AE Alumni Retreat

Sunday, June 4

4:00pm Check in and arrive at Ojai Resort

5:00pm Welcome

Cocktails

Dinner with Speaker Dennis Ross, Former Director of Policy Planning in the State Department and former Special Middle East Coordinator

Music

Monday, June 5

8:30-10:00am Plenary Session: The Contours of Public Opinion in the Region and Beyond

This panel will discuss trends in public opinion both within the Middle East and in the United States regarding Israel and the region.

Chair: Benjamin Valentino, Professor of Political Science, Dartmouth College

Michael Barnett, University Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs

Matt Baum, Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications; Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government and Department of Government

Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a nonresident senior fellow of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution

Tamar Hermann, Professor of political science at the Open University and Senior Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. She is the academic director of IDI’s Guttman Center for Surveys, the editor of IDI’s annual Israeli Democracy Index, and the co-editor of the monthly Peace Index, a joint project of IDI and Tel Aviv University

10:00-10:15am Break

10:15-11:45am Plenary Session: US-Israel Relations: Bridging the Gaps Between Academia, Think Tanks and Government

This panel gathers a number of individuals who have worked in government and think-tanks who will reflect on their experiences “bridging the gap” between the academy and those worlds. Can academia be more relevant for policy-making and think-tanks especially regarding issues relevant to the American role in the Middle East?

Chair: Steve Krasner, Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations and former Director of Policy Planning for the Department of State

Tamara Cofman Wittes, Director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs at the United States Department of State

Peter Feaver, Professor of Political Science at Duke University and Director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies; former Special Advisor for Strategic Planning and Institutional Reform and former Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control on the National Security Council

Bruce Jentleson, Professor of Public Policy Studies and Political Science at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy of Duke University and former Senior Advisor to the U.S. State Department Policy Planning Director

Suzanne Maloney, Deputy Director of the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution and a senior fellow in the Brookings Center for Middle East Policy

11:45-1:00pm Lunch

1:00-2:30pm Roundtables:

• International Law

In examining the role of international law in Israeli-Palestinian relations, this panel discussion will consider matters such as UN Security Council Resolution 2334 on settlements and negotiations, questions before the International Criminal Court, and contemporary debates about the law of armed conflict.

Moderator: Matt Waxman, Liviu Librescu Professor of Law; Faculty Chair, Roger Hertog Program on Law and National Security at Columbia University

Beth Van Schaack, Leah Kaplan Professor in Human Rights at Stanford Law School

Andre Nollkaemper, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Amsterdam and President of the European Society of International Law

General (ret) Rich Gross, Former Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

• Security Issues

This session will discuss challenges to regional security, including continued political instability on Israel’s borders, the politics of terrorism in the region, as well as the role played by Iran.

Moderator: Barbara Walter, Professor of political science at the School and an adjunct professor in the UC San Diego Department of Political Science

Joseph Sassoon, al-Sabah Professor in Politics and Political Economy of the Arab World at Georgetown University

Page Fortna, Professor of International Relations in the Political Science Department at Columbia University

Dov (Fufi) Sedaka Brig. General (res), Sedaka served in Sayeret Matkal until 1992. He served as Head of Gaza District Co-Ordination and Liaison Office and Civilian Liaison for Judea and Samaria. Today Sedaka works for the Economic Co-operation Foundation (ECF) and is a member of the Israeli Palestinian Trade Office

• Economic Issues

This panel will discuss issues relating to how has the economies of the region emerged in the aftermath of the financial crisis, how threatened economic boycotts could affect Israel and its neighbors, whether the rise of populism around the globe threatens economic ties in the region, and whether economic ties between Israelis, Palestinians, and their neighbors can influence the possibility of political cooperation.

Moderator: Jon Pevehouse, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin

Manuel Trajtenberg, Member of Israel’s 20th Knesset, is chair of the Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel. Professor Trajtenberg holds a PhD in economics from Harvard and is a Professor at Tel-Aviv University. He is the former chair of the Israeli National Economic Council. In 2011, he chaired a committee formed in response to the protests over inequality in Israel.

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

Judy Goldstein, Janet M. Peck Professor in International Communication and Political Science at Stanford University

3:00-5:00pm Outdoor Activities

5:30pm Cocktails

Dinner with speaker, Kori Schake, Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University

Tuesday, June 6

8:30-10:30am Plenary Session: Federalism as a Solution to State Stability in the Region

Is federalism a useful to concept to consider as part of a two-state solution? Would other states in the region benefit from adopting federal-style systems to cope with internal conflicts? This panel reports on the efforts of an Academic Exchange project on this topic.

Chair: Keren Yarhi-Milo, Assistant Professor of Politics and Public and International Affairs at Princeton University

Benjamin Wittes, Senior Fellow in Governance Studies and Research Director in Public Law at the Brookings Institute; Co-Director of the Harvard Law School – Brookings Project on Law and Security and Editor in Chief of Lawfare

Lisa Blaydes, Associate Professor of Political Science at Stanford University

David Lake, Gerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of California, San Diego; President of the American Political Science Association

10:30-12:00pm Plenary Session: The Great Powers and the Middle East

The panel will discuss how the great powers’ strategy and behavior towards the region has changed. Does great power tension in Syria foretell a wider number of conflicts in the region? Will China’s role in the region grow?

Chair: William Wohlforth, Daniel Webster Professor of Government at Dartmouth

Oriana Mastro, Assistant Professor of Security Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Georgetown University

Alexander Cooley, Claire Tow Professor of Political Science, Barnard College and Director, The Harriman Institute, Columbia University

Eli Ben Meir, Former the Commander and Chief of Staff of the Israeli Intelligence Corps and the Chief Intelligence Officer of the IDF (2013-2014). Prior to this, he served as the Military Intelligence Attaché at the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC (2011-2012) and held various roles as an Officer in the Israeli Intelligence Corps since 1986.

12:00-1:00pm Working Lunch: The Future of Academic Exchange

This informal discussion will cover the future of Academic Exchange, including ideas for future programs, feedback on the current retreat, as well as discussion of surveys taken of AE alums.

Chair: Charles Kupchan, Professor of International Affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University and former Special Assistant to the President for European Affairs

Nachum Braverman

Judy Goldstein, Janet M. Peck Professor in International Communication and Political Science at Stanford University

Roundtable Participants

International Political Economy Roundtable

Michael J. Adams
Mark Copelovitch
Peter Gourevitch
Allyson Hobbs
Miles Kahler
Soo Yeon Kim
Helene Landemore
Catherine Langlois
Lisa Martin
Mike Mastanduno
Karen Mingst
B. Peter Rosendorff
Josette Sheeran
Ganesh Sitaraman
Kenneth Taylor

International Law Roundtable

Ken Anderson
Michael Barnett
David Bosco
Alexander Cooley
Michael C. Davis
Songying Fang
Emilie Hafner-Burton
Anders Henriksen
Courtney Hillebrecht
Paul Huth
Peter Margulies
Kimberly Marten
Tim Meyer
Randy Milch
Alex Mills
James Morrow
Joshua Muravchik
Vijay Padmanabhan
Stephanie Pell
Tonya Putnam
Shane Reeves
Paul Rosenzweig
Eric Schwartz
Jelena Subotic
Nina Tannenwald
Kimberley Trapp
Jeffrey Tulis

International Security Roundtable

Saadet Gulden Ayman
Matthew Baum
Eliezer Ben-Meir
Adam Berinsky
Russell Berman
Jonathan D Caverley
Dara Cohen
Matthew Connelly
David Cunningham
Allan Dafoe
James Davis
Jennifer Erickson
Adam Fagan
Peter Feaver
Jeff Friedman
Julia Fromholz
Erik Gartzke
Hein Goemans
Avery Goldstein
Gunther Hellmann
Susan Hennessey
Tamar Hermann
Michael Horowitz
Lise Howard
Victoria Tinbor Hui
Bruce Jentleson
Tana Johnson
Rose Kelanic
Josh Kertzer
Sarah Kovner
Don Kurz
Andrew Kydd
David Lake
Jack S. Levy
Kaisheng Li
Debin Liu
Edward Mansfield
Oriana Skylar Mastro
Aila Matanock
Michaela Mattes
Hartmut Mayer
Dipali Mukhopadhyay
Michael Neiberg
Louis Pauly
Jonathan Renshon
Edward Rhodes
Jens Ringsmose
Ron Rogowski
Jorge A. Schiavon
Jack Snyder
Arthur Stein
Dominic Tierney
Mehmet Ali Tugtan
Kivanc Ulusoy
Benjamin Valentino
Steven Wilkinson
Keren Yarhi-Milo