Media

OTTAWA, February 7, 2011  —  The University of Ottawa, in collaboration with its Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, invites you to a panel discussion on democracy and the current political tensions in the Arab world.

Will recent events in Tunisia and Egypt change something? Are we witnessing the beginning of a wave of Arab democratization and what are the prospects for democratic regime change? What are the protesters demanding, and what will they get? What are the wider implications for international security, for Israel and US-Israel relations? And can or should the West support these changes?

WHAT: A panel of experts on the Arab world and on democratic transitions

WHEN: Thursday, February 10, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

WHERE: University of Ottawa, Tabaret Hall, 550 Cumberland Street, room 112

*Click here to register

Panellists:

Robert Fowler
Robert Fowler has had a distinguished career as a Canadian diplomat and public servant. In addition to having served as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations (1995-2000) and to Italy (2000-2006), he served as foreign policy advisor and personal representative for Africa under three prime ministers. He was also deputy minister of national defence (1989-1995).

Peter Jones
Peter Jones holds a PhD in war studies from Kings’ College, London, and an MA in war studies from the Royal Military College of Canada. Before joining the University of Ottawa, he served as a senior analyst for the Security and Intelligence Secretariat of the Privy Council of Canada. Previously, he held various positions related to international affairs and security at the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Privy Council Office, and the Department of Defence. A renowned expert on security in the Middle East and track-two diplomacy, he led the Middle East Security and Arms Control Project at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in the 1990s. Peter Jones is a fellow at several research institutions, including the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University and the Regional Centre for Conflict Prevention of the Jordan Institute for Diplomacy in Amman.

Michael Molloy
Mike Molloy is a former diplomat with a long involvement with the Middle East. From 2003 to 2009, he was co-director of the Jerusalem Old City Initiative at the University of Windsor and served as special coordinator for the Middle East peace process at the Department of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2003. He was also Canadian ambassador to Jordan from 1996 to 2000.

Costanza Musu
Costanza Musu received a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of International Relations. She was Jean Monnet Fellow in the Transatlantic Programme of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence and assistant professor of international relations at Richmond University (London). She has been a consultant for the Military Center for Strategic Studies – Center for Advanced Defense Studies (CeMiSS-CASD) (the think tank of the Italian Ministry of Defence) and book reviews editor for the journal Mediterranean Politics (Routledge). Her latest book, European Union Policy Towards the Arab-Israeli Peace Process, was published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Christoph Zürcher
Christoph Zürcher is a professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa. He received his PhD from the University of Bern. Previous teaching and research appointments include the University of Konstanz (Germany), the Institut d’études politiques d’Aix-en-Provence, Stanford University and Freie University Berlin. Prof. Zuercher’s research and teaching interests include conflict, state-building and intervention, and democratic transitions. He is the co-editor of Potentials of Disorder: Explaining Violence in the Caucasus and in the Former Yugoslavia (Manchester UP, 2003) and the author of The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict and Nationhood in the Post-Soviet Era (New York University Press, 2007).