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• Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Directors:	Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies

  February 1, 2007 - Present

  The United States is faced with an array of serious challenges in the Middle East, perhaps unprecedented in the past fifty years. An attempt to provoke a revolutionary change in the Middle East has collapsed with a large U.S. land army lodged in the heart of the region. The United States now confronts a Middle East that features an imploding Iraqi state, an aggressive Islamic Republic about to cross the nuclear threshold and a Palestinian state broken into two failed entities.

  The Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East will seek to develop strategies for the next administration. Should the United States attempt to recoup its position by pressing forward, albeit more prudently and with international cooperation, or should the United States go "back to the future," and place "stability over freedom," to use President Bush's phrase? Is it time to create an alliance with Sunnis to stave off the immediate threat of Iranian encroachment? What should the United States' grand strategy be in the Middle East? These and other questions will be the focus of monthly discussions.

  
  

   

  • Meetings  
  • Further Readings  

   

  Meetings

  Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East: Special Briefing with Iraqi Legislators

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  June 4, 2008

  Related Project: Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Presider:	Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speakers:	Nadim Al-Jaberi, Al-Fadhila Party, Council of Representatives of Iraq
  	Sheikh Khalaf Al-Ulayyan, Iraqi National Dialogue Council, Council of Representatives of Iraq

   

  Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East: Collective Security

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  May 14, 2008

  Related Project: Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Presiders:	Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  	Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speaker:	Peter Beinart, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations

   

  Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East: The Price of the Surge

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  April 29, 2008

  Related Project: Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Presider:	Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council in Foreign Relations
  Speaker:	Steven N. Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council in Foreign Relations

  Steven Simon discusses "The Price of the Surge," his article in the May/June 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs.

   

  Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East: The United Stages in the Middle East - From Iraq to Annapolis

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  December 5, 2007

  Related Project: Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Presider:	Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speakers:	Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  	Robert A. Malley, Program Director, Middle East and North Africa Program, International Crisis Group

  
  
  

   

  Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East: Palestine - The Next Thousand Days

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  November 27, 2007

  Related Project: Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Presider:	Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speakers:	C. Ross Anthony, Director, RAND Palestine Initiative, Co-director, RAND Center for Domestic and International Health Security
  	Robert Malley, Director, Middle East/North Africa Program, International Crisis Group

   

  Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East: A Conversation with Dennis Ross

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  October 22, 2007

  Related Project: Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Presider:	Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speaker:	Dennis B. Ross, Counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

   

  Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East: Next Steps in the Arab-Israeli Peace Process

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  May 30, 2007

  Related Projects: Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East, Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Presider:	Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speaker:	Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

   

  Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East: A Conversation with Ambassador Mohammad Javad Zarif

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  March 28, 2007

  Related Project: Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Presider:	Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speaker:	Mohammad Javad Zarif, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

   

  Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East: Time for Detente with Iran?

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  March 5, 2007

  Related Project: Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Presider:	Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speaker:	Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

   

  Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East: Iraq - The Case for U.S. Military Disengagement

  Roundtable Meeting

  
  February 1, 2007

  Related Project: Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East

  Presider:	Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speaker:	Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

  Report Discussed: After the Surge: The Case for U.S. Military Disengagement from Iraq, by Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies (February 2007)

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  Further Readings

  After the Surge: The Case for U.S. Military Disengagement from Iraq, by Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies (February 2007)

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• 

  New CFR Books

  

  In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.

  

  America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.

  

  In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.

  Complete list of CFR Books.

  

  

  New Council Special Reports

  Global FDI Policy

  After two decades of liberalization, many countries around the world are adopting new restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) that could retard continued progress. The authors make recommendations for correcting this protectionist drift by proposing guidelines for how countries can better regulate FDI yet still reap its economic benefits.

  Dealing with Damascus

  In this Council Special Report, the authors make a strong case that the Bush administration’s policy of diplomatic isolation of Syria is not serving U.S. interests, and offer informed history and thoughtful analysis of the country and its external behavior.

  Complete list of Council Special Reports.

  

  

  David Rockefeller Studies Program Contacts

  For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:

  Gary Samore
  Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
  +1-212-434-9627
  gsamore@cfr.org

  Sebastian Mallaby
  Director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Deputy Director of Studies, and Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics
  smallaby@cfr.org

  Janine Hill
  Deputy Director of Studies Administration
  +1-212-434-9753
  jhill@cfr.org

   

  

  

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  The David Rockefeller Studies Program

  The David Rockefeller Studies Program is the Council’s “think tank.” Its work is integral to achieving the Council’s goal of contributing to the foreign policy debate. Fellows in the Studies Program do this by researching, writing, and commenting on the most important challenges facing the United States and the world.

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