WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the eve of the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, the United States stands at a critical juncture in its Iraq policy. To explore the policy issues, the Center for American Progress has invited a panel of distinguished experts to examine Iraq’s impact on regional dynamics and diplomacy and to debate U.S. military strategy in Iraq.
Featured Remarks by Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher (D-CA)
Luncheon Keynote Address by Congressman Lee Hamilton (D-IN)
March 19, 2007, 8:30am – 1:30pm
Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
Location
Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
Map & Directions
Nearest Metro: Blue/Orange Line to McPherson Square or Red Line to Metro Center
RSVP for this Event
Schedule
Monday, March 19, 2007
Breakfast will be served at 8:30 a.m.
Welcome: Melody Barnes, Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 9:10 a.m.
Examining Iraq’s Impact on the Middle East and Regional Diplomacy
Time: 9:10 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.
Jon Alterman, Director and Senior Fellow, Middle East Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Mara Rudman, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Judith Yaphe, Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University
Moderated by:
Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress Debating
U.S. Military Strategy
Time: 10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
Ken Adelman, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations General John M. Keane, United States Army, Retired, and Senior Managing Director and co-founder of Keane Advisors, LLC
Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, and Senior Adviser, Center for Defense Information
Moderated by:
Peter Rundlet, Vice President and Managing Director for National Security, Center for American Progress
Featured Remarks by Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher (D-CA)
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Luncheon Keynote Address: Congressman Lee Hamilton (D-IN)
Time: 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Biographies
Congressman Lee H. Hamilton became Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in January, 1999. The Woodrow Wilson Center, the nation’s official memorial to President Woodrow Wilson, is a pre-eminent intellectual haven where scholars, policymakers, and business leaders engage in a comprehensive and non-partisan dialogue on public policy issues, their deep historical backgrounds, and their effect on national and international thought and governance. Prior to becoming Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center, Lee Hamilton served for thirty-four years as a United States Congressman from Indiana. During his tenure, he served as Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (now the Committee on International Relations), and chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East from the early 1970s until 1993. Mr. Hamilton also served as Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran.
Mr. Hamilton remains an important and active voice on matters of international relations and U.S. foreign policy. He served as a commissioner on the influential United States Commission on National Security in the 21st Century (better known as the Hart-Rudman Commission) and was co-chair with former Senator Howard Baker of the Baker-Hamilton Commission to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. He is currently a member of the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council. In December 2002, he was appointed vice chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission), and he is currently a board member of the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, the legacy organization to the 9/11 Commission. He also serves as co-chair of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future and as a commissioner on the Commission on Federal Election Reform. He is currently co-chair, with James Baker, of the Iraq Study Group.
Congresswoman Ellen O. Tauscher is currently serving her sixth term representing California’s 10th Congressional district, which includes San Francisco’s suburbs in Contra Costa, Alameda and Solano Counties. In Congress she is a leader on defense, homeland security, high-tech, transportation and veterans’ issues and is known as one of Congress’s leading experts on nuclear nonproliferation. Ellen is currently serving her second term as the Chairman of the House New Democrat Coalition, a sixty-member organization that ranks as the largest centrist coalition in the House of Representatives. The New Democrat Coalition is committed to enacting policies that maintain U.S. competitiveness, meet the challenges posed by globalization in the 21st century, and strengthen our national security. In the 110th Congress, Rep. Tauscher was appointed Chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, becoming only the third woman in history to Chair an Armed Services Subcommittee. During the last decade as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Tauscher has taken an active role in foreign policy and national security. She has traveled to the Middle East five times since the start of the Iraq war, including three trips to Iraq, and has visited troops and foreign leaders in Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries while serving in Congress.
Ken Adelman was U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for two-and a half years, and then Director of the U.S. Arms Control & Disarmament Agency for nearly five years during the Reagan administration. From 2001-2006, he was a member of the Defense Policy Board and, for the past 18 years, national editor of Washingtonian magazine. He is also the executive director of the Arts & Ideas series of the Aspen Institute.
Jon Alterman is director and senior fellow of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Middle East Program. He served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. Recently, he served as an expert adviser to the Iraq Study Group and is a professorial lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Melody Barnes is the Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress where she coordinates and helps to integrate all of the Center’s policy work, from the policy departments, fellows, and the Center’s network of outside policy experts.
From December 1995 until March 2003, Ms. Barnes served as chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee. As Senator Kennedy’s chief counsel, she shaped civil rights, women’s health and reproductive rights, commercial law, and religious liberties laws, as well as executive branch and judicial appointments. Ms. Barnes’ experience also includes an appointment as Director of Legislative Affairs for the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and serving as assistant counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. During her tenure with the Subcommittee, she worked closely with Members of Congress and their staffs to pass the Voting Rights Improvement Act of 1992, which was signed into law.
Brian Katulis is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. At the Center, his work examines U.S. national security policy in Middle East and democratization, with a focus on Iraq. Prior to joining the Center, Katulis lived and worked in the Middle East for the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, including projects in Egypt, Iraq, and the Palestinian territories. From 2000 to 2003, he worked as a senior associate at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. His previous experience includes work in the Near East and South Asian Directorate of the National Security Council and the Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State during the Clinton administration.
General Jack Keane is Senior Managing Director and co-founder of Keane Advisors, LLC, a private equity and consulting firm. He serves as a national security analyst for ABC News and speaks throughout the nation on national security and leadership. Still active in national security, General Keane conducted a personal assessment of the security situation in Iraq for senior defense officials in 2004 and 2005. He is a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board. General Keane, a four-star general, completed 37 years in public service in December 2003, culminating as acting Chief of Staff and Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army.
Lawrence Korb is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Senior Adviser to the Center for Defense Information. Prior to joining the Center, he was a Senior Fellow and Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. From July 1998 to October 2002, he was Council Vice President, Director of Studies, and holder of the Maurice Greenberg Chair. Prior to joining the Council, Mr. Korb served as Director of the Center for Public Policy Education and Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution, Dean of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, and Vice President of Corporate Operations at the Raytheon Company. Dr. Korb served as Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics) from 1981 through 1985.
Mara Rudman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, focusing on national security and foreign policy issues, with a particular emphasis on the Middle East. She also serves as Senior Partner at Quorum Strategies, an international strategic consulting firm. From 2001 to 2004, she was a vice president and general counsel to The Cohen Group. From 1997-2001, Mara served as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security and National Security Council Chief of Staff, where she coordinated and directed activities within the National Security Council and among the various federal departments and agencies with defense and foreign policy responsibilities, and earlier as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Legislative Affairs. In those capacities, she also played a role on Middle East peace efforts. From 1993-1997, she worked as chief counsel to the House International Relations Committee Chairman Lee Hamilton. Prior to her committee positions, Rudman was a litigation associate at Hogan & Hartson. Early in her career, Rudman clerked for the Honorable Stanley Marcus, now of the Eleventh Circuit, in the Southern District of Florida.
Peter Rundlet is the Vice President and Managing Director for National Security at the Center for American Progress. Prior to joining American Progress, Peter was Counsel for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the "9/11 Commission"), where he focused on domestic intelligence and law enforcement policy, including related civil liberties issues. In 1997, Peter was selected to be a White House Fellow, serving in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President. After his fellowship year, he was appointed Associate Counsel to the President and was responsible for a range of policy and constitutional law issues until the end of the Clinton administration.
Judith Yaphe is Distinguished Research Fellow in the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, Washington, DC. She specializes in Iraq, Iran, and Persian Gulf security issues. Before joining INSS in 1995, Dr. Yaphe was a senior political analyst in the Office of Near Eastern-South Asian Analysis, CIA, where she received the Intelligence Medal of Commendation for her work on Iraq. Her recent work has focused on Iraq, Iran, Gulf security issues, and the impact of U.S. policy on the region. Dr. Yaphe received her BA with Honors in History from Moravian College and the Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from the University of Illinois.