The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD) co-organized a high-level, off-the-record, and invitation-only roundtable brainstorming on the Middle East in London on 11 July 2016.
The one-day event was co-chaired by IISS Director-General and Chief Executive John Chipman and CIRSD President Vuk Jeremić. It featured keynote remarks by Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the National Security Adviser to the British Prime Minister.
The roundtable discussion focused on three main topics: ISIS and radical Islamism, regional stability, Iran and the role of the United States.
Other participants included former Egyptian Foreign Minister and Dean of the School of Public Service of the American University in Cairo, Nabil Fahmy; former Israel's ambassador to the United States as well as chief negotiator with Syria Itamar Rabinovich; Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vitaly Naumkin; former Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief Prince Turki Al Faisal; former U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley; former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the UN Zalmay Khalilzad; Dean of SAIS Vali Nasr; CEO and President of the EastWest Institute and former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter; IISS Executive Director Sir John Jenkins; and IISS Senior Fellow for Political Islam Nelly Lahoud, amongst others.
Jeremić expressed the view that the roundtable was an enormous success. "It is an exceptional honor for CIRSD to have had the opportunity to co-host an event with such a globally prestigious institution as IISS, and we are very grateful to the thoughtful participants from key actors in the Middle East. The exchange was open, frank, and highly informative. It will contribute to a better understanding amongst crucial players in the multiple unfolding crises in the region", Jeremić said.
