On Wednesday, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Project on Middle East Democracy co-sponsored a panel entitled "Egypt's Transition and the Challenge of Security Sector Reform." The event featured Mohamed Kadry Said, head of the Military Studies Unit at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Omar Afifi Soliman, former Egyptian police officer and Supreme Court lawyer, and Robert Perito, director of the Security Sector ...

On Thursday, the Woodrow Wilson Center held a panel discussion entitled: “Upheaval in the Middle East: What is Turkey’s Strategy.” Andri Oriphanides, of the Woodrow Wilson Center, moderated the discussion.  Renowned Turkish journalist, Semih Dundar Idiz, and Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, Ian Lesser, presented on the panel. For full notes, continue below.  For pdf version, click here. Andri Oriphanides made opening remarks and introduced the two panelists.  ...

On Tuesday, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) held a panel entitled, “Lebanon and the Arab Spring: A Congressional View of Lebanon’s Roles Amidst Historic Change in the Region.” USIP President Richard Solomon gave introductory remarks.  Mona Yacoubian, Senior Program Officer for the Middle East and Director of the Lebanon Working Group, moderated the panel.  Congressman Charles Boustany (R-LA), the son of Lebanese immigrants, offered his perspective on how ...

On Thursday, top representatives of U.S. non-governmental democracy assistance associations held a briefing on Capitol Hill entitled, “What is Democracy Assistance? What does it really accomplish? How does it further US national interests?” The panel discussion featured: Lorne Craner, President, International Republican Institute; Ken Wollack, President, National Democratic Institute; Paula Schriefer, Director of Advocacy, Freedom House; May T. Kosba, Atlas Corps Fellow and Egyptian activist; David J. Kramer, Executive ...

On Thursday, April 14th and Friday, April 15th, the Managing Global Order project at the Brookings Institution and the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy hosted a conference on the foreign policies of emerging-market democracies and their efforts to advance human rights and democracy. The conference, called “Foreign Policies of Emerging-Market Democracies: What Role for Democracy and Human Rights?,” featured leading experts on Brazil, India, ...

On Wednesday, April 6th, Human Rights First hosted a breakfast panel discussion titled “Internet Freedom and Democratic Transformation in Egypt.” The event featured Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; Esraa Abdel Fattah, Media Director, Egyptian Democratic Academy; Richard Allan, Director of Policy for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Facebook; Andrew McLaughlin, Former Deputy Chief Technology Officer for Internet Policy, the White House; and Meg ...

The Center for American Progress held a discussion on Monday entitled: "Who is the Libyan Opposition: A Discussion with Ali Aujali." Senior Fellow Brian Katulis moderated the discussion with Ali Aujali, former Libyan ambassador to the U.S. and current Representative of the Transitional National Council (TNC) of the Libyan Republic to the U.S. For full notes, continue below.  For pdf version, click here. Ali Aujali gave a prepared statement and thanked ...

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on Thursday afternoon entitled, "Assessing the Situation in Libya."  Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg testified before the committee.  Committee Chairman Senator John Kerry (D-MA) moderated the hearing.  Ranking Member, Senator Dick Lugar (R-IN) was also in attendance.  Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Bob Corker (R-TN), Ben Cardin (D-MD), James Risch (R-ID), Tom Udall (D-NM), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), ...

On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations held a budget hearing for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Administrator of USAID, Dr. Rajiv Shah, testified before the subcommittee. The Congressional panel was moderated by subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX). Ranking Member Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) and House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) were also in attendance along with Reps. Jesse ...

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted an event on Wednesday, March 23rd entitled "The Arab Uprisings: A View from the University on Tahrir Square." Lisa Anderson, President of the American University of Cairo, gave prepared remarks which were followed by a question and answer session from the audience.  Marwan Muasher, vice president for studies at The Carnegie Endowment moderated the event. For full notes, continue below.  For pdf version, click ...

On Tuesday, the National Iranian American Council hosted an event on Capital Hill focused on government perpetrated human rights abuses against the Iranian people and what steps the international community can take to thwart them. The even was entitled, “Answering the Iranian People’s Call for Human Rights.” The panel included Nader Hashemi, co-editor of The People Reloaded: the Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran's Future, Alireza Nader, International Policy ...

On Friday, The Libyan Ambassador to the United States H.E. Ali Sulaiman Aujali along with Dr. Radwan Masmoudi, President of the Center of Islam and Democracy and Aly R. Abuzaakouk, Director of Libya Human and Political Development Forum held a press conference at the Murrow Room, at The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to call on President Obama to support the pro-Democracy and Anti-Gaddafi forces, which is represented by ...

Senator John Kerry (D-MA) delivered a speech at The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Wednesday, March 16, 2011, on U.S. foreign policy toward the Middle East in light of the recent uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and continued unrest and protests across the entire region.  Marwan Muasher, vice president of studies at The Carnegie Endowment introduced Senator Kerry and made brief remarks about the current unrest in the region. For ...

On Thursday, March 10, 2011, IRI hosted a video teleconference discussion with several leading civic and political actors in Egypt. On the call were Abdullah Helmy of the Reform & Development Party; Shady Taha, a leader in Al Ghad Party; Hossam El Din Ali from the Egyptian Democratic Academy; Israa Abd El Fatah, a founding member of the April 6 Youth Movement; and Kamal Nabil, a human rights activist in ...

The House Foreign Affairs Committee held an open hearing on the future of foreign assistance along with USAID and Millennium Challenge Corporation FY 2012 budget requests. The committee, chaired by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and with ranking member Congressman Berman (D-CA) in attendance, requested the testimony of two individuals: Daniel Yohannes, Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation and Dr. Rajiv Shah administrator of the U.S. Agency for ...

The House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs of the House Appropriations Committee held a budget hearing on Thursday, March 10, 2011 for the administrations FY2012 budget request.  Subcommittee Chairwoman, Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), chaired the hearing with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifying before the subcommittee.For full notes, continue below. For PDF, click here.Congresswoman Kay Granger made opening remarks stating that both the administration and Congress must make ...

The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held a hearing on Wednesday, March 2nd, on national security and foreign policy priorities in the FY2012 budget with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifying before the committee.  Senator John Kerry (D-MA) is the Committee Chair and Senator Richard Luger (R-IN) is the Ranking Member of the committeeFor full notes, continue below. For PDF, click here.  For video, click here.Senator John Kerry brought the meeting to ...

On Tuesday, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs held an open hearing to assess U.S. foreign policy priorities in light of the country’s current economic challenges.  The Committee — chaired by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and with Congressman Howard L. Berman (D-CA) in attendance — requested the testimony of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.To see full notes, continue below or click here for pdf.  To see webcast, click here.Rep. Ros-Lehtinen opened ...

The Heritage Foundation hosted a panel discussion on Thursday entitled, “Referendum in South Sudan and the Road to Independence.”  Ray Walser, Ph.D., Senior Policy Analyst at The Heritage Center moderated the event with Jon Temin, Director of the Sudan Program at USIP (United States Institute for Peace), Amb. Richard Williamson, former U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, and Amb. Ezekial Lol Gatkuoth, Head of Mission to the U.S. for the Government ...