China's Cultural Genocide Against the Uyghurs
2018-11-14 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | NIF, 1800 K st. Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
Luncheon Discussion on US China Relations and Human Rights

A Luncheon Discussion on
US-China Relations and Human Rights

The National Interest Foundation is pleased to invite you to attend our luncheon discussion where expert Omer Kanat will tackle the issue of Uyghur Muslims and the Xinjang “education” camps. Pervasive ethnic discrimination, severe religious repression, and increasing cultural suppression justified by the government in the name of the “fight against separatism, religious extremism, and terrorism” continue to fuel rising tensions in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Xinjiang’s mass indoctrination centers are expected to be an area of focus during a major United Nations Human Rights Council review of China this month.
Occurring this month as well, in a possible sign of resolving the trade dispute between the US and China, the U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Chinese politburo member Yang Jiechi and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe will take part in diplomatic and security talks. Mattis and Wei discussed that the world’s two largest economies need to deepen high-level ties to reduce the risk of conflict.

About our Speaker:

Omer Kanat is the chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Uyghur Congress. He co-founded the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) in 2003, as well as the World Uyghur Youth Congress, where he served as president from 1996-2000. Mr. Kanat was the Senior Editor of Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service, where he covered the War in Afghanistan & Iraq, edited Uyghur-language news, and conducted interviews with prominent figures in Inner Asia, including his holiness the Dalai Lama.

The Future of Democracy in Tunisia
2019-01-22 12:00 - 13:30 | NIF, 1800 K st. Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
A luncheon discussion with elected female parliamentarian from Tunisia,
Meherzia Labidi Maïza
The National Interest Foundation is pleased to invite you to attend our luncheon discussion where Meherzia Labidi tackles the question on Tunisia’s future of a stable democracy.
Tunisia is the sole democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring protests that ripped through the region over the past decade. By 2013, the democratic process was almost derailed by unfulfilled economic promises, political and ideological disagreements, and foreign meddling. Fortunately, local and international mediation then helped to avert catastrophe and pave the way for elections. But less than a year before the next general election, scheduled for late 2019, the country is again in crisis. Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi warned this past Monday that the country’s democratic experience is not in a safe situation. He also warned of the risks of a general strike called by his country’s largest labour union for Thursday. What happens next is a critical test of where Tunisian democracy is headed.

About our Speaker:
Known as “most senior elected woman in the Middle East”, Meherzia Labidi Maïza is currently a member of the Tunisian Parliament and Head of the Committee For Women, Family, Children and the Elderly Affairs. She was proud of helping to include a clause to protect women’s rights into Tunisia’s post Arab Spring constitution. She is also the honorary president of the organisation Religion for Peace. She has a degree in English literature and writes on topics linked to women and education. She is also a translator, and specialises in Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic finance. She holds a certificate in theatre studies and a Master’s degree in translation from Sorbonne University. She teaches translation at the European Institute of Social Science in Paris.

Why the U.S. Always Gets It Wrong On the Middle East
2019-02-06 12:00 - 13:30 | 1800 K Street, NW, Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
A luncheon discussion with
David Hearst
Foreign Policy Writer and Editor

The National Interest Foundation is pleased to invite you to attend our luncheon discussion where David Hearst tackles the topic of U.S. foreign policy and the Middle East.
Our estrangement from the Middle East derives from trends that are much deeper than the manifest deficiencies of executive and congressional leadership in Washington. The U.S and our partners in the Middle East have developed contradictory interests and priorities. Where shared values existed at all, they have increasingly diverged. There have been massive changes in geoeconomics, energy markets, power balances, demographics, religious ideologies and attitudes toward America. Many of these changes were catalyzed by historic and recent U.S policy errors.
Join us as we evaluate these faulty methods and discuss new strategy ideas in approaching the Middle East.

About our Speaker:
David Hearst is the Editor in Chief of the Middle East Eye. He left The Guardian as its chief foreign leader writer. In a career spanning 29 years, he covered the Brighton bomb, the miner’s strike, the loyalist backlash in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in Northern Ireland, the first conflicts in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in Slovenia and Croatia, the end of the Soviet Union , Chechnya, and the bushfire wars that accompanied it. He charted Boris Yeltsin’s moral and physical decline and the conditions which created the rise of Putin. After Ireland, he was appointed Europe correspondent for Guardian Europe, then joined the Moscow bureau in 1992, before becoming bureau chief in 1994. He left Russia in 1997 to join the foreign desk, became European editor and then Associate Foreign Editor. He joined The Guardian from The Scotsman, where he worked as an education correspondent. @davidahearst

The American Middle East Policy Summit - The Forum Intellectual: United States Policy in the Middle East (Visions and Transformations)
2019-03-23 | Dosso Dossi Hotels, 34080, Aksemsettin Mahallesi, Istanbul, Turkey
Time
Sessions Manager
Panelists Speaker
Sessions

9.30AM – 10.00AM

Mr. Mohammad Al-Rashed
Khaled Saffuri

Opening Remarks

10.00AM – 11.30AM
Dr.Ali – Alkandari
Khaled El Gindy, Brookings Institution
Karen Attiah, Global Opinions Editor, Washington Post
Dr. Amr Darrag, Egyptian Institute for Studies
Dr. Burhan Aldin Duran, Director of SETA
A Case for Dignity: Freedom and Autocracy in the Middle East

11.30AM – 11.45AM

Break

11.45AM – 1.15PM
Saul Anuzis
Rep. Nick Rahall, Former U.S. Congressman
Doug Bandow, Cato Institute and the Huffington Post
Dr. Ahmed Ramadan,
Prof. Ahmet Uysal, Director of Middle Eastern Studies Center, Ankara
The U.S and Middle East: In Search of Strategy

1.15PM – 2.15PM

Lunch

2.15PM – 3.45PM
Dr. Ahmed Attawna
Rep. James Moran, Former U.S. Congressman
John Fund, Editor of National Review Online, Political Commentator on FOX news
Dr. Abdullah Al, Kuwait University
Dr. Hakki Uygur, Center for Iranian Studies, Ankara
Will there be a US war on Iran?

3.45PM – 4.00PM

Break

4.00PM – 5.30PM
Dr. Gammal Nassar
Michael Steele, Former Chairman of Republican Party, Political Commentator MSNBC
Tim Constantine, Capitol Hill Show
Dr. Halil Mutlu, Turkish American Steering Committee
Dr. Ali Bakir, Kuwait University
Dr. Talha Kosa, Ibn Haldun University
The United States and Turkey in the Middle East: Managing Conflict and Forging Cooperation

Arrive: March 22, 2019
Panel Discussions: March 23, 2019
Social Day and Istanbul Tour: March 24, 2019
Departure: March 25, 2019

"Yemen: A Brutal War, US Involvement, & Options"
2019-04-11 12:00 - 14:00 | NIF, 1800 K st. Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
Discussion With Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson:
VIP EVENT
The Yemen war has entered its fifth year with no end in sight, a staggering human toll, and no convincing results to speak of. Over 100,000 Yemeni children have been killed by Saudi-led bombings, hunger and lack of basic medical care. Terrorist groups such as AlQaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS have reemerged stronger in alliance with the Saudi-led coalition.
Why is the United States involved in this war, and what are the long-term repercussions of this war that created the largest humanitarian crisis? What should the U.S. do to avert greater instability in the region and at what cost? Join us for a discussion with colonel Wilkerson, a seasoned military and political expert who will offer a realistic and balanced explanation of the conflict.
Featured Speaker:
Lawrence Wilkerson is a Former Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell’s. He also served as Associate Director of the State Department’s Policy Planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard N. Haass, where he was responsible for East Asia and the Pacific, political, military and legislative affairs (2001-02).
Before serving at the State Department, Wilkerson served in the U.S. Army 31 years. During that time, he was a member of the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College (1987 to 1989), Special Assistant to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Powell (1989-93), and Director and Deputy Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia (1993-97). Wilkerson retired from active service in 1997 in the rank of a colonel to work as an adviser to General Powell.

The Deal of the Century and Israeli Democracy: How Palestinian Citizens of Israel are the Key to Peace in the Middle East
2019-06-12 12:00 - 13:30 | NIF, 1800 K st. Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
A luncheon discussion with Jafar Farah
Founder and Director of The Mossawa Center, the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens of Israel
The National Interest Foundation is pleased to invite you to attend our luncheon discussion during which Jafar Farah will examine prospects for Middle East peace in light of the recent announcements on Israeli elections and political developments in the United States.
The United States has an interest in protecting the security of its long-term ally, Israel, and thereby also has an interest in achieving a negotiated settlement in Israel and Palestine, which would improve regional security. However, the ongoing tendency to disregard the needs of Palestinians, both in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel, has precluded the achievement of sustainable and just peace, undermining regional security and the livelihoods of Palestinians and Israelis alike.

About our Speaker:
Jaffar Farah is the Founder and Director of Mossawa, the Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel. Jafar is a long-time advocate and activist for civil rights for the Arab community. He was formerly chair of the National Union of Arab Students and President of the Committee for Arab Students at the University of Haifa. After holding these posts, he founded CEGAS, the Center for Educational Guidance for Arab Students. As a community organizer and activist, he was involved in establishing several organizations such as I’lam, ACAP (Arab Center for Alternative Planning) and the follow-up committee for Arab education. Before establishing Mossawa, Jafar worked as a journalist for the local network of Ha’aretz and as a TV producer. He continues to write articles that are published regularly in the Hebrew and Arabic press. He is one of the founders of the first Arab-language television station in Israel: Hala TV.

Egypt, What's Next? with Dr. Amr Darrag
2019-10-24 12:00 - 14:00 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend our lunch discussion on Egypt with Dr. Amr Darrag.
About our Speaker:
Dr. Amr Darrag served as Egypt’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation. In 2014, he established and is currently Chairman of “The Egyptian Institute for Political and Strategic Studies” a think tank based in Istanbul, Turkey. He was elected as Secretary General of the Assembly drafting the 2012 Egyptian Constitution. He is a founding member and used to be member of the Executive Board of the Egyptian Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). He served as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and Chairman of the Development and Planning Committee of the FJP. Before that, he was elected Secretary General of the FJP in Giza Governorate, 2011. He was originally a Civil Engineering Professor at Cairo University and he got his Ph.D. from Purdue University, USA in 1987. He was elected as Vice-Chairman of Cairo University Staff Association, 1999-2008. He has been partner and top executive of several international and Egyptian engineering consultancy firms.

Libya: What Does the Berlin Conference Have in Store?
2019-11-12 12:30 - 14:00 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
In the coming months, perhaps weeks, Germany plans to hold a UN-backed international conference on the future of Libya. Despite two previous European conferences on Libya in the last year, one in Palermo and another in Paris, warlord Khalifa Haftar and his allies continue to use military means to capture power in Libya. Regional players including France, Italy, UAE, Russia, and Turkey have exhausted the country’s ability to sustain its political stability. With the absence of a clear US role in Libya and a stagnant UN Mission, Libya continues to be a troubled backyard for Europe.
Since April 4th, the Libyan Arab Forces led by warlord Khalifa Haftar have continued their brutal and unsuccessful offensive on the Libyan capital Tripoli. This military campaign has targeted dozens of civilian establishments, including migrant detention centers, leaving thousands of people dead and over 100 thousand others internally displaced.
How do European actors interact in post-Gaddafi Libya, and what is the nature of German engagement in Libya? What can Germany offer the Libyan people and peace process, and what are the expected deliverables of this significant conference?
On November 12th, the Libyan American Alliance and the National Interest Foundation will hold an expert discussion on these competing dynamics and the upcoming Berlin conference on Libya. Questions from the audience will follow the panelists’ brief statements. Lunch will be served.

About our Speakers:
Dario Cristiani is the IAI/GMF Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, based in Washington, D.C., working on Italian foreign policy, the Mediterranean, and global politics. A native of Naples, Italy, he has more than fifteen years of experience as a private political risk consultant, working on Mediterranean and emerging markets. He received his Ph.D. in Middle East and Mediterranean studies from King’s College London in 2015, and he got a BA and MA (with distinctions) from the University of Naples L’Orientale, where he also started his academic career as a teaching and e-learning assistant in political science and comparative politics. He has been the director of executive training in global risk analysis and crisis management and an adjunct professor in international affairs and conflict studies at Vesalius College in Brussels. He continues teaching as a guest lecturer in several institutions in Europe and the Maghreb (Koninklijke Militaire School, Istituto Alti Studi Difesa, Sit Tunis). He has lived in Tunisia, Turkey, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.
Dr. William Lawrence has thirty-two years experience working on the MENA region and wider Muslim world and lived immersively for thirteen years in seven Muslim majority countries. Since 2011, he has served successively as International Crisis Group’s North Africa Project Director, as the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy’s Middle East and North Africa Program Director, and as Control Risk’s Middle East and North Africa Associate Director. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor for Global Engagement in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES), working closely with the White House on core Obama administration Cairo-speech-related initiatives. He co-created the Global Innovation Through Science and Technology (GIST) Program, the U.S. Science Envoy Program, and the Maghreb Digital Library; co-chaired of the U.S.-Egypt S&T development fund for four years; and served at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, helping negotiate the first U.S.-Libya bilateral agreement in decades. He has taught at Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Tufts/Fletcher School, Amideast/Mohamed V in Rabat, and Cadi Ayyad in Marrakesh and lectured at over 100 universities worldwide. He appears regularly on NPR, BBC, VOA, France 24, Al Jazeera Arabic and English, and CCTV (China). He received six merit awards from the U.S. State Department, two medals from the Egyptian government, and an alumni achievement award from Duke University. He co-produced 6 MENA-related documentary films and 14 albums of North African music.
Asma Khalifa is a Libyan activist and researcher who has worked on human rights, women’s rights, and youth empowerment since 2011. Growing up as a non-Arab, Amazigh Libyan under the rule of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, Khalifa witnessed the negative impact of discrimination and violence against women. She has spent her career contributing to the building of Libya’s civil society and has recently worked on peacebuilding and conflict transformation in the country. For her efforts, Khalifa received the 2016 Luxembourg Peace Prize during the World Peace Forum in the European Parliament and, in 2017, she was named one of the “100 Most Influential Young Africans” by the Africa Youth Awards. Khalifa is also the co-founder of Tamazight Women’s Movement, a think/do tank that is working on gender equality and research on the indigenous women of Libya and North Africa.

About our Moderator:
Mosadek Hobrara is the Executive Director of the Libyan American Alliance. He holds a Master of Science degree in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Columbia University. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Law from Tripoli University (Libya). Professionally, Mosadek is the Executive Director of the Libyan American Alliance (LAA). Mosadek was previously engaged in providing mediation work in Libya, he was a lead member at the Libyan Notables Council for Reconciliation, a non-governmental organization conducting local mediation efforts in Libya. He facilitated multiple ceasefire agreements between local factions mainly in southern Libya. Mosadek was also a project manager at the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), a Swiss NGO supporting the peacebuilding processes in Libya. During his work with the Center, he was in charge of organizing and facilitating roundtable talks between regional actors, political leaders, tribal actors, and civil society leaders. During and after the Arab Spring, he participated intensively as an activist advocating for issues of human rights and transitional justice.

U.S. Policy on Human Rights in the Middle East
2019-11-21 11:00 - 14:30 | Rayburn House Building – Room 2075, 45 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC, 20515, United States
Capitol Hill Event
Rayburn House Building – Room 2075
45 Independence Ave. SW
Washington, D.C. 20515

U.S. Policy on Human Rights in the Middle East

Remarks by Congressman Gerry Connolly (D – Virginia),
House Committee on Foreign Affairs

Panel I: “Human Rights in the Middle East”
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

– Areej Al Sadhan, Human Rights Activist
– Matthew Hedges, Durham University (UK)
– Amel Ahmed, Nala Films for HBO
– Abdullah Alaoudh, Georgetown University
– Moderator: Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, The American Conservative

Panel II: “U.S. Foreign Policy and Human Rights”
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM

– Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch
– Doug Bandow, Cato Institute
– Mohamed Soltan, The Freedom Initiative
– Congressman Nick Rahall, D – West Virginia
– Moderator: Bruce Fein, Fein & DelValle PLLC

Lunch will be served from 12:30 PM – 1:00 PM

We invite you to join us on November 21, 2019 on Capitol Hill for a panel discussion on human rights issues in the Middle East, and how western powers could spearhead the change for freedom in a region of turmoil and conflict.
Issues of the validity of democracy in the region and human rights are at the very center of the challenges facing Middle Eastern society today. The international community’s chilling complacency towards wide-scale human rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa has emboldened governments to commit appalling violations by giving them the sense that they need never fear facing justice.
“Too many times western allies of governments in the MENA region have put lucrative business deals, security co-operation or billions of dollars’ worth of arms sales before human rights, fueling abuses and creating a climate where MENA governments feel ‘untouchable’ and above the law” says Philip Luther, Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
Limited space is available. Registration is required.

Perspective on the Trump Mideast Peace Plan
2020-02-12 13:00 - 14:30 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend our lunch discussion regarding the recently proposed Trump Mideast Peace Plan.

About our Speakers:

Dr. Shibley Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development and Director of the Critical Issues Poll at the University of Maryland. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to the University of Maryland, he taught at several universities, including Cornell University, the Ohio State University, the University of Southern California, Princeton University, Columbia University, Swarthmore College, and the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in political science.
Professor Telhami has also been active in the foreign policy arena, advising every U.S. administration from George H. W. Bush to Barack Obama. He has contributed to The Washington Post, The New York Times, and regularly appears on national and international radio and television. Among his publications are his best-selling book, The Stakes: America and the Middle East (2003); Power and Leadership in International Bargaining: The Path to the Camp David Accords (1990); The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011, co-authored with Dan Kurtzer, et al. (2013); and The World Through Arab Eyes: Arab Public Opinion and the Reshaping of the Middle East (2013). He is the winner of a number of awards including being selected by the Carnegie Corporation of New York with The New York Times as one of the “Great Immigrants” for 2013 and being selected as a University of Maryland 2018-2019 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher.

Khaled Elgindy is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute where he also directs MEI’s Program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs. He is the author of the newly-released book, Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump, published by Brookings Institution Press in April 2019. Elgindy previously served as a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution from 2010 through 2018. Prior to arriving at Brookings, he served as an adviser to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah on permanent status negotiations with Israel from 2004 to 2009, and was a key participant in the Annapolis negotiations of 2007-08. Elgindy is also an adjunct instructor in Arab Studies at Georgetown University.
Khaled’s writings have a appeared in wide range of publications, including The Christian Science Monitor, CNN.com, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, The National Interest, The Washington Quarterly, and others. He is frequently quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Hill, Politico, and other print media, and is a regular commentator on TV and radio, including Aljazeera, BBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR, PBS Newshour and others.

Said Arikat is a long time Washington based Palestinian journalist and analyst. He is an accomplished media and public affairs specialist who served for a number of years as the United Nations’ chief spokesman in Iraq. He holds an MS from California State University, in Long Beach, CA and is an adjunct professor at the American University in Washington where he teaches a course on role of media in society. He regularly appears on various media outlets both domestically and internationally.

About our Moderator:

Kelley Beaucar Vlahos is Executive Editor at The American Conservative magazine, where she has been writing and reporting for the last decade, focusing on national security, foreign policy, civil liberties and domestic politics. She served for 15 years as a Washington bureau reporter for FoxNews.com, and at WTOP News in Washington from 2013-2017 as a writer, digital editor and social media strategist. She has also worked as a beat reporter at Bridge News financial wire (now part of Reuters) and Homeland Security Today, and as a regular contributor at Antiwar.com.

A Decade into the Syrian Revolution: Crisis in Idlib
2020-03-10 13:00 - 14:30 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend our lunch discussion regarding the latest developments in Idlib as the Syrian revolution nears its decade-long milestone.

Speakers

Hassan Hassan, Center for Global Policy
Charles Lister, Middle East Institute
Jennifer Cafarella, Institute for the Study of War

Moderator

Hamdi Rifai, Council of United Syrians & Americans

About our Speakers:

Hassan Hassan is a director of the Non-state Actors and Geopolitics program at the Center for Global Policy. His research focuses on militant movements, nonviolent extremism, and geopolitics in the Middle East. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, Foreign Policy and The Guardian. He is the author, with Michael Weiss, of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. His internationally acclaimed 2015 book was a New York Times bestseller, and was selected as one of the Times of London’s best books of 2015 and as one of the Wall Street Journal’s top 10 books on terrorism. The book was translated into more than a dozen foreign languages. He testified before Congress on extremism, and has frequently advised senior policymakers in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. He frequently conducts training courses for military personnel and diplomats specializing or operating in the Middle East, on subjects such as tribes and Salafi-jihadism.
A native of eastern Syria, Hassan received a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Nottingham. He is also a senior non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington DC. He was previously an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Program in London and a research associate at the Delma Institute in the United Arab Emirates. From 2008 to 2014, he worked on the news and commentary sections at The National, an English-language daily newspaper in the UAE. Hassan has written extensively on Sunni and Shia movements, society, and politics in the Middle East for numerous publications, including the Guardian, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, Financial Times, the Daily Beast, The National.

Charles Lister is a senior fellow and Director of the Countering Terrorism and Extremism Program at the Middle East Institute. His work focuses primarily on the conflict in Syria, including as a member of the MEI-convened Syria Study Group; and on issues of terrorism and insurgency across the Levant. Prior to this, Lister was a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Qatar and a Senior Consultant to the multinationally-backed Syria Track II Dialogue Initiative, where he managed nearly three years of intensive face-to-face engagement with the leaderships of over 100 Syrian armed opposition groups.
Lister is a frequent source of briefings on the Syrian insurgency to political, military and intelligence leaderships in the United States and across Europe and the Middle East. He appears regularly on television media, including CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera, and his articles have been widely published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, BBC, CNN, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, among others. Lister has previously held positions at the Brookings Institution and as head of MENA at IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London, UK. Lister’s critically-acclaimed book, The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency, was published in February 2016 by Oxford University Press. He also published The Islamic State: A Brief Introduction (Brookings Press, 2015) and he is now working on a third book on Syria, commissioned by Oxford University Press.

Jennifer Cafarella is the Research Director at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). She is responsible for setting the organization’s research priorities and overseeing their execution by ISW’s team of open source intelligence analysts. Ms. Cafarella is also responsible for leading ISW’s simulation exercises as well as its efforts to develop detailed recommendations on how to achieve U.S. objectives abroad. Ms. Cafarella has conducted such exercises for various U.S. military units deploying overseas. In 2015, she participated in a multi-week assessment mission in the Middle East focused on the conflicts in Iraq and Syria at the invitation of senior U.S. Army commanders. She regularly briefs military units preparing to deploy on a range of subjects including Syria, ISIS, and Russia.
Ms. Cafarella led ISW’s Syria team from 2014-2017 before becoming ISW’s Director of Intelligence Planning from 2018-2019. She is a graduate of ISW’s Hertog War Studies Program and was the Institute’s first Evans Hanson Fellow, which sponsors outstanding alumni of the War Studies Program and seeks to help build the next generation of national security leaders. Ms. Cafarella received her B.A. from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in Global Studies with a focus on the Middle East. Ms. Cafarella has written extensively on Syria, Iraq, Al Qaeda, and ISIS. Her essays have been published by Foreign Affairs, The Hill, and Fox News, among other outlets. She has appeared extensively in the media, including on C-SPAN, CNN, Fox News, and others. Her analysis has been cited widely in print media including by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, NPR, Voice of America, the BBC, and USA Today.

About our Moderator:

Hamdi Rifai is the Executive Director at the Council of United Syrians & Americans. He started his work in Government Relations as early as 1991 when he advocated for the easing of sanctions against Iraq. The Arab American Medical Association needed medicines to reach people suffering under Saddam Hussein. His work in government relations advocacy has continued since the early 90’s representing many Middle East interests and governments. His advocacy has both utilized his legal training and certification in legislative advocacy. Mr. Rifai has served as Deputy Chairman of the New Jersey Republican State Committee. He chaired a congressional campaign for the always hotly contested 5th district of Bergen County, New Jersey. When Bret Schundler ran for Governor Mr. Rifai formed the Lawyer’s Committee that gave Schundler his primary victory. Mr. Rifai has engaged in extensive Rule of Law and institution building work. He has escorted journalists to meet with Kuwait’s parliament on one end of the spectrum to his focus today of working for a free Syria.
Since 2011, Mr. Rifai has directed the work of Arab Americans for Democracy in Syria and it’s successor the Council of United Syrians & Americans. He was instrumental in persuading the US to close the Syrian embassy of Washington, DC and then also to prosecute sanctions violators. He has worked to promote civil society and the Interim Syrian Government. Mr. Rifai has advised on institution building and governance. He has been instrumental in getting real news with real facts into the media stream. As a former trial lawyer he is a graduate of Rutgers University and holds a Juris Doctor from Loyola University. He is certified by the Notre Dame University Institute for Trial Advocacy as a trial attorney and by the Public Law Center in legislative advocacy/government relations. He has appeared frequently throughout the years as an expert analyst on foreign affairs, national security and legal issues on Fox News, Al-Hurra, Al-Jazeera, the BBC and TRT.

Disclaimer: please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting NA in the “organization” or “job title” section. NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable.

Foreign Policy Under the New Biden Administration
2021-01-26 13:00 - 14:30 | DC, United States
An NIF Zoom event discussing the foreign policy priorities and prospects under the new Biden-Harris administration.

Speakers
Dr. Abdullah Al-Shayji, Kuwait University
Bob Baer, Former CIA officer
Dr. Annelle Sheline, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
Dr. Shibley Telhami, University of Maryland and Brookings Institution

Moderator
Khaled Saffuri, President, National Interest Foundation

About our Speakers:
Dr. Abdullah Al-Shayji is a professor as well as the former chairman and director of the graduate program of the political science department at Kuwait University. He is an expert in U.S. politics, Gulf Cooperation Council security, and political development, and has published extensively on these issues. From 2007-09, Alshayji was the head of the American studies unit at Kuwait University. He later served as a special advisor to the speaker of the Kuwaiti Parliament, the foreign relations committee, the committee investigating the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and the committee for Kuwaiti prisoners of war and hostages in Iraq. From 2008-09, he was a member of the advisory board of the committee in charge of drafting a comprehensive national security strategy at the Kuwaiti government’s Bureau of National Security. From 2001-04, Alshayji served as counselor and head of the Kuwaiti Information and Media Bureau at the Kuwaiti Embassy in Lebanon. He received his bachelor’s and master’s in political science from Oklahoma State University and his PhD in political science from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bob Baer is one of the most accomplished agents in CIA history. Over several decades he served everywhere from Iraq to New Delhi and was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal for his efforts. Baer is the author of four New York Times bestsellers. His most recent book, The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins (2014) is a personal history of modern assassination. He also co-authored The Company We Keep (2012), which he wrote with his wife, Dayna, which tells the story of a real-life “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” saga; Sleeping with the Devil (2004), about the Saudi royal family and its relationship with the United States; See No Evil (2003), which recounts Baer’s years as a top CIA operative, and The Devil We Know (2009). See No Evil was the basis for the acclaimed film Syriana, which earned George Clooney an Academy Award for his portrayal of Baer. He is considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the Middle East and frequently appears on all major news outlets. Baer has contributed to TIME, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Dr. Annelle Sheline is a Research Fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute and an expert on religious and political authority in the Middle East and North Africa. Sheline is completing a book manuscript on the strategic use of religious authority in the Arab monarchies since 9/11, focusing on the cases of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman. She has received fellowships from the U.S. government including a Boren Fellowship and a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship, as well as fellowships from the Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS), the Loeb Institute for Religious Freedom, and the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance. Sheline was previously the Zwan Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. Prior to beginning her PhD, she worked as a journalist in Egypt and Yemen. In addition to academic writing, she was written for The Washington Post, The Nation, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, and The Globe Post, and her analysis has been published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Arab Gulf States Institute of Washington, Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs, and the Baker Institute. Sheline received her doctorate from George Washington University’s department of political science and is a non-resident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. She has done field research in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, the U.A.E., Jordan, Morocco, and Egypt, and has advanced proficiency in Arabic, French, and Spanish.

Dr. Shibley Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development and Director of the Critical Issues Poll at the University of Maryland. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to the University of Maryland, he taught at several universities, including Cornell University, the Ohio State University, the University of Southern California, Princeton University, Columbia University, Swarthmore College, and the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in political science. Professor Telhami has also been active in the foreign policy arena, advising every U.S. administration from George H. W. Bush to Barack Obama. He has contributed to The Washington Post, The New York Times, and regularly appears on national and international radio and television. Among his publications are his best-selling book, The Stakes: America and the Middle East (2003); Power and Leadership in International Bargaining: The Path to the Camp David Accords (1990); The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011, co-authored with Dan Kurtzer, et al. (2013); and The World Through Arab Eyes: Arab Public Opinion and the Reshaping of the Middle East (2013). He is the winner of a number of awards including being selected by the Carnegie Corporation of New York with The New York Times as one of the “Great Immigrants” for 2013 and being selected as a University of Maryland 2018-2019 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher.

Disclaimer: please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting NA in the “organization” or “job title” section. NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable.
Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

Libya's Transitional Government and the Lead-Up to December Elections
2021-02-25 13:00 - 14:30 | Zoom Meeting, 1800 K Street, NW, Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
An NIF Zoom event discussing Libya’s transitional government and prospects for the national elections in December.

Speakers
Federica Saini Fasanotti, Brookings Institution
Dr. Esam Omeish, Libyan American Alliance
Dr. William Lawrence, American University

Moderator
Doug Bandow, Cato Institute

About our Speakers:
Federica Saini Fasanotti is a nonresident fellow in the Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. She is also a senior associate at ISPI in Milan. She is a historian specialized in counterinsurgency and asymmetric wars. Her fieldwork and research have covered, among others, Afghanistan, Libya, and the Horn of Africa. Her many books include: “Violated Joy. Crimes against Italians 1940-1946” (Ares Editore, 2006); “Ethiopia 1936-1940. Colonial Counterinsurgency through the Sources of the Italian Army” (Historical Office of the Italian Army, 2010), which was selected as a finalist for the “Acqui Storia 2011” Award; “Libya 1922-1931. The Italian Counterinsurgency” (Historical Office of the Italian Army, 2012); “Military History of Afghanistan. From the Durrani’s Empire to Resolute Support Mission” (Mursia Editore, 2014). Saini Fasanotti’s current book project is “The Counterinsurgency Doctrine from the XVII Century to the present,” a wide ranging study on the history, methods, and pillars of counterinsurgency in the modern era. She has published “VINCERE! The Italian Royal Army’s Counterinsurgency Operations in Africa, 1922-1940” with the Naval Institute in Annapolis. She has been a consultant on Libya for James Mattis, the former U.S. secretary of defense and for the Terna Group, the first grid operator for electricity transmission in Europe. In September 2016, she testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs about terrorism in Libya. Saini Fasanotti also holds bachelor’s degrees in history of art criticism and contemporary history summa cum laude. She speaks Italian, English, and Spanish.

Dr. Esam Omeish is an Arab American Surgeon in private practice in the Washington DC Metropolitan area. He is one of the founders of DAWN along with the late Jamal Khashoggi and a long-time friend & associate of the deceased. He has helped establish and preside over major Libyan American organizations including Libyan Emergency Task Force, Libyan Council of North America, American Libyan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Center for Libyan American Strategic Studies, and most recently the Libyan American Alliance, supporting democracy and the rule of Law in Libya after Feb 17 revolution. He is a graduate of Georgetown University with double degrees in Biology and Government & International Relations, and a Medical doctorate in 1993. He is a former candidate for the Virginia State Assembly in the House of Delegates and a former member of a statewide commission on Immigration appointed by then Governor of Virginia Tim Kaine. He serves on several boards and national organizations, and currently is the Chairman of the Waqf Washington Trust of CAIR National ( Council on American Islamic Relations) He has represented American Muslims and Arab Americans on several occasions in the White House, meeting both Presidents Clinton and Obama, in National rallies and political events, and in many media outlets including CNN, MSNBC, FOX, Al-Jazeera, Libyan TV, C-Span, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, National Public Radio, and others.He continues to serve as frequent speaker, political leader, civic advocate, and a community organizer as well as a provider of health services to the needy and the uninsured. Dr. Omeish was a medical first responder to the tragic events of September 11 where he was the surgeon on call at Alexandria Hospital which received some of the victims of the tragic events in the Pentagon. Dr. Omeish was featured in a book, “A Nation of Nations” by Tom Gjelten of National Public Radio, and published by Simon and Schuster in 2015 as well as by Al-Jazeera featured program on Arab Diaspora in 2018 “Mughtariboon.”

Dr. William Lawrence teaches political science and international affairs at American University’s School of International Service. He has served as a senior diplomat, analyst, and international programs director. He lived and worked for fifteen years in seven Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries and France. Since 2011, he served as Crisis Group’s North Africa director, the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy’s MENA Programs Director, and Control Risks’ MENA Associate Director. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor for Global Engagement in the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES), working closely with the White House on core Obama administration initiatives. He co-created the Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) Program, the U.S. Science Envoy Program, and the Maghreb Digital Library; co-chaired the U.S.-Egypt S&T Development Fund for four years; and served at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, helping negotiate the first major U.S.-Libya agreement in decades. He received six merit awards from the U.S. State Department, two medals from the Egyptian government, an alumni achievement award from Duke University, and the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Fenn School. He appears regularly on NPR, BBC, VOA, France 24, Al Jazeera, and CGTN. He has taught at Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, George Washington, Tufts/Fletcher School, Amideast/Mohamed V in Rabat, and Cadi Ayyad in Marrakech and in the U.S. intelligence community and lectured at over 100 universities worldwide. His research, writing, and consulting focuses on youth protest and political culture; comparative political analysis; security challenges and responses; informal economy, development, and innovation; international policy towards the Middle East and Africa, and international and Islamic law and social change. He also co-produced six MENA-related films and fourteen albums of North African music.

About our Moderator:
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, specializing in foreign policy and civil liberties. He worked as special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and editor of the political magazine Inquiry. He writes regularly for leading publications such as Fortune magazine, National Interest, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Times. Bandow speaks frequently at academic conferences, on college campuses, and to business groups. Bandow has been a regular commentator on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. He holds a JD from Stanford University.

Disclaimer: please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting NA in the “organization” or “job title” section. NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable.
Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict in the Modern Era and Future Prospects
2021-04-08 12:30 - 14:00 | Zoom Meeting, 1800 K Street, NW, Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
An NIF Zoom event discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during the modern era, focusing on human rights, competing narratives, and future relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Speakers
Ahmad Obali, Gunaz TV
Yusuf Erim, TRT World
Hamdi Rifai, Council of United Syrians & Americans

Moderator
Khaled Saffuri, National Interest Foundation

About our Speakers:
Ahmad Obali is the founder and Managing Director of Gunaz TV, a broadcasting station based in Chicago that reaches millions of people in Iran, promoting human rights, ethnic rights, and freedom of information. The TV station operates 24/7 in the Azerbaijani, Persian, Arabic, and Turkmen languages. He escaped from Iran in 1982 and immigrated to the United States in 1985. He worked with the UN special rapporteur on Iran from 1999 to 2003 and various human rights organizations before setting up his broadcasting station in late 2004 that continues to date.

Yusuf Erim is a security analyst and political commentator. He is the editor-at-large at Turkish public broadcaster TRT World. Yusuf lectures at universities, has written OpEds for several global publications, and regularly appears on many international news channels.

Hamdi Rifai is the Executive Director at the Council of United Syrians & Americans. Mr. Rifai is a government affairs specialist focused on foreign policy between the United States, Eurasia, and the Middle East. He has appeared frequently throughout the years as an expert analyst on international affairs, national security, and legal issues on Fox News, Al-Hurra, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, and TRT.

Disclaimer: please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting NA in the “organization” or “job title” section. NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable.
Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

China's Crimes Against Humanity: The Plight of the Uyghurs
2021-05-12 11:00 - 12:30 | Zoom Meeting, 1800 K Street, NW, Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
An NIF Zoom event regarding the Chinese government’s ongoing persecution of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province, with a focus on the grave human rights violations being committed in the region.

Speakers
Mustafa Aksu, Uyghur Human Rights Project
Joanne Lin, Amnesty International USA

Moderator
Hamdi Rifai, Council of United Syrians & Americans

About our Speakers:
Mustafa Aksu is Program Coordinator for Research and Advocacy at the Uyghur Human Rights Project. His research interests focus on language policy and surplus labor transfer in East Turkistan, Turkic languages, and the Uyghur diaspora in the Middle East and Central Asia. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures in China and a master’s degree in Turkey. Mustafa also studied in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University Bloomington. Mustafa has spoken on the Uyghur crisis at universities, churches, mosques and synagogues. He was a key organizer of the 2018 conference on “Mass Incarceration: China’s Radical and Dangerous Policies in Xinjiang” at Indiana University. He taught intensive Uyghur at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Summer Language Program, served as a Uyghur language developer at the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region, and as outreach staff in the Center for the Study of the Middle East at Indiana University Bloomington. Before moving to the U.S., he lived and worked in China, Turkey, UAE, UK, and Singapore.

Joanne Lin directs Amnesty International USA’s Advocacy and Government Affairs Department. She has over 14 years of experience advocating for the rights of immigrants and refugees before Congress and the U.S. government, and over seven years of experience representing immigrants in family law and immigration proceedings. At Amnesty International USA, Lin leads the development and implementation of strategies to advance the organization’s human rights priorities before Congress and the U.S. government. She leads a team of advocacy directors dedicating to protecting the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers, displaced peoples, prisoners of conscience, and gun violence victims. She has overseen advocacy initiatives aimed at protecting Rohingya refugees fleeing mass burnings and rape at the hands of the Myanmar military, ending U.S. arms sales to the Saudi-Emirati coalition committing war crimes against Yemeni civilians, and requiring universal background checks on all gun sales in the U.S. Lin has been recognized by The Hill as one of the top lobbyists for grassroots organizations. She has been a regular commentator on human rights through media outlets including CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Washington Post, New York Times, Foreign Policy, USA Today, Politico, Washington Examiner, The Guardian, and others. Lin is a graduate of Stanford University, Stanford School of Education, and New York University School of Law. She clerked for Shirley Abrahamson, former Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

About our Moderator:
Hamdi Rifai is the Executive Director at the Council of United Syrians & Americans. Mr. Rifai is a government affairs specialist focused on foreign policy between the United States, Eurasia, and the Middle East. He has appeared frequently throughout the years as an expert analyst on international affairs, national security, and legal issues on Fox News, Al-Hurra, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, and TRT.

Disclaimer: please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting NA in the “organization” or “job title” section. NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable.
Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

Aftermath of the Gaza War: Should the U.S. be Talking Directly to Hamas?
2021-06-10 11:30 - 12:45 | Zoom Meeting, 1800 K Street, NW, Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
An NIF Zoom event discussing the recent war in Gaza and the United States’ position in the region moving forward.

Speakers
Peter Beinart, Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York, Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents, a CNN Political Commentator, a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Writes the Beinart Notebook newsletter on Substack.Com.
Diana Buttu, Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and analyst based in Haifa, Former legal advisor to PLO and Palestinian negotiators, Part of the team that assisted in the successful litigation of Israel’s separation wall before the International Court of Justice at the Hague in 2004, Maintains a law practice in Palestine focusing on international human rights law.
Ambassador Edward M. Gabriel, Former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco (1997-2001), President and CEO of the American Task Force on Lebanon, and a member of the boards of AMIDEAST, the Arab American National Museum, the Arab American Institute, and The Keystone Center.
Congressman Jim Moran, Former U.S. Representative for VA-08 Congressional District (1991-2015), Former Mayor of Alexandria, Virginia (1985-1991), Served on the Appropriations, Foreign Affairs, Banking, Housing and Finance, and Government Reform and Oversight committees during his 12 terms in U.S. Congress.

Moderator
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Editorial Director of Responsible Statecraft and Senior Adviser at the Quincy Institute, formerly Executive Editor of the American Conservative Magazine, social media director and online editor at WTOP News (2013-2017), and worked for 15 years as an online political reporter for Fox News.

About our Speakers:
Peter Beinart is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at the City University of New York. He is also Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents, a CNN Political Commentator, a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. He writes the Beinart Notebook newsletter on Substack.Com. His first book, The Good Fight, was published by HarperCollins in 2006. His second book, The Icarus Syndrome, was published by HarperCollins in 2010. His third, The Crisis of Zionism, was published by Times Books in 2012. Beinart has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, Newsweek, Slate, Reader’s Digest, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Polity: the Journal of the Northeastern Political Science Studies Association. The Week magazine named him columnist of the year for 2004. In 2005, he gave the Theodore H. White lecture at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has appeared on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” “Charlie Rose,” “Meet the Press,” “The Colbert Report” and many other television programs. Beinart graduated from Yale University, winning a Rhodes scholarship for graduate study at Oxford University. After graduating from University College, Oxford, Beinart became The New Republic’s managing editor in 1995. He became senior editor in 1997, and from 1999 to 2006 served as the magazine’s Editor.
Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer who previously served as a legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team and was part of the team that assisted in the successful litigation of Israel’s separation wall before the International Court of Justice at the Hague in 2004, which resulted in the indictment of the wall. She frequently comments on Palestine for international news media outlets such as CNN and BBC; is a political analyst for Al Jazeera International and is a regular contributor to The Middle East magazine. She maintains a law practice in Palestine, focusing on international human rights law. Earlier in her career, Buttu worked on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, serving as the only female negotiator during her five-year tenure. She was a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and at Harvard Law School. She also held a fellowship at the Stanford Center for Conflict Resolution and Negotiation and is an instructor at Harvard Extension School. Buttu received her undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto, a JD from Queen’s University in Canada, an LLM from the University of Toronto, a JSM from Stanford University, and an executive MBA from Kellogg Northwestern School of Management.
Ambassador Edward M. Gabriel is the former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco, having served from November 1997 to March 2001, during which time a new U.S.-Morocco strategic relationship was launched on political, military and economic levels. He has an extensive background in international affairs, having convened multilateral policy forums involving national security, environmental, and trade and energy issues. He has been involved in matters of Russian and European nuclear non-proliferation and has been active in advising the U.S. government on Mideast policy matters. Currently, Ambassador Gabriel is President and CEO of The Gabriel Company, LLC, which advises American corporations and international entities on investment and policy strategies and projects. He is the President and CEO of the American Task Force on Lebanon, Co-Chairman of the American Schools of Tangier and Marrakech, Chairman of the Moroccan American Center, and a member of the boards of AMIDEAST, the Arab American National Museum, the Arab American Institute, and The Keystone Center.
Congressman Jim Moran represented Virginia’s 8th Congressional District from 1991 to 2015, where he was known for his bipartisan leadership and ability to resolve complex issues. He served on the Appropriations, Foreign Affairs, Banking, Housing and Finance, and Government Reform and Oversight committees during his 12 terms in the U.S. Congress. As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, he was chairman and ranking member of the Subcommittee on the Interior and Environment, a senior member on the Defense and Military Construction subcommittees, Foreign Operations, Labor, Health and Human Services and Ranking Member of the D.C. and Legislative Branch subcommittees. He also served as a member of the Steering and Policy Committee of the House Democratic Leadership. As chairman of the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, Jim oversaw the budgets for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Forest Service, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities. As a senior member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, he oversaw all aspects of the defense budget, including weapons procurement, cybersecurity, research and development, military medical research, military base closures, civilian personnel, and overseas contingency operations.

About our Moderator:
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos is the Editorial Director of Responsible Statecraft and Senior Advisor at the Quincy Institute. Previously, she served for three years as Executive Editor of the The American Conservative magazine, where she had been reporting and publishing regular articles on national security, civil liberties, foreign policy, veterans, and Washington politics since 2007. From 2013 to 2017, Vlahos served as director of social media and online editor at WTOP News in Washington, D.C. She also spent 15 years as an online political reporter for Fox News at the channel’s Washington D.C. bureau, as well as Washington correspondent for Homeland Security Today magazine.

Disclaimer: please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting NA in the “organization” or “job title” section. NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable.
Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

Syria Sanctions: The Caesar Act One Year Later
2021-06-24 13:00 - 14:30 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend our lunch discussion regarding the one-year anniversary of the Caesar Act sanctions against the Syrian regime.

Speakers
Colonel Joel Rayburn, Former Special Envoy for Syria, current Special Advisor for Middle East affairs to U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Levant Affairs and before that as Senior Director for Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon at the National Security Council, retired U.S. Army officer who served in a variety of assignments in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States from 1992 to 2018.
Ayman Abdelnour, President of Syrian Christians for Peace, editor-in-chief of All4Syria (Syria’s leading independent news outlet), has testified before the European Parliament and been widely quoted in major publications including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, Time.com, FOX, Reuters, the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Le Monde, Le Figaro, and BBC News.
Erich Ferrari, Esq., Principal of Ferrari & Associates, represents financial institutions, multi-national corporations, and individuals in matters involving U.S. economic sanctions administered by the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), has written and lectured widely on all aspects of U.S. sanctions law.
Shahroo Yazdani, Esq., Trade professional specializing in international import and export regulations, specializes in all matters relating to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), specialized in European and International Trade Law while contributing to human rights work with Senator Lincoln Diaz Balart on Capitol Hill.

Moderator
Hamdi Rifai, Executive Director at the Council of United Syrians & Americans, government affairs specialist focused on foreign policy between the United States, Eurasia, and the Middle East, expert analyst on international affairs, national security, and legal issues who frequently appears on Fox News, Al-Hurra, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, and TRT.

About our Speakers:
Colonel Joel Rayburn is the former Special Envoy for Syria and is currently Special Advisor for Middle East affairs to United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN). He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Levant Affairs and before that as Senior Director for Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon at the National Security Council from January 2017 to July 2018. Rayburn is a retired U.S. Army officer who served in a variety of assignments in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States from 1992 to 2018. He also taught history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and is the author of several books and articles on the Iraq War. He was commissioned into the Army after graduating from West Point in 1992 and holds a master’s degree in History from Texas A&M University and in National Security Studies from the National War College. He is originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Ayman Abdelnour is a noted Syrian reformist, the editor-in-chief of All4Syria (Syria’s leading independent news outlet), and the president of the non-profit Syrian Christians for Peace. Ayman is trained as an engineer and economist. He has testified in front of the European Parliament and received numerous awards. Mr. Abdelnour has provided consulting services on Middle East public policy to a variety of international organizations (such as UN and EU) and has been widely quoted in some of the most important publications in the international media, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, Time.com, FOX, Reuters, the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Le Monde, Le Figaro, and BBC News. He has lectured widely at prestigious universities, including Columbia University’s Middle East Institute at the School of International and Public Affairs in New York, Tufts University Cabot Intercultural Center, Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), Yale University, and the University of California, Los Angeles International Institute Center for Middle East Development.
Erich Ferrari, Esq. is the Principal of Ferrari & Associates in Washington, D.C. Mr. Ferrari represents financial institutions, multi-national corporations, and individuals in matters involving U.S. economic sanctions administered by the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”). His work focuses on advising clients on how to navigate and comply with authorities administered by OFAC, seek license authorizations from OFAC for clients seeking to engage in otherwise prohibited transactions, and representing parties in pending OFAC enforcement matters. Mr. Ferrari is also known as one of the foremost experts on the OFAC delisting process and in bringing court challenges seeking judicial review of OFAC actions. Mr. Ferrari has written and lectured widely on all aspects of U.S. sanctions law. He writes extensively on such matters on his blog: www.sanctionlaw.com.
Shahroo Yazdani, Esq. is a trade professional specializing in international import and export regulations. Shahroo started her career at a boutique DC law firm where she specialized in sanctions law. She then moved to Amazon and most recently to Amazon’s subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she focused on import and export laws and international regulations. With a passion for trade law, Shahroo specializes in all matters relating to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) including but not limited to: advising on OFAC and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) compliance, building out corporate compliance programs, assisting with civil forfeitures, OFAC whistleblowing, and de-listing procedures. Shahroo is a Maryland native and attended the University of Maryland, College Park. She continued her education at American University’s Washington College of Law and Université Paris Nanterre where she specialized in European and International Trade Law while contributing to human rights work with Senator Lincoln Diaz Balart on Capitol Hill. After finishing law school, Shahroo worked on various human rights projects including at the World Bank as a consultant on the potential cultural rights implications of a Chinese mining project in Afghanistan.

About our Moderator:
Hamdi Rifai is the Executive Director at the Council of United Syrians & Americans. Mr. Rifai is a government affairs specialist focused on foreign policy between the United States, Eurasia, and the Middle East. He has appeared frequently throughout the years as an expert analyst on international affairs, national security, and legal issues on Fox News, Al-Hurra, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, and TRT.

Disclaimer: please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting NA in the “organization” or “job title” section. NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable.
Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

U.S. Potholes in Iraq: 31 Years After Saddam's Invasion of Kuwait
2021-07-22 13:00 - 14:30 | Zoom Meeting, 1800 K Street, NW, Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
An NIF Zoom event on where Iraq is today, the U.S. role, how we arrived here, and if the U.S. can play a constructive part in Iraq’s future.

Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. Please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting “NA” in the “organization” or “job title” section.

Speakers
Dr. Tallha Abdulrazaq, Researcher at the University of Exeter’s Strategy & Security Institute, award-winning academic specializing in counterterrorism, security, and military history, columnist and regular contributor to international media outlets providing expert analysis on issues including Iranian strategic ambitions in the Middle East, Turkish-Arab relations, and the security and political situation in Iraq since 2003
Geneive Abdo, Visiting Fellow at The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, Consultant at the World Bank, formerly a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, previously worked at the Atlantic Council and the Stimson Center, former Non-Resident Scholar at the Brookings Institution, worked with the United Nations and before that as a foreign correspondent covering the Middle East

Moderator
Hamdi Rifai, Executive Director at the Council of United Syrians & Americans, government affairs specialist focused on foreign policy between the United States, Eurasia, and the Middle East, expert analyst on international affairs, national security, and legal issues who frequently appears on Fox News, Al-Hurra, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, and TRT

About our Speakers:
Dr. Tallha Abdulrazaq is an award-winning academic who holds a PhD in strategy and security from the University of Exeter in England. He specializes in counterterrorism and military history, with a particular focus on the operational development of the Iraqi armed forces during the Iran-Iraq War. He is also a columnist and a regular contributor to international media outlets, providing expert analysis and commentary on issues including Iranian strategic ambitions in Iraq, Syria, and the wider region, Turkish-Arab relations, and the security and political situation in Iraq since 2003.
Geneive Abdo is a visiting fellow at The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (AGSIW) and a consultant at the World Bank, and was formerly a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center. Her current research focuses on the shifting political and religious alliances within Shia communities in the Middle East. Abdo has worked at several Washington-based think tanks, including the Atlantic Council and the Stimson Center. She was a non-resident scholar at the Brookings Institution from 2013-17. Among her extensive list of publications, including monographs and works in scholarly journals, Abdo is the author of four books on the Middle East, including The New Sectarianism: The Arab Uprisings and the Rebirth of the Shi’a-Sunni Divide (Oxford University Press, 2016). Her articles and commentaries have been published by The New York Times, Newsweek, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Magazine, and The Washington Post, and she has been awarded the John Simon Guggenheim fellowship and Nieman Fellowship for study at Harvard University. Abdo was formerly the liaison officer for the Alliance of Civilizations, a United Nations initiative established by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which aimed to improve relations between Islamic and Western societies. Before joining the United Nations, Abdo was a foreign correspondent, where her 20-year career focused on coverage of the Middle East and the Muslim world. From 1998 to 2001, Abdo was the Iran correspondent for The Guardian and a regular contributor to The Economist and the International Herald Tribune. She was the first American journalist to be based in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

About our Moderator:
Hamdi Rifai is the Executive Director at the Council of United Syrians & Americans. Mr. Rifai is a government affairs specialist focused on foreign policy between the United States, Eurasia, and the Middle East. He has appeared frequently throughout the years as an expert analyst on international affairs, national security, and legal issues on Fox News, Al-Hurra, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, and TRT.

Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

Coup in Tunisia: Is This the End of Democracy in North Africa?
2021-08-05 11:00 - 12:30 | Zoom Meeting, 1800 K Street, NW, Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
An NIF Zoom event discussion on the latest developments in Tunisia and the way out of the current crisis.

Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. Please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting “NA” in the “organization” or “job title” section.

Speakers
MP Oussama Sghaier, Member of Parliament from Ennahdha political party, serves on the Tunisian Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, previously elected to serve on the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), was a member of the Transitional Justice Committee
Dr. Monica Marks, Assistant Professor of Middle East Politics at New York University, Abu Dhabi, Rhodes Scholar and former postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, completed her Masters and PhD on post-revolutionary Tunisian politics at Oxford University, has published widely on Tunisian politics and is a regularly quoted analyst on the country

Moderator
Dr. William Lawrence, Professor of Political Science at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, former State Department officer, has served as North Africa Project Director at the International Crisis Group, Middle East/North Africa Program Director at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, and Middle East/North Africa Associate Director at Control Risks

About our Speakers:
MP Oussama Sghaier was elected to serve on the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) in October 2011. During his time in the NCA, Mr. Sghaier served on numerous prestigious committees, including the Transitional Justice Committee and the committee charged with preparing the country’s first constitution following the revolution. After the October 2014 elections, Mr. Sghaier served on the Defense and Security Committee and the Finance, Planning, and Economic Development Committee. Mr. Sghaier is currently serving his third term as a member of the Peoples Assembly. He serves on the Tunisian Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, as well as the commission for investigation on networks involved in sending Tunisian youth to conflict zones. Mr. Sghaier has been a member of the Political Bureau of Ennahdha Party since its 10th Congress that took place in May of 2016.
Dr. Monica Marks is Assistant Professor of Middle East Politics at New York University, Abu Dhabi. A Rhodes Scholar and former postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, Dr. Marks completed her Masters and PhD on post-revolutionary Tunisian politics at Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Based in Tunis full-time from 2012-2016, with 14 years experience studying and researching the country, Dr. Marks has published widely on Tunisian politics and is a regularly quoted analyst on the country. She is currently based in Tunis.

About our Moderator:
Dr. William Lawrence is a former State Department officer, holds a PhD from Tufts University, and currently is professor (part-time) of political science at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. Since 2011, Dr. Lawrence has served successively as North Africa Project Director at the International Crisis Group, Middle East/North Africa Program Director at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, and Middle East/North Africa Associate Director at Control Risks. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor for Global Engagement in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (OES), working closely with the White House on core Obama administration Cairo speech-related initiatives. He also served as Iraq Reconstruction Desk Officer for the State Department, Tunisia-Libya Desk Officer, and at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, helping negotiate the first U.S.-Libya bilateral agreement in decades. In addition, he has co-produced 6 Middle East/North Africa-related documentary films and 14 albums of North African music, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco.

Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

The Institutionalized Discrimination Against Palestinian Citizens of Israel
2021-10-20 12:00 - 13:30 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend our lunch discussion regarding the living conditions of Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. Please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting “NA” in the “organization” or “job title” section.
Note: COVID-19 social distancing guidelines will be followed.

Speaker
Jafar Farah, Founder and Director of The Mossawa Center, advocate and activist for civil rights, former Chair of the National Union of Arab Students, former President of the Committee for Arab Students at the University of Haifa, Founder of the Committee for Educational Guidance for Arab Students (CEGAS), worked as a journalist and TV producer, one of the founders of Hala TV

About our Speaker:
Jafar Farah is the Founder and Director of The Mossawa Center, an advocacy group for Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. Jafar is a long-time advocate and activist for civil rights for the Arab community. He was formerly chair of the National Union of Arab Students and President of the Committee for Arab Students at the University of Haifa. After holding these posts, he founded CEGAS, the Committee for Educational Guidance for Arab Students. As a community organizer and activist, he was involved in establishing several organizations such as I’lam, ACAP (Arab Center for Alternative Planning), and the follow-up committee for Arab education. Before establishing Mossawa, Jafar worked as a journalist for the local network of Ha’aretz and as a TV producer. He continues to write articles that are published regularly in the Hebrew and Arabic press. He is also one of the founders of the first Arabic-language television station in Israel: Hala TV.

Iran Nuclear Talks in Vienna: Can the JCPOA be Revived?
2021-12-08 14:00 - 15:00 | Zoom Meeting, 1800 K Street, NW, Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
An NIF Zoom event discussion regarding the prospects of reviving the Iran Nuclear Deal in the face of negotiations resuming on the issue.

Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. Please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting “NA” in the “organization” or “job title” section.

Speakers
Trita Parsi, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, expert on U.S.-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East, author of three books on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, named one of the 50 most influential voices on foreign policy in Washington D.C., Co-Founder and former President of the National Iranian American Council, has had articles on Middle East affairs published in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Jane’s Intelligence Review, the Nation, The American Conservative, and others, is a frequent guest on CNN, PBS’s Newshour, NPR, the BBC, and Al Jazeera
Doug Bandow, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, specializes in foreign policy and civil liberties, worked as special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and editor of the political magazine Inquiry, regularly writes for leading publications such as Fortune magazine, National Interest, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Times, speaks frequently at academic conferences, on college campuses, and to business groups, is a regular commentator on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC
Negar Mortazavi, Iranian-American journalist and political analyst based in Washington D.C., has covered Iranian affairs and U.S.-Iran relations for over a decade, columnist for The Independent and host of the Iran Podcast, frequent media analyst on Iran and U.S. foreign policy and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, France24, Al Jazeera, and other international media outlets, regularly writes about Iranian politics and U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East and has had work published in Foreign Policy magazine, The Intercept, Politico, Huffington Post, and other, speaks about Iranian affairs at major universities and academic institutions

Moderator
Bruce Fein, Founder and Principal Shareholder of Fein & DelValle PLLC, Harvard Law School honors graduate, served as Associate Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission under President Ronald Reagan, was Counsel to the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran, appears regularly as a commentator on national and international radio and television, has testified as an expert witness before Congress on hundreds of occasions

About our Speakers:
Trita Parsi is the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is an expert on U.S.-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He has authored three books on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel. In 2021, he was named by the Washingtonian Magazine as one of the 50 most influential voices on foreign policy in Washington D.C., and preeminent public intellectual Noam Chomsky calls Parsi “one of the most distinguished scholars on Iran.” Parsi was born in Iran but moved with his family at the age of four to Sweden in order to escape political repression in Iran. His father was an outspoken academic who was jailed by the Shah and then by the Ayatollah. He moved to the United States as an adult and studied foreign policy at Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies where he received his Ph.D. under Francis Fukuyama and Zbigniew Brzezinski. He is the Co-Founder and former President of the National Iranian American Council. Parsi has followed Middle East politics through work in the field and extensive experience on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations. He is frequently consulted by Western and Asian governments on foreign policy matters. Parsi has worked for the Swedish Permanent Mission to the UN, where he served in the Security Council, handling the affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan, and Western Sahara, and in the General Assembly’s Third Committee, addressing human rights in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Iraq. He has served as an adjunct professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, New York University, and George Washington University, as well as an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute and as a Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. He currently teaches at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Parsi is fluent in Persian/Farsi, English, and Swedish. Parsi’s articles on Middle East affairs have been published in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Jane’s Intelligence Review, the Nation, The American Conservative, the Jerusalem Post, The Forward, and others. He is a frequent guest on CNN, PBS’s Newshour, NPR, the BBC, and Al Jazeera.
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, specializing in foreign policy and civil liberties. He worked as special assistant to President Ronald Reagan and editor of the political magazine Inquiry. He writes regularly for leading publications such as Fortune magazine, National Interest, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Times. Bandow speaks frequently at academic conferences, on college campuses, and to business groups. Bandow has been a regular commentator on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. He holds a JD from Stanford University.
Negar Mortazavi is an Iranian-American journalist and political analyst based in Washington D.C., who has been covering Iranian affairs and U.S.-Iran relations for over a decade. She is a columnist for The Independent and host of the Iran Podcast. She is a frequent media analyst on Iran and U.S. foreign policy, has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, France24, Al Jazeera, and international media outlets in China, Turkey, and Israel. Negar has interviewed prominent political, social, and cultural figures including American boxing champion Muhammad Ali, Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, U.S. State Department spokesperson Alan Eyre, and former political prisoner Sarah Shourd, among others. Negar regularly writes about Iranian politics and U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East. Her work has been published in Foreign Policy magazine, The Intercept, Politico, Huffington Post, and elsewhere. She frequently speaks about Iranian affairs at universities and academic institutions including MIT, Princeton, Johns Hopkins University of Maryland, and American University. In 2021 Negar was featured in Forbes magazine among 30 inspirational women who have made great achievements in various fields and continue to break boundaries in their work and life. Negar was also named among “40 Under 40” experts shaping U.S.- Middle East relations, and among “40 Under 40” Iranian-Americans who have made an enormous impact on their community and country. In 2020, she was named a MENA – American rising star in foreign policy by New America and named a MENA Young Leader by Friends of Europe in 2017. Previously, she was a television anchor for Voice of America where she hosted a Persian talk show on current affairs and an English news show on U.S. elections. She was also a Washington Correspondent for Iran International television, and worked at the International Center For Journalists, the National Iranian American Council, and the United Nations Development Programme in New York. She obtained a Master of Arts from Brandeis University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts. She was raised in Iran and Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 2002.

About our Moderator:
Bruce Fein is a Harvard Law School honors graduate and a founder and principal shareholder of Fein & DelValle PLLC, a Washington D.C. civil litigation firm with an international client base. Mr. Fein has served as senior advisor to former Congressman Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign; associate deputy attorney general; counsel to the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran; general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission; special assistant to the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice; professor at George Washington University; Senior Fellow at American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation; executive editor of World Intelligence Review; and lecturer at the National Defense University. He appears regularly as a commentator on national and international radio and television, and has testified as an expert witness before Congress on hundreds of occasions. Mr. Fein’s firm, Fein & DelValle, was responsible for convincing Congress to release the 28 classified pages of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001, which implicated Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 terrorism. He also drafted Senate legislation to terminate United States military assistance to Saudi Arabia in its war in Yemen, House legislation that makes Presidential Wars an impeachable offense, and drafted legislation which was instrumental in the enactment of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act.

Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

Freedom is in Retreat in the Middle East: 11 Years After the Arab Spring
2022-01-25 12:00 - 13:30 | Zoom Meeting, 1800 K Street, NW, Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
An NIF Zoom event discussion regarding the 11-year anniversary of the Arab Spring and the state of freedom, democracy, and human rights in the region.

Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. Please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting “NA” in the “organization” or “job title” section.

Speakers
Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
Amr Hamzawy, Senior research scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University and Director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Radwan Masmoudi, Founder and President of the Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID)
Fouad Ibrahim, Saudi political scientist and author

Moderator
Khaled Saffuri, Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF)

About our Speakers:
Sarah Leah Whitson is the Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). Previously, she served as executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division from 2004 – 2020, overseeing the work of the division in 19 countries, with staff located in 10 countries. Whitson has led dozens of advocacy and investigative missions throughout the region, focusing on issues of armed conflict, accountability, legal reform, migrant workers, and human rights. She has published widely on human rights and foreign policy in the Middle East in international and regional media, including The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, The Los Angeles Times, and CNN. She appears regularly on Al-Jazeera, BBC, NPR, MSNBC, and CNN. Previously, Whitson worked in New York for Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School. Whitson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is on the boards of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, Artistic Freedom Initiative, Freedom Forward, ALQST for Human Rights, and Sinai Foundation for Human Rights. She speaks Armenian and Arabic.
Amr Hamzawy is a senior research scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University and Director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He studied political science and developmental studies in Cairo, The Hague, and Berlin. He was previously an associate professor of political science at Cairo University and a professor of public policy at the American University in Cairo. Between 2016 and 2017, he served as a senior fellow in the Middle East program and the Democracy and Rule of Law program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, D.C. His research and teaching interests as well as his academic publications focus on democratization processes in Egypt, tensions between freedom and repression in the Egyptian public space, political movements and civil society in Egypt, contemporary debates in Arab political thought, and human rights and governance in the Arab world. His new book On The Habits of Neoauthoritarianism – Politics in Egypt Between 2013 and 2019 appeared in Arabic in September 2019. Hamzawy is a former member of the People’s Assembly after being elected in the first Parliamentary elections in Egypt after the January 25, 2011 revolution. He is also a former member of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. Hamzawy contributes a weekly op-ed to the All Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi.
Radwan Masmoudi is the Founder and President of the Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID), a nonprofit think tank based in Washington D.C. dedicated to promoting freedom, democracy, and good governance in the Arab and Muslim worlds, as well as improving relations between the United States and the Muslim World. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Center’s quarterly publication, Muslim Democrat, a member of the Board of Directors of the International Forum for Islamic Dialogue (IFID), the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies (ACSIS), the Executive Committee of the Network of Democrats in the Arab World (NDAW), and served as a member of the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy, between 2012 and 2022. Dr. Masmoudi holds a Masters and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has published several articles and spoken at major international conferences on the compatibility between Islam and Democracy, and the democratic transitions in Tunisia following the Arab revolutions of 2011.
Fouad Ibrahim is a Saudi political scientist who specifically studies Islam and Shi’ism in Saudi Arabia. Ibrahim is an editor at Saudi Affairs and has published numerous academic articles. Ibrahim received his M.A. in Religion and Ph.D. in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies. He has published in both Arabic and English, with articles such as, “The Jurist and the State: Shi’i Political Thought” (1998), “Saudi Arabia: State’s Identity Crisis” (2011), and “Future of Saudi Arabia: Discourse, Throne, and Coalitions” (2017). His most noteworthy book, published in 2006 by Saqi Books, “The Shiʻis of Saudi Arabia” traces the evolution of Shi’ite opposition in Saudi Arabia since the late 1970s during the reform movements. Ibrahim’s work ranges from contextualizing the 1979 Iranian Revolution within the history of Shi’ism to the ascension of Abdullah to the Saudi throne.

About our Moderator:
Khaled Saffuri is the Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF), a nonpartisan think tank and nonprofit organization established in April of 2018 which is focused on bettering relationships between the United States and countries across the globe through the promotion of smarter foreign policy. Mr. Saffuri has previously served as a Principal at Meridian Strategies providing international business and government clients with unparalleled strategic and public affairs consulting services, and also founded and ran one of the United States’ prominent and most active organizations to represent the Middle East and Muslim-Americans. He has worked for many years with Members of Congress and has testified in front of Congressional Committees, advising them on international issues and leading Congressional delegations to the Middle East. Due to his extensive background and expertise, Mr. Saffuri is a regular contributor to a number of important media outlets in the United States and internationally including CNN, CBS, and BBC and contributes articles and written publications to outlets such as The Washington Post and The American Conservative.

Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

Lunch Meeting with Tunisian Parliamentary Delegation
2022-02-22 12:30 - 14:00 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend our lunch discussion regarding the state of democracy in Tunisia under the current political crisis.

Disclaimer: Any RSVPs that are not on our email list will be denied entry. NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. Please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting “NA” in the “organization” or “job title” section.

Speakers
MP Maher Medhioub, Member of the Tunisian Parliament
MP Oussama Khlifi, Member of the Tunisian Parliament
MP Oussama Sghaier, Member of the Tunisian Parliament

Moderator
Khaled Saffuri, Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF)

About our Speakers:
MP Maher Medhioub is a Member of the Tunisian House of People’s Representatives (Parliament), and Special Assistant to the President of the Parliament in charge of Media Relations and Communications. He was elected to the parliament in 2014, and then again in 2019. He served as a Representative of the youth on the Economic and Social Council between 1989 and 1992. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Media and Communications from the Arab University of Sciences in Tunis, in 1997, and worked for several years as journalist and media consultant/advisor with Al-Jazeera in Doha, Qatar between 2008 and 2014.
MP Oussama Khlifi is a Member of the Tunisian Assembly of People’s Representatives, and president of Qalb Tounes party’s parliamentary bloc. He is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, of the Committee for the Organization of Administration and Affairs of Armed Forces, and of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunity, Parliamentary Laws and Electoral Laws. He is also President of the Tunisian American Friendship Parliamentary Commission. He holds a master’s/MBA in political communication from the Sorbonne University in Paris, where he studied in 2007. He also got his baccalaureate in 1997. In 2013, he was the director of the late President Beji Caid Essebsi’s campaign abroad. From 2016 to 2018, he worked as the Executive Director of Nessma TV Channel, the Tunisian commercial channel broadcasting in Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Mauritania. In 2019, Oussama Khlifi was a candidate for Qalb Tounes in the Tunisian legislative elections in the constituency of Tunis, the country’s capital. He also directed Qalb Tounes’ campaign for the presidential and legislative elections.
MP Oussama Sghaier is a Member of the Tunisian Parliament. When Ben Ali took over, Mr. Sghaier was forced to flee the country with his family. After 17 years spent in Italy as a political refugee, he returned in 2011, immediately following the revolution and fall of Ben Ali. Mr. Sghaier was elected to the Tunisian National Constitutional Assembly in October 2011 for the Ennahdha Movement, in the Italy constituency. He was elected to the committee that prepared the Temporary Law for the Organisation of Powers, or “mini constitution,” in force in Tunisia until the election of a new Parliament. He was also a member of the assembly committee working on the Chapter of the Constitution dealing with the relation between the legislative power and the executive power (political system), and a member of the committee on transitional justice. Mr. Sghaier is a member of Ennahdha Party’s political bureau. He was re-elected in 2014 and 2019 as a member of Tunisia’s Assembly of the People’s Representatives for the constituency of Italy. He is a member of the Tunisian Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee as well as the commission for investigation on networks involved in sending Tunisian youth to conflict zones.

About our Moderator:
Khaled Saffuri is the Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF), a nonpartisan think tank and nonprofit organization established in April of 2018 which is focused on bettering relationships between the United States and countries across the globe through the promotion of smarter foreign policy. Mr. Saffuri has previously served as a Principal at Meridian Strategies providing international business and government clients with unparalleled strategic and public affairs consulting services, and also founded and ran one of the United States’ prominent and most active organizations to represent the Middle East and Muslim-Americans. He has worked for many years with Members of Congress and has testified in front of Congressional Committees, advising them on international issues and leading Congressional delegations to the Middle East. Due to his extensive background and expertise, Mr. Saffuri is a regular contributor to a number of important media outlets in the United States and internationally including CNN, CBS, and BBC and contributes articles and written publications to outlets such as The Washington Post and The American Conservative.

The Abraham Accords Promised Peace: What's the Reality?
2022-06-01 12:00 - 13:30 | Zoom Meeting, 1800 K Street, NW, Suite 1124, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
An NIF Zoom event discussion regarding the shortcomings of the Abraham Accords. Some of the countries who signed on to the agreement claimed that it would improve the daily lives of Palestinians and stop more illegal Israeli settlements. Let’s see the facts.

Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. Please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting “NA” in the “organization” or “job title” section.

Speakers
Diana Buttu, Palestinian-Canadian Lawyer and Analyst
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General and Co-Founder of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI)
Maha Hussaini, Strategy Director of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Moderator
Khaled Saffuri, Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF)

About our Speakers:
Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer who previously served as a legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team and was part of the team that assisted in the successful litigation of Israel’s separation wall before the International Court of Justice at the Hague in 2004, which resulted in the indictment of the wall. She frequently comments on Palestine for international news media outlets such as CNN and BBC, is a political analyst for Al Jazeera International, and is a regular contributor to The Middle East magazine. She maintains a law practice in Palestine, focusing on international human rights law. Earlier in her career, Buttu worked on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, serving as the only female negotiator during her five-year tenure. She was a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and at Harvard Law School. She also held a fellowship at the Stanford Center for Conflict Resolution and Negotiation and is an instructor at Harvard Extension School. Buttu received her undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto, a JD from Queen’s University in Canada, an LLM from the University of Toronto, a JSM from Stanford University, and an executive MBA from Kellogg Northwestern School of Management.
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti is the secretary general and co-founder of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) – also known as al-Mubadara. PNI seeks to develop mass nonviolence and international solidarity as the preferred means of resisting the Israeli Occupation, and to mobilize public opinion by making the Palestinian story visible in the news media. A physician by practice, he has been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) since 2006 and is also a member of the Palestinian Central Council (PCC). Dr. Barghouti is an advocate for the development of Palestinian civil society and grassroots democracy, and writes extensively for a local and international audience on civil society, democracy issues and the political situation in Palestine, and on health development policy for Palestinians living under occupation. In 2007, he served as minister of information in the Palestinian unity government. He ran for president in the 2005 presidential election, coming second after Mahmoud Abbas. Barghouti has worked extensively on defending human rights and internal democracy, and is the founder and chairman of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS).
Maha Hussaini is the Strategy Director of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and an award-winning journalist based in Gaza. She holds a master’s degree in political science – refugee studies. Maha started her career in the field of human rights and journalism in 2014, where she covered and documented violations during Israel’s military attack on the Gaza Strip.

About our Moderator:
Khaled Saffuri is the Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF), a nonpartisan think tank and nonprofit organization established in April of 2018 which is focused on bettering relationships between the United States and countries across the globe through the promotion of smarter foreign policy. Mr. Saffuri has previously served as a Principal at Meridian Strategies providing international business and government clients with unparalleled strategic and public affairs consulting services, and also founded and ran one of the United States’ prominent and most active organizations to represent the Middle East and Muslim-Americans. He has worked for many years with Members of Congress and has testified in front of Congressional Committees, advising them on international issues and leading Congressional delegations to the Middle East. Due to his extensive background and expertise, Mr. Saffuri is a regular contributor to a number of important media outlets in the United States and internationally including CNN, CBS, and BBC and contributes articles and written publications to outlets such as The Washington Post and The American Conservative.

Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

2022 STG/NIF/ORSAM Istanbul Conference - The U.S. and International Shifting Dynamics
2022-06-18 | Elite World Europe Hotel, Halkalı Merkez, Basın Ekspres Cd. No:4, 34303, Küçükçekmece/İstanbul, Turkey
Strategic Thinking Group (STG) – Istanbul in Collaboration with The National Interest Foundation (NIF) – Washington D.C. & Center for Middle East Studies (ORSAM) – Ankara are hosting a second international conference under the title:
“The U.S. and International Shifting Dynamics“
Saturday, June 18, 2022
Istanbul, Turkey

Opening Session

Remarks
Speaker
Time

Chairman of the Strategic Thinking Group
Mohammed Salem Al-Rashed
09:30 – 10:00

President of the National Interest Foundation
Khaled Saffuri

President of the Center for Middle East Studies
Ahmet Uysal

The First Panel: Biden Administration Policy in the Middle East

Topic
Speaker
Moderator
10:00

U.S. strategy towards the Palestinian issue
Jim Moran
Khaled Saffuri
15 Minutes

U.S. strategy towards Iran
Tim Constantine
15 Minutes

U.S. strategy towards Turkey
Talha Kose
15 Minutes

U.S. strategy towards crises in the region (Iraq – Yemen – Syria – Libya – Sudan…)
Abdullah Al-Shayji
15 Minutes

Questions and Comments
30 Minutes

Coffee Break
11:30 – 11:45

The Second Panel: U.S. Relations with China, Russia, and the Role of Turkey

Topic
Speaker
Moderator
11:45

U.S.-China relations
Doug Bandow
Esam Omeish
15 Minutes

U.S.-Russian relations and the War in Ukraine
Saul Anuzis
15 Minutes

U.S. interactions and the role and position of Turkey in regional alliances
Ahmed Uysal
15 Minutes

The international poles (U.S. and the European Union – Russia – China) and regional alliances
Mohamed Hussein Abu Saleh
15 Minutes

Questions and Comments
30 Minutes

Lunch Break
01:15 – 02:15

The Third Panel: Regional and International Dynamics and Economic Interactions

Topic
Speaker
Moderator
02:15

International conflicts and inflation
Abdul Hafez Al-Sawy
Gamal Nassar
15 Minutes

International conflicts and gas and oil
Zaed Abdulvahab
15 Minutes

The Russian-Ukrainian War and global food security
Tarik Al-Azami
15 Minutes

Economic dynamics and the future of the U.S. dollar
Bruce Fein
15 Minutes

Questions and Comments
30 Minutes

Coffee Break
03:45 – 04:00

The Fourth Panel: Global Media and International Conflicts

Topic
Speaker
Moderator
04:00

Global media and the Palestinian issue
Ali Younes
Nursin Guney
15 Minutes

War & Peace and media coverage
David Hearst
15 Minutes

Global media and Turkey
Mehmet Özkan
15 Minutes

Arab media, crises, and wars in the region
Ahmed Ramadan
15 Minutes

Questions and Comments
05:00 – 05:30

A First-Hand Account Into China's Genocide Against the Uyghurs
2022-08-16 12:00 - 13:30 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend a lunch discussion and book signing event with Nury Turkel regarding his powerful recent memoir No Escape: The True Story of China’s Genocide of the Uyghurs. Mr. Turkel will discuss his personal story, China’s egregious violations against the Uyghurs, and his work to address the humanitarian crisis.

Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. Please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting “NA” in the “organization” or “job title” section.

Speaker
Nury Turkel, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute

Moderator
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Senior Advisor and Editorial Director, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

About our Speaker:
Nury Turkel is the first U.S.-educated Uyghur-American lawyer, foreign policy expert, and human rights advocate. He was born in a re-education camp at the height of China’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution and spent the first several months of his life in detention with his mother. He came to the United States in 1995 as a student and was later granted asylum by the U.S. government. Since June 2022, Nury has served as the Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, having been reappointed by Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in May of 2022 for a two-year term. In September 2020, Turkel was named one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World; and in May 2021, he was named on Fortune‘s List of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. Turkel is a respected opinion leader and a foreign policy expert primarily focusing on diplomatic, economic, and national security issues involving China, Central Asia, and Turkey. He is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), which he co-founded in 2003. Turkel has published policy-oriented commentaries and op-eds in publications such as Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, USA Today, The Hill, The Independent, and The Diplomat. He has spoken at numerous policy forums, academic institutes, and human rights conferences, regarding the mass internment of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in China. He has appeared on major media outlets, including CNN, BBC, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Australian ABC, Sky News, France 24, and TRT World. He has testified before Congress, including most recently before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China in October 2019, speaking about Uyghur internment camps, and advocating a legislative response to China’s atrocities. Many of his recommendations have been incorporated into U.S. laws and pending bills relating to Uyghurs and China in Congress, including the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (Public Law 116-145).

About our Moderator:
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos comes to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft from The American Conservative (TAC), where for the last three years she served as the magazine’s executive editor. Before joining TAC in 2017, Vlahos served as a contributing editor to the magazine, reporting and publishing regular articles on U.S. war policy, civil liberties, foreign policy, veterans, and Washington politics since 2007. She also organized the magazine’s major annual foreign policy conference for the last three years. Prior to that, Vlahos was director of social media and a digital editor at WTOP News in Washington, D.C. from 2013 to 2017. She spent 15 years as an online political reporter for FOX News at the channel’s Washington D.C. bureau, as well as Washington correspondent for Homeland Security Today magazine. She is on the board of PublicSquare.net, a non-profit media project promoting informed Left-Right debate. Her recent media appearances include C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Tucker Carlson Tonight, NPR’s 1A, POTUS on Sirius XM, and Al Jazeera. Before moving to the nation’s capital, Vlahos earned her degree in Journalism-Mass Media at Central Connecticut State University and worked her way through local and regional newspapers in her home state of Connecticut, including The New Britain Herald and The Torrington Register Citizen. She is co-host of the Crashing the War Party podcast with Daniel Larison and Barbara Boland.

Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

A Conversation w/ Former Secretary of Defense and U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel
2022-10-06 12:00 - 13:30 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend a lunch discussion event with former U.S. Secretary of Defense and former U.S. Senator, The Honorable Chuck Hagel, regarding American Engagement in the Middle East.

Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. You will receive a confirmation email if you have been successfully added to our event attendee list upon registration. Those who do not receive a confirmation email will not be admitted. Also, please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so.

Speaker
The Honorable Chuck Hagel, Former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Former U.S. Senator

Moderator
Bruce Fein, Law Offices of Bruce Fein

About our Speaker:
The Honorable Chuck Hagel was the 24th Secretary of Defense, serving from February 2013 to February 2015. He is the only Vietnam veteran and the first enlisted combat veteran to serve as Secretary of Defense.
Hagel served two terms in the United States Senate (1997-2009) representing the state of Nebraska. Hagel was a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; and Intelligence Committees. He Chaired the Foreign Relations International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion Subcommittee; and the Banking Committee’s International Trade and Finance, and Securities Subcommittees. Hagel also served as the Chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the Senate Climate Change Observer Group.
Previously, Secretary Hagel was Co-Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, Chairman of the Atlantic Council, and a Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University. He served as a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board and Secretary of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of Nuclear Power, Systemic Risk Council Board of Directors. Hagel also served as Chief Operating Officer of the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations (G-7 Summit) and Deputy Administrator of the Veterans Administration under President Ronald Reagan and Deputy Commissioner General of the 1982 World’s Fair.
Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Hagel was president of McCarthy & Company, an investment banking firm in Omaha, Nebraska. In the mid-1980’s, Hagel co-founded VANGUARD Cellular Systems, Inc., a publicly traded corporation. He was President and CEO of the World USO and Private Sector Council (PSC).
Some of Hagel’s current commitments include service on the United States Military Academy Board of Visitors; Board of Trustees of RAND; Advisory Board of Corsair Capital; Senior Advisor to the McCarthy Group; Centennial Scholar, Georgetown Walsh School of Foreign Service; Distinguished Scholar, University of Nebraska at Omaha; Distinguished Statesman at the Atlantic Council; Board of Directors of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS); Board of Trustees of the United States Capitol Historical Society; Director and Co-Founding Member of the American Security Project; Advisory Board Chairman of the HillVets Veterans Organization; and Chairman of the Veterans Justice Commission.
He is the author of the book, America: Our Next Chapter. He and his brother Tom are the subjects of a 2018 book by General Daniel Bolger entitled, Our Year of War. Hagel is also the subject of a 2006 book by Charlyne Berens entitled, Chuck Hagel: Moving Forward. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Hagel and his wife, Lilibet, have a daughter (Allyn) and son (Ziller).

About our Moderator:
Bruce Fein was associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan, counsel to the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran, and senior policy advisor to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. Mr. Fein is a constitutional and international lawyer, and author of “American Empire Before The Fall.” He has testified before Congress on more than 200 occasions.

Note: additional speakers may be announced later.

How the UAE-Russian Alliance Threatens the U.S.?
2022-11-14 12:00 - 13:30 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend a private lunch discussion event with British academic Matthew Hedges regarding his wrongful detainment, imprisonment, and torture at the hands of the United Arab Emirates government, his research, and what he is doing now for accountability and research on the UAE’s support for Russian sanctions evasion.

Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. You will receive a confirmation email if you have been successfully added to our event attendee list upon registration. Those who do not receive a confirmation email will not be admitted. Also, please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so.

About our Speaker:
Matthew Hedges is an academic focusing on authoritarianism. While conducting fieldwork research for his PhD in the UAE, he was detained, tortured, and sentenced to life imprisonment under the charge of espionage on behalf of the British Government. He was awarded his doctorate by Durham University and has since published this as Reinventing the Sheikhdom: Clan, Power and Patronage in MBZ’s UAE. His current research focuses on the commercial activities of non-Western intelligence organizations.

About our Moderator:
Khaled Saffuri is the Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF), a nonpartisan think tank and nonprofit organization established in April of 2018 which is focused on bettering relationships between the United States and countries across the globe through the promotion of smarter foreign policy. Mr. Saffuri has previously served as a Principal at Meridian Strategies providing international business and government clients with strategic and public affairs consulting services, and also founded and ran one of the United States’ prominent and most active organizations to represent the Middle East and Muslim-Americans. He has worked for many years with Members of Congress and has testified in front of Congressional Committees, advising them on international issues and leading Congressional delegations to the Middle East. Due to his extensive background and expertise, Mr. Saffuri is a regular contributor to a number of important media outlets in the United States and internationally including CNN, CBS, and BBC and contributes articles and written publications to outlets such as The Washington Post and The American Conservative.

A Lunch Conversation with Dr. Majed Bin Mohammed Al-Ansari
2023-03-16 12:30 - 14:00 | National Interest Foundation, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 7000, Washington, DC, 20006, United States
The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend a lunch discussion event with Dr. Majed Bin Mohammed Al-Ansari, regarding U.S. relations with Qatar and the Middle East.

Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. You will receive a confirmation email if you have been successfully added to our event attendee list upon registration. Those who do not receive a confirmation email will not be admitted. Also, please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry to those who fail to do so.

About our Speaker:
Dr. Majed Bin Mohammed Al-Ansari currently serves as an advisor to H.E. the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and as the Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar. He received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Leeds University in Political Science and his Ph.D. and MA in Social Change from Cathy March Insitute of the University of Manchester. Dr. Al-Ansari worked previously as Director of the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies (QIASS) and Director of the Policy Department at the Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI) of Qatar University (QU). During his work at the university, he also served as an assistant professor at QU’s Department of International Affairs. Al-Ansari started his career as a researcher in international relations at the office of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2005. He also took on various roles in multiple civil society institutions. He wrote regularly in Al Sharq and Al Arab national Newspapers between 2006 and 2022. Dr. Al-Ansari serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Strategic Studies at Qatar Armed Forces.

About our Moderator:
Khaled Saffuri is the Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF), a nonpartisan think tank and nonprofit organization established in April of 2018 which is focused on bettering relationships between the United States and countries across the globe through the promotion of smarter foreign policy. Mr. Saffuri has previously served as a Principal at Meridian Strategies providing international business and government clients with strategic and public affairs consulting services, and also founded and ran one of the United States’ prominent and most active organizations to represent the Middle East and Muslim-Americans. He has worked for many years with Members of Congress and has testified in front of Congressional Committees, advising them on international issues and leading Congressional delegations to the Middle East. Due to his extensive background and expertise, Mr. Saffuri is a regular contributor to a number of important media outlets in the United States and internationally including CNN, CBS, and BBC and contributes articles and written publications to outlets such as The Washington Post and The American Conservative.

Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy
2023-05-17 10:00 - 16:00 | Rayburn House Office Building, 45 Independence Avenue Southwest, Room 2168 (The Gold Room), Washington D.C., 20515, United States
Disclaimer: NIF events are by email invitation only and are non-transferable. Please note that when registering for any of our events, all required fields must be properly filled out. We reserve the right to deny entry for those who fail to do so, i.e. inputting “NA” in the “organization” or “job title” section.

Event Synopsis: Human rights continue to be a growing issue around the world and many of the past policies that were employed to punish human rights abusers are not as effective as they were in the past. U.S. policy has been consistently inconsistent in who they condemn, often excluding allies and oil-rich nations from punishment. NIF invites you to join us on May 17, 2023, to explore and discuss the intricacies and shortcomings of U.S. foreign policy and the impact it has on international human rights.
