Thursday, January 24, 2013

CFR Conference Call- Syria 2/6

On behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Professor Seth Weinberger invites you to participate in the first session of the Winter/Spring 2013 CFR Academic Conference Call series on Wednesday, February 6, from 9:00 to 10:00 AM in WY 226. Elliott Abrams and Ed Husain, CFR senior fellows for Middle Eastern studies, will give an overview of the current situation in Syria and discuss challenges that lie ahead for the country and the international community.                   

Mr. Abrams served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East. He joined the Bush administration in June 2001 as special assistant to the president and senior director of the National Security Council for democracy, human rights, and international organizations. Mr. Abrams teaches U.S. foreign policy at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and is the author of four books, including the recently published "Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict."                    

Prior to joining CFR, Mr. Husain was cofounder and codirector of Quilliam Foundation, the world's first counter-radicalization think tank. Formerly an activist of Jamat-e-Islami, Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Muslim Brotherhood front organizations in the United Kingdom, he has now become a strong critic of extremism and Islamism. Mr. Husain is the author of "The Islamist," a finalist for the George Orwell prize for political writing. His next book, "The Sufis," will be published later this year.

As background for the discussion, you may wish to review the following materials:                  

1) John B. Bellinger III, "U.N. Rules and Syrian Intervention," Op-Ed, Washington Post, January 17, 2013.      
2) Max Boot, Brian Fishman, Ed Husain, and Andrew Tabler, "What Should U.S. Policy Be in Syria?" Expert Roundup, Council on Foreign Relations, December 12, 2012.       
3) Ed Husain, "Proceed with Caution," Op-Ed, New York Times, December 5, 2012.        
4) Jonathan Masters, "Syria's Crisis and the Global Response," Backgrounder, CFR.org.       
5) Elliott Abrams, "Syria," Pressure Points, Blog, Council on Foreign Relations.     

Please RSVP to Professor Weinberger (sweinberger@pugetsound.edu) ASAP if you would like to attend…

Hope to see you there!

Seth

Thanks!