FPA/Polaris-Live.com: Israel, Gaza, and the World- A Middle East Update

Sarwar Kashmeri - Moderator
Host, Polaris Live; FPA Fellow

Kashmeri is author of the Foreign Policy Association’s report “The Telegram: A China Agenda For President Biden“ (2021); “The Telegram II: The Business of America and China is Business“(2022); “China’s Grand Strategy: Weaving a New Silk Road to Global Primacy,” (Praeger), his third book, was published in July 2019. It is a centennial book of the Foreign Policy Association where Sarwar is a Fellow.

He serves on the American Advisory Board of UK’s Ditchley Foundation. He is also an Applied Research Fellow of the Peace and War Center of Norwich University, Vermont, USA. He served a four year term as a non-residential Senior Fellow at the Brent Scowcroft Center for International Security of the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C.

Kashmeri has hosted “China Focus,” a podcast series for the Carnegie Corporation of New York and discussed China’s Belt and Road Initiative on television with Deutsche Welle, the German news network, and in a series of interviews with Xinhua, China’s global news agency.

He is the author of the U.S. Army War College’s monograph, “NATO and the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy; Intersecting Trajectories” and is a frequent guest speaker at the United States Military Academy/West Point. Kashmeri has appeared in well-known publications including New York Times International, The Guardian, U.S. News and World Report, Xinhua, and Global Times. His TV appearances include CNN, Sky News, Euronews, CSPAN, and Fox. Formerly the CEO of a New York based international technology company, Kashmeri has also served as a communications advisor for several Fortune 100 companies.

He earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and a M.S. in Engineering, both from Saint Louis University, where he was on the faculty. He was Adjunct Professor of International Relations at Norwich University, Vermont. He now teaches an annual course on U.S. Foreign Policy at the Continuing Education school at Dartmouth College, NH USA.

Amb. Daniel C. Kurtzer - Panelist
former U.S Ambassador to Israel

Daniel C. Kurtzer is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. During a 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Ambassador Kurtzer served as the United States Ambassador to Israel and as the United States Ambassador to Egypt. He was also a speechwriter and member of the Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s Policy Planning Staff; and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research.

Kurtzer was a member of the Middle East peace team for Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Secretary of State Warren Christopher. He played an instrumental role in formulating and executing American policy, in particular helping to bring about the Madrid peace conference. Following that breakthrough, Kurtzer was named as the coordinator of the multilateral peace talks; served as the U.S. representative to the bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinians and between Israel and Syria; and chaired the U.S. delegation to the multilateral refugee negotiations.

Kurtzer is the co-author of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East; co-author of The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011; and editor of Pathways to Peace: America and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. After retiring from the State Department, he served as a member of Secretary of State John Kerry’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and as an advisor to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. In 2007, he was named the first Commissioner of the professional Israel Baseball League.

Ambassador Kurtzer received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University.

James Ketterer - Speaker
Senior Fellow at the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College

James Ketterer is Director of BGIA and Dean of International Studies at Bard College. He also teaches in Bard’s Political Studies and Middle East Studies programs. Ketterer previously served as Egypt Country Director for AMIDEAST, an educational and cultural affairs organization. Prior to that he was Vice Chancellor for Policy & Planning and Deputy Provost at the State University of New York (SUNY).

While at SUNY, he also was director of the Center for International Development and a program officer at the Center for Legislative Development. In government, he served on the staff of the New York Commission on Higher Education, the National Security Council staff at the White House, and as a policy analyst at the New York State Senate. He has also worked on elections for the United Nations, the African-American Institute and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

He is currently a non-resident Research Fellow at the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California and has also held teaching positions in international politics at the New School for Social Research, the State University of New York at New Paltz, the University at Albany, Russell Sage College, and the College of Saint Rose.
Ketterer was a Boren National Security Educational Program Fellow in Morocco, an International Graduate Rotary Scholar at the Bourguiba School of Languages in Tunisia, and studied Arabic at the King Fahd Advanced School of Translation in Morocco. He received his education at Johns Hopkins University, New York University and Fordham University

FPA 2024 Cultural Diplomacy Dinner

May 9, 2024

FPA Annual Dinner 2024

Jun 6, 2024