Westminster Institute talks

Read his transcript here: https://www.westminster-institute.org/events/joseph-braude/

Read his transcript here: https://www.westminster-institute.org/events/agus-widjojo/

Christopher C. Harmon wrote his political science dissertation on terrorism in the early 1980s and continued that work as Legislative Aide for Foreign Policy to a member of Congress and, much later, director of counterterrorism studies programs in Asia and Europe for the U. S. government. A professor at civilian and military graduate schools including the Naval War College, Dr. Harmon began teachi...

Hassan Abbas is Professor of International Security Studies and Chair of the Department of Regional and Analytical Studies at National Defense University’s College of International Security Affairs (CISA). Aside from his expertise on Pakistan and Afghanistan, he also travels frequently to Iraq for research work on Hashd al-Shaabi (also known as Popular Mobilization Forces/Shia Militias). Along wit...

Author Ibn Warraq ‘s most recent book is  The Islam in Islamic Terrorism: The Importance of Beliefs, Ideas, and Ideology . In it, he takes the dogmas of jihadists seriously and critically examines the Islamic sources upon which they draw. Ibn Warraq is perhaps most famous for his best-selling work, Why I Am Not a Muslim  (1995), an early warning to the West about the dangers of poli...

Michael Pregent is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer with more than 28 years of experience working security, terrorism, counter-insurgency, and policy issues in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southwest Asia. He served in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, served as a liaison officer in Egypt during the 2000 Intifada, as a counter-insurgency intelligence officer at CENTCOM in 2001, and as a...

David Goldman is an American economist, music critic, and author, best known for his series of online essays in the Asia Times under the pseudonym Spengler. He is the Wax Family Fellow at the Middle East Forum, a Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, and a member of the Board of Advisors of Sino-Israel Government Network and Academic Leadership (SIGNAL). According to the Claremon...

At the Institute of Religion and Democracy since 1993, Faith McDonnell is the Director of Religious Liberty Programs and of the Church Alliance for a New Sudan. She writes and speaks on the subject of the persecuted church and has organized rallies and vigils for Sudan in front of the White House, the State Department, the Canadian Embassy, and the Sudanese Embassy. She has drafted legislation on...

Dr. Joshua Muravchik  is a Distinguished Fellow at the World Affairs Institute and teaches at the Institute of World Politics . Formerly, he was a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a Fellow in Residence at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy . He was also an aide to the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) in 1977 and a campaign aide to the late Senato...

Indonesia contains the world’s largest Muslim population. Yet insufficient attention has been paid to how it sees the threat of radical Islam, a subject that  Wibawanto Nugroho has studied deeply. He has served in the Indonesian government in several capacities. Presently, he is a PhD candidate at the University of Exeter, with a dissertation on the subject of Understanding Islamist...

Major General Abbas Ibrahim is head of Lebanon’s Directorate of General Security (DGS), which Asharq al-Awsat calls “The Eyes and Ears of the Lebanese State.” He is a highly decorated officer with first-hand knowledge of the most sensitive security challenges in the Middle East. Before his appointment as Director General of General Security in 2011, General Ibrahim held many significant positions....

In 2014, Sarwah won a seat in the Iraqi Parliament as a member of the Goran (Change) party. Defending women’s rights and democracy in Kurdistan and the Iraqi Parliament, Sarwah recently became the head of the Goran party bloc in parliament. She will talk about the Kurdish independence referendum, women’s rights, and suffering under ISIS.

David Eubank , former U.S. Army Ranger and Special Forces officer and founder of the Free Burma Rangers, will discuss his time spent on the front lines of the battle against ISIS in Iraqi Kurdistan, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq, and will urge the Trump administration to continue help in that region along the following lines.

David Des Roches is Associate Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Security Studies at National Defense University. Prior to this, he was the Defense Department director responsible for policy concerning Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Prior to this assignment, he has served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Liaison to the Depa...

Ilan Berman is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council . An expert on regional security in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Russia, he has consulted for both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Department, and provided assistance on foreign policy and national security issues to a range of government agencies.

Novelist Mark Helprin has written about defense and foreign relations for fifty years and advised officials at the highest levels from the White House on down. He served in the Israeli army and the Israeli Air Force. He was personally commended by the Director of Central Intelligence for making the best military estimates “in or out of government.”

Clifford D. May is the founder and President of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies , a nonpartisan policy institute focusing on national security created immediately following the 9/11/01 attacks on the United States. Under his leadership, FDD has become one of the nation’s most highly regarded think tanks.

America is at war, but most Americans don’t know it. Covert information warfare is waged by world powers and rogue states—like Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea—and groups like ISIS. Bill Gertz describes how technology has revolutionized modern warfare, how the last administration failed to meet this challenge, and what we can do to fight back.

Mehdi Khalaji is the Libitzky Family fellow at The Washington Institute , focusing on the politics of Iran and Shiite groups in the Middle East. A Shiite theologian by training, Mr. Khalaji has also served on the editorial boards of two prominent Iranian periodicals and produced for the BBC as well as the U.S. government’s Persian news service.

Ali Jalali was the Interior Minister of Afghanistan. Read the talk's transcript here: https://bit.ly/2UBmf0e

Transcript: https://bit.ly/2GretQT Dr. Walid Phares , who served as a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump and Mitt Romney and is Fox News national security expert, will assess US policy towards the Greater Middle East from Afghanistan to Libya, with insights into major crises in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Gulf and Turkey.  Dr. Phares is an engaging and highly sought after Middle East expert...

James Carafano , a leading expert in national security and foreign policy challenges, is The Heritage Foundation’s Vice President, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, E. W. Richardson Fellow, and Director of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies.

Dr. Sebastian L. Gorka, Director, National Security Fellowship Program at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and Contributing co-editor, Toward A Grand Strategy Against Terrorism .

Robert “Bud” McFarlane was National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1985.

Michael Eisenstadt is the Kahn Fellow and director of The Washington Institute’s Military and Security Studies Program. A specialist in Persian Gulf and Arab-Israeli security affairs, he has published widely on irregular and conventional warfare, and nuclear weapons proliferation in the Middle East. Prior to joining the Institute in 1989, Mr. Eisenstadt worked as a military analyst with the U.S. g...