The topic of the 2005 Camden Conference was the Middle East

The 1996 Camden Conference focused on Islam and the Middle East. Over the next ten years, much has happened in the region: 9/11 and other terrorist attacks showed how far some radical groups will go; Afghanistan and Iraq underwent dramatic political change; US and Allied forces now occupy both countries; the Arab-Israeli “Peace Process” is in disarray; Saudi Arabia has experienced political and economic tremors; and radical terrorists pose a threat to more than one moderate Arab state.

The 18th annual Camden Conference, The Middle East, took place February 25-27, 2005, and examined the challenges faced in the region, the key questions to be addressed, and prospects for success in finding answers in a timely fashion.

The program was as follows:

Friday Evening, Feb. 25

• Keynote Address: General Tony Zinni (USMC Ret.) “The Way Ahead: Reforms will happen. The pressure is on, internally and externally”

Saturday, Feb. 26, Morning Session

• Juan Cole, Professor of History, University of Michigan “An Odyssey Through Political Shiism”
• Oliver Roy, Research Director, the Iranian Unit at the French National Center for Scientific Research Looking at Two Islams”
• Deborah Amos, National Public Radio Correspondent covering Iraq and other Middle East hot-spots for Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition “Journalists Struggle to Cover Iraq”
• Yossi Alpher, Co-Editor of bitterlemons.org, a web-based Israeli-Palestinian political dialogue magazine and bitterlemons international, a web-based “Middle East Roundtable” and Rami Khouri, Executive Editor of the Daily Star in Beirut, Lebanon “Resolving the Irresolvable”
• Ambassador Edward “Skip” Gnehm, former U.S. Ambassador to Jordan and Kuwait, current Visiting Professor of International Affairs and co-director of the undergraduate program in international affairs at George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs “Jordan and the Levant”
• Judith Yaphe, Distinguished Research Professor at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, the National Defense University, Washington D.C. “Iran, Iraq and the Persian Gulf”

Sunday, February 27

• Ambassador Richard Murphy, former U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines and Saudi Arabia “In Search of a Consistent Middle East Policy”
• R. James Woolsey, former U.S. CIA Director “The Long War of the 21st Century”

The moderator for the 2005 Camden Conference was Rushworth Kidder, President, Institute for Global Ethics.