Academic Exchange Alumni Retreat

Schedule, Panels, Abstracts, and Participants

Sunday, June 2, 2019

2:30pm Group Shuttles Depart Albany Airport for The Sagamore

4:00pm Arrivals and Check In at The Sagamore Resort

6:00pm Cocktails at Veranda Lower Terrace

7:30pm Dinner at Shelving Rock Terrace

Hard Truths in Syria: Broader Lessons for U.S. Foreign Policy

presented by Brett McGurk, Stanford University and former Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL

9:30pm After Party at Dollar Ballroom

Monday, June 3, 2019

7:30am Breakfast at Mountainview Lawn

10:00-11:45am Plenary Session: Oslo at 25 in Bellevue Ballroom

Chair: Daniel Kurtzer, S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies at Princeton  University; Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt and U.S. Ambassador to Israel 

Shaul Arieli, Col. (Res.), Former Commander of the Northern Division in Gaza, Vice-Secretary for Military Affairs at the Ministry of Defense and Prime Minister’s Office; Lecturer at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Hebrew University and Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic Center; Senior Researcher in the Economic Cooperation Fund

Gidi Grinstein, CEO and Founder of the Reut Group; Former Secretary of the Israeli Delegation to the Peace Negotiations with the PLO

Dalia Dassa Kaye, Director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at the RAND Corporation

11:45-12:45am Working Lunch in Bellevue Ballroom Unpacking the Israeli Elections

presented by Tamar Hermann, Political Science Professor in the Open University of Israel; Director of the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, The Israeli Democracy Institute

12:45-1:00pm Break

1:00-2:30pm Breakout Sessions

International Political Economy in Abenia Ballroom

Chair: Etel Solingen, Thomas T. and Elizabeth C. Tierney Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California Irvine

Yael Elad, CFO at Aleph Venture Capital

Yotam Margalit, Associate Professor of Political Science at Tel Aviv University

Erin Snider,Assistant Professor at the Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University

Nationalism and Populism in the Middle East in Bellevue Ballroom

Chair: Charles Kupchan,Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University; Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations; former Special Assistant to the President for National Security

Dawn Brancati,Faculty in Political Science at Columbia University

Bridget Coggins,Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California Santa Barbara

Hein Goemans, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester

Nadav Shelef, Harvey M. Meyerhoff Professor of Israel Studies and Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Situation in Gaza in Triuna Ballroom

Chair: Erica Chenoweth, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and a Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

Hady Amr, Brookings Institute; Former Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations for Economics

Celine Touboul, Deputy Director-General and Senior Researcher at the Economic Cooperation Foundation

Tamara Wittes, Senior Fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution

2:30-2:45pm Break

2:45-4:15pm Plenary Session: The Challenge of Syria in Bellevue Ballroom

Chair: Dipali Mukhopadhyay, Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University

Alexander Bick, Research Scholar at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

Ryan Crocker, Diplomat-in-Residence and Visiting Lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University; Former Career Ambassador within the United States Foreign Service and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Joshua Landis, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Mackey Chair at the University of Oklahoma’s College of International Studies

4:15pm Leisure Time

6:30pm Cocktails at the Pavilion

7:30pm Dinner at Shelving Rock Terrace

 A Conversation with Jason Greenblatt, Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations moderated by  Peter Feaver, Professor of Political Science at Duke University and Director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies

9:30pm After Party at the Pavilion

Tuesday, June 4, 2019 

7:00-8:30am Breakfast

8:30-10:15am Plenary Session: Change and Continuity in American Foreign Policy in Bellevue Ballroom

Chair: Tamara Wittes, Senior Fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution

Mostafa Elostaz, Head of Human Rights and International Department and Visiting Assistant Professor at Al Quds Bard College; Project Manager at Palestinian Peace Coalition

Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow at American Progress 

Stephen Krasner, Professor of International Relations at Stanford University, FSI Senior Fellow and Fellow of the Hoover Institution; Former Director of Policy Planning for the US State Department

Udi Sommer, Senior Lecturer of Political Science, Chairof the Israel Young Academy,and Head of the Center for the Study of the United States at Tel Aviv University

10:15-10:30am Break

10:30am-12:15pm Plenary Session: Politics in the Middle East in Polarized Times in Bellevue Ballroom

Chair: Judith Goldstein, Chair of the Department of Political Science and Janet M. Peck Professor of International Communication at Stanford University

Dani Dayan, Consul General of Israel in New York

Tamar Hermann, Political Science Professor at Open University of Israel; Director of the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, The Israeli Democracy Institute

Udi Sommer, Senior Lecturer of Political Science, Chair of the Israel Young Academy, and Head of the Center for the Study of the United States at Tel Aviv University

James Zogby, Founder and President of the Arab American Institute

11:00am Hotel Checkout- Bag Storage in Abenia Ballroom

 12:15pm Working Lunch at Mountainview Lawn

1:30pm Guest Departure, Shuttles Depart for Airport