US Engagement in the Middle East, Past, Present and...? By Steven Simon

US Engagement in the Middle East, Past, Present and...? By Steven Simon

By : Status/الوضع Audio-Visual Podcast Hosts
Schar School, Middle East & Islamic Studies, and Global programs Annual Lecture. Cosponsored by Arab Studies Institute, Schar School For Policy and Government, Center for Global Islamic Studies, Global Programs, History Department, Global Affairs - Please Note: this lecture occurred on 18 April, 2019.

To Everything there is a Season: 

The US Engagement in the Middle East, 

Past, Present and . . .  ? 


by Steven Simon

Moderated by Bassam Haddad

Steven Simon is John J. McCloy ’16 Professor of History at Amherst College. From 2014-2016 he was a visiting Dickey Center Fellow and lecturer in Government at Dartmouth College. Prior to this, he was Executive Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies - US and Middle East, resident in Bahrain.  From early 2011 through the end of 2012 he served on the National Security Council staff at the Obama White House, where he was the senior director for Middle Eastern and North African affairs. Previously he served for six years at the Clinton White House as director for global issues and senior director for transnational threats on the National Security Council staff.  During this period, he was involved in U.S. counterterrorism policy and operations as well as security policy in the Near East and South Asia. These assignments followed a fifteen-year career at the U.S. Department of State. 

He is the co-author of The Age of Sacred Terror (Random House, 2004), winner of the Arthur C. Ross Award for best book in international relations; The Next Attack (Henry Holt, 2006), one of the “best books of the year” in the Washington Post and Financial TimesIraq at the Crossroads: State and Society in the Shadow of Regime Change (Oxford, 2003); Building a Successful Palestinian State and The Arc: A Formal Structure for a Palestinian State (RAND 2005); The Sixth Crisis (Oxford, 2010); The Pragmatic Superpower: The United States and the Middle East in the Cold War (W.W. Norton, 2016); Our Separate Ways (Public Affairs, 2016); and The Long Goodbye: The United States and the Middle East from the Islamic Revolution to the Arab Spring (Penguin/ Random House, forthcoming). 

 





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France in the Middle East: A Conversation Between Bassam Haddad and Alain Gresh

(This interview was conducted for Status/الوضع by Bassam Haddad with Alan Gresh at his home in Paris, on 5 July 2019. Over a period of 4 days, Status and Jadaliyya team members held three events, of which this interview is one.)

In this conversation with Bassam Haddad, Alain Gresh addresses President Macron’s and France’s internal and Middle East policies. The conversation takes us from domestic issues of immigrants and refugees to France’s policies on Iran, US, and Saudi Arabia tensions, as well as specifics regarding France’s position on the Algeria and Sudan protests. Camera & Sound Technicians: Kylie Broderick & Noah Black.

Alain Gresh


Alain Gresh is the Publication Director of 
Orient XXI and a renowned scholar in his field. A specialist in the Near East, he is the author of several books, including De quoi la Palestine est-elle le nom ?, Les Liens qui libèrent, 2010 and et Un chant d’amour. Israël-Palestine, une histoire française, with Hélène Aldeguer, éditions La Découverte, 2017.

Bassam Haddad


Bassam Haddad is Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program and Associate Professor at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is the author of Business Networks in Syria: The Political Economy of Authoritarian Resilience (Stanford University Press, 2011). Bassam serves as Founding Editor of the Arab Studies Journal and the Knowledge Production Project. He is co-producer/director of the award-winning documentary film, About Baghdad, and director of the series Arabs and Terrorism. Bassam is Co-Founder/Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine and Executive Director of the Arab Studies Institute. He serves on the Board of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences and is Executive Producer of Status Audio Magazine. Bassam is Co-Project Manager for the Salon Syria Project

This interview was conducted as part of a series of events organized by Jadaliyya, Orient XXI, and Status/الوضع in Paris, France over the course of several days. If you'd like to see other content from this series, please click below.