Roundtable on the U.S. and Middle East
Director: 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.
Publications
Meetings
Roundtable Meeting
Nuclear Program and U.S. Policy
Speaker:
Gary Samore, National Security CouncilPresider:
Ray Takeyh, Council on Foreign RelationsThis meeting is not for attribution.
Roundtable Meeting
U.S.-Russia Cooperation in the Middle East after Georgia
Speaker:
Nikolas Gvosdev, Professor, United States Naval CollegePresider:
Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsThis meeting is not for attribution.
Roundtable Meeting
Confronting Global Terrorism
Presider:
Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeaker:
Tom J. Farer, Dean, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of DenverThis meeting is not for attribution.
View All Meetings
Roundtable Meeting
Special Briefing with Iraqi Legislators
Presider:
Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeakers:
Nadim Al-Jaberi, Al-Fadhila Party, Council of Representatives of Iraq, Sheikh Khalaf Al-Ulayyan, Iraqi National Dialogue Council, Council of Representatives of IraqThis meeting is not for attribution.
Roundtable Meeting
Collective Security
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 RelationsSpeaker:
Peter Beinart, Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign RelationsThis meeting is not for attribution.
Roundtable Meeting
The Price of the Surge
Presider:
Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council in Foreign RelationsSpeaker:
Steven N. Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council in Foreign RelationsThis meeting is not for attribution.
Presider:
Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeakers:
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
12:30-2:00 p.m. - Meeting
This meeting is not for attribution.
Presider:
Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeakers:
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
7:45-9:00 a.m. - Meeting
This meeting is not for attribution.
Presider:
Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeaker:
Dennis B. Ross, Counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
1:00-2:00 p.m. - Meeting
This meeting is not for attribution.
Presider:
Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeaker:
Aaron David Miller, Public Policy Fellow, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
This meeting is not for attribution.
Roundtable Meeting
A Conversation with Ambassador Mohammad Javad Zarif
Presider:
Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeaker:
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United NationsThis meeting is not for attribution.
Roundtable Meeting
Time for Detente with Iran?
Presider:
Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeaker:
Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsThis meeting is not for attribution.
Roundtable Meeting
The Case for U.S. Military Disengagement
Presider:
Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign RelationsSpeaker:
Steven Simon, Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
This meeting is not for attribution.
CFR Experts Guide
The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda.
Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.
