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:350@test.arabamerica.com DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20150225T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20150225T190000 DTSTAMP:20150209T231011Z URL:https://test.arabamerica.com/events/history-matters-past-future-middle -east/ SUMMARY:Why History Matters: The Past and Future of the Middle East DESCRIPTION:CALIFORNIA\nA panel discussion featuring Robert S. Ford (Middle East Institute)\, Steven Heydemann (United States Institute of Peace)\, a nd Marina Ottaway (Woodrow Wilson Institute). Moderated by James L. Gelvin (UCLA Dept. of History).\n\nWednesday\, February 25\, 2015\n7:00 PM\nLena rt Auditorium\nFowler Museum\n\n\nDavid N. Myers\nRobert N. Burr Departmen t Chair\nUCLA Department of History\n\ninvites you to attend\n\nWHY HISTOR Y MATTERS:\n\nThe Past and Future of the Middle East\n\n\nRobert S. For d is a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington where he studies and writes about the Levant and North Africa. Ambassador Ford rece ntly retired from the Foreign Service after serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Syria from 2010 to 2014. In this role he was the State Department lead on Syria\, proposing and implementing policy and developing common strate gies with European and Middle Eastern allies to contain and try to resolve the Syria crisis. Prior to this\, Ambassador Ford was the Deputy Ambassad or to Iraq from 2008 to 2010\, having previously worked as the US Ambassad or to Algeria from 2006 to 2008. Ford was the Deputy Ambassador in Bahrain from 2001 until 2004\, and from 2004 to 2006 he was the Political Counsel or to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad where he helped stand up the new\, perma nent Iraqi government. In 2014 he received the Secretary’s Service Award \, the U.S. State Department’s highest honor. He also received in 2012 f rom the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston the annual Profile in Courage aw ard for his working defending Syrian human rights. He has appeared on CNN\ , PBS\, Fox\, MSNBC\, NPR\, the BBC and Arabic news networks as well as in the New York Times and Foreign Policy. He and his wife live in Baltimore\ n\nSteven Heydemann serves as the vice president of Applied Research on C onflict at United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Heydemann is a politic al scientist who specializes in the comparative politics and the political economy of the Middle East\, with a particular focus on Syria. His intere sts include authoritarian governance\, economic development\, social polic y\, political and economic reform and civil society. From 2003 to 2007\, H eydemann directed the Center for Democracy and Civil Society at Georgetown University. From 1997 to 2001\, he was an associate professor in the depa rtment of political science at Columbia University. Earlier\, from 1990-19 97\, he directed the Social Science Research Council’s Program on Intern ational Peace and Security and Program on the Near and Middle East.\n\nMar ina Ottaway is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a long-t ime analyst of political transformations in Africa\, the Balkans\, and the Middle East. She is working on a project at the Wilson Center about the c ountries of the Arab Spring and Iraq. Ottaway joined the Wilson Center aft er 14 years at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace\, during wh ich she played a central role in launching the Middle East Program. Prior to that\, she carried out research in Africa and in the Middle East for ma ny years and taught at Georgetown University\, the Johns Hopkins School fo r Advanced International Studies\, the American University in Cairo\, the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa\, the University of Zambia \, and Addis Ababa University. Her extensive research experience is reflec ted in her publications\, which include nine authored books and six edited ones. Her most recent publications include Getting to Pluralism\, co-auth ored with Amr Hamzawy and Yemen on the Brink\, co-edited with Christopher Boucek. While at Carnegie\, she also supervised their Guide to Egypt’s T ransition\, a website that provides background and analysis on issues that will shape Egypt’s political future\, and Iraqi Elections 2010\, an onl ine guide to Iraqi politics. Ottaway received her Ph.D. from Columbia Univ ersity.\n\nModerator\n\nJames L. Gelvin is Professor of Modern Middle Eas tern History at the University of California\, Los Angeles. He received hi s B.A. from Columbia University\, his Master's in International Affairs fr om the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University\, and his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has taught at Boston College\, Harvard University\, MIT\, and the American University in Beirut. A specia list in the modern social and cultural history of the Arab East\, he is au thor of four books: The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxfor d University Press\, 2012\, 2015)\; The Modern Middle East: A History (Oxf ord University Press\, 2004\, 2007\, 2011\, 2015)\; The Israel-Palestine C onflict: One Hundred Years of War (Cambridge University Press\, 2005\, 200 7\, 2014)\; and Divided Loyalties: Nationalism and Mass Politics in Syria at the Close of Em\n\n\n\npire (University of California Press\, 1998)\, a long with numerous articles and chapters in edited volumes. He is also co- editor of Global Muslims in the Age of Steam and Print\, 1850-1930 (Univer sity of California Press\, 2013).\n\n \; ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://test.arabamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2015/02/Robert-Ford-2014-3.jpg CATEGORIES:Academic Lecture LOCATION:Lenart Auditorium\, 308 Charles E. Young Drive North\, LA\, CA\, 9 0095\, United States GEO:34.072949;-118.44317639999997 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=308 Charles E. Young Drive North\, LA\, CA\, 90095\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=Lenart Auditorium:geo:34.072949,-118.44317639999997 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Detroit X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Detroit BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20141102T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR