UAESF

Mohammed Baharoon

Director General, b'huth

Mohammed Baharoon is the director general of b’huth, which he established with Ahmed Al Mansoori in 2002 in Dubai, UAE. Baharoon received his master’s degree in English literature from Texas Tech University in 1995 and his English Major from Kuwait University in 1987. This led to a career in media where he worked as a reporter for Al Arabi Magazine, which was a premier cultural monthly in the Arab world. Baharoon continued his media career as a writer for Al Ittihad newspaper and then as an editor for Gulf Defence Magazine.

David B. Des Roches

Non-Resident Fellow, AGSIW; Associate Professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University

David B. Des Roches is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and a senior international affairs fellow at the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. He is an associate professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, where he specializes in countries of the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf Cooperation Council regional security, border security, weapons transfers, missile defense, counterinsurgency, terrorism, and emerging trends.

He joined NESA in 2011 after serving the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy in numerous positions, including as director of the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula, the Department of Defense liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, the senior country director for Pakistan, the NATO operations director, the deputy director for peacekeeping, and the spokesman for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency. Prior to that, he served in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy as an international law enforcement analyst and special assistant for strategy.

Des Roches retired as a colonel from a 30-year career in the active and reserve Army, serving on the Joint Staff, U.S. Special Operations Command staff, and in conventional and special operations troop units deployed throughout the Middle East, Europe, and Afghanistan. He is a regular commentator on regional affairs and author of numerous articles on Gulf security. He is the editor of The Arms Trade, Military Services and the Security Market in the Gulf: Trends and Implications (Berlin: Gerlach, 2016) and the theme editor of the Oxford Journal of Gulf Studies Spring 2016 special issue on security. He holds advanced degrees from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies and Kings College London, which he attended as a British Marshall Scholar. Des Roches also holds an advanced degree from the U.S. Army War College, and a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy, West Point.

Hussein Ibish

Senior Resident Scholar, AGSIW

Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He is a weekly columnist for Bloomberg and The National (UAE) and is also a regular contributor to many other U.S. and Middle Eastern publications. He has made thousands of radio and television appearances and was the Washington, DC correspondent for the Daily Star (Beirut). Many of Ibish’s articles are archived on his Ibishblog website.

His most recent book is What’s Wrong with the One-State Agenda? Why Ending the Occupation and Peace with Israel is Still the Palestinian National Goal (ATFP, 2009). Ibish was included in all three years (2011, 2012, and 2013) of Foreign Policy’s “Twitterati 100,” the magazine’s list of 100 “must-follow” Twitter feeds on foreign policy.

Ibish is the editor and principal author of three major studies of Hate Crimes and Discrimination against Arab Americans 1998-2000 (ADC, 2001), Sept. 11, 2001-Oct. 11, 2002 (ADC, 2003), and 2003-2007 (ADC, 2008). He is also the author of “At the Constitution’s Edge: Arab Americans and Civil Liberties in the United States” in States of Confinement (St. Martin’s Press, 2000), “Anti-Arab Bias in American Policy and Discourse” in Race in 21st Century America (Michigan State University Press, 2001), “Race and the War on Terror,” in Race and Human Rights (Michigan State University Press, 2005) and “Symptoms of Alienation: How Arab and American Media View Each Other“ in Arab Media in the Information Age (ECSSR, 2005). He wrote, along with Ali Abunimah, “The Palestinian Right of Return” (ADC, 2001) and “The Media and the New Intifada” in The New Intifada (Verso, 2001). He is the editor, along with Saliba Sarsar, of Principles and Pragmatism (ATFP, 2006).

Ibish previously served as a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, and executive director of the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab-American Leadership from 2004-09. From 1998-2004, Ibish served as communications director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. He has a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Narayanappa Janardhan

Non-Resident Fellow, AGSIW; Senior Research Fellow, Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy

Narayanappa  Janardhan is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and a senior research fellow at the Gulf-Asia Program at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy. He also offers diplomats PGD and MA courses on Gulf and Asian foreign policies. His academic publications include The Arab Gulf’s Pivot to Asia: From Transactional to Strategic Partnerships (ed., Gerlach, 2020); A New Gulf Security Architecture: Prospects and Challenges for an Asian Role (ed., Gerlach, 2014); and Boom Amid Gloom: Spirit of Possibility in the 21st Century Gulf (Ithaca, 2011). With a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Janardhan is the managing assistant editor of the Journal of Arabian Studies (Routledge). He is a regular contributor to various international think tanks, academic publications, and media outlets.

Scott Livermore

Chief Economist, Oxford Economics Middle East

Scott Livermore is the chief economist of Oxford Economics Middle East and is based in Oxford’s Dubai office. He is also the managing director of consultancy in the Middle East and Asia, as well as a member of Oxford Economics’ senior management team. Livermore leads many of the major projects in the Gulf and Asia, which have recently included capacity building, macroeconomic modeling, and policy impact assessment engagements for government institutions in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman and IFRS 9 and stress testing engagements in Singapore, Thailand, and Hong Kong.

After completing a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford University’s St Edmund Hall and an MSc in economics at University College London, Livermore joined Oxford Economic Forecasting in 1997. During his initial five years at Oxford Economic Forecasting, he worked as a country analyst for a number of European countries and participated in numerous consultancy projects for a variety of international organizations, governments, and multinational companies.

Livermore rejoined Oxford Economics in 2005 as a senior economist after spending two years at the Ministry of Finance in the Slovak Republic assisting with the government’s medium-term macroeconomic framework and developing the analytical capacity of the ministry to prepare such forecasts. He has also held the positions of managing director of macro and industry services, managing director of macro consulting, and chief operating officer of Oxford Economics USA.

Robert Mogielnicki

Senior Resident Scholar, AGSIW

Robert Mogielnicki is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He created and leads the Next Gen Gulf series examining technology trends in Gulf Arab states and Looking East: The China-Gulf Initiative. A specialist in the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa, he is a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. The Middle East Policy Council listed Mogielnicki in their inaugural 40 Under 40 awards for influential Middle East experts.

Mogielnicki teaches a graduate-level seminar on China-Middle East and North Africa relations as an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. He is a research mentor for undergraduate students through the Georgetown University Research Opportunities Program and the Laidlaw Undergraduate Leadership and Research Scholarship Programme.

Mogielnicki is also a regional and methodology advisor with Freedom House for a multiyear research project on global media and technology influence. Mogielnicki authors the Middle East and North Africa section of the quarterly “Global Mobility Report” published by Henley & Partners, a global citizenship and residence advisory firm, and he is a member of the firm’s board of advisors. Mogielnicki previously served as a human resource development consultant for an Oxford-based research consultancy that operated across the Gulf region. Prior to his consulting career, he worked in journalism, covering political and economic developments in post-revolutionary Egypt and Tunisia.

His book, A Political Economy of Free Zones in Gulf Arab States, was published by Palgrave Macmillan’s international political economy series in April 2021, and he is currently working on an edited volume examining the political economy of sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia. Mogielnicki has authored several book chapters on the politics and economics of Gulf Arab states and the political economy of the broader Middle East. His work and commentary on the region have appeared in Foreign Policy, Bloomberg, Axios, Forbes, Reuters, Nature, Financial Times, The Banker, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Vox, Los Angeles Times, S&P Global, and Nikkei Asia, among other prominent outlets.

Mogielnicki received his DPhil from the University of Oxford’s Magdalen College, where he conducted research in conjunction with the Oriental Institute and Middle East Centre. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait, his dissertation examines the political economy of free zones in Gulf Arab countries. He earned his MPhil in modern Middle Eastern studies from St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and completed a master’s thesis on labor policy formulation and implementation in the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. He received his BA from Georgetown University as a double major in Arabic and government, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Mogielnicki specializes in the intersection of politics and economics across Gulf Arab states. He is particularly interested in how these geostrategic states engage in processes of economic transformation through trade and investment policies, labor market interventions, economic diversification, and technological innovation.

Mogielnicki speaks Modern Standard Arabic and the Egyptian dialect, and he possesses a working knowledge of the Tunisian dialect. He is a former recipient of the Sultan Qaboos Arabic Language Scholarship (2007-11) and served as a Critical Language Scholar in Tunisia in 2011. Mogielnicki has lived in the UAE, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, and Jerusalem.

Mina Al-Oraibi

Editor in Chief, The National

Mina Al-Oraibi is a journalist and political analyst focused on the Middle East, and editor in chief of The National. For close to four years, Al-Oraibi was the assistant editor in chief of Asharq Alawsat, and from 2009-11 she served as the newspaper’s Washington, DC bureau chief. Al-Oraibi has conducted many high-profile interviews, including with former U.S. President Barack Obama, former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, former U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, and former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Al-Oraibi was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader in 2009 and Foreign Policy Magazine named her one of the top 100 Twitterati on foreign policy. Al-Oraibi was awarded a distinction for her MA history dissertation on Iraq’s 1958 coup d’etat from University College London, where she also completed her BA in history.

Ambassador Thomas Pickering

Board Member, AGSIW

Ambassador Thomas Pickering is a member of the board of directors of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He is vice chairman of Hills & Company, an international consulting firm providing advice to U.S. businesses on investment, trade, and risk assessment issues abroad, particularly in emerging market economies. He retired in 2006 as senior vice president of international relations for Boeing. He has had a career spanning five decades as a U.S. diplomat, serving as under secretary of state for political affairs, U.S. ambassador and representative to the United Nations, and ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, Nigeria, Jordan, and El Salvador. He also served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He holds the personal rank of career ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. He has held numerous other positions at the State Department, including executive secretary and special assistant to Secretaries Rogers and Kissinger and assistant secretary for the Bureau of Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs. He is based in Washington, DC.

Ambassador William Roebuck

Executive Vice President, AGSIW

Ambassador William “Bill” Roebuck is the executive vice president of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He most recently served as the deputy special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and a senior advisor to the Special Representative for Syria Engagement Ambassador James Jeffrey. Prior to his appointment, Roebuck served as a senior advisor to Special Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk from January to December 2018.

Roebuck served as ambassador to Bahrain from 2015-17. He was appointed deputy assistant secretary for Maghreb Affairs in January 2013 and assumed additional responsibility for Egypt Affairs in January 2014. He served as Chargé d’Affaires in Tripoli, Libya from January to June 2013, earning the Ryan C. Crocker Award for Outstanding Leadership in Expeditionary Diplomacy. From September 2010 to December 2012, he served as director for the Office of Maghreb Affairs in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Roebuck served as deputy political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from July 2009 to August 2010, covering Iraq’s external relations and leading the embassy’s and the resident international community’s efforts to support the critical March 2010 national elections.

Roebuck served as the deputy office director for Arabian Peninsula Affairs from 2007-09. From 2004-07, he served as the political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus. In his last year of that assignment, Roebuck served as the acting deputy chief of mission. Prior to his assignment in Syria, he covered political issues in Gaza, while assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv from 2000-03. He served in Washington as staff assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs from 1997-98.

Prior to joining the State Department, Roebuck worked as an English teacher and school administrator in Taif, Saudi Arabia from 1982-87. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in Cote d’Ivoire from 1978-81.

Roebuck speaks French and Arabic. He hails from Rocky Mount, North Carolina and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature from Wake Forest University in 1978 and 1981, respectively, and his law degree from the University of Georgia in 1992.

Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman

President, AGSIW

Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman is president of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He previously served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2016-19 and U.S. ambassador to Kuwait from 2014-16. From 2013-14, he served as a senior advisor in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in the U.S. Department of State, working on Iraq issues and the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. Silliman was deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq from 2012-13, minister counselor for political affairs in Baghdad from 2011-12, and deputy chief of mission in Ankara, Turkey from 2008-11. He joined the Department of State in 1984.

Silliman served as director and deputy director of the Department of State’s Office of Southern European Affairs, as political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan, and as the regional officer for the Middle East in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. He worked as a political officer in Islamabad, Pakistan, in the Office of Soviet Union Affairs, as the desk officer for Lebanon, and as a staff assistant to the assistant secretary for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. Silliman began his career as a visa officer in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and a political officer in Tunis, Tunisia.

In 2018, Silliman received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award from President Donald J. Trump. He has received numerous awards from the Department of State, including the Secretary’s Award for Public Outreach in 2007 and senior performance awards. Silliman received the Sinclaire Language Award in 1993 and the W. Averell Harriman Award for outstanding junior officer in 1988 from the American Foreign Service Association. He retired from the Foreign Service in April 2019 after 35 years.

Silliman received a Bachelor of Arts in political science, summa cum laude, from Baylor University in Texas, where he was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a Master of Arts in international relations from the George Washington University. Silliman speaks Arabic and French. He is married and has two adult children.

In addition to his position as president of AGSIW, Silliman also serves on the board of advisors of the Bilateral US-Arab Chamber of Commerce, which helps American businesses expand their international business and trade ties, especially in the Middle East and Gulf region. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Ksenia Svetlova

Director of the Israel–Middle East Relations Program, Mitvim

Ksenia Svetlova is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East programs and is a former member of the Israeli Knesset, a researcher, and a writer. She focuses on issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli-Arab relations, Russian influence in the Middle East, and the regional and international relations of the Middle East. She has covered the Middle East for 15 years at Israeli TV and has written for the Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Haaretz, BBC Russian, Newsweek, Media Line, and other international media outlets. She is currently leading an Israel-Middle East program at Mitvim (the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies) and teaches the course “Media and Change in the Middle East” at Reichman University.

Ambassador C. David Welch

Board Member, AGSIW

Ambassador C. David Welch is a member of the board of directors of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He has a broad range of knowledge and experience in government and business, internationally and in the United States. Welch recently retired after 10 years (2009-19) with Bechtel, a global engineering and construction firm. At Bechtel, he was a senior vice president and partner supervising international and government affairs; regional representatives in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America; the Washington, DC office; global corporate security; and internal and external corporate communications. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy. Welch also serves on corporate and nonprofit boards.

Welch served 32 years (1977-2008) with the U.S. Foreign Service. He was nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate to senior positions in successive Democratic and Republican administrations. In 2008, he attained the lifetime rank, confirmed by the Senate, of Career Ambassador. When he retired from government, Welch was assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs (2005-08), the senior-most U.S. diplomat for the region. He served as ambassador to Egypt (2001-05) and assistant secretary for international organizations (1998-2001). He was also acting chief of mission in Saudi Arabia from 1992-94. Welch was on the National Security Council staff at the White House (1989-91) and also served in Pakistan, Syria, and Jordan. He was the recipient of a number of awards during his government service, including a Group Award for Valor. Welch is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Ambassador Frank G. Wisner

Chair of the Board, AGSIW

Ambassador Frank G. Wisner is chair of the board of directors of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and international affairs advisor for Squire Patton Boggs in New York City. He provides clients with strategic global advice concerning business, politics, and international law from the firm’s Washington and New York offices. Wisner’s diplomatic career spans four decades serving as U.S. ambassador to Zambia, Egypt, the Philippines, and India. Moreover, he has served as under secretary of defense for policy and as under secretary of state for international security affairs. Wisner was senior deputy assistant secretary for African affairs from 1982-86. He worked closely with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to launch negotiations with Zimbabwe and Namibia, and served as the U.S. special representative to the Kosovo Status Talks in 2005, where he played a crucial role in negotiating Kosovo’s independence.

UAE Security Forum 2022:
Expanding Regional Partnerships for Security and Prosperity

November 17, 2022

About

Keynote

Vice Admiral Brad Cooper

Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command

Speakers

Mohammed Baharoon

Director General, b'huth

David B. Des Roches

Non-Resident Fellow, AGSIW; Associate Professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University

Hussein Ibish

Senior Resident Scholar, AGSIW

Narayanappa Janardhan

Non-Resident Fellow, AGSIW; Senior Research Fellow, Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy

Scott Livermore

Chief Economist, Oxford Economics Middle East

Robert Mogielnicki

Senior Resident Scholar, AGSIW

Mina Al-Oraibi

Editor in Chief, The National

Ambassador Thomas Pickering

Board Member, AGSIW

Ambassador William Roebuck

Executive Vice President, AGSIW

Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman

President, AGSIW

Ksenia Svetlova

Director of the Israel–Middle East Relations Program, Mitvim

Ambassador C. David Welch

Board Member, AGSIW

Ambassador Frank G. Wisner

Chair of the Board, AGSIW

Agenda

Thursday November 17, 2022

Videos

PRESENTED BY

UAE Security Forum 2022: Expanding Regional Partnerships for Security and Prosperity

November 17, 2022

About

Keynote

Vice Admiral Brad Cooper

Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command

Speakers

Mohammed Baharoon

Director General, b'huth

David B. Des Roches

Non-Resident Fellow, AGSIW; Associate Professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University

Hussein Ibish

Senior Resident Scholar, AGSIW

Narayanappa Janardhan

Non-Resident Fellow, AGSIW; Senior Research Fellow, Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy

Scott Livermore

Chief Economist, Oxford Economics Middle East

Robert Mogielnicki

Senior Resident Scholar, AGSIW

Mina Al-Oraibi

Editor in Chief, The National

Ambassador Thomas Pickering

Board Member, AGSIW

Ambassador William Roebuck

Executive Vice President, AGSIW

Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman

President, AGSIW

Ksenia Svetlova

Director of the Israel–Middle East Relations Program, Mitvim

Ambassador C. David Welch

Board Member, AGSIW

Ambassador Frank G. Wisner

Chair of the Board, AGSIW

Agenda

Thursday November 17, 2022

Videos

PRESENTED BY

UAE Security Forum 2022:
Expanding Regional Partnerships for Security and Prosperity

Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command 