U.S.-Saudi Arabia - Introduction - Conference - CIT / New America Foundation

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ITEM OF INTEREST
May 18, 2009

U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium
Conference Transcripts -- Session 3
Introduction - Edward Luce

Editor's Note:

Last week a major forum addressing the state of and prospects for the relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was convened in Washington by the New America Foundation (NAF) and the Committee for International Trade (CIT) of the Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Distinguished speakers spent the day providing perspectives and insights on what the relationship should look like, how economics was shaping the national security picture vis a vis the relationship, the challenges for America in the region and how the perspective on these challenges look from the Saudi Arabian point of view.

Today we are pleased to provide the transcripts from the third and final session, "Through Saudi Arabia's Window and Other Lenses: Middle East Dynamics and Stakeholder Challenges". Among the featured speakers was moderator Edward Luce, the Washington Bureau Chief of the Financial Times.

Separate emails will provide each panelist's remarks and the question and answer period transcript. You can find all of the conference materials and related links at a new SUSRIS Special Section. [ "U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium" - Conference Special Section ]

Video MP3

U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium
Conference Transcripts -- Session 3
Edward Luce
Washington Bureau Chief, Financial Times

[Edward Luce] Thanks Steve. You�ll be relieved to hear that because you built such a large panel, you�re not going to be getting any of my thoughts on Saudi Arabia, which is just as well because I�m not qualified to give you any. I am qualified to ask provocative and simplistic questions. But I�ll save that for a little bit later. I think because it�s such a large panel and we haven�t got a huge amount of time, I�ll introduce each of the panelists and warn them that I will, it�s a rare situation for journalists to have the right to interrupt dignitaries with Excellent and Honorable before their name, but I will exercise that right ruthlessly if any of you talk too long. So please confine your opening remarks to ten minutes maximum, preferably five minutes.

Most need no introductions, but I�ll give you very quick ones. Anne-Marie Slaughter is of course the head of the policy planning at the State Department, and formerly the Dean, as you know, of the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. We then have Neil Crompton who�s standing in for Nigel Sheinwald. And Neil is the Councilor on the Middle East at the British Embassy. We then have the Honorable Abdulrahman Al-Saeed, who�s an advisor to the Royal Court, and who is Director General of Specialized Studies in Riyadh. We have the Honorable Wyche Fowler, former Senator and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. We have the only person who, I don�t know whether this is deliberate, the only person who Steve hasn�t prefixed with Honorable or Excellent Joseph McMillan, who I an opportunity to talk to before and quite happily from that brief interchange say that he is an excellent person and highly honorable. And he�s Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Security Affairs at the Pentagon. We have his Excellency Pierre Vimont, the French Ambassador to Washington. And that is a long and distinguished and honorable and excellent panel. Anne-Marie, can I ask you to, you can go last. Neil, in that case, would you be so kind as to start.

[Visit the SUSRIS Special Section "U.S.-Saudi Relations in a World Without Equilibrium" for the transcripts from this and other panels and additional resources.]

Session Three Video

Courtesy New America Foundation

Video MP3

Speaker Biography:

Edward Luce
Washington Bureau Chief, Financial Times

Edward Luce is the Washington commentator and former South Asia bureau chief for London�s Financial Times. In February 2006, he was named the paper�s Washington commentator, writing on the U.S. economy, politics and foreign affairs. Previously, he was the South Asia bureau chief, based in New Delhi. Between 1997 and 1999, he was the capital markets editor, having joined the Financial Times in 1995 as the Philippines correspondent. Additionally, he was a speechwriter to Larry Summers, then Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Administration. His forthcoming book on India, In spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India, is scheduled for release in September in the United Kingdom and India, and in January 2007 in the United States. Luce earned a degree in politics, philosophy and economics at the University of Oxford; he earned a postgraduate degree in newspaper journalism at City University in London.

Source: New America Foundation / Committee for International Trade

AGENDA

Panel III: Through Saudi Arabia's Window and Other Lenses: Middle East Dynamics and Stakeholder Challenges

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