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On Tuesday afternoon, two speakers with extensive experience as diplomats to the Middle East discussed possible solutions to violence in the region.
The panel discussion was titled “The Middle East Conundrum: Diplomacy or Military Solution?” and featured Ambassadors Marcelle M. Wahba and Philip C. Wilcox, Jr. It was moderated by Dr. Bahman Baktiari, a professor of political science at the University of Maine and the director of research and academic programming at the William S. Cohen Center. It took place in the McIntire Room of Buchanan Alumni House.
The two speakers took questions from the audience at the end of the presentation.
This was the first public event presented by UMaine’s new School of Policy and International Affairs, and was put on in collaboration with the William S. Cohen Center for International Policy and Commerce.
Ambassador Wahba has worked in government service for more than 20 years. She is one of only seven people in the state department fluent in Arabic. Wahba has served in Egypt, Cyprus and Jordan. From 2001 until 2004 she was the U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, and is currently the State department’s foreign policy adviser to the air force chief of staff.
Wahba discussed the issue of security in the Middle East. In particular she addressed the disputes between Gulf Coast countries, Iran’s role, the impact of the war in Iraq and domestic instability. Wahba arrived in the United Arab Emirates a few weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and described the impact it had on the region. When asked about the perception of America in the Middle East, Wahba described a paradoxical admiration of the “vitality of our culture and political systems but great hostility toward our policies.”
Ambassador Wilcox has served in Laos, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Israel. He has served as director of regional affairs in the Bureau of Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs, director of Arab-Israeli dffairs, and deputy assistant secretary of state for Middle Eastern affairs. He retired from government service in 1997 and now heads the Foundation for Middle East Peace, an organization devoted to encouraging peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
Wilcox focused his presentation on Arab-Israeli issue, beginning with a brief history of the conflict. He summarized it as a conflict between “two victims of history,” in which neither side recognizes the victimization of the other. He added that Americans, having identified with the Israelites, also did not recognize the tragedy of the Arabs, and were therefore inadequately prepared to objectively moderate the peace discussions in 1993 and 2000.
Wilcox was personally involved with the peace process under the first President Bush. He concluded that it is impossible for the two sides to reconcile between themselves and that the United States could recover American credibility in the region by negotiating a peaceful end to the conflict.
This was the first public event sponsored by the School of Policy and International Affairs, which opened in January of 2006.
John Mahon, the founding director of the new school and a professor of management in the UMaine School of Business, commented that he was very pleased with the turnout. He hopes that this and other events that the new school is co-sponsoring, like the conference on nuclear proliferation in early March in collaboration with the National Defense University in Washington D.C., will generate visibility and opportunities for students of the new school.
To view streaming video of Tuesday’s panel discussion, go to http://www.umaine.edu/news/mideast.
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