2016 – Sisco Memorial Forum: “Iran a Year Later: Did Diplomacy Do its Job?”
The American Academy of Diplomacy
in collaboration with The Fletcher School at Tufts University
present
Joseph J. Sisco Memorial Forum:
Iran a Year Later: Did Diplomacy Do its Job?
Wednesday September 14, 2016
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
The Fletcher School at Tufts University
ASEAN Auditorium
160 Packard Avenue
Medford, MA, 02155
Panel Discussion
Speaker 1: The Honorable Robert Einhorn – The Iranian nuclear deal one year later.
Speaker 2: Ambassador John Limbert – Iranian policy: the look from Iran outwards.
Speaker 3: Ambassador Ronald Neumann – US policy on Iran: what makes sense?
For a transcript of Ambassador Neumann’s remarks, click here.
Keynote: a conversation with Ambassador William Burns and Ambassador Alan Solomont
For detailed access and contact information, click the event page here.
The Honorable Robert Einhorn
Robert Einhorn has been a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution since 2013. During his career at the U.S. Department of State, he served as Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation in the Bill Clinton Administration and Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Nonproliferation and Arms Control in the Barack Obama Administration. In that latter capacity, he played a leading role in the formulation and execution of U.S. policy toward Iran’s nuclear program, both with respect to sanctions and negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries.
Ambassador John Limbert
John Limbert is the Class of 1955 Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the United States Naval Academy. In a 34-year career in the United States Foreign Service he served mostly in the Middle East and Islamic Africa and was Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. In 2009-2010 he took leave from his teaching post to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern (Iranian) Affairs.
Ambassador Limbert holds his Ph.D. from Harvard University in History and Middle Eastern Studies. Before joining the Foreign Service he taught in Iran as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iranian Kurdestan (1964-66) and as an instructor at Shiraz University (1969-72). He has written numerous articles and books on Middle Eastern subjects including Iran at War with History (Westview Press, 1987), Shiraz in the Age of Hafez (University of Washington Press, 2004), and Negotiating with Iran (U.S. Institute of Peace, 2009). Limbert holds the Department of State’s highest award—the Distinguished Service Award—and other department awards, including the Award for Valor, which he received after fourteen months as a hostage in Iran.
Ambassador Ronald Neumann
Ronald E. Neumann is President of the American Academy of Diplomacy, an organization of former senior diplomats dedicated to strengthening American diplomacy. Formerly a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East, Neumann served three times as Ambassador; to Algeria, Bahrain and finally to Afghanistan from July 2005 to April 2007. Much of his early career focused on the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula including service in Iraq (2004-05), working extensively with the military. Since his service in Afghanistan he has returned there frequently and writes and speaks extensively on the subject. A book on his time in Afghanistan is, The Other War: Winning and Losing in Afghanistan In earlier postings he served as Director of the Office for Iran and Iraq, Deputy Chief of Mission in the United Arab Emirates, and in Yemen, and Principal Officer in Tabriz, Iran. He holds a B.A. in history and an M.A. in political science and was an infantry officer in Vietnam (’69-70). He is married to the former M. Elaine Grimm. They have two children.
Ambassador Bill Burns
Bill Burns is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States. Ambassador Burns retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a thirty-three-year diplomatic career. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become deputy secretary of state.
Prior to his tenure as deputy secretary, Ambassador Burns served from 2008 to 2011 as under secretary for political affairs. He was ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs from 2001 to 2005, and ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001.
Ambassador Burns has been the recipient of three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards and a number of Department of State awards, including three Secretary’s Distinguished Service Awards and two Distinguished Honor Awards.
View all videos of the Forum:
Video 1: Introduction
Video 2: Robert Einhorn, “The Iranian Nuclear Deal One Year Later”
Video 3: John Limbert, “Iranian Policy: the Look from Iran Outwards
Video 4: Ronald Neumann, “US Policy on Iran: What Makes Sense?”
Video 5: A Conversation with Ambassador William Burns