Where is Iraq Heading?

Featuring
H.E. Ambassador Lukman Faily
Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq to the United States

with discussion from
Dr. Jon B. Alterman
Senior Vice President, Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, and Director, Middle East Program, CSIS

Ayham Kamel
Director, Middle East and North Africa, Eurasia Group

Aaron Y. Zelin
Richard Borow Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Read the Prepared Remarks by H.E. Amb. Lukman Faily

Read the Transcript of the Discussion and Q&A

H.E. Ambassador Lukman Faily has served as Iraq’s ambassador to the United States since July 2013. Prior to this he served as Iraq’s ambassador to Japan from June 2010 until May 2013. Ambassador Faily has extensive experience in diplomacy, business organization management, and information technology. He holds a BSc in mathematics and computer science from Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, an M.B.A. in technology management, and a postgraduate degree in computing for commerce and industry.

Jon B. Alterman is senior vice president at CSIS, holds the Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, and directs the Center’s Middle East Program. Prior to joining CSIS in 2002, he served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. He is a member of the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel and served as an expert adviser to the Iraq Study Group (also known as the Baker-Hamilton Commission). He teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and is an associate fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Ayham Kamel is director of Middle East and North Africa at Eurasia Group, where he focuses on Iraq, Gulf Cooperation Council countries, and the Levant (Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon). His sectoral expertise includes the financial industry, banking, hospitality, infrastructure, and oil and gas. Prior to joining Eurasia Group, he worked with investment firms in Syria and the Gulf countries, as a consultant on strategic partnerships and restructuring of decision-making processes, and conducted research on geo-strategic issues, foreign aid, democratization, and business operations in emerging markets for the U.S. Senate, the National Democratic Institute, and the Center for International Private Enterprise. He holds an M.A. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University which he earned as a Fulbright scholar.

Aaron Y. Zelin is the Richard Borow fellow at The Washington Institute, where his research focuses on how jihadist groups are adjusting to the new political environment in the era of Arab uprisings and Salafi politics in countries transitioning to democracy. He is also a Ph.D. candidate at King's College of London and a fellow at its associated International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. He also independently maintains the widely cited website Jihadology.net and co-edits the blog al-Wasat. Previously, Zelin was a research associate for Dr. Jytte Klausen's Western Jihadism Project at Brandeis University.