2016 Baker Peace Conference

March 24 and 25, 2016

History, War, and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East

Thursday, March 24

Keynote address: The Persistence of the Sykes-Picot Frontiers in the Middle East

7:30 p.m. Nelson Commons

Dr. Rashid Khalidi, Chair of the History Department at Columbia University and affiliated with the School of International and Public Affairs. (See biography.)

Friday, March 25

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Baker Ballroom A

Panel 1 : Egypt and the Levant in the World Wars

10 a.m. (See biographies.)

Dr. Melanie S. Tanielian, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, A" City Under Siege: Beirut During the Great War"

Dr. Eric Schewe, Queens College, City University of New York, "War, Colonialism, and the Collapse of Liberal Political Economy in Egypt"

Dr. Sherene Seikaly, University of California at Santa Barbara, "Bodies and Needs: World War II in Palestine"

Lunch Break (on your own)

Panel 2 : Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United States during the Cold War

1 p.m. (See biographies.)

Dr. Rosie Bsheer,Yale University, "State Making and Its Discontents: Popular Movements, Regional Rivalries, and the Cold War in Saudi Arabia"

Dr. Arbella Bet-Shlimon, University of Washington, "Urban Development, Ethnicity, and Authoritarianism in Iraq's Oil City: Kirkuk in the Cold War Era"

Dr. Nathan Citino, Rice University, "1979 Revisited: The Cold War, Islamic Legitimacy, and the U.S.-Saudi Relations"

Panel 3 : Making Sense of Today's Middle East

3 p.m. (See biographies.)

Professor Noura Erakat, George Mason Univeristy, "From Occupation to Warfare: The New Phase of Isreali-Palestinian Relations"

Dr. Bassam Haddad, George Mason University, "The Syrian Uprising: From Civil Protest to Russian Intervention"

Dr. Asli Bali, University of California at Los Angeles, "Understanding the Rise (and Possible Fall) of Iran & Turkey as Regional Hegemons"