The World Affair Council of Philadelphia presents a half-day conference, cosponsored by the Penn Humanities Forum.

The bitter realities of hunger, joblessness and oppression have worked to create the perfect storm for revolution in the Middle East, fueling the anger of millions, bringing about riots and demonstrations in the region and bringing down long-standing autocratic powers in Tunisia and Egypt. As the world watches, the unrest continues to grow as others are emboldened to call for greater representation and democratic reform. Will attempts at democratic reform in the Middle East have a positive outcome...or will extremist factions topple entrenched dictatorships, thus creating unfriendly relations with the West?

Following our successful Islam and the West conference five years ago, join us as we expand our examination of how far we've come since actively engaging in the affairs of the Middle East, attempt to identify our successes and failures, and view the current transformation through the lens of reality.

Schedule (Partial list of speakers)

Session 1 | Reporting from the Front Line

Bob Simon, CBS' 60 Minutes

Session 2 | Implications of Unrest and Reform in the Middle East
Moderated by Bob Simon

Deborah Amos
Middle East Correspondent, NPR

Haleh Esfandiari
Director, Middle East Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Daniel Kutner
Consul General of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region of the U.S.

Jerry Sorkin
Middle East and North African specialist; founder of TunisUSA

Session 3 | The Future of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East

Daniel Arbell
Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of Israel, Washington D.C.

Trudy Rubin
Worldview columnist, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Salman Shaikh
Director of the Brookings Doha Center and fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy

Session 4 | Update on Iraq

Deborah Amos

H.E. Samir Sumaida'ie
Ambassador of Iraq to the U.S.

Session 5 | We Live in Interesting Times

Bernard Lewis
Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University

in conversation with
Edward A. Turzanski
Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute; National security analyst at La Salle University

Session 6 | Democratic Reform and Security

The Hon. Stephen J. Hadley
National Security Advisor (2005-2009); Senior Advisor, United States Institute for Peace