From Military Might to Strategic Partnerships: The U.S. in the Middle East
Event Recap
Since the 9/11 attacks, the United States has pursued a policy of aggressively combatting terrorism in the Middle East, while attempting to bring political stability to the region at the same time. Two decades on, the region continues to see violence, conflict, and uncertainty in countries like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen, along with growing economic difficulties and the increasingly evident impacts of climate change. President Biden has now withdrawn U.S. forces from Afghanistan, which could signal a broader shift in foreign policy, military, and economic strategy away from the Middle East and towards the Asia-Pacific. What would the implications of this new policy direction be, and how would it affect relations with key partners like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Israel? How will the U.S. tackle major issues in the region, like Iran’s nuclear weapons program?
Join Perry World House and Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies for a conversation with former U.S. Ambassadors in the region on these questions and many more. Moderated by Ambassador Joseph W. Westphal, Senior Global Fellow at the Lauder Institute, the panel will feature Ambassador Anne W. Patterson, senior fellow at the Jackson Institute at Yale; Ambassador William Roebuck, Executive Vice President of The Arab Gulf States Institute; and Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman, President and CEO of the Arab Gulf States Institute.
Please note that this is a hybrid event, with only current members of the Penn community (students, faculty, and staff) able to attend in-person. All other attendees will take part virtually, using the Zoom link in their order confirmation email.
SPEAKERS
Amb. Anne W. Patterson (ret) was the Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and North African Affairs at the Department of State (2013-2017). She served as Ambassador to Egypt (2011-2013), to Pakistan (2007-2010), to Colombia (2000-2003) and to El Salvador (1997-2000). She retired in 2017 with the rank of Career Ambassador after more than four decades in the Foreign Service. Patterson was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Top Global Thinkers in 2011. She is a two-time recipient of the State Department’s Distinguished Service award. She has been appointed to two congressional commissions: the Commission on National Defense Strategy in 2017 and the Syria Study Group in 2019. Patterson is currently a senior fellow at the Jackson Institute at Yale.
Amb. William Roebuck (ret) is the Executive Vice President of The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Roebuck completed his diplomatic career in late 2020, after 28 years of service in postings across the Middle East, including Baghdad, Damascus, and Jerusalem. He served as U.S. ambassador to Bahrain from 2015-17 and as Chargé d’Affaires in Libya in 2013. As Deputy Special Envoy for the Global Coalition Against ISIS, Roebuck was embedded with U.S. Special Forces, serving as the senior (and often only) U.S. diplomat on the ground in northeastern Syria from 2018-20, receiving the State Department’s Award for Heroism for his work there. He was born and raised in North Carolina and began his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ivory Coast. Among other publications, his work has appeared in The Foreign Service Journal, most recently “Raqqa’s Inferno: A Diplomat Reads Dante in Syria,” in the May 2021 issue.
Amb. Douglas A. Silliman (ret) is president and CEO of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He retired from the Foreign Service in 2019 after 35 years during which he served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq (2016-19) and Kuwait (2014-16). He was deputy chief of mission and political counselor in Iraq, and deputy chief of mission in Turkey. He served in Jordan, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Haiti. In Washington, he worked on Southern Europe, counterterrorism, the Soviet Union, Lebanon, and as assistant to the assistant secretary for the Near East and South Asia. Silliman received numerous awards, including the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, Secretary of State’s Award for Public Outreach, and W. Averell Harriman Award for outstanding junior officer. Silliman received a B.A., summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Baylor University, and an M.A. from the George Washington University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy.
MODERATOR
Amb. Joseph W. Westphal (ret) is Senior Global Fellow at the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Westphal is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for Leadership and Change Management at Wharton, Fellow at the National Academy of Public Administration and Non-Resident Fellow at the International Studies Center of the Catholic University of Chile. Dr. Westphal was the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from March 2014 to January 2017. Prior to this appointment, Ambassador Westphal was the Under Secretary of the Army and its Chief Management Officer from 2009 to 2014. He also held the positions of Assistant Secretary of the Army (Head of the Army Corps of Engineers) from 1998 to 2000 and Acting Secretary of the Army in 2001. Dr. Westphal began his career in 1975 as a professor of political science at Oklahoma State University and later served as a Department Head. In 2002 he became the Chancellor of the University of Maine System and Professor of Political Science. He also served as Director of the Tishman Environmental Center and Provost at the New School University in New York and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Ambassador Westphal received a B.A. from Adelphi University (1970), an M.A. from Oklahoma State University (1973), and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia (1980).