Russia in the Middle East
Ilan Berman
Thursday, December 5, 2013
6:30 – 7:45 p.m.
Ilan Berman is Senior Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC. An expert on regional security in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Russian Federation, he has consulted for both the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense, and provided assistance on foreign policy and national security issues to a range of governmental agencies and congressional offices. He has been called one of America’s “leading experts on the Middle East and Iran” by CNN.
Mr. Berman is a member of the Associated Faculty at Missouri State University’s Department of Defense and Strategic Studies. A frequent writer and commentator, he has written for the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post and USA Today, among many other publications.
Mr. Berman is the editor of four books – Dismantling Tyranny: Transitioning Beyond Totalitarian Regimes (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), co-edited with J. Michael Waller Taking on Tehran: Strategies for Confronting the Islamic Republic (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), and Iran’s Strategic Penetration of Latin America (Lexington Books, 2015), co-edited with Joseph Humire, and most recently, The Logic of Irregular War: Asymmetry and America’s Adversaries (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) – and the author of four others: Tehran Rising: Iran’s Challenge to the United States (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), Winning the Long War: Retaking the Offensive Against Radical Islam (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), Implosion: The End of Russia and What It Means for America (Regnery Publishing, 2013), and Iran’s Deadly Ambition: The Islamic Republic’s Quest for Global Power (Encounter Books, 2015).
He has also spoken at Westminster on the subjects of Iran’s Global Ambition, The Future of the War on Terror – ISIS and After, and The Drivers of Russian Strategy in the Middle East.
Event:
The Obama administration’s strategic drift in the Middle East has opened the door for the reemergence of Russia as a major regional player. Today, Moscow is reconfiguring the traditional status quo in the region through outreach to countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and through its continued support for rogue actors such Syria and Iran. What are the drivers of contemporary Russian policy toward the Mideast? How has Russian policy been influenced by factors such as demographic decline, a growing Muslim minority, and economic considerations? How is Russia using American weakness to improve its geopolitical position?