Speakers: Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, Professor Nicholas Burns, The Hon. Mary Beth Long
THIS EVENT IS CLOSED TO HUID HOLDERS ONLY.
HUID must be presented for admission. Bags will be checked at door.
A panel of distinguished U.S. and Israeli experts will discuss the current situation in Israel and the Arab world as President-elect Trump prepares to take office. This public event is being held as part of a U.S.-Israel Track II Dialogue hosted by the Middle East Initiative Faculty Chair and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
The Honorable Mary Beth Long
In 2008, Mary Beth Long became the first woman to be sworn into an Assistant Secretary position in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Defense Department. As Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (2007-2009), she worked directly with Secretary of Defense Gates and was his principle policy advisor on the Middle East, Europe and Africa. In that capacity, Ms. Long represented the Department of Defense at the National Security Council, the White House, and with foreign Ministers of Defense. Ms. Long previously served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Security Affairs and as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counter-narcotics. Ms. Long’s career began in the Central Intelligence Agency where she gained over a decade of operations experience and targeted narcotics, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and terrorism. She is a licensed lawyer and practiced at Williams & Connolly LLP. Currently, she is the owner or co-owner of three small businesses in Washington, D.C.: Askari Defense and Intelligence, LLC; M B Long & Associates, PLLC; and Metis Solutions, LLC. Ms. Long also serves as a senior advisor to U.S. EUCOM Commander General Breedlove and as a subject matter expert for the Colombia Ministry of Defense.
Lt. Gen. (ret.) Moshe (Bogie) Yaalon
Moshe Yaalon is a Senior Fellow with the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). Moshe “Bogie” Yaalon has served in the Knesset between 2009 and 2016 and has provided a lifetime of public service for the State of Israel. Originally from northern Israel, Yaalon moved to Kibbutz Grofit as a teenager before enlisting in the IDF as a paratrooper in 1968. He went on to serve in numerous key positions, such as commanding Israel’s most distinguished special forces unit Sayeret Matkal.
He continued to climb in rank, and from 2002 until 2005, he served as Israel’s chief of general staff (head of the IDF) during the harrowing days of the war against Palestinian terror, also known as the "second intifada." In 2008, Yaalon announced his entrance into Israeli politics as a member of the Likud party and then, in 2009, was appointed as minister for strategic affairs and vice prime minister. From 2013-2016 he served as defense minister.
Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin
Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin was named Executive Director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), the leading strategic Think Tank in Israel, in November 2011. He was designated Minister of Defense of the Zionist Union Party in the March 2015 elections. Yadlin served for over 40 years in the Israel Defense Forces, ten of which as a member of the IDF General Staff. From 2006-2010, he served as the IDF’s chief of Defense Intelligence. From 2004-2006, he served as the IDF attaché to the United States. In February 2002, he earned the rank of major general and was named commander of the IDF Military Colleges and the National Defense College. Yadlin, a former deputy commander of the Israel Air Force, has commanded two fighter squadrons and two airbases. He has also served as Head of IAF Planning Department (1990-1993). He accumulated about 5,000 flight hours and flew more than 250 combat missions behind enemy lines. He participated in the Yom Kippur War (1973), Operation Peace for Galilee (1982) and Operation Tamuz – the destruction of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq (1981). Yadlin holds a B.A. in economics and business administration from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (1985). He also holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1994).
Yadlin has written on national security, force development, intelligence, civil-military relations, and the military ethics of fighting terror. Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yadlin's primary areas of expertise and major topics on which he has written include strategy and national security; the changes in the Middle East; the Iranian nuclear challenge; US-Israel relations; force buildup and the defense budget; intelligence; cyber-related challenges; civil-military relations, and the military ethics of fighting terror.
Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer
Daniel C. Kurtzer is the S.Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Following a 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Kurtzer retired in 2005 with the rank of Career-Minister. From 2001-2005 he served as the United States Ambassador to Israel and from 1997-2001 as the United States Ambassador to Egypt. He served as a political officer at the American embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv, Deputy Director of the Office of Egyptian Affairs, speechwriter on the Policy Planning Staff, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. Throughout his career, Kurtzer was instrumental in formulating and executing U.S. policy toward the Middle East peace process. He remains active in Track II diplomacy related to the Middle East. Secretary of State John Kerry has appointed Kurtzer to the Secretary's Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Governor Chris Christie has appointed Kurtzer to serve on the New Jersey-Israel State Commission. Previously, Kurtzer served as an advisor to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, and as a member of the Advisory Council of the American Bar Association's Middle East Rule of Law Initiative. In 2007, he was named as the first Commissioner of the professional Israel Baseball League. He is the co-author of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East; co-author of The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011; and editor of Pathways to Peace: America and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Ph.D. Columbia University.
Professor Nicholas Burns (moderator)
Ambassador (Ret.) Nicholas Burns is the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is Faculty Director of the Future of Diplomacy Project and Faculty Chair of the programs on the Middle East and South Asia. He is a member of Secretary of State John Kerry’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board at the U.S. Department of State, Director of the Aspen Strategy Group and a Senior Counselor at the Cohen Group. He served in the United States Foreign Service for twenty-seven years until his retirement in April 2008. He was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2008. Prior to that, he was Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005), Ambassador to Greece (1997-2001), and State Department Spokesman (1995-1997). He worked on the National Security Council staff where he was Senior Director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia Affairs and Special Assistant to President Clinton and, before that, Director for Soviet Affairs for President George H.W. Bush. Earlier in his career, he worked at the American Consulate General in Jerusalem and in the American Embassies in Egypt and Mauritania. He serves on the Board of several corporate and non-profit organizations.
