ISIS, the Middle East, and US Policy:
Regional Reflections Since the Arab Spring?
Emile Nakhleh

July 6, 2016

This talk will highlight the continuing threat from ISIS, the factors—policy and radical ideology—that drive it, and its apparent resiliency. The presentation will also focus on US regional policy and the threats and challenges it faces in the coming decade in light of the Iran agreement and Iran's integration in the international community. How will the US adjust to and deal with the Saudi and GCC view that the warming of relations between the US and Iran poses a threat to the Arab littoral of the Gulf? Is it really a zero-sum game? Is it Sunni-Shia sectarian conflict or a struggle of power between the two Gulf regional states?

Dr. Emile Nakhleh was a Senior Intelligence Service officer and Director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program at the Central Intelligence Agency. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Research Professor and Coordinator of National Security Programs at the University of New Mexico, and the author of A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America’s Relations with the Muslim World, and Bahrain: Political Development in a Modernizing State. He has written extensively on Middle East politics, political Islam, radical Sunni ideologies, and terrorism. Dr. Nakhleh received his BA from St. John’s University (MN), the MA from Georgetown University, and the Ph.D. from the American University. He and his wife live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

ISIS, the Middle East, and US Policy: Regional Reflections Since the Arab Spring?

The Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) sponsored this seminar entitled "ISIS, the Middle East, and US Policy: Regional Reflections Since the Arab Spring?" on July 6, 2016, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Emile Nakhleh was a Senior Intelligence Service officer and Director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program at the Central Intelligence Agency. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Research Professor and Coordinator of National Security Programs at the University of New Mexico.

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