Diplomacy and International Politics

An audio recording from Nabil Fahmy, former Foreign Minister of Egypt and Dean, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP), Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy, American University Cairo.

On April 15, 2015 at MEI, Minister Nabil Fahmy presented his assessent of the challenges facing the Middle East today and laid out his vision for the region to confront those challenges and seize opportunities, with special focus on Egypt's role in the Arab world and Middle East at large, in a public address moderated by Kennedy School professor Nicholas Burns.

An audio recording from Bassam Haddad, Associate Professor, School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs, and Director, Middle East and Islamic Studies Program, George Mason University and Michael C. Hudson, MEI Visiting Scholar, Spring 2015.

On April 3, 2015 at MEI, Professors Bassam Haddad and Michael C. Hudson sat down to discuss the themes in Dr. Haddad's recent lecture in the Spring 2015 study group Rethinking the Arab State, led by Dr. Hudson, titled "The Syrian State: a Stateless Regime or State with Many Regimes?"

In this “Conversation in Diplomacy" with former NATO Secretary-General and 2015 spring Fisher Family Fellow, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Future of Diplomacy Project Director R. Nicholas Burns discusses NATO's collective security issues, Russian aggression in Ukraine, and the destined leadership of the U.S. in the liberal democratic global community.

An audio recording from Samer Shehata, Associate Professor of Middle East Studies, University of Oklahoma.

On March 3, 2015 at MEI, Prof. Samer  Shehata assessed the role of the military and pre-2011 regime figures in Egypt's political transition from authoritarianism to apparent democratic opening, and now back to a military-backed authoritarian government, to ask how useful the term 'Deep State' is to understanding Egypt's politics.

An audio recording from Prof. Gregory Gause, John H. Lindsey ’44 Chair in International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University.

On November 13, 2014, Professor Gause outlined an incisive new framework for understanding Middle East regional politics, casting regional power dynamics as a "New Cold War", in a talk moderated by Kennedy School Professor Tarek Masoud.

An audio recording from Robert S. Ford, former US Ambassador to Syria (2011-2014) and Algeria (2006-2008). He is currently a resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. and teaches at Johns Hopkins University on Middle East politics.

On October 29, 2014 at MEI, Ambassador Ford reflected on his 4½ years working for the U.S. Mission in Iraq and 3 years working on Syria, in a talk moderated by Kennedy School professor and former State Department colleague Nicholas Burns.

An audio recording from Ambassador Marwan Muasher, Vice President for Studies and Director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Jordanian Ambassador to the United States.

On October 22, 2014 at MEI, Ambassador Muasher looked back over four years of popular uprisings in the Arab World and took stock of the hope for transition to genuine stability, prosperity, and democracy and tools necessary to do the job.

As part of the Future of Diplomacy Project's new "Negotiator Series," Ambassador Ryan Crocker discusses political developments across the Middle East in response to the civil war in Syria and the destabilization of Iraq and Syria through ISIS.