As President Joe Biden approaches his final months in office, he continues to face one of the most intense and intractable conflicts in the Middle East in decades. To assess the administration’s regional policy over the last year and explore any remaining opportunities for a diplomatic resolution of the war in Gaza and associated conflicts, the Middle East Institute is convening a panel discussion featuring foreign policy experts and former US government officials.
The panelists will examine the following questions: What are the limits of US diplomacy and influence in the region? How may the Biden administration use its last four months in power to help bring about a cease-fire and hostage-release deal in Gaza and contain the conflict? What lessons can the next administration learn from the Biden team’s approach? And what role will the Middle East play in the United States’ broader foreign policy considerations in the years ahead?
Speakers
Amb. Eric S. Edelman
Counselor, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments;
Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Department of Defense
Patricia Karam
Senior Policy Advisor on Iran, Freedom House
Brian Katulis
Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy, Middle East Institute
Mara Rudman
James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor, Miller Center, UVA
Former Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, National Security Council
Rana Abtar (Moderator)
Talk Show Anchor, Ashraq News “The Washington Report”;
Senior Washington Correspondent, Asharq Al Awsat
Extended Speaker Biographies
Ambassador Eric S. Edelman is Counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He retired as a career minister from the U.S. Foreign Service on May 1, 2009. He has served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense as well as the White House, where he led organizations providing analysis, strategy, policy development, security services, trade advocacy, public outreach, citizen services, and congressional relations. As undersecretary of defense for policy (August 2005-January 2009), he was DoD's senior policy official, overseeing strategy development with global responsibility for bilateral defense relations, war plans, special operations forces, homeland defense, missile defense, nuclear weapons and arms control policies, counterproliferation, counternarcotics, counterterrorism, arms sales, and defense trade controls. He served as U.S. ambassador to Finland in the Clinton administration and Turkey in the Bush administration and was Vice President Cheney's principal deputy assistant for national security affairs. He was chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, special assistant to Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Robert Kimmitt, and special assistant to Secretary of State George Shultz.
Patricia Karam is currently Senior Policy Advisor on Iran at Freedom House, where she plays a leading role in crafting its policy agenda and advocacy strategy for promoting democracy and human rights in Iran. She also serves as Senior Advisor to the American Task For Lebanon, where she supports strategic/policy engagement and business development, and is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Center Washington, DC. She was, most recently, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Director at the International Republican Institute (IRI), where she oversaw a multi-million-dollar portfolio of programs focused on citizen-responsive governance, political party development, legislative strengthening, and civil society strengthening in the Levant, Afghanistan, the Gulf, and North Africa. Prior to that, as MENA director at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, Karam was responsible for research, advocacy, grant-making, and technical assistance projects aimed at improving natural resource governance, administered through country offices she established in Lebanon, Iraq, Tunisia, and Libya. Before that, as deputy director at the International Center for Transitional Justice, Karam oversaw educational transitional justice programs in three languages in Spain, Morocco, and South Africa, and spearheaded the expansion of a Documentation Affinity Group, a global network of action-oriented grassroots human rights documentation-focused groups.
Brian Katulis is Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy at the Middle East Institute. He was formerly a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), where he built the Center’s Middle East program and also worked on broader issues related to U.S. national security. He has produced influential studies that have shaped important discussions around regional policy, often providing expert testimony to key congressional committees on his findings. Katulis has also conducted extensive research in countries such as Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories. His past experience includes work at the National Security Council and the U.S. Departments of State and Defense.
Mara Rudman is the James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center, where she directs the Ripples of Hope Project aimed at identifying practical approaches to help democratic leaders resolve key challenges. She serves on the 2022 National Defense Strategy Commission and the Howard University College of Arts and Sciences board of visitors. Rudman also consults for Democracy Forward. Rudman’s government positions have included serving as deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs in the Obama and Clinton administrations; deputy envoy for the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace at the U.S. Department of State; assistant administrator for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development; and chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Previously, Rudman was executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress and senior vice president for policy/projects at Business Executives for National Security. She also led Quorum Strategies, a geopolitical strategic advisory firm. Rudman has been a guest on numerous TV and radio shows and has written for and been quoted in various print publications. She received her BA from Dartmouth College and a law degree from Harvard Law School.
Rana Abtar is the talk show anchor of Asharq News "The Washington Report", and also the Senior Washington Correspondent for Asharq Al Awsat. Rana Abtar has over 15 years of experience on Capitol Hill, covering both the Senate and House of Representatives, all Congressional Committees, and members of Congress.
(Photo by Royal Court of Saudi Arabia/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)