Press

Atlantic Council Names The Honorable Ellen Tauscher as Vice Chair of Scowcroft Center on International Security

Jason Harmala — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:08:19 -0600

WASHINGTON – The Atlantic Council today appointed The Honorable Ellen Tauscher as Vice Chair-designate of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, which will be inaugurated later this year. The State Department announced yesterday that Tauscher has stepped down as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, but that she will continue to provide expert advice to the State Department on arms control, missile defense, and civil nuclear cooperation.

Tauscher brings to the Atlantic Council a range of experience in nonproliferation, arms control, arms transfers, and other key international security issues through her more than fifteen years in public service. “Ellen is one of America’s most respected and capable leaders. The Atlantic Council is very fortunate to have her involved in the Scowcroft Center,” said Senator Chuck Hagel, chairman of the board of the Atlantic Council.

Said General James L. Jones (Ret.), former national security advisor to President Obama and director-designate of the Scowcroft Center, “Ellen brings just the sort of expertise we need at the founding moment of the Scowcroft Center, including impressive knowledge of an array of strategic issues that are crucial to the future of NATO and global security.”

Tauscher will continue to serve the State Department on a part-time basis, working on strategic security issues in the United States' relationship with the Russian Federation. Following Senate confirmation, Tauscher was sworn in as Under Secretary in June 2009. She previously represented California’s tenth Congressional District for thirteen years in the US House of Representatives, and was the only member of Congress to have two national defense laboratories in her district. She chaired the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces and was a senior member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. She also chaired the New Democrat Coalition, a group of more than sixty centrist House Democrats. Before her public service career, Tauscher worked for fourteen years in the private sector, and was one of the first women to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

Upon its formal launch later this year, the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security will pay tribute to former two-time US National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft by significantly expanding the Council’s capacity to provide thought leadership on the current and future global security challenges facing the Atlantic community and other regional allies and partners. Building on the Atlantic Council’s nonpartisan tradition and rich transatlantic heritage, the Center will bring new global partners into analysis and policy debates. The addition of Secretary Tauscher to this effort will allow the Atlantic Council to work even more closely with the defense and foreign policy establishments of the United States and its allies.

Secretary Tauscher will serve as Vice Chair with Mr. George Lund, Chairman of Torch Hill Investments. The Scowcroft Center Chairman-designate is General James L. Jones (Ret.).

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The Atlantic Council promotes constructive US leadership and engagement in international affairs based on the central role of the Atlantic community in meeting the international challenges of the 21st century. For more information, visit us online at www.acus.org. For interview requests, contact Taleen Ananian at 202.778.4993.

Atlantic Council Covering One-Year Anniversary of Egyptian Uprisings

Jason Harmala — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:40:49 -0600

As Egypt’s transition continues to unfold one year later, the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East is providing critical, real-time analysis and commentary on Egypt’s political and economic challenges. Marking the one-year anniversary of the Egyptian revolution on January 25, the Hariri Center will post new online resources direct from Cairo and Washington to highlight ongoing issues of concern in achieving the aims of the popular uprising.

The Hariri Center’s new blog, EgyptSource, has already become a go-to source for breaking news and analysis of major political and economic trends from the perspective of Egyptian experts who are keen observers and participants in the democratic transition taking place. The blog follows Egypt’s transition and provides a platform for Egyptian perspectives on the major issues—economic, political, legal, religious, and human rights—that are at stake in the post-Mubarak era.

Follow online at www.acus.org/egyptsource and on Twitter @EgyptSourceBlog for the most up-to-date news from Cairo.

Atlantic Council experts available for comment on Egypt’s transition, constitutional issues, human rights, elections, and US policy are:

Michele Dunne,the director of the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. Dr. Dunne has served in the White House on the National Security Council staff, on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and in its Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and as a diplomat in Cairo and Jerusalem. Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, she was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she edited the Arab Reform Bulletin and carried out research on Arab politics and US policies. She holds a doctorate in Arabic language and linguistics from Georgetown University, where she has served as a visiting professor of Arabic and Arab Studies.

Danya Greenfield, the deputy director of the Rafik Hariri Center. Specializing in democracy and governance, with extensive experience in the Middle East and North Africa, Ms. Greenfield most recently worked at the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) as a program officer for the Middle East and North Africa division. Prior to CIPE, she was a program officer at the International Republican Institute (IRI), where she worked with civil society organizations and political parties to implement democracy and governance projects throughout the region. She spent considerable time in Egypt, including opening IRI’s office in Cairo and organizing their presidential election assessment in 2005. She has lived in Cairo three different times in 2000, 2002, and 2011.

Tarek Radwan, a visiting fellow with the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and a blogger for EgyptSource. Mr. Radwan is an Egyptian human rights activist specializing in international law and conflict resolution. He has worked for Human Rights Watch's MENA division and the United Nations mission (UNAMID) in Darfur as a human rights officer. He currently provides consulting services on civilian protection and Middle East issues.

Mara Revkin, who will be available for interviews from Cairo, Egypt; blogging at www.acus.org/egyptsource and Tweeting @EgyptSourceBlog. Ms. Revkin is the assistant director of the Center and editor of EgyptSource. Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, Ms. Revkin worked for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she was a junior fellow in the Middle East Program focusing on Egypt and Yemen. Ms. Revkin was a 2009 Fulbright Fellow to Oman, where she studied the constraints on freedom of speech and expression in authoritarian regimes. She has advanced skills in Modern Standard Arabic.

National Bestseller Berlin 1961 Released in Paperback Today

Jason Harmala — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:28:04 -0600

WASHINGTON -- Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin Group, today released the trade paperback of Atlantic Council President Frederick Kempe’s national bestselling book, Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth.

Chronicling the epic drama of the Cold War’s most dramatic year in its most decisive place, Berlin 1961’s hardback edition was a #1 Washington Post bestseller and was also listed by the New York Times, among others. The book’s German-language edition was for weeks the top selling Amazon title on Berlin and divided Germany, and was selected for publication by the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, a federal agency that promotes political understanding and democratic consciousness.

“Fred Kempe has masterfully captured the dramatic dimensions of a great story that shaped our world order for twenty-eight years. Berlin is an important achievement that offers important lessons to national security decisionmakers today,” said Senator Chuck Hagel, Atlantic Council chairman.

To date Berlin 1961 has either been or will be published in eight languages, including Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Hebrew, Portuguese, Polish, and Romanian. The United Kingdom edition will be released by Penguin Books later this year. The book also appears as an innovative, amplified e-book, in cooperation between G.P. Putnam’s Sons and NBC News, including original video clips from the period and an introduction by Tom Brokaw.

The Wall Street Journal called it “meticulously researched, elegantly written… a mind-shaking work of investigative history.” The New York Times said of Kempe’s book, “His reconstruction of the diplomacy and events leading up to August 1961 is spellbinding.” The historian Frederick Taylor, reviewing the book for the Financial Times, said, “The genius at the heart of this gripping work resembles that of a play by Schiller or Shakespeare.”

The Economist listed Berlin 1961 as one of its top books of 2011, while the Foreign Policy Association named the book as its history book of the year and one of its top five overall. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette named the book one of its top ten non-fiction titles of the year. The international arm of the Royal United Services Institute in Britain named Berlin 1961 as its book of the year.

Kempe has been president and CEO of the Atlantic Council since January 2007. He previously spent more than twenty-five years as a prize-winning reporter, columnist, and editor for the Wall Street Journal, where, among other roles, he served as chief diplomatic correspondent, Berlin bureau chief, and editor and associate publisher of the Wall Street Journal Europe. His previous three books have been translated in several languages: Divorcing the Dictator: America’s Bungled Affair with Noriega; Siberian Odyssey: A Voyage into the Russian Soul; and Father/Land: A Personal Search for the New Germany. He has been a frequent commentator on US, British, and German radio and television.

For more information on the book and its author, or to order, visit www.berlin1961.com. To interview the author on the book or 2012 US foreign policy challenges, contact Taleen Ananian at 202.778.4993 or tananian@acus.org.

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CEOs, Government Officials, and Higher Ed Leaders Convene to Address Growing Skills Gap

Jason Harmala — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 09:05:40 -0600

WASHINGTON — On December 15, leaders from across the private sector, government, and the higher education community debated options for closing the growing skills gap to foster better economic development and competitiveness in the US. Called “Building the Employment Agenda: New Solutions to Close the Skills Gap,” the roundtable hosted by the Atlantic Council and PwC emphasized the role of cross-sector collaboration, with the business community leading the way toward solutions.

"The bottom line is that the private sector needs to step up in a much bigger way... Governments don't have the financial resources to have the impact they once had," said Dennis Nally, global chairman at PwC International Limited. "We need to address fundamental cultural changes in the workforce today and in the future, and how those fit into the focus for business and the educational system."

While new job creation tops the political agenda across developed and developing economies, companies still continue to report difficulty finding the qualified workers they need to fill existing job vacancies, of which the US Bureau of Labor Statistics says there are 3 million in the US. In the 2011 Annual Global CEO Survey by PwC, CEOs identified “a limited supply of candidates” as the number one challenge to growth. The full report is available at www.pwc.com. This mismatch in talent (or “skills gap”) impedes industry competitiveness, economic growth, and could even erode national security.

“If we make a public commitment on the national level—that the business, labor, and education communities are committed to working together to create and fill 20 million jobs by the end of the decade—then we can meet this challenge,” said roundtable participant Dr. Thomas Kochan, co-director of the Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To address this issue and develop concrete solutions, the roundtable members debated and focused on: the costs businesses bear because of talent mismatches and shortages; ideas for the most effective policy approaches in a challenging political climate; and how corporations can prepare for finding, retaining, and organizing talent in the rebalancing world. Potential solutions emphasized the need for cross-sector collaboration, smarter spending on education, and a national strategy for long-term training.

An initial report on the roundtable’s findings will be available in January.

Other noted participants included Chemonics CEO Richard Dreiman; Northern Ireland Minister of Employment and Learning Stephen Farry; Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe; OECD Director for Employment, Labor, and Social Affairs John Martin; Permac Industries CEO and Member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs & Competitiveness Darlene Miller; and ACT CEO Dr. John Whitmore.

For more information, contact Taleen Ananian at tananian@acus.org or 202.778.4993.

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Stresses Need for Political Compromise in Washington in Time of Crisis

Jason Harmala — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:38:59 -0600

WASHINGTON – At a celebration honoring former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft on Tuesday night, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates lamented the political gridlock preventing Washington’s leaders from solving the most difficult challenges facing the United States and its allies today, saying that compromise has become akin to selling out.

“I’m deeply concerned about the decline of views and values associated with Brent Scowcroft when it comes to how we govern and relate to one another here at home,” said Gates. “Civility, mutual respect, putting country before self and country before party... these virtues in this town are becoming… historic relics,” he said, praising his former boss during the George H.W. Bush Administration as one to look to for inspiration to overcome differences.

The Atlantic Council celebrated the legacy of the former two-time national security advisor Tuesday night at a dinner attended by nearly 500 friends and current and former colleagues of General Scowcroft, including former national security advisors, members of Congress, and ambassadors. In addition to Gates, also speaking at the event were current National Security Advisor Tom Donilon and former National Security Advisors Steve Hadley, General James L. Jones, Jr., Dr. Henry Kissinger, and Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski. Former National Security Advisors Sandy Berger and Robert McFarlane were also in attendance.

On its 50th Anniversary, the Atlantic Council is responding to Secretary Gates’ challenge, and a transformed strategic landscape, by creating the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. The Scowcroft Center will build on the Atlantic Council’s bipartisan tradition, extensive international network, and policy-relevant approach to address a fast-emerging security environment marked by non-state actors, non-traditional security threats, newly assertive rising powers, and profound shifts in economic and political influence. The Center will build on the Council’s rich transatlantic heritage while bringing new global partners into a security debate focused on finding policy solutions to shared challenges.

“Through the work of this new center, we at the Atlantic Council are determined to embody General Scowcroft’s legacy of wise, consistent, visionary leadership and effective US foreign policy management,” said Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe.

Scowcroft, a West Point graduate and retired Air Force lieutenant general,served as US national security advisor for Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush, as military assistant to President Richard Nixon, and as deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs in the Nixon and Ford administrations. He is presently the Chairman of the Atlantic Council’s International Advisory Board and President of the Scowcroft Group.

“The United States, its transatlantic allies, and our global partners face a strategic moment the likes of which we have not seen since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Scowcroft. “As the foremost promoters of security and democracy, the United States and its allies are confronted by extraordinary challenges and opportunities that arise from a world in rapid and historic transformation.”

Upon its formal launch in 2012, the Scowcroft Center will include the Council’s work on all global security issues, including transatlantic security; emerging threats and defense industry; regional security programming in Asia and the Middle East; new forms of cyber cooperation and conflict through the Cyber Statecraft Initiative; and tracking global trends, disruptive change, and strategic shocks through the Strategic Foresight Initiative.

Audio and more information is available here: http://www.acus.org/event/atlantic-council-hosts-evening-honoring-brent-scowcroft-soldier-scholar-and-statesman

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New Atlantic Council – Bertelsmann Foundation Report Argues for TARP-style Intervention in European Union

Adrienne Chuck — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:38:44 -0600

WASHINGTON – As European leaders meet to decide the future of the Eurozone, Julie Chon argues in a new Atlantic Council -- Bertelsmann Foundation policy brief that Europe must learn from the United States’ TARP experience, and match a sizeable bazooka with a clear and transparent process for markets to understand how financial mechanisms will work.

She points out in the brief, entitled US Lessons for the Eurozone: Restoring Confidence through Transparency: “When it comes to resolving financial crises, size matters, but so does transparency… The race to meet the size test distracts policymakers from addressing the real impediment to restoring investor and public confidence: the inherent uncertainty and lack of transparency associated with extraordinary government actions in times of crisis.”

As Europe repeats the early mistakes of the United States in its response to the debt crisis, Chon argues that leaders must build TARP-like safety valves into existing and future bazookas to protect markets and the public against continued policy misfires.

The report can be viewed at http://www.acus.org/publication/us-lessons-eurozone-restoring-confidence....

Julie Chon is a nonresident senior fellow with the Global Business and Economics Program at the Atlantic Council. She was senior policy advisor on the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs from 2007 to 2011, crafting historic US policies to stabilize the financial system. Her extensive work included negotiations to enact laws governing the mortgage market/government-sponsored enterprises, TARP, IMF funding, exchange rates, sovereign fund investments, and financial regulation (Dodd-Frank Act). She advised on delegation visits with European and Asian leaders and high-profile hearings throughout the crisis, including Federal Reserve monetary policy hearings.

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The Atlantic Council of the United States promotes constructive U.S. leadership and engagement in international affairs based on the central role of the Atlantic community in meeting the international challenges of the 21st century. For more information, visit us online at www.acus.org.

Atlantic Council hosts Ambassador William B. Taylor in New Role as Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions

Jason Harmala — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:11:31 -0500

WASHINGTON – “The US government sees the transitions in the Arab world as the greatest opportunity for major changes in strategic relationships over the past century,” said Ambassador William B. Taylor, the newly-appointed Special Coordinator for Middle East Transitions at the US State Department during a November 4 event at the Atlantic Council.

“We are dedicated to helping emerging leaders in these countries--to find out what they need and to help them get to a place that is build on values of tolerance, the value of women, respect for minorities…..and democratic values like civilian control of the military, budget oversight, and the rule of law. Political change will be fragile if not accompanied by economic progress, so we will help on the economic side as well,” Taylor said. He is leading State Department coordination on policy toward and assistance for countries in the Middle East that are trying to make the shift from authoritarian regimes to democracy, with a specific focus on Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya.

The Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East co-hosted the discussion with Freedom House to release that organization’s new report, Countries at the Crossroads 2011,which analyzes the performance of 35 countries—including six in the Middle East and North Africa—in the spheres of government accountability, civil liberties, rule of law, and anticorruption and transparency. The event also featured a panel discussion including Hariri Center Director Michele Dunne, Freedom House President David Kramer, USAID Democracy and Governance Director David Yang, al-Arabiya television Washington Bureau Chief Hisham Melhem, and Freedom House’s Vanessa Tucker.

Michele Dunne, director of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council, added, “The issues that Arab countries face in transitioning to democracy differ from place to place, for example the challenge of possible military dominance in Egypt, questioning of women’s rights in Tunisia, and the paucity of institutions in Libya. There are also common challenges that each will need to address in order to achieve success, such as how Islamists and secularists can cooperate to build strong and open political systems.”

“The uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa have dispelled illusions about the durability of authoritarian systems in the Middle East,” said David J. Kramer, president of Freedom House. “By ridding themselves of dictators and leaders for life, the Arab people have vividly demonstrated their devotion to the idea of freedom. But achieving democratic reforms in the region demands long-term commitment, determination, and resilience by societies in the region and supporters in the democratic world.”

About Ambassador Taylor: Prior to heading this new office at the US Department of State, Ambassador Taylor was Vice President for the US Institute of Peace’s (USIP) Center of Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations. Before joining USIP, he served as ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009. Prior to that assignment, Ambassador Taylor was the US government's representative to the Mideast Quartet, which facilitated the Israeli disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. He served in Baghdad as director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office from 2004 to 2005, and in Kabul as coordinator of international and US assistance to Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003. Ambassador Taylor was also a coordinator of US assistance to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

About the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East: The Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East seeks to produce original analysis of the forces transforming the region, as well as policy recommendations for the United States and Europe about how to promote closer and more productive relations with the region. The Hariri Center recognizes the substantial linkages between political and economic affairs, and will develop policy initiatives to promote successful democratic transitions and greater convergence among the Middle East, the United States, and Europe. The Center is dedicated to the memory of the late Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and his efforts to rise above sectarianism and to promote innovative policies to support economic and political liberalization, sustainable conflict resolution, and greater regional and international integration.

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The Transatlantic Relations Program Announces Nicholas Dungan as Nonresident Senior Fellow

Jason Harmala — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:42:15 -0500

The Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Relations Program is pleased to announce the appointment of Nicholas Dungan, the former president of the French-American Foundation, as its newest nonresident senior fellow.

“The addition of Nicholas Dungan’s expertise to the Transatlantic Relations Program couldn’t come at a better time, as we head towards the French presidential elections in the spring of 2012,” said Frederick Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council. “The entire Council will benefit from his insight into the crucial role that the French administration will continue to play in the economic crisis, the future of NATO, and US-EU relations.”

Nicholas Dungan added: "I am delighted to join The Atlantic Council family. The core transatlantic relationship is key to our mutual strength and our joint action in the world. I look forward to focusing on France as well as other European-American issues — and to helping the US international affairs community assess the value of our French and other European partnerships."

Mr. Dungan served as president of the New York-based French-American Foundation from 2005 to 2008. Since leaving the Foundation, he has been a writer and independent commentator on international relations, politics and business. He has been quoted as a transatlantic policy expert in virtually all the daily and weekly printed press in France as well as by the Associated Press, NBC News, Politico, USA Today and a range of regional newspapers in the United States. Mr. Dungan is the author of the biography Gallatin: America’s Swiss Founding Father, published by New York University Press in autumn 2010 and has been published in the International Herald Tribune, Le Monde, Le Figaro and Rue89, among others. He is also a senior advisor to the Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques (IRIS) in Paris.

Mr. Dungan’s full bio can be found at http://www.acus.org/users/nicholas-dungan

For questions or further information please contact either:

Nicholas Dungan
ndungan@acus.org
+1 914 953 3600

Maureen McGrath
mmcgrath@acus.org
+1 202 778 4946

Ansari Africa Center at Atlantic Council Adds Renowned Scholars

Adrienne Chuck — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:54:55 -0500

The Michael S. Ansari Africa Center of the Atlantic Council today announced that it has named Bronwyn Bruton, one of the most widely quoted emerging analysts of Africa, as its deputy director. It also appointed Martin N. Murphy, a globally recognized authority on piracy and maritime security, as a senior fellow.

“These two additions greatly deepen the Ansari Africa Center’s expertise and deepen our role as the foremost institution in Washington promoting transatlantic cooperation in Africa,” said Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council. “Bronwyn’s writing has not only shown enormous foresight on Somalia and the Horn of Africa, but it has had a significant impact on policy discussions, and Martin will allow us to expand our already excellent work on the host of maritime threats to the continent.”

Said J. Peter Pham, director of the center, “Both of these experts have extensive on-the-ground experience regarding the real-world strategic challenges facing African countries – and a record of engagement in the search for solutions with policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic." The British-born Murphy will reinforce the transatlantic dimension of the center’s work following the addition of Paris-based nonresident senior fellow Gerard Prunier.

Bruton was born in Swaziland and spent most of her childhood in Botswana. She was a 2008-2009 international affairs fellow in residence at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she authored a series of reports and articles on the Horn of Africa, including the widely-discussed March 2010 “Somalia: A New Approach.”. Prior to her fellowship appointment, she spent three years at the National Endowment for Democracy, where she managed grants to local and international nongovernmental organizations in east and southern Africa. She previously worked on the Africa teams of the US Agency for International Development and the Government Accountability Office.

Murphy comes to the Council from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He is also a visiting fellow at the Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies at King’s College, London, and a research fellow at the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax. His published works include three books—Somalia, the New Barbary? Piracy and Islam in the Horn of Africa (2011), Small Boats, Weak States, Dirty Money: Piracy and Maritime Terrorism in the Modern World (2009) and Contemporary Piracy and Maritime Terrorism (2007).

Atlantic Council names former White House official, Michele Dunne, to lead new Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East

Jason Harmala — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:17:12 -0500

WASHINGTON—The Atlantic Council today named Michele Dunne, a former White House and State Department official, as the director of its new Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. The center will begin its operations this week in Washington, D.C.

“Michele brings to the Council both a rich understanding of the Washington policy process and of the forces driving the Arab awakening,” said Frederick Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council. “She is the perfect person to lead our efforts to galvanize a transatlantic response, working as well with other global partners, to the historic upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa.”

Dunne has served in the White House on the National Security Council staff, on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and in its Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and as a diplomat in Cairo and Jerusalem. She most recently worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she was editor of the Arab Reform Bulletin and co-chair of the Working Group on Egypt. A fluent Arabic speaker, she is one of America’s leading specialists on the region and holds a doctorate in Arabic language and literature from Georgetown University.

Named for the late Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated in 2005, the Atlantic Council’s new center will reflect Hariri’s efforts to rise above the Middle East’s sectarianism and promote innovative policies to advance economic, social, civil and political liberalization and sustainable conflict resolution. The center will cooperate with experts and institutions in the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and Russia, and North America to advance closer economic and political cooperation among the three regions.

“My father believed that many of the answers to our region’s problems would come over time through greater political, social, civil and economic convergence with Europe and the United States,” said Bahaa Hariri, the late prime minister’s eldest son and a prominent business leader, whose founding gift made this new initiative possible. “No organization can better capture that mission than the Atlantic Council.”