AUC and the Middle East Institute to Host the Arab-U.S. Relations in Perspective Conference

Tackling questions about how U.S. new leadership under Donald Trump will affect Arab regional politics as well as old and future alliances in the region, the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, the Prince Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research at The American University in Cairo(AUC), and the Middle East Institute (MEI) in Washington, D.C. are jointly organizing the Arab-U.S. Relations in Perspective conference, to be held from January 29 to 30.Nabil Fahmy, former Egyptian foreign minister and dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at AUC and Wendy Chamberlin, former U.S. ambassador and president of the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. will inaugurate the two-day conference which will be the first of its kind in the Middle East since the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States on January 20 and which will host a plethora of leading experts from the Middle East, Asia, United States and Europe. Former Egyptian Foreign Minister and Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa will deliver the keynote speech. Moussa will be followed by other distinguished participants including Frank Wisner, former U.S. ambassador to Egypt;  Mohamed Tewfik, former Egyptian ambassador to the U.S.; Professor Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland; Paul Salem, vice president of MEI and Nassif Hitti, former Arab League ambassador to Paris and Rome and professor at The American University of Beirut (AUB.) The conference will address highly relevant topics to Egypt, the region and the U.S. in light of the new American administration and the changing political and security landscape in the Middle East. Participants will discuss various ways to rebuild trust between the new American administration and the Arab World as well as assess the role of global and regional powers in the Middle East and. Being held in Cairo, the conference will be a timely opportunity to examine Egypt-U.S. relations under the new American administration and identify potential areas of cooperation between the two countries. “An incoming U.S. president will definitely bring in new scenarios, developments, opportunities and challenges," said Fahmy. "This workshop brings together prominent scholars, academics and practitioners to examine the dynamics of Arab-U.S. relations in an emerging Middle East landscape. As events continue to unfold in these two different parts of the world, we hope to help set a future agenda that serves mutual interests,” he added. “The conference,” MEI President Wendy Chamberlin said, “will be a valuable opportunity for experts from the U.S., Egypt and the Arab world to gather at this critical juncture, to assess the trajectory of U.S.-Arab relations, to learn from the failures and successes of the past and to chart a path forward that reinforces stability, cooperation and prosperity.” The objective of the conference, which will be held in the form of a workshop, is to look for a way forward and to offer guidelines for decision makers for future action with concrete and creative suggestions on how to restore a solid Arab-American relationship that serves both the United State and the Arab world in the years to come.