Please join the Atlantic Council and the United States Institute of Peace for “Beyond Refugees,” the third public hearing of the Middle East Strategy Task Force (MEST). The event will examine to the consequences of the numerous refugee crises in the Middle East and North Africa. The many millions displaced across the region represent a challenge of a scope and scale unseen since World War II. Managing this burgeoning crisis will far reaching effects on the international community as well as on the future of the Middle East. To that end, MEST Co-Chairs Madeleine Albright and Stephen Hadley aim to highlight positive steps that can be taken to empower and enable currently vulnerable populations while laying the groundwork for the broader reconstruction of conflict-affected communities. 

The discussion will be proceeded by a selection from the documentary film “Where the War Still Echoes,” which focuses on the hardships confronted by Syrian residing in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp. Following the presentation, the Co-Chairs will speak with experts of refugee response and humanitarian aid as well as the mayor of a Lebanese city coping with the crisis.

Madeleine Albright served as US Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001 and is currently Chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group. Following his tenure as US National Security Advisor from 2005 to 2009, Stephen Hadley cofounded RiceHadleyGates LLC where as principal he remains engaged in international affairs. David Miliband is the current President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, and the United Kingdom’s former Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Nancy Linborg is the President of the United States Institute of Peace and the former assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistant at the USAID. Antoine Frem is the current mayor of Jounieh, a city in Lebanon currently host to numerous displaced Syrians. Manal Omar is the convener of the MEST Working Group on Rebuilding Socieites: Refugees, Recovery, and Reconciliation in Times of Conflict. She is also the Acting Vice President of the Center for Middle East and Africa at the United States Institute of Peace. 

 

Friday, September 18

Event begins at 2:30 p.m.