Speakers for this event

• 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...

• Taha Ozhan

  Taha Ozhan

  Turkish Politician

  Taha Özhan, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission, Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Turkey. Previously, He served as Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister of Turkey. Prior to this, He served as president of Ankara-headquarterd SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research

  Turkish Politician

• Soli Özel

  Soli Özel

  Professor of International Relations at Kadir Has University

  Soli Özel is a professor of International Relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul and a columnist at Habertürk daily newspaper. He worked as a guest lecturer at Georgetown, Harvard, Tufts and other US universities and has taught at UC Santa Cruz, SAIS, the University of Washington and the Hebrew University. He is also a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations

  Professor of International Relations at ...

• Ismail Yaylaci

  Ismail Yaylaci

  Assistant professor at Istanbul Sehir University

  Ismail Yaylaci is an assistant professor at Istanbul Sehir University in the department of political science and international relations. He received his PhD from University of Minnesota Social Sciences Institute Political Science in 2014. His research interests are: international relations theory, critical social and political theory, Islamism, and Middle Eastern politics.

  Assistant professor at Istanbul Sehir Un...

• Karen Donfried

  Karen Donfried

  President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF)

  Dr. Karen Donfried is president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). Donfried is a member of the Board of Trustees of Wesleyan University, her undergraduate alma mater. She serves as a senior fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Council on Germany. From 2014 to 2016, Donfried served as vice chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the United States; in 2017, she became a member of WEF’s Europe Policy Group. Donfried is a member of the Team of External Advisors to the President of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly. She was a member of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board from 2015 to 2017. Donfried has a Ph.D. and MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a Magister from the University of Munich, Germany. She holds a bachelor’s in government and German from Wesleyan University. She received the Cross of the Order of Merit from the German Government in 2011, became an officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2018 and an officer of the Order of the Crown of Belgium in 2010, and received a Superior Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State in 2005 for her contribution to revitalizing the transatlantic partnership. Donfried is fluent in German.

  President of the German Marshall Fund of...

• Ian Lesser

  Ian Lesser

  Vice President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF)

  Ian Lesser is vice president for Foreign Policy at The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and a member of GMF’s executive team, managing programs across the organization. He also serves as executive director of the Transatlantic Center, the Brussels office of GMF, and leads GMF’s work on the Mediterranean, Turkey, and the wider Atlantic. Prior to joining GMF, Dr. Lesser was a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and vice president and director of studies at the Pacific Council on International Policy. He came to the Pacific Council from RAND, where he spent over a decade as a senior analyst and research manager specializing in strategic studies. From 1994-95, he was a member of the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State, responsible for Turkey, Southern Europe, North Africa, and the multilateral track of the Middle East peace process.

  Vice President of the German Marshall Fu...

• Zalmay Khalilzad

  Zalmay Khalilzad

  President and CEO of Gryphon Partners

  Zalmay Khalilzad is a Counselor at CSIS and President and CEO of Gryphon Partners, an international advisory firm. Under President George W. Bush, Khalilzad served as US Ambassador to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the United Nations. Ambassador Khalilzad was born and raised in Afghanistan and studied at the American University of Beirut, where he received his BA and MA. Later he received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. From 1979-1984, Khalilzad was Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. Khalilzad served on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and as Special Advisor to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs from 1985-1989. He was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning from 1990 to 1992. In November 2003, President Bush appointed Khalilzad Ambassador to Afghanistan, a position he held until 2005 when he became US Ambassador to Iraq. In 2007, he was confirmed unanimously to serve as US Ambassador to the United Nations, a post he held until January 2009.

  President and CEO of Gryphon Partners

• Alexander Vershbow

  Alexander Vershbow

  Distinguished Fellow at Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

  Ambassador Alexander "Sandy" Vershbow is a distinguished fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Ambassador Vershbow was the deputy secretary general of NATO from February 2012 to October 2016. Prior to his post at NATO, Ambassador Vershbow served for three years as the US assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. In that position, he was responsible for coordinating US security and defense policies relating to the nations and international organizations of Europe (including NATO), the Middle East, and Africa. From 1977 to 2008, Vershbow was a career member of the United States Foreign Service. He served as US ambassador to NATO (1998-2001); to the Russian Federation (2001-05); and to the Republic of Korea (2005-08). He held numerous senior positions in Washington, including special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council (1994-97) and State Department director for Soviet Union affairs (1988-91). During his career, he was centrally involved in strengthening US defense relations with allies in Europe and Asia and in transforming NATO and other European security organizations to meet post-Cold War challenges. He also was involved in efforts to support democracy and human rights in the former Soviet Union.

  Distinguished Fellow at Scowcroft Center...

• Ravza Kavakci Kan

  Ravza Kavakci Kan

  Member of Parliament at the Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Turkey

  Ravza Kavakci Kan is a politician, who was elected as a Justice and Development Party deputy for Istanbul on 7 June 2015. She's a member of the Central Decision Execution Committee of Justice and Development Party and also served as a member of the executive board at Üsküdar University Postcolonial Studies Research Center.

  Member of Parliament at the Grand Nation...

• Robert Wexler

  Robert Wexler

  President of Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation

  Robert Wexler is the President of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace in Washington, DC. He served as a Democratic member of Congress from 1997 to 2010, representing Florida’s 19th district in the House of Representatives before retiring to lead the Center. Wexler was named one of the “50 Most Effective Legislators in Congress” by the influential magazine Congressional Quarterly and was named to the Forward 50 list as one of the most influential leaders in the American Jewish community. In 2008, Congressman Wexler served as an advisor on the Middle East and Israel issues to President Barack Obama during his presidential campaign. In 2012, he served on the President’s reelection Steering Committee and addressed the Democratic National Convention outlining the President’s policies related to Israel. Congressman Wexler served as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe, a senior Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and a member of the Middle East Subcommittee. Wexler served as an American representative to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and was the co-founder of the Caucus on U.S.-Turkish Relations, the Taiwan Caucus and the Indonesia Caucus. He was also an active member of the India Caucus. In addition, Wexler served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property.

  President of Center for Middle East Peac...

• Dov Zakheim

  Dov Zakheim

  Senior Advisor at Center for Strategic and International Studies

  Dov Zakheim is Senior Advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Senior Fellow at the CNA Corporation. Previously he was Senior Vice President of Booz Allen Hamilton where he led the Firm’s support of U.S. Combatant Commanders worldwide. From 2001 to April 2004 he was Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer for the Department of Defense. From 2002-2004 Dr. Zakheim was also DOD’s coordinator of civilian programs in Afghanistan. From 1987 to 2001 he was both corporate vice president of System Planning Corporation, a technology, and analysis firm based in Arlington, Va. and chief executive officer of its subsidiary, SPC International Corp. From 1985 until March 1987, Dr. Zakheim was Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Planning and Resources in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy). Dr. Zakheim held several other DOD posts from 1981 to 1985. Earlier, he was a principal analyst in the National Security and International Affairs Division of the Congressional Budget Office. Dr. Zakheim has served on numerous government, corporate, non-profit boards. He currently serves on the Commission on Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization and is a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel and of the Defense Business Board, which he helped establish. Dr. Zakheim is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; the International Institute for Strategic Studies and Chatham House/The Royal Institute of International Affairs. He is Vice Chairman of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Board of Trustees, and of the Board of Directors of the Center for The National Interest; he is also a member of the Board of Control of the United States Naval Academy. Dr. Zakheim was elected a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences in 2011. A 1970 graduate of Columbia University with a B.A., summa cum laude, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Dr. Zakheim also studied at the London School of Economics. He holds a doctorate in economics and politics at St. Antony’s College, the University of Oxford, where he held three graduate and post-graduate fellowships. Dr. Zakheim has been an adjunct Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and adjunct professor at several universities, including the National Defense University. The author of a dozen books or monographs, and of numerous articles, Dr. Zakheim has lectured and provided print, radio and television commentary on national security policy issues domestically and internationally. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his government, professional and civic work, including the Defense Department’s highest civilian award in 1986, 1987 and 2004.

  Senior Advisor at Center for Strategic a...