abdussalam Triki, Deputy Secretary General For Foreign liaisons and international Cooperation in charge of African Affairs
Daniel Yergin, Chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA)
Moderator: Charles O. Cecil, former US Ambassador to Niger and recent US Chargé in Libya

Marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Middle East Institute & Foundation for Middle East Peace are honored to present Dalia Mogahed to discuss her timely new book, co-authored with John L. Esposito, "Who Speaks For Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think," the result of six years of research and more than 50,000 interviews representing 1.3 billion Muslims who reside in more than 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have sizable Muslim populations.

The Middle East Institute is honored to present Michael M. Gunter to discuss his new book, “The Kurds Ascending; The Evolving Solution to the Kurdish Problem in Iraq and Turkey,” a narrative that exposes the prospects of a positive future for the the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey.

Danny Seidemann is an Israeli lawyer and legal counsel to Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO concerned with the future of Jerusalem. He is a leading expert on Jerusalem's municipal operations, planning, and residency rights. Ir Amim has been an invaluable resource for policy makers, diplomats and journalists. Seidemann has appeared frequently before the Supreme Court of Israel on Jerusalem-related issues.

Middle East Institute and Israel Policy Forum are proud to co-host Alon Liel, Chairman of the Israel-Syria Peace Society and former Director General of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dr. Liel has served in several foreign ministry posts and has spearheaded unofficial talks with prominent Syrians on a Syrian-Israeli peace treaty. Dr. Liel now lectures at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.

Middle East Institute is honored to host Ambassador David Satterfield to give an update on the situation in Iraq following the President and Secretary of State's trip to the Middle East region, including provincial and national leadership, and the diplomatic activities on a regional level.

Roy Gutman, a former senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (2002-2003), is an award-winning journalist who has reported on international affairs for more than three decades. He is currently foreign editor at the McClatchy Washington bureau. His new book, "How We Missed the Story; Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan," is a narrative that exposes how and why the U.S. government, the United Nations, and the Western media "missed the story" in the leadup to 9/11.

Ambassador Pierre Vimont, Ambassador of France to the United States

Patrick Clawson, Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Hillary Mann Leverett, former National Security Council director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs
Ray Takeyh, Council on Foreign Relations
David Mack, Middle East Institute

Views from Jordan, Syria and Lebanon

Fares Braizat, Director and Senior Researcher of University of Jordan's Centre for Strategic Studies
Murhaf Jouejati, National Defense University, Former Advisor to the Syrian delegation during the Middle East peace talks
Judith P. Harik, President of Matn University, Beirut and leading expert on Hezbollah
Trita Parsi, National Iranian American Council (NIAC)

Views from Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia

Sami Al-Faraj, President of the Kuwait Centre for Strategic Studies
Ibtisam Al-Kitbi, UAE University
Wahid Hashim, King Abdul Aziz University - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Barbara Slavin, Senior Diplomatic Reporter for USA Today, USIP

Gary Sick, Senior Research scholar at SIPA's Middle East Institute, Columbia University
Hooshang Amirahmadi, Founder and President, American Iranian Council (AIC)
John Limbert, U.S. Naval Academy, former 14 month hostage in Iran
Kenneth Pollack, Brookings Institution

For three decades, Mr. Cole has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context, and his most recent book is Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). He also writes on current events, and his articles on contemporary Sunni radicalism include "Muslim Religious Extremism in Egypt" in Middle East Historiographies (University of Washington Press, 2006) and "The Taliban, Women, and the Hegelian Private Sphere," Social Research (Fall 2003).

Middle East Institute is honored to host MK Ephraim Sneh, former Deputy Defense Minister of Israel. Minister Sneh has served in the Knesset since 1982 and as Minister of Health (1993-1996), Deputy Minister of Defense (1999-2001), and Minister of Transportation (2001-2002). In March 2006, he was re-elected to the Knesset and served as Chairman of the Labor Parliamentary Faction. In October 2006, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense for the second time.

Jared Cohen, a Rhodes Scholar, received his B.A. from Stanford University and his Master's in International Relations from Oxford University. He is also author of the book One Hundred Days of Silence: America and the Rwanda Genocide (Rowman & Littlefield). Since writing this book, he joined the U.S. Department of State.

In this episode, Cohen discusses his new book, "Children of Jihad."

Mr. Clarke discussed the five myths he said are circulating around Washington regarding current US relations with the Middle East.

His Excellency Abdullah Alireza, Minister of State, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Ambassador David L. Mack, Vice President of The Middle East Institute, deliver closing remarks at the Middle East Institute's 61st Annual Conference, "The Middle East In 2010."

The panel discussed the prospective legacy of the jihadists fighting in Iraq. The speakers focused on the military and ideological influence of the new generation of jihadists in Iraq. They emphasized the importance of working to undermine the jihadist ideology as much as combating terrorism by military means.

The panelists discussed what they considered current trends in the Middle East and gave some of their own suggestions as to where American policy in the region should be directed in the near future.

The panelists discussed the situation and challenges facing Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. They emphasized the importance of addressing the consequences of the refugees’ plight because these problems can lead to feelings of anger and despair, which can easily become exploited by radical forces. The speakers addressed ways to improve the situation, linking the Palestinian refugee situation to the Israeli and Palestinian peace process.

John Burns spoke about the situation in Iraq. His remarks were peppered with anecdotes from his childhood and his experiences as a correspondent. Mr. Burns stressed his belief that there is no simple solution to Iraq and we need to look to the future rather than blame past actions. He also addressed the responsibilities and limitations of journalists in Iraq.

Zamir Akram, Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, delivered remarks at the Middle East Institute regarding relations between Pakistan and the United States on the War on Terror. His comments covered a brief history of the relations between the two countries, emphasizing a “trust deficit” that has developed over the past 30 years. According to Akram, the future of this relationship should lie in a more substance-based strategic relationship built on long-term interests.

Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs John Hillen laid out a new security architecture for US relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council. He stressed the need for multilateral cooperation in seven key areas in order to face new challenges involving Iraq and Iran.