For the last decade, the Middle East has occupied a place of primacy in debates over U.S. global aims and strategies. The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University will sponsor an extensive lecture series featuring original thinkers from academia, research centers, and government.
For Immediate Release Contact: Robert Polner October 15, 2009 212.998.2337 October 15, 2009
For the last decade, the Middle East has occupied a place of primacy in debates over U.S. global aims and strategies. The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University will sponsor an extensive lecture series featuring original thinkers from academia, research centers, and government.
The Middle East and United States Strategy Series, moderated by Wagner visiting professor Michael Doran, will address one of the most pressing issues on the U.S. strategic agenda. All events, free and open to the public, will run from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Wagner school, located in The Puck Building, 2nd Floor, 295 Lafayette Street (at the corner of Houston Street), New York, N.Y. Please note that RSVP is required: To sign up for one or more of these events, please RSVP here.
- Wednesday, October 21: BEYOND AL QUAIDA: NATIONAL SECURITY IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATION, TERROR, AND THE INTERNET, with Juan Zarate, Senior Advisor, Transnational Threats Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); Senior National Security Analyst, CBS News. Juan Zarate served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism from 2005 to 2009. In that role, he was responsible for developing and overseeing the effective implementation of the U.S. government’s counterterrorism strategy. Mr. Zarate was the first Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes and also served as a terrorism prosecutor during the Clinton Administration. Mr. Zarate is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and a published author.
- Friday, October 30: THE RISE OF THE PASDARAN: THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY GUARD CORPS IN IRANIAN POLITICS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE U.S., with Fred Wehrey, Adjunct Senior Policy Analyst, RAND. Fred Wehrey’s research at RAND has focused on Saudi-Iranian relations, the domestic influence of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the impact of the Iraq war on the strategic landscape of the Middle East, and the effects of reform on political violence in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. In the summer of 2008, he served as a strategic advisor to Multi-National Force-Iraq in Baghdad focusing on post-surge challenges.
- Wednesday, November 4: US POWER IN JIHADI STRATEGIC THOUGHT, with William McCants, Program Manager, Minerva Initiative for the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Dr. William McCants has spent more than a decade studying the Sunni Muslim revivalist movement known as Salafism, which gave birth to al-Qa`ida. Dr. McCants’ blog, www.jihadica.com, has been cited as an authority on Jihadism by The Economist, The New Republic, The Washington Post, and U.S. News and World Report. It was recently profiled on the front page of The New York Times and Jihadis have dubbed it the “most important and dangerous” of the sites that monitor their activities online.
- Monday, November 9: GULLIVER’S TROUBLES: OBAMA AND THE MIDDLE EAST, with Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. For two decades, Aaron David Miller served at the Department of State as an advisor to six secretaries of State where he helped formulate U.S. policy on the Middle East and the Arab-Israel peace process, most recently as the Senior Advisor for Arab-Israeli Negotiations. He also served as the Deputy Special Middle East Coordinator for Arab-Israeli Negotiations, Senior Member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and in the Office of the Historian. He is currently working on a new book called Can America Have Another Great President? (Bantam Books, 2012)
- Wednesday, November 18: THE US-RUSSIA-IRAN TRIANGLE: RIGHT, ACUTE OR OBTUSE? With Mark Katz, Professor of government and politics, George Mason University. Dr. Mark Katz writes on Russian foreign policy, the international relations of the Middle East, transnational revolutionary movements, and other related subjects. He has authored and edited several books on Soviet military policy. Katz is also a contributor to the Open Society Institute’s Eurasianet, and to Middle East Strategy at Harvard (MESH).
About NYU Wagner
Established in 1938, the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service is a path-breaking leadership school in New York City and at New York University, a global network university. NYU Wagner offers advanced programs leading to the professional degrees of Master of Public Administration, Urban Planning, Executive MPA, and Doctor of Philosophy, and provides International Policy and Management as an area of specialization in which many students choose to concentrate their studies.