The sixth annual Sulaimani Forum
Iraq and Its Neighbors:
Toward a New Regional Order
Will feature key policymakers, stakeholders, and experts from near and far for two days of thought-provoking debates and discussions on the most pressing issues facing the Middle East. This year, conversations will move beyond conflict analysis to explore factors necessary for stabilization, good governance, and economic growth in Iraq and the broader region.
This year the Sulaimani Forum will feature seven high level Plenary Sessions—conversations between senior international and national officials and experts that examine new regional economic, security, and political frameworks, all with a focus on Iraq. There will also be discussions on major challenges facing Iraq and how to address them: the youth population; energy infrastructure; private sector growth and investment; rehabilitation of liberated territories; water scarcity; and the protection and empowerment of minority religious and ethnic communities. The Forum will also hold five Policy Roundtables, bringing together experts and officials to tackle a specific issue, such as private enterprise growth, Mosul reconstruction, and new developments among Iraq's security actors.
This year the Forum will welcome H.E. the President of Iraq Dr. Barham Salih, Minister of Oil Thamir Al Ghadhban, Minister of Electricity Luay Al Khateeb, and Minister of Culture Abdulamir Al Hamdani, among other dignitaries and officials from the federal government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government. Jordanian Minister of Industry and Trade Tariq Hammouri will join the Forum for a discussion of regional economic cooperation, along with other regional officials such as former Secretary General of the Arab League Amre Moussa as well as the Secretary General of the Arab and International Affairs Council Muhammed Alsager. The senior leadership of UNAMI, UNITAD, IFC, the World Bank, and major companies such as GE, Siemens, BP, Total and Chevron will attend the Forum. Experts such as The National's Mina Al Oraibi, USIP and the New Yorker’s Robin Wright, CNN and New America’s Peter Bergen, President of Al Monitor Andrew Parastiliti, and Ambassador Barbara Leaf of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy will participate in the Forum’s plenary sessions. Directors and senior fellows from Chatham House, Carnegie, the International Crisis Group, Middle East Institute, East West Institute, Brookings Institution, and Clingendael Institute will participate in the event, in addition to ambassadors from a wide range of diplomatic representations to Iraq. Please check back next week for a full agenda.
GUESTS
Mushreq Abbas
Mushreq Abbas is an Iraqi journalist and writer. He is the founding director of Nas News.

Mushreq Abbas
Founding Director, Nas News
Ali Muhsin Ismaiel Al Alaq
Ali Muhsin Ismaiel Al Alaq is the Head of the Board of the Central Bank of Iraq and the Acting Governor at Central Bank of Iraq.

Ali Muhsin Ismaiel Al Alaq
Governor, Central Bank of Iraq
Sayyid Ammar Al Hakim
Sayyid Ammar Al Hakim is an Iraqi religious cleric and politician. He is head of the National Hikma Movement.

Sayyid Ammar Al Hakim
President, National Hikma Movement
Hisham Al Hashimi
Hisham Al-Hashimi is an Iraqi journalist and analyst writing for Asharq Al-Aswat, among others. He is also a member of National Reconciliation Commission in the Iraqi Prime Minister's office and a researcher in Al-Nahrain Center for Strategic Studies. Prior to that, he was the Security Adviser for the Iraqi Journalistic Freedom Observatory, and for the the Iraqi Journalists Union. Al-Hashimi has several publications including two books: entitled The World of ISIS and Inside Daesh Organization.
Hayder Al Khoei
Hayder Al Khoei is currently a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to this, he was an associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. He was previously a researcher at the Centre of Academic Shia Studies in London. Al Khoei holds masters degrees in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London and Islamic Studies from the Islamic College. He holds a BA (Hons) in Politics and International Relations from Kingston University, London. He writes widely on Iraqi and Middle Eastern affairs and has been published by Foreign Affairs, CNN, The Guardian and Reuters.
Taher Al Masri
Taher Al Masri is a politician and diplomat who has served as Prime Minister, Minister of Defense, and Head of Parliament for Jordan.

Taher Al Masri
Former Prime Minister of Jordan
Mina Al Oraibi
Mina Al-Oraibi is an Iraqi-British journalist and analyst. She was a Yale World fellow and senior fellow at the Institute for Strategic Effectiveness (ISE). Prior to this, she was the Assistant Editor-in-Chief of Asharq Alawsat, the international Arab-language daily, for close to four years. She has written extensively on United States and European policies in the Middle East and covered diplomatic affairs of the region. Al Oraibi is also a special advisor to the Global Dignity Day Movement and a member of the Global Agenda Council on the Middle East and the International Media Council (IMC). She is a member of the Board of Trustees of American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS).
Luay Al-Khatteeb
Luay Al-Khatteeb is Minister of Electricity of the Republic of Iraq. He is the founder of the Iraq Energy Institute (IEI) and was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center. He previously served as senior advisor to the Federal Parliament of Iraq for energy policy and economic reform. His experiences in the private sector span more than 20 years, and has been a frequent commentator on issues related to energy security, economic, and politics in the Gulf region. Al-Khatteeb has served in an executive capacity with various international oil companies, including Shell E&P and Crescent Petroleum.
Raad Alkadiri
Raad Alkadiri is the Senior Director of the Center for Energy Impact at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He has more than 20 years of experience advising senior oil and gas industry executives and government leaders on the management of long-term investment strategies, aboveground risk mitigation, and stakeholder engagement. Previously, Alkadiri ran the petroleum sector risk capability at IHS and was a partner at PFC Energy. He also served as a policy advisor and assistant private secretary to the UK Special Representatives to Iraq. He holds a D.Phil in international relations from Oxford University.
Ayad Allawi

Ayad Allawi
Former Vice President of Iraq, Council of Arab & International Affairs
Bakhtiar Amin
Bakhtiar Amin served as Minister of Human Rights in the Iraqi Interim Government from June 2004 to May 2005. Prior to this, he worked as the Secretary General of Paris Kurdish Institute, an adviser to Danielle Mitterrand Foundation France-Libertes, the Director of Human Rights Alliance in Washington D.C., and the Executive Director of the International Alliance for Justice (IAJ). He was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and has a master’s degree in international relations. He pursued doctoral studies in geopolitics and studied journalism in Sweden.

Bakhtiar Amin
Former Minister of Human Rights, Government of Iraq
Deborah Amos
In 2003, Deborah Amos returned to work with NPR after a decade in television news, including ABC’s Nightline and World News Tonight and the PBS programs NOW with Bill Moyers and Frontline.Prior to her work with ABC News, Amos spent 16 years with NPR including time overseas as the London Bureau Chief, and as an NPR foreign correspondent based in Amman, Jordan. Amos won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, a Breakthru Award, and widespread recognition for her coverage of the Gulf War in 1991. She spent 1991-92 at Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow, and in 2010 as a Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Jane Arraf
Jane Arraf is a journalist based in the Middle East for National Public Radio (NPR). She previously worked with the Christian Science Monitor, Al Jazeera English and as CNN’s Baghdad Bureau Chief and Senior Correspondent. During the war in Iraq, she covered live the battles for Fallujah, Samarra and Tel Afar and was the only television correspondent embedded with US forces fighting the Mehdi Army in Najaf in 2004. Arraf headed CNN’s first permanent Baghdad bureau in 1998 and for several years was the only Western correspondent permanently based in the Iraqi capital. Arraf studied journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Aslı Aydıntaşbaş
Asli Aydıntaşbaş is Senior Policy Fellow at ECFR, where she primarily works on Turkish foreign policy and external ramifications of its domestic politics. She has joined ECFR after a lengthy career in journalism, which last included being a columnist at Milliyet (2009-2015) and a commentator on regional issues in international publications and networks. Aydıntaşbaş has hosted a popular daily show, Karşı Gündem on CnnTurk during 2013-2014. Prior to joining Milliyet, she has served as a Washington correspondent and later the Ankara bureau chief for Sabah, one of Turkey’s leading newspapers. She covered the Clinton Administration, the United Nations, the Bush Administration, and the Iraq War in 1997-2004 as a Washington and New York correspondent for NTV and Radikal.
Ziad Badr
Ziad Badr joined the IFC in 2011. Prior to this, starting in 1993, he worked at the World Bank, assuming various responsibilities, including Senior Economist in the Africa Knowledge and Learning Unit, Head of the World Bank mission in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Head of the World Bank Iraq Interim office in Amman. He also lead the first World Bank mission to the Kurdistan region that opened the door for closer cooperation with the regional government, and the development of several projects in the north of Iraq.
Joseph Bahout
Joseph Bahout is a visiting scholar in Carnegie’s Middle East Program, an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy, and a member of the scientific board of the Institut Français du Proche-Orient. His research focuses on political developments in Lebanon and Syria, regional spillover from the Syrian crisis, and identity politics across the region. Previously, Bahout served as a permanent consultant for the Policy Planning Unit at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2009–2014). He was also a Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Sciences Po Paris (2005–2014) and a senior fellow at the Académie Diplomatique Internationale (2008–2014).He holds his Ph.D. in Political Sciences from the Sciences Po Paris.
Peter Bergen
Peter Bergen is Director of the National Security Studies Program at New America Foundation. He is a journalist, professor, think tank executive and the author of four books. In 2016, Bergen published United States of Jihad: Investigating America's Homegrown Terrorists, which was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2016 by the Washington Post.
Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin
Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin served as president of MEI from 2007 until 2018. She previously was UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees. A 29-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service, she was ambassador to Pakistan from 2001 to 2002. She also served as director of global affairs and counter-terrorism at the National Security Council (1991-1993) and as deputy in the bureau of international counter-narcotics and law enforcement affairs (1999-2001). As assistant administrator in the Asia-Near East bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2002 to 2004, she oversaw civilian reconstruction programs in Iraq and Afghanistan and development assistance programs throughout the Middle East and East Asia.
Raghida Dergham
Raghida Dergham is a Lebanese-American journalist based in New York where she is a senior diplomatic correspondent for Al-Hayat, which is published in London, UK, and reports on the United Nations. She is a frequent commentator on CNN. She is well-known internationally as a Middle Eastern female journalist, and has received awards for her career achievements.
Bruce Walker Ferguson
Bruce Walker Ferguson is an educator, entrepreneur and investor with a lifelong interest in technology-based innovation. He joined the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) as president in 2016. Prior to joining AUIS, he served as Professor of Practice in the Department of Engineering Systems and Management, and as the founding Head of the Institute Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Ferguson is a co-founder and former chief operating officer of Orbital ATK, a space technology company listed on the New York Stock Exchange; a co-founder and former chief executive officer of Edenspace Systems Corporation, a biotechnology company developing innovative crops for energy and environmental applications; and an early-stage investor in more than a dozen technology companies. Currently vice chair of the Carnegie Institution for Science, he is a former Fellow at the George Washington University Center for International Science and Technology Policy and former vice chair of the Kansas State University Research Foundation. Ferguson received his Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School

Bruce Walker Ferguson
President, American University of Iraq, Sulaimani
Amine Gemayel
Amine Pierre Gemayel is a Lebanese politician and served as president of Lebanon from 1982-1988. He was also the head of the Kataeb Party.

Amine Gemayel
Former President of Lebanon
Ellie Geranmayeh
Ellie Geranmayeh is senior policy fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Her work focuses on European foreign policy in relation to Iran, particularly on the nuclear and regional dossiers. Geranmayeh closely followed and advised governments and companies on the nuclear negotiations between Iran and world powers from 2013-2015. Ellie previously worked at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP law firm working on sanctions policy and graduated with a BA in Law from the University of Cambridge.
Thamir Ghadhban
Thamir Ghadhban is Minister of Oil for the Republic of Iraq. He has specialized in the oil industry since the early 1970s. After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, he became Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Oil, and then served as Interim Oil Minister in the government of prime minister Iyad Allawi.

Thamir Ghadhban
Minister of Oil, Government of Iraq
Kawa Hassan
Kawa Hassan is director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the EastWest Institute’s Brussels office, where he leads track two initiatives focused on countering violent extremism. He is also a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center, where his research focuses on Kurdish and Iraqi politics, civil society and democratization, donor assistance, and transition processes, especially in the Middle East. Prior to this, he has extensive experience working in development and humanitarian assistance programming. Kawa Hassan received an M.Sc. from the University of Amsterdam.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert
Ms. Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert is a Dutch politician and diplomat who assumed responsibilities as Special Representative for Iraq of the United Nations Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) on December 17, 2018. She was Minister for Defense of the Netherlands from 2012-2017 and a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands from 2010-2012.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert
Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq
Joost Hiltermann
Joost Hiltermann is the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Program Director at the International Crisis Group (ICG).He has been with ICG since 2002, serving as Project Director, Middle East, Deputy MENA Program Director, and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining the organization, Hiltermann worked as the Executive Director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch, the Director of Iraq Documents at Human Rights Watch, and the Research Director and analyst at Al-Haq. Hiltermann has also been an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University (1990-2002) and a Professorial Lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies (2001)He is the author of two books: A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja (2007) and Behind the Intifada: Labor and Women’s Movements in the Occupied Territories (1991). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Ambassador Stuart E. Jones
Ambassador Stuart E. Jones is President, Regions and Corporate Relations, at Bechtel. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Jordan before becoming the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq in 2014. He has worked as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Cairo, Egypt and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State at the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. He has also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Baghdad. Other foreign tours include Turkey, El Salvador and Colombia. He was also special assistant to the U.S. permanent Representative to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright. He is a graduate of Duke University and holds a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Michael Knights
Michael Knights is a senior fellow at The Washington Institute, specializing in the military and security affairs of Iraq,Iran, Yemen, and the Gulf Arab states. Knights has published widely on security issues for major media outlets such as Jane's IHS, and regularly briefs U.S. government policymakers and U.S. military officers on regional security affairs. Knights worked as the head of analysis and assessments for a range of security and oil companies, directing information collection teams in Iraq, Libya, and Yemen. He earned his doctorate at King's College London.
Tarek Mitri
Tarek Mitri is the Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Tarek Mitri has a distinguished record of public service, having served in the Lebanese government as the Minister of Information (2008-2011), Minister of Culture (2005-2008), Interim Minister of Foreign Affairs (2006-2008), Minister of the Environment (2005), and Minister of Administrative Reform (2005). Prior to this, he was also the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General and head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) from 2012 to 2014, as well as the Coordinator of Interreligious Relations and Dialogue and Program Secretary for Christian-Muslim Dialogue at the World Council of Churches, Geneva from1991 until 2005. Mitri holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Paris X.
Amre Moussa
Amre Moussa was the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States (2001-2011) and Egypt’s Minister for Foreign Affairs (1991-2001). In 2013, he was elected Chairman of the 50-member Constituent Assembly tasked with amending Egypt’s 2012 Constitution. Throughout his career, Moussa served on numerous diplomatic missions, including as Egypt’s Ambassador to Switzerland and the United Nations. He also served as an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs (1974-1977), Director of the Department of International Organizations at the of Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1977-1981 and 1983-1990), Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York (1981-1983) and Egypt’s Ambassador to India (1983-1986).
Denise Natali
Dr. Denise Natali is Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the US Department of State. She was previously a distinguished research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at the National Defense University (NDU). She also served on the Gulf Relief Crisis Project for the American Red Cross International Division in Washington D.C., as the Director of cross-border operations for a non-governmental organization. She is the author of numerous publications, op-eds, and short analyses on Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Kurds, and countering ISIL. Her books include The Kurdish Quasi-State: Development and Dependency in Post-Gulf War Iraq and The Kurds and the State: Evolving National Identity in Iraq, Turkey and Iran.
Vitaly Naumkin
Dr. Vitaly Naumkin is the Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Chair at the Faculty of World Politics, Moscow State University. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Vostok-ORIENS Journal of the RAS and President, Center for Strategic and Political Studies. He speaks English, Arabic and French. Dr. Naumkin is a columnist for Al-Monitor. He is also the director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as a professor and chair at the faculty of world politics, Moscow State University, and the president of the Moscow-based Center for Strategic and Political Studies.

Vitaly Naumkin
Director, Institute for Oriental Studies
Najwa Qassim
Najwa Qassim is a Lebanese presenter for Al Arabiya News Channel.

Najwa Qassim
Presenter, Al Arabiya News Channel
Yousif Mohammed Sadiq
Dr. Yousif Mohammed Sadiq is a Minister of Parliament of the Government of Iraq. He is a member of the Gorran Movement, an opposition party in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Prior to his political career, he was the Head of the Political and Social Sciences Department at Sulaimani University, from 2008 to 2010. He was awarded a Ph.D. in International Science Philosophy for his dissertation on vital factors for the Iraqi Kurdish Region's political future.
Barham Salih
Dr. Barham Salih is President of the Republic of Iraq. He is also the founder and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. He is a veteran Kurdish politician with years of public service and leadership in both the Kurdish Region and Iraq. Salih served as Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government most recently from 2009-2012. Dr. Salih became Deputy Prime Minister of the Interim Iraqi Government in mid-2004, Minister of Planning in the Transitional Government in 2005, and then Deputy Prime Minister in Nouri Al-Maliki’s cabinet after the 2005 elections. In addition to his role as Deputy Prime Minister, he was also in charge of the economic portfolio and Head of the Economic Committee. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and Construction at the University of Cardiff, graduating in 1983 and a doctoral degree in Statistics and Computer Applications in Engineering from the University of Liverpool in 1987.
Zaab Sethna
Based in Baghdad for the last ten years, Zaab Sethna has worked for the Government of Iraq on financial, trade, and energy policies from 2003 to 2007. Since then, Sethna has represented a number of international companies involved in Iraqi oil and gas, banking, insurance, aviation, and construction projects among others. His assignments in Iraq have included: acting as strategic business adviser to Iraq's leading bank; public affairs and government relations consultancy for the world's largest insurance group; business development and government relations for various international oil companies; market entry advice for a Fortune 500 telecoms equipment maker; an in-depth study of the Iraqi oil sector for a European market researcher; and strategic advisory and relationship management for one of the world's leading alternative-investment managers.
Hayder Shesho
Haydar Shesho is a Yazidi military commander in Iraq. He is the founder and supreme commander of the Yazidi self-defense militia Yezidkhan Protection Forces (HPÊ).

Hayder Shesho
Commander, Yezidkhan Protection Forces
Fuad Siniora

Fuad Siniora
Former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Council of Arab & International Affairs
Elena Suponina
Dr. Elena Suponina is the Advisor to the Director of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies. Prior to that, Suponina was the Director and Creator of the Middle East and Asia Center in the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies. She was also a member of analytic and press groups belonging to the Kremlin and the Foreign Ministry traveling with Russian Presidents and several Russian Foreign Ministers during their trips abroad.She published over 10 research papers,and several articles. Suponina provides commentaries for various Russian, Western and Arab TV channels and radio stations as a political analyst. Suponina has received International and Russian awards for best publications for her work about Islam in Russia, Russian-Arab cooperation, and International Policy. Suponina holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy.

Elena Suponina
Advisor to the Director, Russian Institute for Strategic Studies
Edith Szanto
Edith Szanto is an Assistant Professor at American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, where she teaches Middle Eastern History, Western Civilization, and Comparative World Religions. Dr. Szanto received her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Toronto. She spent three years in Syria as a Fulbright scholar researching popular Islamic practices and working for the UN.
Shwan Taha
Shwan Taha is the Chairman of Rabee Securities, a premier Iraqi Stock Exchange Firm founded in Baghdad in 1995. He has over ten years of experience in managing money in the MENA region. Taha holds an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA from George Washington University.
Qubad Talabani
Qubad Talabani was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s eighth Cabinet in June 2014. In the seventh Cabinet, Mr. Talabani served as Minister and Head of the Department of Coordination and Follow-up, a newly formed governmental department designated as the KRG’s principal policy unit. From 2006 to 2012 Deputy Prime Minister Talabani was the KRG representative to the United States of America, advocating the government’s position on a wide array of political and economic matters and promoting coordination and partnership between the Kurdistan Region and the United States. Prior to the KRG cabinet unification, Mr. Talabani served as the representative of the KRG–Slemani administration to Washington.
Christine van den Toorn
Christine van den Toorn is Executive Director of External Relations and Policy and Director of the Intitute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS) at AUIS, where she has taught Middle East history for four years. She has over 10 years of academic and professional experience in the Middle East, six of which have been spent in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). She has conducted fieldwork all over the KRI, with a particular focus on disputed territories in Ninewa, Diyala and Salahddin, and has published articles and reports in leading publications, as well as delivered talks on her research. She holds an MA in Middle East History from the University of Virginia, and taught the subject at AUIS for 4 years.

Executive Director, External Relations and Policy; Director, Institute of Regional and International Studies (IRIS), AUIS
Ben Van Heuvelen
Ben Van Heuvelen is the managing editor of Iraq Oil Report and a contributor to the Washington Post and Foreign Policy. He has written freelance for The Atlantic online, Salon, and Killing the Buddha and has appeared as a guest on CNN, Al-Jazeera English, and NPR. He writes about Iraq, oil, and the geopolitics of energy, American foreign policy, politics and culture, and religion. He also worked at the New American Foundation as a research fellow.
Tamara Cofman Wittes
Tamara Cofman Wittes is a the Director of and a senior fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, where her research focuses on US-Israeli and US-Arab relations. Wittes previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs (2009-2012). She also oversaw the Middle East Partnership Initiative and served as Deputy Special Coordinator for Middle East transitions. Wittes is a co-host of Rational Security, a weekly podcast on foreign policy and national security issues. joining the State Department, Wittes was a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, where she directed the Middle East Democracy and Development (MEDD) Project. Wittes published in November 2016 a Brookings report titled Politics, Governance, and State-Society Relations on the interdependence of governance and stability in the Arab world.
Robin Wright
Robin Wright is an American foreign affairs analyst, journalist and author. She currently is a joint fellow at the United States Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center. Wright has reported from more than 140 countries on six continents for the most notable outlets. She won the National Magazine Award for her work with The New Yorker. Her book, Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World, won the 2012 Overseas Press Club award for best book on international affairs. She also won the United Nations Correspondents Association Gold Medal for coverage of foreign affairs, the Overseas Press Club Award, and the National Press Club Award. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and was awarded an honorary degree as Doctor of Humane Letters from her alma mater.
Shwan Zulal
Shwan Zulal is a business consultant and political analyst, covering a broad spectrum of political and governmental risk management in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. Zulal is Head of Consulting and Business Development at Carduchi Consulting in London, as well as Middle East Energy Advisor for Pflüger International Consulting GmbH.
AGENDA
Christine M. van den Toorn - Executive Director External Relations and Policy, AUIS
Bruce Ferguson - President, AUIS
Welcome
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 10:00 to 10:15
H.E. Qubad Talabani, Deputy Prime Minister Of KRG
Inaugural Address
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 10:15 to 10:30
HE Dr. Barham Salih, President of the Republic of Iraq
Mina Al-Oraibi, Editor in Chief The National
Iraq: Securing the Future, a conversation with
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 10:30 to 11:00
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert “Reviving Public Trust: A Necessity”
UNAMI SRSG
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 11:00 to 11:15
Moderator: Najwa Qassim, Al Arabiya
1. Ayad Allawi, Former Vice President of Iraq, Council of Arab & International Affairs
2. Fuad Siniora, Former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Council of Arab & International Affairs
3. Amre Moussa, Former SG of the Arab League, AUIS Board of Trustees
4. Amine Gemeyal, Former President of Lebanon, Council of Arab & International Affairs
5. Tahir Al Masri, Former Prime Minster of Jordan, Council of Arab & International Affairs
Returning to prominence: Perspectives on Iraq’s re-emerging regional role
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 11:30 to 12:30
Sayyid Ammar Al Hakim, President, National Hikma Movement
Mushreq Abbas, Founding Director, Nas News
Charting Iraq’s political future
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 12:30 to 13:00
Moderator: Peter Bergen, CNN, New America
1. Denise Natali, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Conflict Stabilization, Department of State
2. Qusay Suhail, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Federal Government of Iraq
3. Ramon Blecua, EU Ambassador to Iraq
4. Toby Fyfe, President, Institute of Governance
Protecting stability: The role of governance
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 14:00 to 15:00
Moderator: Robin Wright New Yorker, US Institute of Peace
1. Jon Wilks, UK Ambassador to Iraq
2. Andrew Peek, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Iraq and Iran, US Department of State
3. Laith Kubba, Advisor, Prime Minister, Federal Government of Iraq
4. Falah Mustafa, Director of Foreign Relations, Kurdistan Regional Government
5. Ebtisam Al Ketbi, President, Emirates Policy Center
6. H.E. Ambassador Riza Hakan Tekin, Director General for Bilateral Political Affairs (South Asia), Government of the Republic of Turkey
Balancing priorities: Iraq’s evolving relationship with international powers
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 15:00 to 16:00
HE Haider Al Abadi, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq
Jane Arraf, Senior Correspondent, National Public Radio
Reflections and Lessons Learned
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 16:30 to 17:00
Moderator: Peter Wonacott, Middle East Editor, WSJ
1. Tariq Hammouri, Minister Trade, Industry and Supply, Kingdom of Jordan
2. Luay Al Khateeb, Minister of Electricity, Federal Government of Iraq
3. Saleh Jbbouri, Minister of Industry, Federal Government of Iraq
Regional economic integration: trade, infrastructure, and energy
Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 17:00 to 18:00
Financing Growth: Foreign Investment and the Private Sector
Thursday, March 7, 2019 - 09:45 to 10:30
Moderator:
Ahmed Tabaqchali, Asia Frontier
Speakers:
1. Grant Felgenhauer, Euphrates Fund
2. Taha Abdulsalam, Director, Iraq Stock Exchange
3. Shwan Taha, Rabee Securities, AUIS Board of Trustees
Financing Growth: Foreign Investment and the Private Sector
Thursday, March 7, 2019 - 09:45 to 10:30
Moderator:
Mac Skelton, IRIS, AUIS
Speakers:
1. Stephanie Dobitsch, Special Advisor for the Middle East, Office of the Vice President of the United States
2. Hadi Baba Shaykh. Representative of Babashaykh, Yezidi Religious Leader
3. Sayid Ziad Bahr Al Aloum, Al Khoei Institute
4. William Warda, Hammurabi Rights Organization
Ensuring Religious Diversity in Iraq
Thursday, March 7, 2019 - 10:30 to 11:30
Moderator:
Sarmad Al Taee, Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Speakers:
1. HE Jamal Adili, Minister of Water
2. Azzam Alwash, AUIS Board of Trustees
Spotlight on Water Resources
Thursday, March 7, 2019 - 11:30 to 12:15
Moderator:
Thanassis Cambanis, The Century Foundation
Speakers:
1. Hisham Al Thahabi, Iraq Home for Creativity
2. Mujahid Waisy, KAPITA
3. Christine M. van den Toorn, AUIS
4. Ammar Amin, Miswag
5. Marwan Ahmed, Careem
Building Iraq’s Future: Education, Youth and Employment
Thursday, March 7, 2019 - 12:15 to 13:15
Moderator:
Dov Zakheim, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Speakers:
1. Muhammed Ridha Shebani, Senior Researcher, IPIS
2. Tamara Coffman Wittes, Brookings Institution
3. Vitaly Naumkin, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Science
4. Elena Suponina, Russian Institute of Strategic Studies
5. Joseph Bahout, Sciences Po, Carnegie