Saving Syria's Civilians: Policies and Solutions

Jeffrey Feltman is the under secretary general and head of the Department of Political Affairs of the United Nations. He advises the secretary general on peace and security issues globally, while overseeing field-based political missions carrying out peacemaking and preventive diplomacy activities in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Feltman served for nearly 30 years in the United States Foreign Service, focusing especially on the Middle East and North Africa. His last position was as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, from which he retired at the rank of career minister. Mr. Feltman served previously as United States ambassador to the Republic of Lebanon, and held earlier diplomatic postings in Baghdad, Erbil, Jerusalem, Tunis, Tel Aviv, Budapest, and Port-au-Prince.

Dr. Najib Ghadbian is the special representative to the United States for the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. Dr. Ghadbian is a Syrian pro-democracy activist and academic. He is the author of Democratization and the Islamist Challenge in the Arab World (English 1997 & Arabic 2002) and The Second Assad Regime: Bashar of Lost Opportunities (Arabic 2006). Dr. Ghadbian has contributed political commentaries to several American, European, and Middle Eastern media outlets. His research interests include democratization and leadership in the Arab world, Syrian politics, and US-Mideast relations. He is a signatory to the Damascus Declaration (2005), and was a founding member of the Syrian National Council (SNC). ^

Encho Gospodinov has been working for nearly 40 years in the fields of humanitarian assistance, humanitarian diplomacy, and international journalism. Since 2010 he has served as special adviser to Dr. Kristalina Georgieva, EC commissioner for humanitarian aid, international cooperation, and crisis response. Previously, he worked as a war and diplomatic correspondent for the Bulgarian weekly POGLED for 17 years, covering all major international conflicts from 1976 to 1990. For more than 20 years he worked for the International Red Cross and held senior positions such as IFRC permanent observer to the UN in New York (1999- 2007) and IFRC director of policy and communications/deputy secretary general. Prior to that, he was head of the IFRC Delegation for Central and Eastern Europe and coordinated its humanitarian operations during the war in Former Yugoslavia and Kosovo (1992-1999).

Anne C. Richard serves as assistant secretary of state for population, refugees, and migration. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Richard was the vice president of government relations and advocacy for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an international aid agency that helps refugees and other victims of conflict. She was also a non-resident fellow of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University/SAIS. Ms. Richard has authored several monographs and opinion pieces on topics including international coordination of foreign assistance, combating terrorism, strategies to make foreign aid more cost effective, and specific humanitarian crises from Haiti to South Sudan to Afghanistan.