Ambassador Marwan Muasher, Jordanian Diplomat to Give Henry L. Stimson Lecture on World Affairs at The MacMillan Center

For Immediate Release

Contact: Marilyn Wilkes (203) 432-3413

marilyn.wilkes@yale.edu

Jordanian Reformer Marwan Muasher to Give Henry L. Stimson Lecture on World Affairs at The MacMillan Center

September 9, 2008. New Haven, CT � Marwan Muasher, Jordanian reformer, will be the speaker at the Henry L. Stimson Lecture on World Affairs on Tuesday, September 16. His talk, entitled “Moderation and the Search for Peace in the Middle East” will be held at 4:00pm, Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue. He will give a second lecture entitled, “The Slow Process of Arab Reform” on Thursday, September 25, to be held at the same time and location. Free and open to the public, both lectures are sponsored by the MacMillan Center and the Yale University Press.

Both lectures will center on his new book, The Arab Center, The Promise of Moderation. In it, Muasher recounts the behind-the-scenes details of diplomatic ventures over the past two decades, including such recent undertakings as the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East Road Map. He assesses how the middle road approach to reform is faring and explains why current tactics used by the West to deal with Islamic groups are doomed to failure. He examines why the Arab Center has made so little progress and which Arab, Israeli, and American policies need rethinking

A Jordanian national, Ambassador Muasher’s career has spanned the areas of development, diplomacy, civil society, and communications. He began his career as a journalist for the Jordan Times, then served from 1985 to 1990 at the Ministry of Planning and later as press advisor to the Prime Minister.

In 1995, Ambassador Muasher opened Jordan’s first embassy in Israel, and in 1996 became Minister of Information and the government’s spokesperson. From 1997 to 2002, he served in Washington as Ambassador, negotiating the first free trade agreement between the United States and an Arab nation. He then returned to Jordan to serve as Foreign Minister, where he was deeply involved in the peace process. In 2004, he became Deputy Prime Minister responsible for Reform and Government Performance, and led the effort to produce a ten-year Development Strategy that included, among other topics, major recommendations on political and economic reform, financial services, fiscal reforms, employment, education, and training.

Since 1998, The MacMillan Center and the Yale University Press have maintained an arrangement whereby the manuscripts of occasional lectures by distinguished diplomats and foreign policy experts, invited and funded by the MacMillan Center, have been published by the Yale University Press. The funding for the lecture series comes from an anonymous donor, in honor of Henry L. Stimson, Yale College 1889, an attorney and statesman whose government service culminated with his tenure as Secretary of War during World War II. Previous Stimson Lectures published by the Press have included Political Order in Changing Societies by Samuel P. Huntington, Financial Crises in Emerging Markets by Alexandre Lamfalussy, and Arms and Influence by Thomas C. Schelling

Contact Information:

Marilyn Wilkes

The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale

(203) 432-3413