UCF Global Perspectives and International Initiatives in partnership with the American University in Cairo’s Middle East Studies Center, is launching an ongoing series discussing the future of U.S.-Arab Relations in a changing world with emerging new security threats and global challenges.
The series kicks off on May 27, 2021 at 11:00AM EST (5:00PM Cairo Time) with Lt. General H. R. McMaster, former United States National Security Advisor; and Ambassador Nabil Fahmy, former Egyptian Foreign Minister.
In this session, “What the Future Holds: A Discussion on U.S.-Arab Relations,” the speakers provide their observations about the changing world, emerging challenges, and regional relations.
Lt. General H. R. McMaster, Former National Security Advisor
Lt. General H. R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and Lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He was the 26th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. Upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1984, McMaster served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018.
From 2014 to 2017 McMaster designed the future army as the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center and the deputy commanding general of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). As commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, he oversaw all training and education for the army’s infantry, armor, and cavalry force. His has extensive experience leading soldiers and organizations in wartime including Commander, Combined Joint Inter-Agency Task Force—Shafafiyat in Kabul, Afghanistan from 2010 to 2012; Commander, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq from 2005 to 2006; and Commander, Eagle Troop, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Operation Desert Storm from 1990 to 1991. McMaster also served overseas as advisor to the most senior commanders in the Middle East, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
McMaster holds a PhD in military history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was an assistant professor of history at the United States Military Academy from 1994 to 1996. He is author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World and the award-winning Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. He was a contributing editor for Survival: Global Politics and Strategy from 2010 to 2017. His many essays, articles, and book reviews on leadership, history, and the future of warfare have appeared in The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Survival, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.
Ambassador Nabil Fahmy, Former Egyptian Foreign Minister
Founding Dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and Distinguished University Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy, Nabil Fahmy is the founding dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at The American University in Cairo (AUC), where he is also a Distinguished University Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy.
Fahmy served as foreign minister of Egypt from July 2013 to June 2014. He steered the course of Egypt’s diplomacy during times of immense challenges. During his tenure as minister, Fahmy formulated a strategy to reorient Egypt’s foreign policy, ensuring that Egypt had numerous foreign policy options, both regionally and globally. He also restructured the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to address the future challenges confronting Egypt’s foreign policy.
During his distinguished diplomatic career, Fahmy served as Egypt’s ambassador to Japan from 1997 to 1999 and the United States from 1999 to 2008, as well as in numerous government and international positions. The focus of his work was wide-ranging including global and regional security, disarmament and non-proliferation, and Arab-Israeli diplomacy. He was a member of the Egyptian delegation to many international conferences and boards including the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference; the Review Conferences of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; the United Nations Conference on Promoting International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy; United Nations Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters; International Atomic Energy Agency Board and General Conferences as well as numerous sessions of the United Nations General Assembly since 1977. He was elected vice-chairman of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security Affairs) of the 44th Session of the General Assembly in 1989.
Following his return to Cairo in 2009, from Washington, Fahmy founded the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and led the school in several initiatives in the field of research and academia, leading its programs to be accredited internationally and nationally. The school is highly regarded in the region. It has also served as a non-resident chair of the Middle East Non-Proliferation Project at the James Martin Center for Non-Proliferation Strategies in Monterey, California, from 2009 to 2013, as well as on the Advisory Board of Hertie School of Governance Berlin, and the prestigious Beijing Forum. After his tenure as the minister of foreign affairs from 2013 to 2014, Fahmy resumed his position as dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at AUC.
Fahmy was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in 2009. He was also awarded the prestigious Cordon of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan.
This event will also be livestreamed on the UCF Global YouTube Channel, here.
Please submit questions to be answered prior to the event, here.
This is a public forum, all are welcome to attend.
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