BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//National Interest Foundation - ECPv6.16.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:National Interest Foundation
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://nifusa.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for National Interest Foundation
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20180311T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20181104T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20190310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20191103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20200308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20201101T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20210314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20211107T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20220313T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20221106T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20230312T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20231105T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20240310T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20241103T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251106T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251106T133000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20251031T160952Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251103T221116Z
UID:12127-1762430400-1762435800@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:Sudan War and Foreign Meddling
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend an event regarding the latest developments surrounding the war in Sudan and the foreign meddling in the conflict. \n  \nSpeakers:\nH.E. Mohamed Abdalla Idris\, Ambassador of Sudan to the United States\nH.E. Dr. Khidir Haroun Ahmed\, Former Ambassador of Sudan to the United States and Associate Professor of Political Science at the International University of Africa\nDr. Mohamed Elsanousi\, Executive Director at the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers\nImam Mohamed Magid\, Executive Imam at All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center \n  \nModerator:\nKhaled Saffuri\, President at the National Interest Foundation \n  \nDisclaimer: 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. \n  \nAbout our Speakers: \nH.E. Mohamed Abdalla Idris is the current Ambassador of Sudan to the United States. As a seasoned diplomat\, he brings a sophisticated understanding of international relations\, particularly in global health cooperation and humanitarian coordination. H.E. Ambassador Idris has played a pivotal role in representing Sudan’s national interests in Washington and beyond\, often working to build cross-border partnerships for health and development. He has been instrumental in facilitating collaborations with global institutions\, NGOs\, and foreign governments to tackle infectious disease\, bolster healthcare infrastructure\, and equip Sudan for future public health challenges. Fluent in multiple languages and with a background that includes both international diplomacy and public service\, H.E. Ambassador Idris combines strategic acumen with a humanitarian orientation. His leadership exemplifies how diplomacy and global health advocacy can work together to support resilient and equitable outcomes in developing nations. \n  \nH.E. Dr. Khidir Haroun Ahmed is the Former Ambassador of Sudan to the United States. He currently works as an Associate Professor of Political Science at the International University of Africa. Previously\, Dr. Ahmed also served as Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Sudan to the Republic of India between 2009 and 2011\, as Non-resident Ambassador to Nepal\, Sri Lanka\, and the Maldives between 2009 and 2012\, and as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sudan to Japan between 1999 and 2001\, among other roles. He has published several books including The Urban Dwellers – a novel in Arabic\, Nostalgic Messages – an autobiography\, and Visions on Thoughts\, Culture and Literature. He has also published research in areas such as the story of secession of South Sudan\, the impact of globalization on Arabic culture\, and religious extremism. \n  \nDr. Mohamed Elsanousi is the Executive Director of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers\, a global coalition that connects grassroots peacebuilders with international stakeholders to strengthen collective efforts toward sustainable peace. He also currently serves as a Commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Previously\, Dr. Elsanousi was the Director of Interfaith and Government Relations at the Islamic Society of North America. He served on the U.S. Department of State’s Working Group on Religion and Foreign Policy\, where he contributed key recommendations to the Secretary of State and the Federal Advisory Commission to enhance collaboration between the U.S. government\, civil society\, and religious actors. He also played a leading role in developing the standards and protocols for protecting the rights of Christian\, Jewish\, and other religious minorities in Muslim-majority contexts—an effort that culminated in the landmark Marrakech Declaration\, one of the most recognized Islamic theological documents in support of religious freedom. Dr. Elsanousi is the founder of Faiths4Vaccines\, a national campaign mobilizing faith leaders and communities to support the Biden Administration’s goals of equitable vaccine distribution and combating vaccine hesitancy. He is a founding executive committee member of the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign\, and was recently appointed to the UN Security Council’s Nongovernmental Organization Working Group. He also co-chairs the Multifaith Advisory Council to the UN Interagency Task Force on Religion and Sustainable Development. In addition to these roles\, Dr. Elsanousi serves on the boards of several interfaith and civic organizations\, including the Religious Leadership and Civic Engagement Project at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service\, the Center for Interreligious Dialogue at the Jewish Theological Seminary\, and the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in law\, a master’s in law\, and a doctorate in law and society from Indiana University’s School of Law. \n  \nImam Mohamed Magid is the Executive Imam at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center. He has dedicated over three decades to serving the Muslim community with unwavering commitment\, compassion\, and vision. Originally from Sudan\, Imam Magid comes from a distinguished lineage of Islamic scholarship. He is recognized nationally and internationally for his leadership in promoting human rights\, interfaith understanding\, and community development. As the Resident Scholar of the ADAMS Center\, Imam Magid plays a vital role in guiding the community through education\, spiritual growth\, and advocacy. His work has empowered individuals and families across generations\, and his efforts to foster inclusivity and unity have earned him deep respect across diverse communities. In addition to his community leadership\, Imam Magid is an accomplished author and public speaker. His lifelong dedication to service reflects an impeccable record of addressing the evolving needs of the Muslim community while upholding the timeless values of faith\, justice\, and compassion. \n  \nAbout our Moderator: \nKhaled 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. \n  \nNote: additional speakers may be announced later
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/sudan-war-and-foreign-meddling/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/11.6.25-NIF-Event-Image-e1761926981691.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241217T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241217T193000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20241216T192816Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241217T002030Z
UID:11601-1734458400-1734463800@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:The Fall of Assad and the Future of Syria
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend a panel discussion event regarding the latest developments in Syria after the ousting of Assad and what to expect next. \n  \nSpeakers:\nDr. Tarek Abou Ghazala\, American Coalition for Syria\nRadwan Ziadeh\, Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies\nRaghid Okla\, Syrian-American Activist\nBassam Barabandi\, People Demand Change \n  \nModerator:\nKhaled Saffuri\, National Interest Foundation \n  \nDisclaimer: 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. \n  \n*A light dinner will be served at the event. \n  \nParking: Free parking will be available around the building. We will inform building management about the event and they will not tow. If you wish to take the metro\, it is a 7-minute walk from both the Tysons and Greensboro stations. \n  \nAbout our Speakers: \nDr. Tarek Abou Ghazala is an Interventional Cardiologist practicing in Northern Virginia. He established the Virginia Cardiovascular Group and served as the President of the Medical Society of Northern Virginia and the Chairman of Medicine and Director of Cardiovascular Services then elected Chief of Staff at Stonesprings Hospital in Aldie Virginia. He was then elected Director at the Medical Society of Virginia in 2019. Dr. Abou Ghazala is an active political advocate of the Syrian uprising\, currently serving as the President of Kayla’s List PAC\, a Political Action Committee aiming to promote congressional candidates that support freedom\, social & economic justice\, and dignity for people across the globe. Previously\, Dr. Abou Ghazala co-founded the American Coalition for Syria\, encompassing 10 organisations advocating for freedom and democracy for the Syrian people. He also sits on the Board of Directors of the Syrian American Medical Society\, Washington DC Chapter\, and is a signatory to the 10 Principles for Freedom and Democracy for Syria\, put forth by active Syrian Americans. He appeared on many media outlets in person and by writing. Dr. Abou Ghazala graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the Damascus University in 1991. He later continued his training in the United States completing his residency in Internal Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland\, Ohio and his fellowship in Cardiordivascular Diseases at the University of Missouri Hospital and Clinics in Columbia\, Missouri. \n  \nRadwan Ziadeh is a Senior Fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC\, where he deals chiefly with issues pertaining to Syria. He has been documenting the ongoing human rights violations since the onset of the Syrian crisis and has testified before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the US Congress. He served as a visiting fellow and scholar at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University\, the Institute for Middle East Studies of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University\, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University\, the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University\, Chatham House\, the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University\, and the United States Institute of Peace. He was also a Prins Global Fellow at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University and a Reagan–Fascell Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. Dr. Ziadeh is the author of more than 20 books in English and Arabic including Power and Policy in Syria: Intelligence Services\, Foreign Relations and Democracy in the Modern Middle East (2010)\, and Syria’s Role in a Changing Middle East: The Syrian-Israeli Peace Talks (2016). He holds a DDS in Dentistry from Damascus University\, a Diploma in International Human Rights Law from American University\, an MA in Democracy and Governance from Georgetown University\, and a Diploma in Peace Negotiations and Conflict Studies from the University of Cyprus. Ziadeh is also the founder and director of the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies in Syria (www.dchrs.org); and co-founder and executive director of the Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Washington\, D.C. (www.scpss.org). \n  \nRaghid Okla is a Syrian-American activist and opinion’s columnist for various media outlets. \n  \nBassam Barabandi is Co-Founder of People Demand Change and was a Non-Resident Fellow at the Newlines Institute. Born in Damascus City with familial ties to Deir Azzour Province\, Syria\, Bassam Barabandi worked in the diplomatic civil service of the Syrian Government for 14 years before leaving the Syrian Embassy in Washington DC in the summer of 2013 and co-founding People Demand Change Inc. Previously as a diplomat\, Mr. Barabandi had numerous postings\, including being the first secretary at the Embassy of Syria in Washington DC\, the head of political affairs at the Syrian Embassy in Beijing\, China\, and a post at the Syrian Government’s UN mission in New York City. Through his time as a diplomat\, Mr. Barabandi also worked with the World Bank\, the US Treasury Department and as a liaison to the US Congress. Since the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011\, Mr. Barabandi was instrumental in providing unhindered access to consular services for all Syrians regardless of political or ideological affiliation\, including access to many Syrians who had no other avenue through which to acquire passport extensions and other necessary legal documents. Mr. Barabandi has a BA in political science and public administration from the American University of Beirut and speaks fluent Arabic and English. Since co-founding PDC\, Mr. Barabandi has written extensively on the Syrian conflict and has been published in Foreign affairs\, Foreign policy\, and was qouted by all main newspaper and reserch on Syria & has conducted guest interviews to provide his analysis for BBC\, Al-Jazeera\, Al-Arabiya\, Sky News\, France24 and other media outlets. \n  \nAbout our Moderator: \nKhaled 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. \n  \nNote: additional speakers may be announced later
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/the-fall-of-assad-and-the-future-of-syria/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12.17.24-NIF-Event-Picture_V2-e1734394811643.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240131T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240131T193000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20240209T205546Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240209T214812Z
UID:11114-1706724000-1706729400@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:How Strong is South Africa's Case Against Israel at the ICJ?
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend a dinner conversation regarding South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. \n  \nSpeakers: Bruce Fein\, Former Associate Deputy Attorney General\nSam Husseini\, Independent Journalist \n  \nModerator: Yasmeen Hussain\, Attorney Specializing in International Humanitarian Law \n  \nDisclaimer: 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. \n  \nEvent Synopsis: We will examine the importance of South Africa’s landmark case against Israel at the International Court of Justice – the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. South Africa is accusing Israel of committing the crime of genocide\, in breach of the 1948 Genocide Convention\, with its destructive military campaign in Gaza. The case details an array of evidence of Israeli war crimes and human rights violations being committed including the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians\, the expulsion and displacement of Gaza Strip inhabitants\, and the hindrance of food\, water\, medical\, and other humanitarian assistance. The event will include discussion regarding the merits of the case\, where things stand in the process\, and how the prosecution of cases works at both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. \n  \nParking: Free parking will be available around the building. We will inform building management about the event and they will not tow. If you wish to take the metro\, it is a 7-minute walk from both the Tysons and Greensboro stations. \n  \n*A light dinner will be served at the event. \n  \nAbout our Speakers: \nBruce Fein has been a renowned legal-media fixture in Washington\, D.C. for more than 50 years across the political spectrum. He featured on Attorney General William French Smith’s short-list of potential nominees to the United States Supreme Court. His unique network extends to all three branches of the government\, the media\, think tanks\, universities\, and a cluster of NGOs. Mr. Fein appears regularly on national and international television. His articles on law and public policy are ubiquitous. He conducts constitutional tutorials for Members of Congress and staff. He is Vice Chairman of the Committee for the Republic. He is author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy and American Empire Before The Fall. Mr. Fein served as senior policy advisor to Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. He contributes daily commentary on his substack page: brucefein.substack.com. His twitter hashtag is @brucefeinesq. He has testified as an expert witness before Congress on more than 200 occasions. He served on the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements. He has lived through every major political-legal battle or crisis since 1969 beginning with the defeats of President Richard Nixon’s Supreme Court nominees Clement Haynsworth and G. Harold Carswell. Mr. Fein graduated with honors from Harvard Law School and served at the highest levels of the legislative\, executive\, and judicial branches of government before establishing his own law firm. Among other things\, Mr. Fein served as special assistant to the assistant attorney general in the office of legal counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice\, assistant director of the office of legal policy\, associate deputy attorney general\, general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission\, research director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran\, and clerk to federal Judge Frank A. Kaufman. Mr. Fein has been a newspaper columnist\, professor at George Washington University\, and Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Fein specializes in constitutional\, international law\, civil liberties\, and administrative law. He has assisted multiple countries in writing or rewriting constitutions. He offers unique multi-dimensional analyses and solutions for every client. He is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court\, multiple federal appeals courts\, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia\, and the District of Columbia Bar. \n  \nSam Husseini is an independent journalist now writing at husseini.substack.com. Since October 2023\, his work has focused on Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza\, especially highlighting the possibility of a country invoking the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice\, which South Africa did on December 29\, 2023\, leading to oral arguments. In addition to Palestine\, his work has focused on Iraq (in particular the draconian sanctions during the 1990s and falsifications about WMDs used as a pretext for the 2003 invasion)\, international law\, U.S. government refusing to acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal\, Covid origins\, political and media disinformation\, and issues of free speech. He has scrutinized and questioned officials\, most recently at the State Department. His questioning of a Saudi official during the Arab uprisings in 2011 led to him being suspended from the Press Club (later overturned by the ethics committee). He is also senior analyst at the Institute for Public Accuracy\, and the founder of VotePact\, which advocates people from the left and right voting in pairs against the establishment duopoly. \n  \nAbout our Moderator: \nYasmeen Hussain has an extensive education in international law and human rights\, and a career committed to public service. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Chicago in international studies with a concentration in human rights\, conducting field research in her native Syrian village prior to writing her thesis on the role that minority groups played in mid-century Syrian politics. She also specialized in international humanitarian law while attending American University Washington College of Law\, writing research papers on the importance of international special tribunals to prosecute war crimes. She is committed to a life of public service and worked in community development throughout the south side of Chicago\, as well as environmental protection and conservation in the state of California. She currently works in legal advising at Covington & Burling in Washington\, D.C. \n  \nNote: additional speakers may be announced later
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/how-strong-is-south-africas-case-against-israel-at-the-icj/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/1.31.24-NIF-Event-Picture-e1707512116270.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230926T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230926T193000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20240209T211526Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240209T211526Z
UID:11123-1695751200-1695756600@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:Conversation with Dr. Mohamed Moncef Marzouki\, Former President of Tunisia
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend a dinner event with the former President of Tunisia\, Dr. Mohamed Moncef Marzouki. \n  \nDisclaimer: 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. \n  \nEvent Synopsis: Democratic backsliding has continued in Tunisia as despot Kais Saied continues to consolidate his power. He has removed multiple democratic institutions with checks on his power. During this event\, we will discuss the current events on the ground in Tunisia and things people are doing to combat Saied’s regime. \n  \nAbout our Speaker: \nMohamed Moncef Marzouki is a Tunisian politician who served as the fifth president of Tunisia from 2011 to 2014. Through his career he has been a human rights activist\, physician and politician. On 12 December 2011\, he was elected President of Tunisia by the Constituent Assembly. \nDr. Mohamed Moncef Marzouki was born in Grombalia\, Tunisia in 1945\, and followed his family into political exile in Morocco in 1961\, because of his father’s opposition to President Habib Bourgiba. An excellent student\, he won a scholarship to study in France\, where he earned his medical degree at the University of Strasbourg in 1973\, with specialties in neurology\, internal medicine and public health. At Strasbourg\, Dr. Marzouki wrote his thesis on human rights and medical experimentation under the supervision of Professor Marc Klein\, a Holocaust survivor who had been imprisoned in Auschwitz and Buchenwald\, and who had a profound intellectual influence on him. \nDr. Marzouki was President of the Tunisian League for Human Rights from 1989 to 1994. In the early 1990’s\, Dr. Marzouki founded the National Committee for the Defense of Prisoners of Opinion\, which was declared illegal by then-President Zine el Abedine Ben Ali’s regime. In July 1994\, announced his candidacy for President of Tunisia. That year\, he was arrested and imprisoned\, and held in solitary confinement for several months. Dr. Marzouki was released in 1995\, after South African President Nelson Mandela appealed to Ben Ali on his behalf. For several years\, Dr. Marzouki was denied a passport and prohibited from travelling abroad\, and lived under constant surveillance. In 1998\, Dr. Marzouki became the spokesperson for the National Council for Freedom in Tunisia\, a post he occupied until 2001. In 2000\, Dr. Marzouki was dismissed from his post as Professor of Public Health at the University of Sousse. In 2001\, he founded the Congress for 2/2 the Republic (CPR)\, a political party that was banned by Ben Ali’s regime. \n  \nAbout our Moderator: \nKhaled 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.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/conversation-with-dr-mohamed-moncef-marzouki-former-president-of-tunisia/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Continued-Protests-Against-President-Saied-in-Tunisia-Picture-e1671131496846.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230316T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230316T140000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20240209T213034Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240209T213048Z
UID:11129-1678969800-1678975200@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:A Lunch Conversation with Dr. Majed Bin Mohammed Al-Ansari
DESCRIPTION: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. \n  \nDisclaimer: 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. \n  \nAbout our Speaker: \nDr. 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. \n  \nAbout our Moderator: \nKhaled 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.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/a-lunch-conversation-with-dr-majed-bin-mohammed-al-ansari/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_465350049_252358599583_1_original-e1707514148348.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221114T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221114T133000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20240209T213540Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240209T213540Z
UID:11133-1668427200-1668432600@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:How the UAE-Russian Alliance Threatens the U.S.?
DESCRIPTION: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. \n  \nDisclaimer: 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. \n  \nAbout our Speaker: \nMatthew 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. \n  \nAbout our Moderator: \nKhaled 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.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/how-the-uae-russian-alliance-threatens-the-u-s/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/11.14.22-NIF-Event-Image-e1707514440752.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20221006T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20221006T133000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20221006T205429Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20221006T205429Z
UID:7226-1665057600-1665063000@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:A Conversation w/ Former Secretary of Defense and U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel
DESCRIPTION: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. \n  \nDisclaimer: 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. \n  \nSpeaker \nThe Honorable Chuck Hagel\, Former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Former U.S. Senator \n  \nModerator \nBruce Fein\, Law Offices of Bruce Fein \n  \nAbout our Speaker:  \nThe 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. \nHagel 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. \nPreviously\, 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. \nPrior 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). \nSome 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. \nHe 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). \n  \nAbout our Moderator:  \nBruce 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. \n  \nNote: additional speakers may be announced later.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/a-conversation-w-former-secretary-of-defense-and-u-s-senator-chuck-hagel/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/10.6.22-NIF-Event-Image-e1665089640824.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220816T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220816T133000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20220803T205106Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220812T144227Z
UID:7110-1660651200-1660656600@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:A First-Hand Account Into China's Genocide Against the Uyghurs
DESCRIPTION: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. \n  \nDisclaimer: 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. \n  \nSpeaker \nNury Turkel\, Senior Fellow\, Hudson Institute \n  \nModerator \nKelley Beaucar Vlahos\, Senior Advisor and Editorial Director\, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft \n  \nAbout our Speaker:  \nNury 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). \n  \nAbout our Moderator:  \nKelley 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. \n  \nNote: additional speakers may be announced later.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/a-first-hand-account-into-chinas-genocide-against-the-uyghurs/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/8.16.22-NIF-Event-Image.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220222T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220222T140000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20220220T000407Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220220T000620Z
UID:6850-1645533000-1645538400@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:Lunch Meeting with Tunisian Parliamentary Delegation
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend our lunch discussion regarding the state of democracy in Tunisia under the current political crisis. \n  \nDisclaimer: 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.  \n  \nSpeakers \nMP Maher Medhioub\, Member of the Tunisian Parliament  \nMP Oussama Khlifi\, Member of the Tunisian Parliament  \nMP Oussama Sghaier\, Member of the Tunisian Parliament  \n  \nModerator \nKhaled Saffuri\, Founder and President of the National Interest Foundation (NIF) \n  \nAbout our Speakers:  \nMP 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. \nMP 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. \nMP 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. \n  \nAbout our Moderator:  \nKhaled 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. 
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/lunch-meeting-with-tunisian-parliamentary-delegation/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2.22.22-NIF-Event-Picture-e1645315407916.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211020T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211020T133000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20211012T213727Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20211012T213925Z
UID:6599-1634731200-1634736600@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:The Institutionalized Discrimination Against Palestinian Citizens of Israel
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend our lunch discussion regarding the living conditions of Palestinian citizens of Israel. \n  \nDisclaimer: 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.  \nNote: COVID-19 social distancing guidelines will be followed. \n  \nSpeaker \nJafar 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  \n  \nAbout our Speaker:  \nJafar 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.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/the-institutionalized-discrimination-against-palestinian-citizens-of-israel/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/10.20.21-NIF-Event-Image.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210624T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210624T143000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20210614T204623Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20210616T135935Z
UID:6435-1624539600-1624545000@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:Syria Sanctions: The Caesar Act One Year Later
DESCRIPTION: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. \n  \nSpeakers \nColonel 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. \nAyman 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. \nErich 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. \nShahroo 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. \n  \nModerator \nHamdi 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. \n  \nAbout our Speakers:  \nColonel 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. \nAyman 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. \nErich 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. \nShahroo 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. \n  \nAbout our Moderator:  \nHamdi 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. \n  \nDisclaimer: 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. \nNote: additional speakers may be announced later.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/syria-sanctions-the-caesar-act-one-year-later/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/6.24.21-NIF-Event-Image-e1623704653597.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200310T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200310T143000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20200228T221718Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200309T185536Z
UID:2200-1583845200-1583850600@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:A Decade into the Syrian Revolution: Crisis in Idlib
DESCRIPTION: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. \n  \nSpeakers\n  \nHassan Hassan\, Center for Global Policy\nCharles Lister\, Middle East Institute\nJennifer Cafarella\, Institute for the Study of War\n  \nModerator\n  \nHamdi Rifai\, Council of United Syrians & Americans\n  \nAbout our Speakers:  \n  \nHassan 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. \nA 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. \n  \nCharles 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. \nLister 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. \n  \nJennifer 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. \nMs. 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. \n  \nAbout our Moderator:  \n  \nHamdi 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. \nSince 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. \n  \nDisclaimer: 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.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/a-decade-into-the-syrian-revolution-crisis-in-idlib/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Syria-Event-Picture.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200212T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200212T143000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20200205T185851Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200210T212525Z
UID:2114-1581512400-1581517800@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:Perspective on the Trump Mideast Peace Plan
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend our lunch discussion regarding the recently proposed Trump Mideast Peace Plan.\n  \nAbout our Speakers: \n  \nDr. 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. \nProfessor 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. \n  \nKhaled 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. \nKhaled’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. \n  \nSaid 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. \n  \nAbout our Moderator:  \n  \nKelley 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.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/perspective-on-the-trump-mideast-peace-plan/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Picture-1.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20191112T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20191112T140000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20191106T162607Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200103T181059Z
UID:1723-1573561800-1573567200@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:Libya: What Does the Berlin Conference Have in Store?
DESCRIPTION: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. \nSince 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. \nHow 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? \nOn 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. \n  \nAbout our Speakers:  \nDario 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. \nDr. 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. \nAsma 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. \n  \nAbout our Moderator:  \nMosadek 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.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/lunch-discussion-libya-what-does-berlin-have-in-store/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Libya-Event-Picture-e1573057517811.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20191024T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20191024T140000
DTSTAMP:20260526T011256
CREATED:20191017T201453Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20200103T181032Z
UID:1525-1571918400-1571925600@nifusa.org
SUMMARY:Egypt\, What's Next? with Dr. Amr Darrag
DESCRIPTION:The National Interest Foundation invites you to attend our lunch discussion on Egypt with Dr. Amr Darrag. \nAbout our Speaker: \nDr. 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.
URL:https://nifusa.org/event-2/lunch-discussion-egypt-whats-next-with-dr-amr-darrag/
LOCATION:National Interest Foundation\, 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Suite 7000\, Washington\, DC\, 20006\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://nifusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Egypt-Whats-Next-Event-Picture-e1571343249393.jpeg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR