Six Conversations on the Modern Middle East

An exploration of diplomatic initiatives that might resolve the immediate crisis and reduce the cost of the conflict. Moderator Steve Paikin is a Canadian journalist and Host of TV Ontario’s flagship current affairs show, The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Joining the conversation are panelists Daniel Byman, Thomas Fletcher and Julie Trottier. Daniel Byman is a professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and director of the Security Studies Program; Thomas Fletcher is the Principal of Hertford College at Oxford University and former United Kingdom Ambassador to Lebanon. Julie Trottier is Director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France and adjunct lecturer at Sciences Po Paris, in the Master’s program on Environmental Policy.

A discussion of how American and Middle East states’ interests and behaviour affect the Israeli-Palestinian conflict historically and today. Cristina Gallach, former UN Under-Secretary-General and Former Spanish State-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, is the session’s moderator. The panelists are Elham Fakhro, Hussein Ibish, Daniel Kurtzer and Nimrod Novik. Elham Fakhro is a Research Associate at the Chatham House Middle East and North Africa program and Research Fellow at Exeter University's Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Daniel Kurtzer is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and is the former United States Ambassador to Israel and Egypt. Dr. Nimrod Novik is the former Senior Policy Advisor to the late Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and served as Special Ambassador of the State of Israel and as an Advisor to the Israeli National Security Council.

Continuing from the previous episode, panelists discuss the conflicts, peace-making efforts, and lasting consequences of these events to the present day. Emily Bazelon, staff writer at New York Times Magazine and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law, Yale Law School, is the session’s moderator. Joining the conversation are panelists Bernard Avishai and Ezzedine Fishere. Avishai is a Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College who has contributed regularly to The New Yorker about Israeli affairs and global business. Fishere is a Senior Lecturer of Middle East Politics at Dartmouth College, a novelist, and a diplomat. For the last two years, Avishai and Fishere have co-taught a course which has been described as an ‘academic peace process’, exploring Israeli and Palestinian histories in parallel, and inviting students to question, doubt and discuss along the way.

A discussion of the conflicts, politics and narratives of the formative decades of Palestinian and Israeli history. Emily Bazelon, staff writer at New York Times Magazine and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law, Yale Law School, is the session's moderator. Joining the conversation are panelists Bernard Avishai and Ezzedine Fishere. Avishai is a Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College who has contributed regularly to The New Yorker about Israeli affairs and global business. Fishere is a Senior Lecturer of Middle East Politics at Dartmouth College, a novelist, and a diplomat. For the last two years, Avishai and Fishere have co-taught a course which has been described as an ‘academic peace process’, exploring Israeli and Palestinian histories in parallel, and inviting students to question, doubt and discuss along the way.