The Camden Conference reports this week that all seats at the Camden Opera House have been filled for the 26th Annual Conference, “The Middle East: What Next?” the weekend of February 22-24. Seats are still available, however, at the three live-streaming satellite venues: The Strand in Rockland, the Hutchinson Center in Belfast, and The Grand in Ellsworth.
Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who was slated to be one of the conference speakers, has been called away on urgent overseas business. Taking his place will be Ambassador Laurence Pope, a career diplomat, addressing U.S. policies and their role in the Middle East.
Pope, a Bowdoin College graduate, is a former U.S. ambassador to Chad and former chargé d’affaires in Libya. Fluent in Arabic and French, he has also held a number of senior posts in the Department of State. He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2000 after 31 years of service but emerged from retirement in the fall of 2012 to assume the temporary post of chargé d’affaires in Libya following the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens in Benghazi. He has now returned to his home in Portland, from where he continues to consult with various institutions.
“The Middle East: What Next?” kicks off at 8 p.m. on Friday, February 22, with noted journalist Robin Wright as keynoter, and continues until 1 p.m. on Sunday, February 24, with a full slate of speakers moderated by Ambassador Nicholas Burns of Harvard’s Kennedy School. For anyone still hoping to attend the conference at the Opera House, the Camden Conference office is maintaining a waiting list in case of cancellations.
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