Date & Time
May 11, 2010, 8:30am-10:30am
Venue
National Press Club
529 14th Street NW
Washington, DC
AMIR: Arab Media Influence Report
Conflicting Priorities Represented in Divergent Media
This special event, featuring media analysts from the Middle East as well as prominent U.S. diplomatic figures and journalists, will examine how media, both traditional and new, are changing the landscape of politics in the Middle East. Recent analysis of Middle Eastern media indicates that countries in the region are increasingly demonstrating contrasting policies and priorities. This panel will examine the shifting dynamics at work.
Panelists
Ambassador Edward Walker, Jr. Fmr. U.S. ambassador to Israel, Egypt and the UAE;
Edward S. Walker is a former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Egypt, and the UAE and is a Middle East specialist. Ambassador Edward S. Walker, Jr. is an Adjunct Scholar at the Middle East Institute’s public policy center. Ambassador Walker served as MEI’s President and CEO for over five years, from 2001 until August 2006. In the course of his career, Walker worked with every Israeli Prime Minister since Golda Meir, with Presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, with Presidents Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad of Syria, with King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, and with Kings Hussein and Abdullah of Jordon, among others.
Maj. General James Marks (Ret) Senior Intelligence Officer, Coalition Land Forces, Operation Iraqi Freedom;
General Marks is a graduate of the United States Military Academy with more than three decades of experience in the Intelligence field. During his career, he held command and staff assignments from infantry platoon leader and infantry company commander in the 101st Airborne Division to senior intelligence officer for the Coalition Land Forces during combat operations in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He concluded his career as the Commanding General of the United States Army Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Currently, he resides in Falls Church, Virginia. He is a contributor to the BBC and was also a military analyst for CNN."[1]
Mazen Nahawi Managing Director Media Watch Middle East
Mazen Nahawi is the founder and president of News Group International, a leading provider of business intelligence and media resource services and the driving force behind the ME Measurement Summits.
Mazen started his career in the Middle East as a journalist at Dar Al Khaleej 13 years ago and has since founded Media Watch, a leading provider of media monitoring and analysis services with more than 300 clients worldwide. The company, a member of MEPRA and FIBEP, is the organiser of the first annual PR Measurement Summit. He also co-founded Media Source, publisher of the Middle East Media Guide.
Nahawi is described by fellow measurers as 'a former PR pro turned measurement guru in the Middle East.
Barbara Slavin Asst Managing Editor, World and National Security, Washington Times, Author
Barbara Slavin is the author of a 2007 book on Iran entitled "Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S. and the Twisted Path to Confrontation.” Ms. Slavin was Assistant Managing Editor for World and National Security of The Washington Times from July 2008 through December 2009. Prior to that she was senior diplomatic reporter for USA TODAY, responsible for analyzing foreign news and U.S. foreign policy. Beginning in 1996, she covered such key issues as the U.S.-led war on terrorism and in Iraq, policy toward "rogue" states and the Arab-Israeli conflict. She accompanied three secretaries of State on their official travels and also reported from Iran, Libya, Israel, Egypt, North Korea, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Ms. Slavin, who has lived in Russia, China, Japan and Egypt, is a regular commentator on U.S. foreign policy on National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting System and C-Span.
Moderated by Ahmed Qureshi President & CEO, Harbinger Associates
Fadl Al Tarzi is the COO of News Group International, a leading provider of business intelligence and media resource services.
While studying Business Administration at the American University in Cairo, Fadl started his career in the Middle East. He founded Egypt’s first IT Consultancy company at age 18, the company quickly grew to become one of the region's leading IT companies. Within a few years Fadl had co-founded several successful dotcoms, which he successfully sold later on. Fadl worked with a number of major technology companies including IBM and Microsoft, helping him become an expert in data mining technologies . In 2005 Fadl became CEO of COLTEC, the world’s leading Arabic linguistics software company and a long-time supplier to Microsoft Corp. In 2008 Fadl relocated to Washington DC to head COLTEC USA’s operations. Fadl currently resides in Dubai where he has moved to join News Group since 2009.
David Kenner Assistant editor at Foreign Policy
David Kenner is an assistant editor at Foreign Policy. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, he received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, also spending time studying in Turkey. He lived in Lebanon from 2006 to 2008, where he was a regular at various cafes and, in his spare time, reported on Middle East politics and pursued a master's degree from the American University of Beirut. After leaving the orderly chaos of the Middle East for the gray urban planning of the District of Columbia, he worked as an editorial researcher at FP and a research assistant at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has written for The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, and Slate, among others.