Academic Exchange Alumni Retreat
Jekyll Island Club Resort, Georgia
February 26-28, 2025
The Intersection of Domestic and International Politics in the United States and the Middle East
Wednesday- February 26th
Afternoon Participants arrive to Jekyll Island Club Resort
8:00 a.m. Breakfast and coffee available
6:00 p.m. Welcome Cocktails
Location: The Riverfront Lawn
7:30 p.m. Dinner
Location: The Grand Dining Room
Dinner Keynote: Israelis Look Out at the World
- Nadav Eyal: Senior Writer for Yediot Ahronot and for Ynet;Senior Research Scholar in the Faculty of International and Public Affairs and Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University
- Moderator: Judy Goldstein, Janet M. Peck Professor of International Communication and Professor of Political Science, Stanford University
Thursday- February 27th
8:00 a.m. Breakfast and coffee available
Location: The Morgan Center
8:45 -9:45 a.m. The War and Israeli Society
Location: The Morgan Center
- Nadav Eyal: Senior Writer for Yediot Ahronot and for Ynet;Senior Research Scholar in the Faculty of International and Public Affairs and Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University
- Reuven Hazan: Professor and Chair in Israeli Democracy and Politics in the Political Science Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Visiting Professor at Yale University with the Council on Middle East Studies at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies and with the Political Science Department
- Moderator: Allan Stam: University Professor at the University of Virginia
10:00 -11:30 a.m. The War and American Universities: Governing Speech on Campus
Location: The Morgan Center
- Daniel Diermeier: Chancellor of Vanderbilt University
- Richard Saller: Kleinheinz Family Professor of European Studies; President Emeritus, Stanford University
- Keith Whittington: David Boies Professor of Law at Yale Law School
- Moderator: Jonathan Rauch: Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings Institution
11:45-12:45 p.m. Free Expression and Antidiscrimination on Campus: What the Law Requires
Location: The Morgan Center
- David Schizer: Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law and Economics and Dean Emeritus at Columbia Law School
- Moderator: Deborah R. Gerhardt: Paul B. Eaton Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
1:00 p.m. Lunch
Location: The Morgan Center
The War and Public Opinion Among Palestinians and Israelis
Location: The Morgan Center
- Khalil Shikaki: Professor of Political Science and director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah (VIA ZOOM)
- Dahlia Scheindlin: Tel-Aviv based American-Israeli political consultant, pollster, and journalist; she is the author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel, Promise Unfulfilled (VIA ZOOM)
- Moderator: Adam J. Berinsky: Mitsui Professor of Political Science at MIT, Director of the MIT Political Experiments Research Lab (PERL)
2:00 p.m. Was the War Worth the Costs?
Location: The Morgan Center
- Tal Becker: Former Legal adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (VIA ZOOM)
- Moderator: Jack L. Goldsmith: Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University
Free Time
5:00 p.m. Cocktails
Location: The Riverfront Lawn
6:00 p.m. Dinner Keynote: A Historical Perspective on the Current Conflict
Location: The Grand Dining Room
- Benny Morris: Israeli historian and former professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University
- Moderator: Cole Bunzel: Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University
Drinks Hard Moral Choices in Combat
Location: The Grand Dining Room
- Fufi Sedaka: Retired Brigadier General in the IDF, Senior advisor at the Economic Co-operation Foundation, Former head of the Civil Administration for the West Bank and of the District Civil Liaison Office in the Gaza Strip
Friday- February 28th
7:15 a.m. Breakfast and coffee available
Location: The Morgan Center
8:00 -9:30 a.m. The War and American Domestic Politics: Understanding Differences Within and Between the Parties
Location: The Morgan Center
- William Charles Inboden: Professor and Director of the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida
- Mark Mellman: President of the Mellman Consulting Group, a Democratic polling and consulting group
- Moderator: Alan Gerber: Sterling Professor of Political Science; Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University
9:45 -11:00 a.m. The Iranian Threat
Location: The Morgan Center
- Suzanne Maloney: Vice President and Director of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution
- Moderator: Charles Kupchan: Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University, and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
11:00 a.m. Concluding Remarks
Location: The Morgan Center
12:00 p.m. Lunch and Checkout
Location: The Morgan Center
Participants depart