Protecting Tunisian Democracy from the Islamic State,
and Other Challenges:
Why the International Community
Needs to Do Much More
Thursday, July 23, 2015
10:00 to 11:30 p.m.
National Press Club
529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor
First Amendment Lounge
Washington DC 20045
Coffee and refreshments will be served
His Excellency Faysal Gouia
Tunisian Ambassador to the United States
U.S. Senator, Member of Senator Foreign Relations and Appropriations Committees
His Excellency Alberto Fernandez
Vice President, Middle East Media Research Institute
Former State Dept. Counterterrorism Communications Coordinator and Ambassador
Scott Mastic
Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, International Republic Institute
William Lawrence
His Excellency Faysal Gouia presented his credentials as Tunisia's ambassador to the United States in May 2015 and this will be one of his first public appearances. Gouia served as Secretary of State and Director General for the Americas and Asia at the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2011. He was also Associate Professor at the Diplomatic Institute for Training and Studies in Tunis and at the High Institute of Human Sciences at the University of Tunis. He has served as Tunisian ambassador simultaneously to Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei and as Deputy Chief of Mission to the United States. He holds a master's degree from the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA) of Tunis and the Finance School of Paris, and in 2013 he received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington DC.
The Honorable Christopher S. Murphy is the junior senator for Connecticut. Elected in 2012, he serves on the Appropriations Commutee, the Foreign Relations Committee, and the Demcoratic Steering and Outreach Committee. Prior to his election, Murphy served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, including service on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee, among others. Prior to that, he served eight years in the Connecticut General Assembly. He is a graduate of Williams College and UConn Law School and practiced real estate and banking law before entering politics.
His Excellency Alberto Fernandez is Vice-President of the Middle East Media Research Insitute. He is also a member of the Board of Directors at the George Washington University Center for Cyber and Homeland Security. He previously served as the Coordinator for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications at the State Department from 2012 to 2015 and as U.S. Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, Africa's third largest oil producer and only Spanish speaking country. He served as chargé at U.S. embassy in Khartoum from 2007 to 2009 and as Director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy at the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs from 2005 to 2007. He also served in Kabul, Amman, Guatemala City, Damascus, Kuwait City, Managua, Santo Domingo, and Abu Dhabi. He is a recipient of the Presidential Meritorious Service Award and the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Public Diplomacy.
Stephen McInerney is Executive Director of the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED). He previously served as POMED's Advocacy Director from 2007-10. He has extensive in the Middle East and North Africa, including graduate studies of Middle Eastern politics, history, and the Arabic language at the American University of Beirut and the American University in Cairo. He has spoken on Middle Eastern affairs with numerous media outlets including BBC, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, and CBS News. His writing on Middle Eastern affairs and U.S. policy has been published by Foreign Affairs, The Daily Star, the New Republic, Foreign Policy, and The Washington Post. He received a masters degree from Stanford University.
Scott Mastic has served as Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the International Republican Institute (IRI) since 2009. He began his career with IRI in 1998 and has helped grow the MENA division to become IRI's largest. he has led efforts in political party building, elections support, civil society strengthening, and democratic governance, including a wide array of programs and polling in Tunisia. He led IRI election observation missions in Tunisia and elsewhere. He has testified before Congress and has appeared on the PBS Newshour, CNN, Fox News, and National Public Radio. He holds a master's degree from the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs and a bachelor's degree from Ohio State, along with Arabic study abroad at American University in Cairo.
William Lawrence is Director for Middle East and North Africa programs at the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy and has over 30 years experience working across the Muslim world and 12 years living in it. He is also President of the American Tunisian Association and a visiting professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University's Elliott School. From 2011 to 2013 he directed the North Africa project at International Crisis Group. He previously served in a number of positions at the U.S. State Department, including as senior advisor for global engagement in the Bureau of Oceans and International and Scientific Affairs, where he advised the White House on core initiatives associated with President Obama's Cairo speech. He served in the U.S. embassies in Tunis, Tripoli and Nouakchott, and on temporary duty at over two dozen other embassies. He also served in Washington as officer in charge of Libyan and Tunisian affairs. He is one author of After the Uprisings: Political Transition in Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen, and has published post-Arab spring analysis and op-eds in Foreign Policy, the Guardian, Figaro, Slate Afrique, Jeune Afrique, Al-Hayat and Sharq al-Awsat and with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has participated in private meetings at the White House and with U.S. cabinet level officials and has testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tunisia and the region. He has made regular appearances on NPR, Voice of America, BBC radio and televison, France 24, Deutsche Welle, Voice of Russia, CCTV, Al Jazeera, and over four dozen radio and television stations in the Middle East and North Africa and has spoken at over 100 universities worldwide.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE EVENT:
