ELLSWORTH — The Camden Conference, the nation’s only world affairs conference held annually in Camden, will be streamed live to The Grand on Feb. 22, 23 and 24. The conference topic for 2013 is “The Middle East – What Next?”
The Grand will hold a reception at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 22. Anne Sigmund, who served as a member of the State Department in Kyrgyzstan in the 1990s, will give a brief talk on the history of the Middle East. The live stream from Camden will begin at 8 p.m. with a welcome address from Bland Banwell, president of the Camden Conference, and the keynote address by author, analyst and foreign correspondent Robin Wright.
The conference continues from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 9 am to 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. Those coming to The Grand can attend all or part of the conference. Full conference tickets are $142 for adults and $42 for students. The reception and keynote event on Friday is available for $25; other half-day sessions are available for $50 ($15 for students).
Speakers and topics for this year’s conference include Barbara Ibrahim on “Women and Public Space in the Arab Spring,” Lawrence Pope on “U.S. Policies and Prospects in a Turbulent Middle East” (both on Sunday); Joshua Landis on Syria, Shai Feldman in Israel and Iran, Marc Lynch on Egypt and Seyed Hossein Mousavian on U.S.-Iran relations (all on Saturday).
The conference schedule is as follows:
Friday, Feb. 22
8:10 p.m. Keynote Address
Rock the Casbah: What Next in the Middle East?
Robin Wright – Author, analyst and foreign correspondent
Joint Fellow at U.S. Institute of Peace and Woodrow Wilson International Center
Saturday, Feb. 23
8:30 a.m. Opening Remarks – Nicholas Burns, moderator
8:45 a.m. Two Years After the Arab Awakening—Emerging Trends
Marwan Muasher, vice president for studies at Carnegie Endowment; former Ambassador of Jordan to Israel and to the United States; former Foreign Minister of Jordan.
9:15 a.m. Q. & A. Panel with Marwan Muasher and Robin Wright
9:45 a.m. Egypt and the New Islamic Politics
Marc Lynch, associate professor and director, Institute for Middle East Studies, George Washington University
10:30 a.m. Break
11 a.m. Syria: What’s Next?
Joshua Landis, associate professor and director, Center for Middle East Studies, University of Oklahoma
11:45 a.m. Lunch break
1:30 p.m. The New Middle East Cold War
Gregory Gause, professor of political science, University of Vermont. Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center
2:20 p.m. Israel and Iran: An Evolving Debate
Shai Feldman, director, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University; former Head of the Jaffee
Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University
3:10 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m. Nuclear Issues and U.S.-Iran Relations
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, research scholar, Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University;
former ambassador and spokesman for Iran’s nuclear program
4:30 p.m. Adjourn for the day
Sunday, Feb. 24
9 a.m. Women and Public Space in the Arab Spring
Barbara Ibrahim, director, Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, American University in Cairo, Egypt
9:50 a.m. U.S. Policies and Prospects in a Turbulent Middle East
Larry Pope, former ambassador to Chad, political advisor to Gen. Anthony Zinni in Central Command and Charge d’Affaires in Tripoli, Libya
10:40 a.m. Break
11:15 a.m. Q. & A. — Final Panel of All Speakers
12:30 p.m. Conference adjourns
For the full conference schedule, go to www.camdenconference.org, and for tickets to The Grand, call the box office at 667-9500 or go to www.grandonline.org.