Sadat Forum featured Middle East Experts

At the 2015 Sadat Forum, two Middle East experts—career diplomat William J. Burns, President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and former Deputy Secretary of State, and Dr. Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development—discussed American involvement in the region since 9/11.

The discussion included the response to the Arab Uprisings; Developments in Egypt, Syria, Libya, and Yemen; the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; and the evolving relationship with Iran.

Opening remarks were offered by President Wallace Loh and Dean Gregory Ball.

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[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1879","attributes":{"alt":"Burns","class":"media-image","height":"480","style":"width: 150px; height: 226px; margin: 5px; float: left;","width":"319"}}]]The Hon. William J. Burns is President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and is a Former Deputy Secretary of State, Former Under Secretary of State, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and Former Ambassador to Russia and to Jordan. Ambassador Burns retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a distinguished 33-year diplomatic career. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become deputy secretary of state. Upon his retirement, President Obama said of Secretary Burns: “Since I took office, I have relied on him for candid advice and sensitive diplomatic missions—he has been a skilled advisor, consummate diplomat, and inspiration to generations of public servants.”

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1882","attributes":{"alt":"telhami","class":"media-image","height":"480","style":"font-size: 1rem; line-height: 1.6; width: 150px; height: 203px; float: left; margin: 5px;","width":"354"}}]]Dr. Shibley Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has written extensively on peace, the Middle East and American foreign policy, including his most recent books, The World Through Arab Eyes: Arab Public Opinion and the Reshaping of the Middle East (Basic Books, 2013); and the Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011 (Co-authored; Cornell University Press, 2013).He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a founding board member of the Education for Employment Foundation. Dr. Telhami has served on the board of Human Rights Watch, as well as the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has served on the U.S. Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, which was appointed by the Department of State at the request of Congress, and he co-drafted the report of their findings, “Changing Minds, Winning Peace.”Dr. Telhami has long been active in foreign policy—serving in a variety of roles, including advisor to the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

About the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development and the Sadat Forum
The goals of the Anwar Sadat Chair, and of the professor who occupies it, are to further the dialogue for peace in the Middle East and throughout the world; to bridge the gap that often occurs between the academic and policy worlds, bringing the policy community of Washington, D.C. in closer touch with the latest research findings; and to maintain an active and rigorous research agenda. Professor Shibley Telhami was invested on October 7, 1997 as the first Sadat Professor.

Through the Sadat Forum, the community of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences continues to honor the peacemaking legacy of Anwar Sadat, the third president of Egypt. The Sadat Forum was organized a decade ago and supplements the Sadat Lecture for Peace, which has hosted renowned speakers including Nelson Mandela, President Carter, Kofi Anan, Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright, and His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. www.sadat.umd.edu.

Published on Mon, Sep 28, 2015 - 1:56PM