Europe and Its Neighbourhood 2017 Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management in the 21St Century

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Europe and its Neighbourhood 2017 Conflict prevention and crisis management in the 21st century

Monday 20 November

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Europe and its Neighbourhood Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management in the 21st Century

Monday 20 November 2017, Royal Society of Arts, London Organized in partnership by Chatham House, International Crisis Group and Al Sharq Forum

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Europe and its Neighbourhood Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management in the 21st Century

Monday 20 November 2017, Royal Society of Arts, London Organized in partnership by Chatham House, International Crisis Group and Al Sharq Forum

This conference will be held under the Chatham House Rule (unless otherwise indicated), which states: ‘When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.’

Monday 20 November

0800 Registration and refreshments

0910 Welcome and chair’s opening remarks Quentin Peel, Associate Fellow, Europe Programme, Chatham House

0920 Opening address Yanis Varoufakis, Professor of Economic Theory, University of Athens, and Minister of Finance, Greece (2015) 0935 Questions and discussion

Session One | A Europe Distracted? Politics, the Future of the EU and What it Means for Europe’s Neighbourhood 0945 – 1100 As the raft of national elections in Europe comes to a conclusion and with Brexit negotiations well under way, this session will look at Europe’s capacity to meet common challenges and share the collective burden. Given Europe’s geography and other factors – including the demographics of its neighbourhood – failure to do so risks rebounding on the continent with considerable, and negative, consequences. Is the sense of crisis that prevailed in previous years still prominent? What is its precise nature? How can European and EU political leadership effectively address a series of foreign policy imperatives – relations with Russia; shoring up long-term stability in its neighbourhood – while being seemingly preoccupied with domestic concerns and showing an inclination towards retrenchment and greater nationalism? And from where will political leadership emerge in a changing Europe?

Chair Quentin Peel, Associate Fellow, Europe Programme, Chatham House

Speakers Wadah Khanfar, President, Al Sharq Forum Brad Staples, Chief Executive Officer, APCO Worldwide Mark Malloch-Brown, Chairman, Smartmatic, and Co-Chair, International Crisis Group Nora Müller, Executive Director, International Affairs, Körber-Stiftung

1100 – 1130 Refreshments

Session Two | Europe and Migration 1130 – 1300 There is potentially no other issue that has done more to highlight the divisions in Europe than migration and how to manage its effects politically, economically and socially. Policy-makers, under considerable domestic pressure, have struggled to formulate strategies that fully contain the perceived security threats of inward migration or address its underlying causes. An effective response to what will likely prove a permanent phenomenon – mass movement northwards – in an atmosphere of immediate crisis is a critical challenge for Europe. With a number of EU initiatives up and running – among them the deal with Ankara and a range of initiatives in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel – this session will examine their effectiveness to date, the cost at which they have been implemented, and the prospects for Europe’s ability to contribute to the global target of safe, orderly and regular migration.

Chair Paolo Magri, Executive Vice President and Director, Italian Institute for International Political Studies

Speakers Louise Arbour, United Nations Special Representative for International Migration Tarik Yousef, Director, Brookings Doha Center Massimiliano Alvisini, General Manager, Europe and CIS Global Money Transfer, Western Union Dlawer Ala’Aldeen, Founding President, Middle East Research Institute

1300 – 1400 Lunch

Concurrent breakout discussions – please select one from the three sessions below

Discussion A | Russia and the West This will be held in the Great Room 1400 – 1515 This discussion will focus on the disagreement between Russia and the West, which appears to be irreconcilable as long as the current leadership in the Kremlin remains in power. With the economic and geopolitical pressures on the Kremlin likely to increase over the next five to ten years, what can be done to prepare for a potentially more harmonious post-Putin era in relations between Russia and the West? What connections need to be fostered, individually and institutionally? How will developments in Russia– US relations affect this? And what olive branches should be extended to an eventual successor to Putin?

Chair James Nixey, Head, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House

Speakers Andrey Sushentsov, Associate Professor, Moscow State Institute of International Relations, and Program Director, Valdai Discussion Club Ivan Krastev, Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies Kirk Bennett, retired US foreign service official Magdalena Grono, Program Director, Europe and Central Asia, International Crisis Group

Discussion B | Europe and a Post-ISIS Levant This will be held in the Tavern Room 1400 – 1515 At present, Europe is a stuttering force in the Levant. However, once the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) reaches a conclusion, Europe’s role in fostering stability and supporting the reconstruction, reconciliation and peacekeeping effort will be key. This session will project beyond the current destruction and crisis in the Levant to explore the challenges that lie ahead in a potential post- ISIS future.

Chair Ranj Alaaldin, Visiting Fellow, Brookings Institute, Doha

Speakers Lina Khatib, Head, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House Michael Köhler, Director of Neighbourhood, DG for Development Cooperation, European Commission Lorenzo Kamel, Senior Fellow, Istituto Affari Internazionali Güney Yildiz, Visiting Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations

Discussion C | North Africa: Egypt and Libya This will be held in the Prince Philip Room 1400 – 1515 This discussion will assess security challenges in the Mediterranean basin with a particular focus on Egypt and Libya, two vitally important countries in the region with a challenging local policy and security environment.

Chair Claire Spencer, Senior Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House

Speakers Lurdes Vidal Bertran, Director of the Arab and Mediterranean World Department, IEMed Issandr El Amrani, North Africa Project, International Crisis Group Tim Eaton, Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House

1515 – 1545 Afternoon refreshments

Session Four | Power Dynamics in the Middle East: Strategic Relations and Influence in the Region 1545 – 1645 This discussion will focus on the balance of power between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and Iran, with an assessment of the levers of control and influence, in terms of individuals and primary power brokers, as well as the shape of strategic alliances within the region and globally.

Chair Sanam Vakil, Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House

Speakers Robert Malley, Vice President for Policy, International Crisis Group Hisham A Hellyer, Senior Non-Resident Fellow, Atlantic Council, and the Royal United Services Institute

Ellie Geranmayeh, Senior Policy Fellow, MENA, European Council on Foreign Relations Galip Dalay, Research Director, Al Sharq Forum

Session Five | Security and Foreign Policy in the Context of Europe and its Neighbourhood 1645 – 1800 The issue of security has been brought into sharper relief by US demands for its NATO partners to contribute more to their own defence and questions over the future of the post-Second World War alliance, as well as the EU’s own approach to its collective security needs. Different conceptions abound as to what a European security and foreign policy might look like – from increased hard-edged capacities, to an expansion of the continent’s soft power. This session will explore the contours of the debate, paying particular attention to how Europe might best balance the growing resort to kinetic counterterrorism operations with a renewed commitment to normative soft power, and the prospects for the EU and its regional partners, including Turkey, to better coordinate on security-related matters in the region.

Chair Lyse Doucet, Chief International Correspondent, BBC

Speakers Radosław Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Poland (2007–14) Jean-Marie Guéhenno, President and CEO, International Crisis Group Jana Puglierin, Head of Programme, Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies, German Council on Foreign Relations David Hearst, Editor-in-Chief, Middle East Eye

1800 Close of conference and post-conference reception

Europe and its Neighbourhood Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management in the 21st Century

Monday 20 November 2017, Royal Society of Arts, London Organized in partnership by Chatham House, International Crisis Group and Al Sharq Forum

BIOGRAPHIES

QUENTIN PEEL Associate Fellow, Europe Programme Chatham House

Quentin Peel is an Associate Fellow with the Europe Programme at Chatham House. He joined the Financial Times in 1975 and served successively as Southern Africa correspondent, Africa editor, European Community correspondent and Brussels bureau chief, Moscow correspondent, and chief correspondent in Germany from 1976 to 1994. He was also foreign editor and international affairs editor from 1994 until 2010, and finally chief correspondent in Berlin until 2013. He joined Chatham House in 2014. He was educated at Queens’ College, Cambridge, where he read Economics with French and German.

YANIS VAROUFAKIS Minister of Finance, Greece (2015) Professor of Economic Theory, University of Athens;

Yanis Varoufakis is Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Athens. In January 2015 he was elected to Greece's parliament and served as Minister of Finance from January to July 2015. During his term he negotiated with the Eurogroup, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He resigned the finance ministry when he refused to sign a loan agreement that perpetuated Greece’s debt-deflationary cycle. He has taught at a variety of universities worldwide and maintains positions at several, including Visiting Professor of Political Economy at King’s College London and Honorary Professor of Political Economy at the University of Sydney. He is the author of a number of best-selling books, including Adults in the Room: My Struggle against Europe’s Deep Establishment (2017), And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe, Austerity and the Threat to Global Stability (2016) and The Global Minotaur: America, Europe and the Future of the World Economy (2011, 2015). In February 2016 he co-founded DiEM25, the Democracy Europe Movement. He read Mathematics and Economics at the Universities of Essex and Birmingham.

WADAH KHANFAR President Al Sharq Forum

Wadah Khanfar is President of Al Sharq Forum, an independent international network whose mission is to develop long-term strategies to ensure the political development, social justice and economic prosperity of the people of the Middle East. He was previously Director-General of the television network Al Jazeera. He is a board member of the International Crisis Group and Global Editors Network. He was named as one of Foreign Policy’s ‘Top 100 global thinkers of 2011’ and one of Fast Company’s ‘Most Creative People in Business’ of the year.

BRAD STAPLES Chief Executive Officer APCO Worldwide

Brad Staples is Chief Executive Officer of APCO Worldwide. Previously he served as President, International and Chair of Global Development. He first joined APCO in 1996, helping to lead the firm’s European business in Brussels before going on to head the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Throughout his career at APCO he has devised and conducted reputation and communication programmes for multinational companies and interest groups across a broad range of industries and policy areas. He also built APCO’s global antitrust and competition practice. Prior to joining APCO, he worked in a consultancy in London and was Managing Director of an EU affairs consultancy in Brussels. He holds a BA in Politics and Government.

MARK MALLOCH-BROWN Chairman, Smartmatic; Co-Chair, International Crisis Group

Lord Mark Malloch-Brown is Chairman of SGO and its elections division Smartmatic, a leading elections technology company, and Co-Chair of the International Crisis Group. He served as UN Deputy Secretary- General and Chief of Staff of the UN under Kofi Annan. Before that he was Administrator of the UN Development Programme. From 2007 to 2009 he was Minister of State in the Foreign Office, covering Africa and Asia. He also served as a member of Gordon Brown’s cabinet. He is on the boards of Investec, Seplat and the oil and gas private equity fund Kerogen. Previously he led FTI Consulting’s Europe, Middle East and Africa practice, served as Vice-Chairman of George Soros’s Investment Funds as well as his Open Society Institute, Vice-President at the World Bank and Vice-Chairman of the World Economic Forum. He began his career as a journalist at The Economist. He is the author of The Unfinished Global Revolution and in 2005 Time magazine put him on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was knighted in 2007 for his contribution to international affairs and has received a number of honorary degrees.

NORA MÜLLER Executive Director, International Affairs Körber-Stiftung

Nora Müller is Executive Director of the International Affairs Department of Körber-Stiftung, one of Germany’s largest private foundations. She joined the International Affairs Department in 2007 to establish and build up the Körber Dialogue Middle East. Before that she served as an adviser in the Middle East division of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. She is a regular commentator on Middle East and North Africa issues in the German and international media. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Tel Aviv University and a joint Master’s degree in European Studies from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin and Technische Universität Berlin. She also earned a certificate in Facilitation of Dialogue Processes and Mediation Efforts from Folke Bernadotte Academy – the Swedish Academy for Peace, Security and Development.

PAOLO MAGRI Executive Vice President and Director Italian Institute for International Political Studies

Paolo Magri is Executive Vice President and Director of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) and Professor of International Relations at Bocconi University. He is a regular speaker, writer and commentator on global issues, US foreign policy, Iran and the Middle East. His recent publications include ‘Post-Vote Iran: Giving Engagement a Chance’, ‘The Age of Uncertainty’ and ‘The Trump Era’. He serves as Secretary of the Italian Group of the Trilateral Commission and is a member of the Europe Policy Group del World Economic Forum, the Strategic Committee of the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Board of Directors of the Italy–China Foundation.

LOUISE ARBOUR United Nations Special Representative for International Migration

Louise Arbour is currently serving as Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on International Migration. She is working with member states, in partnership with other stakeholders, as they develop the first-ever global compact on safe, orderly and regular migration, and will serve as Secretary General of the Conference which will adopt the negotiated Global Compact in the autumn of 2018. She also leads the UN’s advocacy efforts on international migration, provides policy advice and coordinates the engagement of UN entities on migration issues, particularly in implementing the migration-related components of the New York Declaration. She previously served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and as Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. She is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. From 2009 to 2014, she was President and CEO of the International Crisis Group.

TARIK YOUSEF Director Brookings Doha Center

Tarik Yousef is Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development programme and Director of the Brookings Doha Center. His professional career has spanned the academic world at Georgetown University and the Harvard Kennedy School; the public policy arena at the IMF, the World Bank and the UN; and more recently the NGO space at Silatech. His research has focused on the political economy of policy reform and the dynamics of youth inclusion in the Arab world, and more recently on post-conflict political and economic transitions. He has contributed to more than 50 articles and chapters, and co- edited several volumes, including After the Spring: Economic Transition in the Arab World (2012), Young Generation Awakening: Economics, Society, and Policy on the Eve of the Arab Spring (2016) and the forthcoming volume Public Sector Reform in the Middle East and North Africa: Lessons of Experience for a Region in Transition.

MASSIMILIANO ALVISINI General Manager, Europe and CIS Global Money Transfer Western Union

Massimiliano Alvisini is General Manager, Europe and CIS Global Money Transfer for Western Union. He comes from a strong financial services background, with 18 years’ experience in the field. Prior to joining Western Union in 2011 he was Director at Angelo Costa for 11 years. During his time there he held a number of positions including Treasury and Operations Director for the entire Angelo Costa business. Before that he worked for Interchange, a leader in the foreign exchange business, where he gained

extensive experience in operations, project management and business development. He serves as a member of the UK Board of Western Union Payment Services Ireland Limited. He holds a degree in Political Science from La Sapienza University in Rome and an MBA from University College Dublin in Ireland.

DLAWER ALA’ALDEEN Founding President Middle East Research Institute

Dlawer Ala’Aldeen is Founding President of the Middle East Research Institute, a policy research institute and think-tank based in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (meri-k.org). From 2009 to 2012 he served as Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in the Kurdistan Regional Government. He has been engaged in lobbying for human rights in Iraq since the 1980s, and in nation-building and institutionalization projects since 1992. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed international journals and authored or co-authored several books.

JAMES NIXEY Head, Russia and Eurasia Programme Chatham House

James Nixey is Head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House. His principal expertise concerns the relationships between Russia and the other post-Soviet states. He has organized hundreds of private expert roundtables on Russian and Eurasian affairs while at Chatham House. Previously he worked in the banking sector and as a journalist in Moscow. He is a frequent commentator in the national and global media and has published papers and articles in books and journals, including ‘The Long Goodbye: Waning Russian Influence in the South Caucasus and Central Asia’, ‘Russia’s Geopolitical Compass: Losing Direction’ and ‘The South Caucasus: Drama on Three Stages’. He holds degrees in Modern Languages and International Relations.

ANDREY SUSHENTSOV Associate Professor, Moscow State Institute of International Relations; Program Director, Valdai Discussion Club

Andrey Sushentsov is Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club; Political Analyst and International Relations Scholar at MGIMO University.

He is also managing partner with the Moscow-based consulting agency Foreign Policy Advisory Group. PhD in international relations of MGIMO University. His publications include books on U.S. politics and the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq: America’s Small Wars (2014), and Essays on U.S. Politics and Regional Conflicts (2014) published in Russian, as well as articles and reports on U.S.-Russian relations and Russian policies toward Georgia and Ukraine. In his field-based research, he pays special attention to collision of U.S. and Russian interests in post-soviet space, particularly in Ukraine and in the South Caucasus. He edited a volume of Russian perspectives on international security issues titled Contours of disturbing future. Russia and the World in 2020 (2015).

Andrey was a visiting researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (2007) and at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (2008). He was a visiting professor at Rome LUISS University (2013) and at Armenian State University of Economics (2014). He was an EASI-Hurford fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (2015).

IVAN KRASTEV Chairman Centre for Liberal Strategies

Ivan Krastev is Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria and Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna. He is a founding board member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group and a contributing opinion writer for the International New York Times. His latest books in English are After Europe (2017), Democracy Disrupted: The Global Politics on Protest (2014) and In Mistrust We Trust: Can Democracy Survive When We Don't Trust Our Leaders? (2013). He is co-author with Stephen Holmes of a forthcoming book on Russian politics.

KIRK BENNETT Retired US foreign service official

Kirk Bennett is a retired US diplomat whose overseas assignments included two tours in Moscow as well as tours in Kyiv, Warsaw, Istanbul and Vienna. His domestic assignments focused on the former Soviet Union, particularly the South Caucasus. Since retiring in 2013, he has published over 30 articles dealing primarily with the post-Soviet space.

MAGDALENA GRONO Program Director, Europe and Central Asia International Crisis Group

Magdalena Grono is Europe and Central Asia Program Director at the International Crisis Group. She has worked on conflict and transition issues in the former Soviet space since 1999, with a special focus on the Caucasus region. Before joining Crisis Group she worked with the European Commission, where she advised the former Commissioner for Enlargement and the European Neighbourhood Policy on Eastern partnership countries and led, together with UN and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) colleagues, the Working Group II on Humanitarian Issues of the Geneva International Discussions. Before that she worked on conflict, inter-ethnic and reform issues with the EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, the OSCE, the High Commissioner on National Minorities and various international NGOs.

RANJ ALAALDIN Visiting Fellow Brookings Institution Doha

Dr Ranj Alaaldin is Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Doha, Associate Fellow at Oxford Research Group and Associate Fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence, King’s College London. He was previously Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and Senior Consultant at the Next Century Foundation, a track-two conflict resolution think-tank. He led election monitoring teams in Iraq between 2009 and 2014 and has led fact-finding missions to Libya (during the 2011 uprising), Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. He has advised government and non- government organizations and has published in peer-reviewed academic journals as well as the New York Times, The Guardian and Foreign Affairs. He is a contributing author to two edited volumes and author of a forthcoming book on armed groups in Iraq. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

LINA KHATIB Head, Middle East and North Africa Programme Chatham House

Lina Khatib is Head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. Previously she was Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut and the co-founding Head of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Her research focuses on the international relations of the Middle East, Islamist groups and security, political transitions, and foreign policy, with special attention to the Syrian conflict. She is a Research Associate at SOAS, was a Senior Research Associate at the Arab Reform Initiative and lectured at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has published several books and also written widely on public diplomacy, political communication and political participation in the Middle East. She is a frequent commentator on politics and security in the Middle East and North Africa at events around the world and in the media.

MICHAEL KÖHLER Director of Neighbourhood Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations European Commission

Dr Michael Köhler has been Director for EU–Neighbourhood Policy at the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) in the European Commission (EC) since 2015. He is responsible for cooperation with Mediterranean Arab countries and Israel. Since joining the EC in 1994 he has held many positions including Director for the Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood in the DG for Development and International Cooperation; Head of Cabinet to the Commissioner for Energy; and Head of Cabinet to the Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. Before joining the EC, he worked as a representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation in Morocco and Tunisia, and later worked in the Policy Planning Department of the Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development in Germany. He has authored numerous books and articles on international Islamic studies and foreign policy. He is also a Professor of Europe and the Mediterranean at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. He holds a DPhil in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Hamburg University (1987).

LORENZO KAMEL Senior Fellow Istituto Affari Internazionali

Lorenzo Kamel is Scientific Head of the New-Med Network and Senior Fellow at the Istituto Affari Internazionali. He teaches History of Colonial and Post-Colonial Spaces at the University of Bologna and has published eight books on Middle Eastern and Mediterranean affairs, including Arab Spring and Peripheries and Imperial Perceptions of Palestine: British Influence and Power in Late Ottoman Times, which was the winner of the 2016 Palestine Book Award.

GÜNEY YILDIZ Visiting Fellow European Council on Foreign Relations

Guney Yildiz is a visiting fellow for ECFR's Middle East and North Africa Programme, where he is focusing on the post-Islamic State stabilisation of Syria, with specific emphasis on the areas controlled by

the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). He is pursuing a PhD on non-state actors in the Middle East at the University of Cambridge and holds a Master's degree from the London School of Economics. He has advised the Foreign Affairs Select Committee of the UK Parliament as a Special Adviser on Turkey, works as a political and security consultant and carries out investigative journalism mainly on Turkey, the Kurds and ISIS.

He has given talks at Chatham House, RUSI, ECFR, Oxford University, the UK Parliament and LSE. He has also been consulted by government institutions and the diplomatic community in London. He regularly provides analysis for TV, radio and online outlets, including reacting to breaking news stories from the region. As a journalist with the BBC for ten years, he broke numerous top UK and international stories that have been picked up by other domestic and international broadcasters.

CLAIRE SPENCER Senior Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme Chatham House

Dr Claire Spencer was formerly head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme, which she expanded having also set up the Middle East and Central Asia Policy Unit at the development agency Christian Aid from 2003-05.

She previously served as deputy director and head of the Mediterranean Security Programme which she established at the Centre for Defence Studies, King’s College, University of London from 1995-2001.

She is currently a steering committee member of the EuroMeSCo network of ‘Euro-Med’ think tanks, and a core group member of the EU-Southern Neighbourhood Civil Society Dialogue initiative.

She received her BSc in Politics from Bristol University and PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

LURDES VIDAL BERTRAN Director of the Arab and Mediterranean World Department IEMed

Lurdes Vidal is Director of the Arab and Mediterranean World Department at the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed). She is also a lecturer in a number of graduate programmes on Arab Politics and Institutions, Mediterranean and Arab World Studies, and Conflicts in the Mediterranean. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly journal afkar/ideas and is a regular contributor to the media, including TV, radio and newspapers. She holds a degree in Translation and Interpretation from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where she also studied International Relations.

ISSANDR EL AMRANI North Africa Project International Crisis Group

Issandr El Amrani oversees the North Africa Project for the International Crisis Group. Prior to joining Crisis Group, he was a writer and consultant on Middle Eastern affairs based in Cairo. His reporting and commentary on the region has appeared in The Economist, London Review of Books, Financial Times and other publications. He has also advised leading investment firms and NGOs on the region. He is the founder of The Arabist, one of the longest-running and most-read blogs on Arab politics and culture, and the co-founder of Cairo magazine. He is a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

TIM EATON Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme Chatham House

Tim Eaton is Research Fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House. Previously he was Project Manager for the programme’s Syria and its Neighbours Policy Initiative, which aims to support a coordinated and holistic policy response to the conflict in Syria. Prior to joining Chatham House he was Senior Projects Manager, Middle East at BBC Media Action, the BBC’s international development charity, in which role he worked across the Middle East region on projects in Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Before that he worked for local civil society organizations in Cairo and Damascus. He holds a BA in History from Nottingham University and a diploma in Arabic from SOAS, and was awarded the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies Departmental Scholarship to undertake his MA in Middle East Politics at Exeter University.

SANAM VAKIL Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme Chatham House

Sanam Vakil is a professorial lecturer in the Middle East Studies department at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS Europe) in Bologna, Italy.

Prior to this, Dr Vakil was an assistant professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington DC.

Dr Vakil has provided commentary, research and political risk analysis for Oxford Analytica, Rastah Ideologistics, Gerson Lehman Group, International Republican Institute, Management Systems International, The World Bank Group, PFC Energy and Dunia Economic Research.

She has also published commentary for a variety of academic and news outlets and has been consulted by high-ranking government officials in the US, UK and Europe.

She received her BA in Political Science and History from Columbia University and earned her MA and PhD in International Relations with a specialization in Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University- SAIS.

ROBERT MALLEY Vice President for Policy International Crisis Group

Robert Malley is Vice President for Policy at the International Crisis Group. Prior to joining Crisis Group in his current role, he served in the Obama administration as Special Assistant to the President, Senior Adviser to the President for the Counter-ISIL Campaign, and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf region. He also served as Special Assistant to President Clinton for Arab– Israeli affairs and Director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council. Before joining the Obama administration, he was Program Director for Middle East and North Africa at Crisis Group. He is the author of The Call from Algeria: Third Worldism, Revolution and the Turn to Islam and numerous articles published in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times and other publications. He is a graduate of Yale University, Harvard Law School and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

HISHAM A HELLYER Senior Non-Resident Fellow Atlantic Council and the Royal United Services Institute

Dr Hisham A Hellyer is a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, where he leads the Religion and Human Rights Project, and at the Royal United Services Institute in London. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Advanced Studies on Islam, Science and Civilisation in Malaysia. Previously he held academic appointments at the University of Warwick, the American University in Cairo and the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies of the University of Oxford. He regularly appears on networks such as CNN and the BBC, and often writes commentary for publications including the Washington Post, Foreign Policy and the New York Times. He was appointed Deputy Convenor of the UK Government’s Taskforce for the 2005 London bombings. He has authored several books and monographs, including Muslims of Europe: the ‘Other’ Europeans and A Revolution Undone: Egypt’s Road Beyond Revolt, as well as numerous book chapters and journal articles. He has been included in the annual global list of ‘The 500 Most Influential Muslims’ worldwide.

ELLIE GERANMAYEH Senior Policy Fellow, MENA European Council on Foreign Relations

Ellie Geranmayeh is Senior Policy Fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. She focuses on European foreign policy in relation to Iran, particularly on the nuclear and regional dossiers. Her expertise also covers wider regional dynamics, particularly in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and geopolitical trends in the Middle East. She closely followed and advised governments and companies on the nuclear negotiations between Iran and world powers from 2013 to 2015. Previously she was with the law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, where she worked on sanctions policy. She has a BA in Law from the University of Cambridge.

GALIP DALAY Research Director Al Sharq Forum

Galip Dalay is Research Director at Al Sharq Forum and Senior Associate Fellow on Turkey and Kurdish Affairs at the Al Jazeera Center for Studies in Qatar. He was previously Visiting Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik) in Berlin and a political researcher at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) in Ankara. He is a regular contributor to the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Turkey policy brief series, and a columnist for Middle East Eye.

LYSE DOUCET Chief International Correspondent BBC

Lyse Doucet is the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent and a senior presenter on BBC World TV and World Service Radio. She spent 15 years as a BBC foreign correspondent with postings in Jerusalem, Amman, Islamabad, Tehran, Kabul and Abidjan. She is an honorary patron of Canadian Crossroads International, and a member of Friends of Aschiana UK which supports Afghan street children. She is also a founding member of the Marie Colvin Journalists’ Network, a Senior Fellow of Massey College of the University of Toronto and a member of the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma.

Her awards include an OBE in the 2014 Queen’s Honours list for her services to broadcasting and the 2016 Columbia University Journalism Award for lifetime achievement. She has been awarded ten honorary doctorates from leading British and Canadian universities, a BA (Hons) from Queen’s University in Kingston and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Toronto.

RADOSŁAW SIKORSKI Minister of Foreign Affairs (2007–14) Poland

Radosaw (Radek) Sikorski is Senior Fellow at the Center of European Studies, Harvard University and Distinguished Statesman at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC. He served as Poland’s Minister of Defence from 2005 to 2007, Foreign Minister from 2007 to 2014 and Speaker of Parliament from 2014 to 2015. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was the Polish signatory of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. From 2001 to 2005 he was a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Before that he was a war reporter in Afghanistan and Angola. In 1981 he led a student strike committee in his home town of Bydgoszcz as part of the Solidarity movement. In 2012, Foreign Policy named him one of its 100 global thinkers for ‘telling the truth even when it's not diplomatic’. He has a BA and an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.

JEAN-MARIE GUÉHENNO President and CEO International Crisis Group

Jean-Marie Guéhenno is President and CEO of the International Crisis Group, and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously he was the Arnold Saltzman Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University and Director of its Center for International Conflict Resolution (School of International and Public Affairs). In 2012, he was appointed Deputy Joint Special Envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League for Syria. He left that position to chair the commission appointed by President François Hollande to review the French defence and national security posture. Between 2000 and 2008, he served as the UN Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. He has been active on several boards, including the International Crisis Group and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, of which he became Chairman at the end of 2010. He is an Officer of the Légion d’honneur and a Commander of the Bundesverdienstkreuz of Germany.

JANA PUGLIERIN Head of Programme, Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies German Council on Foreign Relations

Dr Jana Puglierin is Head of the Alfred von Oppenheim Center for European Policy Studies at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Previously she was Program Officer at the DGAP’s Future Forum Berlin and served temporarily as Head. Before joining DGAP she was an adviser on disarmament, arms control and non-proliferation at the German Bundestag, where she also worked on matters relating to German and European foreign and security policy. Before that she worked as a researcher at DGAP, held a teaching post at the University of Chemnitz, and was a Research Assistant and Lecturer to the Chair of Political Science and Contemporary History as well as in the programme for North American Studies at the University of Bonn. She studied Political Science, International and European Law, and Sociology at the University of Bonn and at Venice International University.

DAVID HEARST Editor-in-Chief Middle East Eye

David Hearst is the Editor in Chief of the Middle East Eye. He left The Guardian as its chief foreign leader writer. In a career spanning 29 years, he covered the Brighton bomb, the miner's strike, the loyalist backlash in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in Northern Ireland, the first conflicts in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in Slovenia and Croatia, the end of the Soviet Union , Chechnya, and the bushfire wars that accompanied it. He charted Boris Yeltsin's moral and physical decline and the conditions which created the rise of Putin. After Ireland, he was appointed Europe correspondent for Guardian Europe, then joined the Moscow bureau in 1992, before becoming bureau chief in 1994. He left Russia in 1997 to join the foreign desk, became European editor and then Associate Foreign Editor. He joined The Guardian from The Scotsman, where he worked as education correspondent.

Middle East and North Africa Energy Supply, demand and stability

29-30 January 2018 | Chatham House | London

The Chatham House MENA Energy 2018 conference will explore the factors affecting oil and gas supply and demand globally as well as emerging developments influencing the long-term economic future of exporting countries in the MENA region.

Discussions will include: • How political developments are affecting strategic relationships in the MENA region • The dynamics of controlling supply during a time of continued low oil prices • The implications of a long-term global shift away from fossil fuels • The prospects for liquefied natural gas (LNG) regionally • Options open to the region’s energy exporting countries to reform their economies

Confirmed speakers include: • HE Jabar Ali al-Luaibi, Minister of Oil, Republic of Iraq • Mustafa Sanalla, Chairman, National Oil Corporation, Libya • Rt Hon Alistair Burt MP, Minister of State for the Middle East, Foreign & Commonwealth Office • Tatiana Mitrova, Director, Energy Center, SKOLKOVO Business School • Majid Jafar, CEO, Crescent Petroleum • Valérie Marcel, Associate Fellow, Chatham House

Registration and information The agenda and speaker list is available at: www.chathamhouse.org/conferences/middle-east-and-north-africa-energy-2018 Book your place online or contact Georgia Dalton on +44 (0)20 7314 2785 or at [email protected]