In the Middle East among other places, the USA’s pulling power doesn’t seem quite as great  as it used to be and US policy makers seem not inclined to exert power in that region. Is that  due to preference or  to structural shifts – and if so, where? Are Russia and China the other elements in a shifting structural equation, or is it Iran?  What is the meaning of the US “pivot to Asia”, both for east Asia and for the Middle East? And what role can the EU play in this shifting terrain? These are some of the questions our panel will address.

Speakers

Dan Smith - Secretary General of International Alert
Dan has been the Secretary General of International Alert since 2003. Having graduated in 1973 from Cambridge University where he read English Literature, Dan’s work on peace issues started when he began research on UK defence policies in 1976. Prior to joining Alert Dan held a number of senior positions, most notably as Director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo from 1993 to 2001.

Xenia Dormandy - Chatham House
Xenia has been with Chatham House since 2011 and currently serves as Project Director, US and Acting Dean. Xenia has served in the United States Government, culminating as Director for South Asia at the National Security Council (NSC) from 2004 to August 2005 where she played a central role in Indian Prime Minister Singh's state visit to Washington in July 2005. Prior to her NSC post, Xenia served as a Foreign Affairs Specialist in the Bureau of South Asia at the Department of State.

Dr Ramon Pacheco Pardo - Kings College London
Dr Pacheco Pardo is a Lecturer in the fields of Political Science and Political Economy at King's College London. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Before he completed an MA in International Relations at the University of New South Wales and a BA in Journalism at the Complutense University of Madrid. Besides King’s, he has also taught at the LSE, Queen Mary, University of London, and Oxford Brookes University.

Dr Maxine David - University of Surrey
Dr Maxine David is a Lecturer in the School of Politics, University of Surrey, UK. She convenes and leads modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is a regular guest lecturer at the American University in London, where she lectures on EU actorness in the context of a globalising world. For the past three years, she has taught a module on International Intervention at the Summer School of the Centre for Comparative Conflict Studies, Faculty of Media and Communication, Belgrade.

All welcome.

Posted on behalf of: Sussex Centre for Conflict and Security Research
Last updated: Wednesday, 19 February 2014