Camden Conference This Weekend

There are still seats available at the Strand!  Don't miss this event.

The Camden Conference reports 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.

For more information, visit www.camdenconference.org or call 207-236-1034.

The Conference convenes on Friday evening, February 22nd, with the keynote address at 8PM, and continues on Saturday, February 23rd from 8:30AM – 5PM and again on Sunday, February 24th from 9:00AM-12:30PM.

26th ANNUAL CAMDEN CONFERENCE

THE MIDDLE EAST – WHAT NEXT? February 22-24, 2013

The provisional Program, including order of speakers and topics addressed, appears below, and is subject to change as it becomes further developed. For information on Conference Speakers, please click here.

FRIDAY,  FEBRUARY 22

8 p.m.            WELCOME    BLAND BANWELL, President

8:10 p.m.      KEYNOTE ADDRESS

                          What  to  Expect  in  the  Wake  of  the  Arab  Uprisings?

                       ROBIN  WRIGHT  Author, analyst, and foreign correspondent.  Joint Fellow at U.S. Institute of Peace and Woodrow  Wilson  International Center

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23

8:30 a.m       Opening Remarks     NICHOLAS BURNS, Moderator

8:45 a.m.     Two Years After the Arab Awakening—Emerging Trends

                         MARWAN  MUASHER  Vice President for Studies at Carnegie Endowment; former Ambassador of Jordan to Israel and to the United States; former Foreign Minister of Jordan.

 9:15 a.m.     Q. & A. PANEL with MARWAN MUASHER and ROBIN WRIGHT

 9:45 a.m.     Egypt  and  the  New  Islamic  Politics

                          MARC  LYNCH  Associate Professor and Director, Institute for Middle East Studies, George Washington University

 10:30 a.m.    BREAK

 11:00 a.m.    Syria:  What’s  Next?

                          JOSHUA  LANDIS  Associate Professor and Director, Center for Middle East Studies, University of Oklahoma

 11:45 a.m.    LUNCH  BREAK

 1:30 p.m.      The  New  Middle  East  Cold  War

                       GREGORY  GAUSE   Professor of Political Science University of Vermont. Non-Resident Senior Fellow

                           at the Brookings Doha Center      

 2:20 p.m.      Israel  and  Iran:  An  Evolving  Debate

                           SHAI  FELDMAN  Director, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University; former Head of the Jaffee

                           Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University

 3:10 p.m.           BREAK

 3:45 p.m.    Nuclear  Issues  and  U.S.-Iran  Relations

                         SEYED  HOSSEIN  MOUSAVIAN  Research Scholar, Program

                         On Science and Global Security, Princeton University; former Ambassador and Spokesman for Iran’s Nuclear Program

 4:30 p.m.     ADJOURN for the day



SUNDAY,  FEBRUARY 24

 9:00 a.m.          Women  and  Public  Space  in  the  Arab  Spring

                         BARBARA  IBRAHIM   Director, Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, American University in Cairo, Egypt

9:50 a.m.     U.S. Policies  and  Prospects in a Turbulent Middle East

                         LARRY  POPE   Former Ambassador to Chad, Political Advisor to General Anthony Zinni in Central Command, and Charge d’Affaires in Tripoli, Libya

10:40 a.m.    BREAK

11:15 a.m.    Q. & A. —  FINAL PANEL OF ALL SPEAKERS

12:30 p.m.    Conference ADJOURNS