BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.0.5//EN TZID:America/Detroit X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Detroit BEGIN:VEVENT UID:699@test.arabamerica.com DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20150327T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20150327T133000 DTSTAMP:20150320T183538Z URL:https://test.arabamerica.com/events/assessing-irans-strategy-toward-th e-arab-world/ SUMMARY:Assessing Iran's Strategy Toward the Arab World DESCRIPTION:DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA\n\nThe Middle East Institute is pleased to host Harith al Qarawee (Harvard University)\, Richard LeBaron (The At lantic Council)\, Alireza Nader(RAND Corporation)\, andRanda Slim (The M iddle East Institute) for a panel discussion about Iran's engagement in th e Middle East's key conflict zones\, including Iraq\, Syria\, Lebanon\, an d Yemen.\n\nHow does Iran define its strategy toward the Arab world? How will its role in the fight against ISIS impact its standing in the region? And how is the regional rivalry between Iran and the Gulf shaping its pol itical calculations? The panelists will analyze these and other questions in a discussion moderated by Alex Vatanka (The Middle East Institute).\n \nBiographies:\n\nRichard LeBaron is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and a career diplomat with a special focus on the Gulf r egion. Most recently\, he served as founding Coordinator of the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications at the U.S. Department of State . Previously\, he was deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in London from August 2007 to August 2010\, and chargé d'affaires from February to August 2009. Prior diplomatic postings include U.S. ambassador to Kuwait ( 2004 to 2007)\, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of the United State s in Tel Aviv\, Israel (2001 to 2004)\, and minister-counselor for politic al and economic affairs at the Embassy of the United States in Cairo\, Egy pt (1998 to 2001). He served in Washington\, DC from 1991 to 1998\, where he held three Middle East related positions.\n\nAlireza Nader is a senior international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation and author of The Da ys After a Deal With Iran: Continuity and Change in Iranian Foreign Policy (2014). His research has focused on Iran's political dynamics\, elite dec isionmaking\, and Iranian foreign policy. His commentaries and articles ha ve appeared in a variety of publications and he is widely cited by the U.S . and international media.\n\nHarith al Qarawee is a political scientist whose research focuses on the state-society relations\, political transiti ons\, and identity politics in Iraq and the Middle East. He has written ex tensively for various English and Arabic academic publications and journal s. He also worked as a political commentator and consultant. As a Radcliff e fellow\, Al-Qarawee is writing a book titled End of Diversity: Nationho od and Religious and Sectarian Exclusion in the Arab World which will exa mine and discuss the relationship between sociopolitical conflict and iden tity and cultural exclusion in the Arab world. Al-Qarawee earned a Ph.D in political science from Scuola Superiore Sant‘Anna\, in Pisa\, Italy\, a master’s degree in political communication from the University of Leeds \, and a master’s degree in international studies from the University of Baghdad.\n\nRanda Slim is director of the Initiative for Track II Dialog ues at The Middle East Institute and a non-resident fellow at the Johns Ho pkins School of Advanced International Studies' Foreign Policy Institute. A former vice president of the International Institute for Sustained Dialo gue\, Slim has been a senior program advisor at the Rockefeller Brothers F und\, a guest scholar at the United States Institute of Peace\, and a prog ram officer at the Kettering Foundation. A long-term practitioner of Track II dialogue and peacebuilding processes in the Middle East and Central As ia\, she co-founded in 2007 the Arab Network for the Study of Democracy\, a group of academics and civil society activists from eight Arab countries . She is a member of the advisory committee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fu nd's Peacebuilding program and a member of the board of the Project on Mid dle East Democracy. The author of several studies\, book chapters\, and ar ticles on conflict management\, post-conflict peacebuilding\, and Middle E ast politics\, she is completing a book manuscript about Hezbollah.\n\nAle x Vatanka is a scholar at The Middle East Institute where he focuses on I ran. He also lectures as a Senior Fellow in Middle East Studies at the U.S . Air Force Special Operations School (USAFSOS). From 2006 to 2010\, he wa s the managing editor of Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst\, based in Washi ngton. From 2001 to 2006\, he was a senior political analyst at Jane’s i n London where he mainly covered political developments in the Middle East . His forthcoming book is Iran and Pakistan: Security\, Diplomacy and Amer ican Influence.\n\n ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://test.arabamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2015/03/Iran-map.jpeg CATEGORIES:Lecture LOCATION:SEIU Conference Center\, 1800 Massachusetts Ave. NW\, Washington\, dc\, 20036\, United States GEO:38.9089576;-77.04220049999998 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=1800 Massachusetts Ave. NW\ , Washington\, dc\, 20036\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=SEIU Conference Center:geo:38.9089576,-77.04220049999998 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Detroit X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Detroit BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20150308T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR