Iraq Moving Forward Conference 2007

Photographs in the above banner are by Matthew Edmundson (Tufts'05, EPIIC'04, EXPOSURE'04-05) and Jacob Silberberg (Tufts'02, EPIIC'01, IGL China Program'02)

Introduction

Iraq is convulsed with indiscriminate killings and rampant sectarian violence. Whether Iraq is in the throes of a civil war or heading in that direction is moot (and it is really only a debate that is more about the semantics of body counts than a contribution to a fuller understanding of the dynamics that drive the cycles of vengeance and retribution). The only certainty is that unless all the parties to the conflict can pull themselves and the communities they represent back from the brink of self destruction, Iraq will disintegrate and its people will be devoured by a war in which people kill because they fear that if they do not kill first, they will be killed.

This stark statement of where Iraq is provides the context for the Institute for Global Leadership’s Robert and JoAnn Bendetson Global Public Diplomacy Initiative. The three-day program brings together key international players from several divided societies, the United States and the Middle East, including both participants in the conflicts that at one time consumed their own countries and the practitioners of conflict management who have explored the dynamics that underpin reconciliation. The purpose of the program is to bring the lessons of their collective narratives of violent confrontation and subsequent efforts to mediate differences through peaceful means to bear on the situation in Iraq.

Program

Monday, January 29, 2007 | The Future of Iraq

7:30pm | Cohen Auditorium, Aidekman Arts Center
Introductions

• Padraig O'Malley, John Joseph Moakley Professor of International Peace and Reconciliation at the University of Massachusetts
• Sherman Teichman, Director, Institute for Global Leadership,
  Tufts University
• Robert Bendetson, Chairman, External Advisory Board, Institute
  for Global Leadership, Tufts University

Invocation

• Ahmad Iravani, Director of Islamic Studies and Dialogue at Catholic University’s
  Center for the Study of Cultures and Values

Program (click here for full bios)

• Haider Al Abadi, Member, Iraqi Council of Representatives; Chairman,
  Economy, Investment and Reconstruction Committee, Council of Representatives,
  Former Minister of Communications, Iraqi Government; a Leader, Al-Dawa
  Party
• Ali Allawi, Former Minister of Defense and Minister of Trade,
  Interim Iraq Government Council; Former Minister of Finance, Iraqi
  Transitional Government; Author, The Occupation of Iraq Winning the War,
  Losing the Peace
• Barbara Bodine, Former US Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen;
  Former Deputy Chief of US Mission, Kuwait; Former Coordinator for Counterterrorism,
  US Department of State; Former Deputy Principal Officer, US Embassy,
  Baghdad
• Peter Galbraith, Author, The End of Iraq:
  How American Incompetence Created a War Without End; Former Staff Member,
  US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he documented Iraqi atrocities
  against the Kurds
• Feisal
  Amin al-Istrabadi, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations
  for Iraq; Former Deputy to the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament
• Brett McGurk, Director for Iraq, National Security Council; Former
  Associate General Counsel, Coalition Provisional Authority, Baghdad
• Lt. Col.
  Isaiah (Ike) Wilson III, US Army, Academy Professor and the Director
  of American Politics, Public Policy and Strategic Studies, United
  States Military Academy; Former Chief of Plans, 101st Airborne Division
  (Air Assault), Mosul, Iraq

Moderator

• John Shattuck, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human
  Rights, and Labor, US Department of State; Member, External Advisory
  Board, Institute for Global Leadership, Tufts
  

  University

Tuesday, January 30, 2007
| Confronting Violence and Extremists: Experiences from Bosnia,

Guatemala, Liberia, Northern Ireland, and South Africa
2:00-4:00pm | Balch Arena Theater, Aidekman Arts Center
Program (click here for full bios)

• Padraig O'Malley, John Joseph Moakley Professor of International Peace and Reconciliation at the University of Massachusetts
• Ali Allawi, Former Minister of Defense and Minister of Trade, Interim
  Iraq Government Council; Former Minister of Finance, Iraqi Transitional
  Government
• Jose Maria Argueta, Former National Security Advisor of Guatemala
• Brigadier
  General Khalid Hamid Al Doori, Deputy Chief of Operations, Ministry
  of Defense, Iraq; Fellow, US Army War College
• Aboobaker Ismail, Former
  Commander of Special Operations, African National Congress; Former
  Chief of Policy and Planning, Department of Defense, South Africa
• Jacques Paul Klein, Former Special Representative of the
  Secretary-General and Coordinator of United Nations Operations, Bosnia
  and Herzegovina and Liberia
• Chris MacCabe, British Joint Secretary, Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental
  Conference
• Mac Maharaj, Former ANC Lead Negotiator in talks with the
  National Party Government, South Africa; Former Joint Secretary
  of the Transitional Executive Council

Facilitators

• Wendy Luers, Co-Chair, Project on Justice in Times of Transition
• Timothy
  Phillips, IGL Board Member, Co-Chair, Project on Justice in Times of
  Transition

Tuesday, January 30, 2007
| Sovereignty and Semi-States: The Case of Iraqi Kurdistan
4:30-6:00pm | Public EPIIC Class, Crane Room, Paige Hall

• Matan Chorev A’05, F’07, EPIIC’04, Co-Founder, New Initiative
  for Middle East Peace, Institute for Global Leadership
• Matthew Edmundson A’05, EPIIC’04,
  Co-Founder, EXPOSURE, Institute for Global Leadership

Wednesday, January 31,
2007 | Iraq, Iran and the Middle East
12:00-3:00pm | Alumnae Lounge, Aidekman Arts Center
Program (click here for full bios)

• Haider Al Abadi, Member, Iraqi Council of Representatives; Chairman,
  Economy, Investment and Reconstruction Committee, Council of Representatives,
  Former Minister of Communications, Iraqi Government; a Leader, Al-Dawa
  Party
• Ali Allawi, Former Minister of Defense and Minister of Trade, Interim
  Iraq Government Council; Former Minister of Finance, Iraqi Transitional
  Government
• Hossein Askari, Iran Professor of International Business and
  Professor of International Affairs, The George Washington University;
  Author, Middle East Oil Exporters: What Happened
  to Economic Development?;
  Former Mediator between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Iran and Kuwait
• Lahkdar Brahimi*,
  Former Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Iraq, United Nations Secretary
  General; Former Foreign Minister, Algeria
• Sami Al-Faraj, Adviser, National Security, Crisis Management, and Strategic
  Planning, Gulf Coordinating Council Secretary General; President, Kuwait
  Center for Strategic Studies, Kuwait
• Omar Ghazi Al-Shahery, Deputy
  Director General, Defense Intelligence and Security, Ministry of
  Defense, Iraq

Moderator

• Andrew Hess, Professor of International Diplomacy, The Fletcher
  School, Tufts University; Faculty Advisory Committee, Institute
  for Global Leadership, Tufts University