The Middle East Unravels: Lessons from Lebanon

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 | 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

About This Event

As Lebanon unravels along ethnic and sectarian lines, the United States appears confused about how to confront Hezbollah, as well as other Iranian proxies. Can Hezbollah be disarmed? Is it possible to secure Lebanon’s independence from Syrian and Iranian influence? As U.S. policy vacillates between engagement and confrontation, what guiding Listen to Audio
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This event will discuss the power struggles unfolding in Lebanon and examine the broader policy options available to the United States to cement stability there and elsewhere in the region. Robert Malley, director of the International Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa Program; Hassan Mneimneh, director at the Iraq Memory Foundation; Lee Smith, visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute; and AEI’s Danielle Pletka will address these and other questions and debate the pros and cons of U.S. engagement in Lebanon. AEI’s Michael Rubin will moderate.

Agenda

1:45 p.m.	Registration

2:00	Introduction:	Danielle Pletka, AEI

2:15	Panelists:	Robert Malley, International Crisis Group
		Hassan Mneimneh, Iraq Memory Foundation Danielle Pletka, AEI
		Lee Smith, Hudson Institute

	Moderator:	Michael Rubin, AEI

4:00	Adjournment

Speaker biographies

Event Materials

The Middle East Unravels: Lessons from Lebanon
Transcript of the event.

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AEI Participants

Danielle
Pletka

As a long-time Senate Committee on Foreign Relation senior professional staff member for the Near East and South Asia, Danielle Pletka was the point person on Middle East, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan issues. As the vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at AEI, Pletka writes on national security matters with a focus on Iran and weapons proliferation, the Middle East, Syria, Israel and the Arab Spring. She also studies and writes about South Asia: Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

Pletka is the co-editor of “Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats” (AEI Press, 2008) and the co-author of “Containing and Deterring a Nuclear Iran” (AEI Press, 2011). Her most recent study, “Iranian influence in the Levant, Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan,” was published in May 2012. She is currently working on a follow-up report on U.S.–Iranian competitive strategies in the Middle East, to be published in the summer of 2013.
Phone: 202-862-5943
Email: dpletka@aei.org
Assistant Info
Name: Alexandra Della Rocchetta
Phone: 202-862-7152
Email: alex.dellarocchetta@aei.org

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Michael
Rubin

Michael Rubin is a former Pentagon official whose major research area is the Middle East, with a special focus on Iran, Turkey, Arab politics, Afghanistan and diplomacy. Rubin regularly instructs senior military officers deploying to the Middle East on regional politics, and teaches classes regarding Iran, terrorism, and Arab politics on U.S. aircraft carriers. Rubin has lived in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Yemen, both pre- and post-war Iraq, and spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. Encounter Books will publish his newest book, Dancing with the Devil, a history of U.S. diplomacy with rogue regimes and terrorist groups in early 2014.
Phone: 202-862-5851
Email: mrubin@aei.org
Assistant Info
Name: Ahmad Majidyar
Phone: 202-862-5845
Email: ahmad.majidyar@aei.org