January 9, 2008

Middle East expert to speak at Purdue Sears Lecture Series

Shibley Telhami
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Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, will present "America and the Middle East: Where Are We, and Where Do We Go From Here?" at 8 p.m. in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall. Telhami also is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy.

"Dr. Telhami will discuss the effects of American policy in the Middle East specific to 9/11 and the Iraq War," said Louis René Beres, a professor of political science and event organizer. "He is interested in how American policy has affected democracy, regional security, the prospects of settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the possibility of military confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program."

Telhami also will talk about diplomacy efforts of the last three American presidential administrations. 

Before teaching at the University of Maryland, Shibley taught at several academic institutions, including Cornell University, Ohio State University, the University of Southern California, Princeton University, Columbia University, Swarthmore College and the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in political science.

Telhami also has been active in the foreign policy arena. He served as adviser to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in 1990-91, as adviser to former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton, and as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Trilateral U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee, which was mandated by the Wye River Agreements. 

Most recently, he served on the U.S. Institute of Peace's Iraq Study Group as a member of the strategic environment working group. He has contributed to the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, and regularly appears on national and international radio and television. He has served on the U.S. Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, which was appointed by the Department of State at the request of Congress, and he co-drafted the report of their findings, "Changing Minds, Winning Peace."

He also co-drafted several Council on Foreign Relations reports on U.S. public diplomacy, on the Arab-Israeli peace process, and on Persian Gulf security.

 His best-selling book, "The Stakes: America and the Middle East," was selected by Foreign Affairs as one of the top five books on the Middle East in 2003. He is a co-author of "Liberty and Power: A Dialogue on Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy in an Unjust World," and he has a book forthcoming called "Reflections of Hearts and Minds: Media, Opinion and Identity in the Arab World." His other publications include "Power and Leadership in International Bargaining: The Path to the Camp David Accords," "International Organizations and Ethnic Conflict," "Identity and Foreign Policy in the Middle East," and numerous articles on international politics and Middle Eastern affairs.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of Human Rights Watch (and as chair of Human Rights Watch/Middle East), the Education for Employment Foundation, and Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, and several academic advisory boards. He also has served on the board of the United States Institute of Peace. Telhami was awarded the Distinguished International Service Award by the University of Maryland in 2002 and the Excellence in Public Service Award by the University System of Maryland Board of Regents in 2006. 

Future Sears Lecture Series speakers, topics and dates include:

* Tom Ricks, "Washington Post" military correspondent, will present "The Iraq War as a Failure of the American System?" 8 p.m. Feb. 18 in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse.

* Robert Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, will present "What's Wrong with the War on Terrorism?" 8 p.m. March 26 in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall.

The Sears Lecture Series is sponsored by the Department of Political Science, which is housed in Purdue's College of Liberal Arts. All of the lectures are free and open to the public.

The biennial series is named for the late Purdue historian Louis Martin Sears, who was a faculty member in the then-joint Department of History and Political Science from 1920 until his retirement in 1956. Sears specialized in diplomatic history and biography and was the author of numerous books. The history and political science departments alternately sponsor the lecture series bearing his name.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, (765) 494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Louis René Beres, (765) 494-4189, lberes@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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