Speakers for this event

• Helima Croft

  Helima Croft

  Managing Director and Chief Commodities Strategist at RBC Capital Markets

  Helima L. Croft, Ph.D, serves as Global Head of Commodity Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, LLC. Ms. Croft served as a Managing Director and Chief Commodities Strategist of RBC Capital Markets, LLC since October 2014. Ms. Croft serves as the Head of Commodity Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division. She was previously employed as a Managing Director, Head of North American Commodities Research and Geopolitical Analyst at Barclays Capital, Research Division. She specialized in the commodities research of oil and natural gas and base and precious metals at the firm. Prior to this, Ms. Croft served as a Research Analyst at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Research Division. Prior to that, she worked in Lehman’s Business Intelligence Group. She has also worked at the Council on Foreign Affairs and the Central Intelligence Agency. Ms. Croft is the recipient of industry awards throughout her career, including Breaking Energy’s Top Ten New York Women in Energy. She is also a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and received her PhD in Economic History from Princeton in 2001.

  Managing Director and Chief Commodities ...

• Fahmy Howeidy

  Fahmy Howeidy

  Author and Journalist at El-Shorouk

  Dr. Fahmy Howeidy has worked in journalism since 1958 for Egypt's Al-Ahram Foundation. He is currently the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Al-Ahram newspaper. Previously, Howeidy served as the Managing Editor of Kuwait's Al-Arabi magazine and of Arabia magazine, which is published in London, UK in English. He is now fully dedicated to contributing to Al-Ahram and has a column each Tuesday published in six Arab countries in Asharq Al-Awsat, Al-Majalla, and Al-Wafd Newspaper. Howeidy has had seventeen books published, including: The Quran and the Sultan, Awareness Forgery, In Order Not to be A Sedition, Islam in China, Iran from the Inside, Taliban, Establishing Due Rights, and The Crisis of Religious Awareness. Howeidy is a specialist in Arab and Islamic affairs.

  Author and Journalist at El-Shorouk

• Jean-Marie Guehenno

  Jean-Marie Guehenno

  President & CEO, International Crisis Group

  President & CEO, International Crisis Gr...

• John Shattuck

  John Shattuck

  Former President and Rector of Central European University

  John Shattuck is a Professor of Practice in Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, a Senior Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and chairs the international advisory board of the Center on Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University. He was the President and Rector of Central European University until 2016.

  Former President and Rector of Central E...

• Robin Niblett

  Robin Niblett

  Director of Chatham House

  Dr Robin Niblett became Director of Chatham House in January 2007. Previously he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) from 2001 to 2006. During his last two years at CSIS, he also served as Director of the CSIS Europe Program and its Initiative for a Renewed Transatlantic Partnership. He is a frequent panellist at conferences and events around the world and has testified on a number of occasions to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as US Senate and House of Representatives committees on European Affairs. He received his BA, MPhil and DPhil from Oxford University.

  Director of Chatham House

• Wadah Khanfar

  Wadah Khanfar

  President of The Al Sharq Forum

  Wadah Khanfar is the President of the Al Sharq Forum and former Director General of the Al Jazeera Network. He is a board member of the International Crisis Group and Global Editors Network (GEN). Khanfar has been named as one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 global thinkers of 2011 as well as one of Fast Company’s ‘Most Creative People in Business’ of the year.

  President of The Al Sharq Forum

• Vladimir Milov

  Vladimir Milov

  Founding Leader and Chairman of Democratic Choice and President of Institute of Energy Policy, Russia

  Vladimir Milov is a Founding Leader and Chairman of Democratic Choice and President of Institute of Energy Policy, Russia. He is a Russian opposition politician, publicist, economist & energy expert. Former Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia (2002), adviser to the Minister of Energy (2001-2002), and head of strategy department at the Federal Energy Commission, the natural monopoly regulator (1999-2001). Mr. Milov is also active in the Russian opposition politics, serving as Chairman of the Democratic Choice opposition party, and is also known as co-author of the critical public report on Vladimir Putin’s Presidential legacy called Putin Results, written together with Boris Nemtsov (several editions published since 2008).

  Founding Leader and Chairman of Democrat...

• Sir Robert Cooper

  Sir Robert Cooper

  Visiting Professor at London School of Economics

  Sir Robert Cooper is a diplomat who has been a Counsellor of the European External Action Service and a Special Advisor at the European Commission. He was also formerly Director General of Political and Military Affairs of the EU’s Council of Ministers, and former chief foreign policy adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He has also been a Visiting Professor at LSE IDEAS.

  Visiting Professor at London School of E...

• James Nixey

  James Nixey

  Head, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House

  Head, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chat...

• Tina Fordham

  Tina Fordham

  Managing Director and Chief Global Political Analyst at Citi Research

  Tina Fordham is Managing Director and Chief Global Political Analyst at Citi Research. Her work focuses on hard-to-quantify risks such as geopolitics and socioeconomic factors, including "vox populi" risk, the idea that public opinion is a risk factor in the investment environment, as well as the role of women in the global economy. Fordham is a member of the Corporate and Investment Bank Diversity Board and the Veteran's Network at Citi, and sits on the International Advisory Council for the foreign policy think tank Carnegie Europe. A fellow of the Aspen Institute's Socrates Society for emerging leaders, Fordham was appointed in 2016, by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, to the UN's first High-Level Panel on Women's Economic Empowerment, which also includes IMF president Christine Lagarde.

  Managing Director and Chief Global Polit...

• Michael Clarke

  Michael Clarke

  Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI

  Professor Michael Clarke was Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) from 2007 to 2015 when he retired from that role. Until 2001 he was Deputy Vice-Principal and Director for Research Development at King’s College London, where he remains a Visiting Professor of Defence Studies. From 1990 to 2001 he was the founding Director of the Centre for Defence Studies at King’s. He was appointed Professor in 1995. He is now a Fellow of King’s College London and of the Universities of Aberystwyth and of Exeter, where he is also Associate Director of the Strategic Studies Institute.

  Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI

• Lindsey Hilsum

  Lindsey Hilsum

  International Editor, Channel 4 News

  International Editor, Channel 4 News

• Richard G. Whitman

  Richard G. Whitman

  Associate Fellow at Europe Programme, Chatham House

  Professor Richard G Whitman is an associate fellow of the Europe Programme. He is also currently director of the Global Europe Centre and professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent. Previously, he was visiting senior fellow (2015-16), senior fellow (2006-07) and head of the Europe Programme at Chatham House (2004-06). He is an academician of the Academy of Social Sciences and a member of the Executive of the British International Studies Association (BISA).

  Associate Fellow at Europe Programme, Ch...

• Mary Kaldor

  Mary Kaldor

  Professor of Global Governance at London School of Economics

  Mary Kaldor is Professor of Global Governance, Director of the Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science and CEO of the Department for International Development (DFID) funded Conflict Research Programme. She pioneered the concept of new wars and global civil society. Her work on the practical implementation of human security has directly influenced European and national politics. Her books include; The Baroque Arsenal, New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era, Global Civil Society: An Answer to War. Her most recent book is International Law and New Wars co-authored with Christine Chinkin. She was a founder and co-chair of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, a member of the International Independent Commission on Kosovo and convenor of the Human Security Study Group, which reported to Javier Solana and now to Federica Mogherini.

  Professor of Global Governance at London...

• Lord Mark Malloch-Brown

  Lord Mark Malloch-Brown

  Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations (2006) anc Co-Chair, International Crisis Group

  Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations...

• Giovanni Grevi

  Giovanni Grevi

  Senior fellow with the European Policy Center

  Dr Giovanni Grevi is a senior fellow with the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels. Before joining the EPC, he was the director of the Foundation for International Relations and External Dialogue (FRIDE). Previously, Giovanni served as a senior research fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) and worked at the EPC as associate director of studies. He is currently a visiting lecturer at the College of Europe, Bruges, and at Sciences Po, Paris. He has been working and publishing extensively on EU foreign and security policy, strategic affairs, global governance, US foreign policy, foresight and EU politics. Giovanni holds an MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a PhD in International Relations from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

  Senior fellow with the European Policy C...

• Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani

  Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani

  Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani is a former Sudanese Minister. Since 1992, he held several ministerial posts, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Culture and Information. He worked as an adviser to the President of the Republic on the peace affairs in southern Sudan before secession, and also an adviser to the president for peace in Darfur, where his efforts were crowned by signing the Doha Agreement for Peace in Darfur in 2011. Dr Atabani graduated as a doctor from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Khartoum, and received a doctorate degree in clinical chemistry from the University of Surrey in England in 1985. He is an active writer in both public political and intellectual fields.

• Comfort Ero

  Comfort Ero

  Program Director at International Crisis Group

  Comfort Ero has been Crisis Group's Nairobi-based Africa Program Director since January 2011. She previously worked with Crisis Group as West Africa Project Director. As Program Director, Comfort oversees projects covering South, West, Central and the Horn of Africa. She has a PhD from the London School of Economics, University of London. Comfort also sits on the editorial board of various journals, including International Peacekeeping.

  Program Director at International Crisis...

• Galip Dalay

  Galip Dalay

  Senior Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Strategic Research

  Research director at Al Sharq Forum and senior associate fellow on Turkey and Kurdish Affairs at Al Jazeera Center for Studies. He previously worked as a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin and as a political researcher at SETA Foundation in Ankara. He is a regular contributor to German Marshall Fund of the United States’ on Turkey policy brief series, and a columnist for Middle East Eye.

  Senior Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Stra...

• Georg Klute

  Georg Klute

  Professor of Anthropology of Africa at University of Bayreuth

  Since 2003 Georg Klute is tenured Professor in Anthropology of Africa at Bayreuth University. Current functions include: Chairman of the German African Studies Association (since June 2012), Member of the extended executive board of the German African Studies Association, the German Anthropological Association, the Executive Board of ABORNE (Africa Borderlands Research Network). Principal Investigator of the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies, member of its Academic Committee.

  Professor of Anthropology of Africa at U...

• Jamal Khashoggi

  Jamal Khashoggi

  Saudi Arabian Dissident Journalist

  Jamal Khashoggi is a Saudi journalist, columnist, author, and general manager of the upcoming Al Arab News Channel. He previously served as a media aide to Prince Turki al Faisal while he was Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. Khashoggi has written for various daily and weekly Arab newspapers, including Asharq al-Awsat, al-Majalla and al-Hayat, and was editor-in-chief of the Saudi-based al-Watan. He was a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan, and other Middle Eastern countries. He is also a political commentator for Saudi-based and international news channels.

  Saudi Arabian Dissident Journalist

• Lotte Pelckmans

  Lotte Pelckmans

  Anthropologist and Lecturer at University of Copenhagen

  Lotte Pelckmans is an anthropologist who has been working on social mobility and status at the crossroads of (post-)slavery and migration studies, with a focus on francophone West Africa. She studied and worked at Leiden University (Anthropology, African Studies Centre, Institute for History) and was associate professor at Nijmegen University (Anthropology and Development Studies). She obtained an EU co-fund scholarship for a year in French academia (CEAF, EHESS) and worked as a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (2015-2016), Copenhagen, Denmark.

  Anthropologist and Lecturer at Universit...

• Basheer Nafi

  Basheer Nafi

  Senior Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Strategic Research

  Senior Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Forum and Senior Research Fellow at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies. He writes weekly columns for Middle East eye. His research interests include Egypt, Iraq, Political Islam, and Middle Eastern Politics in general.

  Senior Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Stra...

• Paul Quinn-Judge

  Paul Quinn-Judge

  Former Senior Adviser to the Crisis Group

  Paul Quinn-Judge is a former senior adviser to the Crisis Group, and has reported on Russia and the former states of the USSR since 1986.

  Former Senior Adviser to the Crisis Grou...

• Michael Keating

  Michael Keating

  UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM)

  Michael Keating is the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM). He has held the position since January 2016. He was previously Associate Director at Chatham House, leading projects on Afghanistan, natural resources and conflict, the Moving Energy Initiative and humanitarian engagement with non-state armed groups. Keating also worked at Intermediate and Search for Common Ground, and was the Executive Director of the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He has held several UN positions, including Senior Advisor to the SG’s Special Envoy to Syria (2014 – 15); head of the ‘Human Rights Up Front’ plan of action team (2012/13); Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Afghanistan (2010-12); and Resident Coordinator in Malawi (2004 – 08). He has had assignments in Gaza/Jerusalem, New York, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has a Master of Arts in history from the University of Cambridge.

  UN Special Representative of the Secreta...

• Oleksiy Melnyk

  Oleksiy Melnyk

  Director of Foreign Relations and International Security Programs at the Razumkov Center

  Oleksiy Melnyk is the Director of Foreign Relations and International Security Programs at the Razumkov Center.

  Director of Foreign Relations and Intern...

• Julian Borger

  Julian Borger

  World Affairs Editor at the Guardian

  Julian Borger is the Guardian's world affairs editor. He was previously a correspondent in the US, the Middle East, eastern Europe and the Balkans. His book on the pursuit and capture of the Balkan war criminals, The Butcher's Trail, is published by Other Press.

  World Affairs Editor at the Guardian

• Nadia Arbatova

  Nadia Arbatova

  Head of the Department on European Political Studies at the Institute for World Economy and International Relations

  Nadia Arbatova holds a PhD in Political Science and is currently Head of the European Political Studies Department at the Institute for World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Russian Academy of Sciences. She is also serving as Director of the Discussion Forum “European Dialogues”, as a Member of Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and is the author of numerous publications including four individual monographs and brochures on the EU-Russia relations, European security and Russia’s foreign policy. Her professional interests include: international relations, European integration, the EU-Russia relations, European security, Russian foreign policy, conflict prevention.

  Head of the Department on European Polit...

• Emma Bonino

  Emma Bonino

  Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy (2013-2014)

  Emma Bonino is an Italian politician. She is currently a Senator for Rome. She recently served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Previously, she was a member of the European Parliament and a member of the Italian Senate. She served in the government of Italy as minister of international trade from 2006 to 2008. She is a leading member of the Italian Radicals. She graduated in modern languages and literature from Bocconi University in Milan in 1972. As a legislator in Italian politics and an activist for various reform policies, she was elected as one of four vice presidents of the Senate on 6 May 2008.

  Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of It...

• Stephen Covington

  Stephen Covington

  International Affairs Adviser to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe at NATO

  Stephen R. Covington is a Strategic Fellow with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and has advised 10 Supreme Allied Commanders, Europe on international affairs over a 27-year period.

  International Affairs Adviser to the Sup...

• James Mates

  James Mates

  Presenter at ITV News and Europe Editor

  James Mates is a newsreader and journalist, currently employed by ITN, where he presents on ITV News and is Europe Editor.

  Presenter at ITV News and Europe Editor

• Roula Khalaf

  Roula Khalaf

  Deputy Editor of the Financial Times

  Roula Khalaf is Deputy Editor of the Financial Times. She has worked for the FT since 1995, first as north Africa correspondent, then Middle East correspondent and most recently as Middle East editor. Before joining the FT, she was a staff writer for Forbes magazine in New York. Roula oversees the FT’s network of foreign correspondents and bureaus. She writes regularly on global politics and business.

  Deputy Editor of the Financial Times

• Nader Mousavizadeh

  Nader Mousavizadeh

  Co-founder and Co-CEO of Macro Advisory Partners

  Nader Mousavizadeh is Partner and Co-Founder of Macro Advisory Partners LLP. Mr. Mousavizadeh served as the Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Analytica, Ltd. Previously an investment banker at Goldman Sachs from 2004-2009, he worked in the Financial Institutions M&A group in New York, and was latterly based in Europe with a number of global client relationships. Before entering the private sector, he served at the United Nations, as a political officer in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in the Executive Office of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan from 1997 to 2003. He served as Director of Oxford Analytica, Ltd. Mr. Mousavizadeh is a widely published contributor of essays and articles on global affairs to The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Times of London, Newsweek, The New Republic, Foreign Policy and other publications. He was elected a 2001 Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum. He is a Consulting Senior Fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Farm Africa. He received his MBA as a Sloan Fellow at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Mr. Mousavizadeh is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford where he received his M.Phil. in International Relations from Christ Church College.

  Co-founder and Co-CEO of Macro Advisory ...

• Issandr El Amrani

  Issandr El Amrani

  Project Director at the International Crisis Group

  Issandr El Amrani oversees Crisis Group's North Africa Project. Prior to joining Crisis Group, he was a writer and consultant on Middle Eastern affairs based in Cairo. His reporting and commentary on the region has appeared in The Economist, London Review of Books, Financial Times, The National, The Guardian, Time and other publications. He has also advised leading investment firms and NGOs on the region. He is the founder of The Arabist, one of the longest-running and most-read blogs on Arab politics culture, and the co-founder of Cairo magazine. He is also a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Issandr, who is Moroccan-American, has lived in the region since 2000, mostly in Cairo, and currently resides in Rabat.

  Project Director at the International Cr...

• Karen E. Smith

  Karen E. Smith

  Professor of International Relations and Director al London School of Economics

  She is a Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Director of the European Foreign Policy Unit (within the International Relations Department). She teaches courses on the EU in the World, EU Enlargement, European institutions, and genocide. She also supervises PhD students in those areas.

  Professor of International Relations and...

• Claire Spencer

  Claire Spencer

  Head of Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House

  Dr Claire Spencer is Head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, and is responsible for the overseeing of all research, seminars and publications relating to the Middle East. She has also been the Deputy Director of the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College and Head of Policy for the Middle East and Central Asia for the development agency Christian Aid. She has written and commented widely on US and EU policy towards Iran, Israel-Palestine and the broader Middle East, in addition to her core research interest in North Africa.

  Head of Middle East and North Africa Pro...