Arab-US Policymakers Conference (AUSPC) 2006
Washington, DC -- October 30-31, 2006

Day Two - The 25th Anniversary of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): A Forum on the Future of the GCC

Session #7 - What Future for the GCC Region? 

Moderator: Ms. Anne Joyce, Editor, Middle East Policy and Vice-President and Board Member, Middle East Policy Council, where, inter alia, she was editor and in charge of production for The Gulf Cooperation Council: Moderation and Stability in an Interdependent World; The Gulf, Cooperation, and the Council: An American Perspective; A Century in Thirty Years: Shaykh Zayed and the United Arab Emirates; and The Saudi-Egyptian Conflict over North Yemen.  

Keynote Speaker: “Pursuing Greater Cooperation Among the GCC Countries: Opportunities and Challenges” -- HRH Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States of America; Chairman, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh; Co-Chair, C100 Group, Council of 100 Leaders (West-Islamic World Dialogue) which has been affiliated with the World Economic Forum since 2003; Founding Member, Board of Directors, King Faisal Foundation; former Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United Kingdom and Ireland; and former Director General, General Intelligence Directorate, the kingdom’s main foreign intelligence service, 1977-2001.  

Panelists:

• “Reflections on the Way Forward Regarding U.S. Policies Toward Iran and Iraq” -- Dr. Anthony H. Cordesman, The Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, Center for Strategic and International Studies; National Security Analyst, ABC News; Director, CSIS Middle East New Assessment Project, The Gulf in Transition Study, and principal investigator, CSIS Homeland Defense Project; former National Security Assistant to Senator John McCain of the Senate Armed Services Committee; Director of Intelligence Assessment, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and Civilian Assistant to the Secretary of Defense; and author of more than 40 books, among them, The Iraq War; National Security in Saudi Arabia; Saudi Arabia Enters the 21st Century; The Lessons of Afghanistan; Terrorism, Asymmetric Warfare; and Weapons of Mass Destruction.  

• “A Geopolitical and Bilateral Cooperation Perspective of the GCC Region and the United States” -- The Hon. Gordon Gray, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East, U.S. Department of State, with responsibilities for, inter alia, the promotion of U.S. interests in the Arabian Peninsula and Iran; former Director of Arabian Peninsula Affairs, U.S. Department of State.  

• Panel Questions and Answers