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Peace picks March 15-20

1. Rebels, Radicals, and the Regime: Finding a Way Forward in Syria| Monday, March 16^th | 12:00- 1:30 PM | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | REGISTER TO ATTEND | Following the recent collapse of the main U.S.-backed rebel group, Harakat al Hazm, how should the U.S. re-think its strategy toward Syria’s moderate opposition? How might its recently launched train-and-equip program in Turkey affect dynamics inside Syria? How likely is the UN-proposed freeze in Aleppo to succeed, and how viable is Moscow’s renewed push for peace between the regime and its opponents? On the fourth anniversary of the devastating Syria conflict, The Middle East Institute is pleased to welcome Michael Eisenstadt, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Robert Ford, The Middle East Institute, Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria, Mohammed Ghanem, Syrian American Council, and Dafna Rand, Center for a New American Security, for a discussion about how to break the stalemate in Syria and move the country toward a peaceful political transition.

2. A Nuclear Deal, Iran’s Regional Role and US Relations with the Gulf | Monday, March 16^th | 2:00-3:30 PM | The Atlantic Council | REGISTER TO ATTEND | The Arab nations across the Gulf from Iran are watching with some trepidation as nuclear talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany appear to be nearing a conclusion. Speakers will address the validity of these concerns and how they might be addressed by the Obama Administration to reduce sectarian tensions and bolster nuclear non-proliferation.  Speakers include: Richard LeBaron, Former US Ambassador to Kuwait, Alireza Nader, Senior International Policy Analyst RAND Corporation, Ilan Goldenberg Director, Middle East Security Program, Center for a New American Security.

3. A Western Strategy on the South Caucus | Tuesday, March 17 | 5:00-7:00 PM | Johns Hopkins SAIS | REGISTER TO ATTEND | Western influence in the Caucasus has been in sharp decline for a decade. Among the three independent states of the Caucasus the feeling of western disengagement runs deep. This forum introduces CACI’s new publication, which recounts western missteps in the region, explains why the Caucasus matter, and calls for a fresh approach to the region as a whole and the three independent states that comprise it. Speakers include: Svante Cornell, Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at JHU-SAIS, Frederick Starr, Chairman, Central Asia-Caucacus Institute, JHU-SAIS, and Mamuka Tsereteli, Research Director, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at JHU-SAIS

4. Understanding the Role of Libya’s Religious Actors in Confronting Violent Extremism | Monday, March 16^th | 3:00-4:30 PM | USIP | REGISTER TO ATTEND | Founding director of USIP partner Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace, Zahra’ Langhi, will discuss the current and potential roles of religious actors in peace and justice efforts in Libya. Specifically, she will highlight key themes from a USIP-sponsored project to map Libya’s religious actors, and she will address the ways in which they are impacting efforts to counter violent extremism.

5. Prospects for Christians in the Path of Persecution |Wednesday March 18^th | 4:30- 6:30 PM | Hudson Institute | REGISTER TO ATTEND |Last month, the Islamic State beheaded 21 Coptic Christian men along the Libyan shore. A graphic video of this event horrified the world. The Copts, who had gone to Libya as migrant workers, had been hunted down in their residences and separated from neighbors on the basis of their Christian faith before being killed. In response, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took immediate military and diplomatic action against IS, defending the Copts as “innocent victims. How does the growing IS threat in northern Africa affect Christian communities in the region? Nina Shea and Samuel Tadros, both of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, will join His Grace Bishop Angaelos for an in-depth discussion of the threats facing the Coptic community.

6. How Should the U.S Roll Back and Defeat the Islamic State? | Thursday, March 19^th | 11:30-1:00 PM | Hudson Institute | REGISTER TO ATTEND | The sectarian clash that erupted four years ago in Syria has metastasized into a conflict that has engulfed much of the Middle East and spread beyond regional borders. Aided in part by the missteps of the Obama administration, the Islamic State (ISIS) has grown significantly with franchises and fighters surfacing from Libya to Western Europe. Will the Obama administration’s policies win over local Sunni tribes and officials as the surge did, and, as President Obama has argued, thereby degrade and destroy the Islamic State? Or will the White House’s apparent detente with Iran serve as an anti-surge that continues to fuel ISIS against a new prospective American-Iranian regional order? A panel of experts who witnessed the 2007 surge up close and will assess both the nature of the current Sunni insurgency and the options going forward. The panel features, Michael Doran, Senior Fellow Hudson Institute, Kimberly Kagan, founder of the Institute for the Study of War, Michael Pregent, and Joel Rayburn, Senior Research Fellow, National Defense University & Author, Iraq After America: Strongmen, Sectarians, Resistance.

7. The War in Ukraine: The Roots of Russian Conflict | Thursday, March 19^th | 10:00- 11:30 AM | Woodrow Wilson Center | REGISTER TO ATTEND | A year after the annexation of Crimea and the start of hostilities in Eastern Ukraine, the sequence of events leading up to the crisis are well established. Yet these events find their origins in Russia’s recent and distant past, as well as the EU’s image of a modern, post-WWII Europe. Speakers include: Wayne Merry, Senior Fellow for Europe and Eurasia at the American Foreign Policy Council; Former Political Affairs Officer, U.S. Embassy in Moscow (1991-94), Maxim Trudolyubov, Opinion Page Editor, Vedomosti Daily, Russia, Elizabeth A. Wood, Professor of Russian and Soviet History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

8. Nonviolent Civil Resistance: Research Breakthroughs & Practical Impact | Thursday March 19^th | 1:30-3:30 PM | USIP | REGISTER TO ATTEND | Nonviolent civil resistance has motored social and political change, even in the most difficult conditions, for centuries. From the Indian independence movement, to the U.S. civil rights movement, to successful challenges to dictatorship in the Philippines and Chile, to the “dignity” movements in the Middle East and North Africa,  and recent popular uprisings in Brazil and Venezuela, mobilized citizens have used nonviolent direct action courageously, creatively and effectively. Policy-relevant research on civil resistance is expanding alongside the explosion of people power around the world. Speakers include: Mary Elizabeth King, Professor of Peace and Conflict studies at the UN-affiliated University for Peace, Sharon Erickson Nepstad, Director of Religious Studies and Professor of Sociology at the University of New Mexico, and Shaazka Beyerle, Visiting Scholar, Center for Transatlantic Relations, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins.