Tuesday, November 15, 2011

FPRI's 2011 Annual Dinner

Reflections on the Arab Spring

Fouad Ajami

Presentation of the 7th Annual Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Service

Fouad Ajami is one of the most astute observers of the Middle East, with a poet's gift for expression on display in his many essays for Foreign Affairs magazine, the Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and elsewhere. Particularly at this time of turmoil throughout the Middle East, he is a ubiquitous presence on CNN.

A naturalized U.S. citizen born in Southern Lebanon, Professor Ajami is a senior fellow at The Hoover Institution and co-chairman of Hoover's Working Group on Islamism and the International Order. Until recently, he was the Majid Khadduri professor and Director of Middle East Studies at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, a post he held for 30 years. Between 1989 and 2008, he was a contributing editor for U.S. News and World Report. In June 2002, he was elected by the members of the Council on Foreign Relations to a five-year term on the Council's Board of Directors, and re-elected in 2007. His books include The Arab Predicament; The Vanished Imam; The Dream Palace of the Arabs; and The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs and the Iraqis in Iraq.

Professor Ajami has been the recipient of the MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the Bradley Prize for Outstanding Achievement, the National Humanities Medal and the Eric Breindel Prize in Journalism.

Audio and video of this address.

Welcoming remarks by dinner chairman, Dr. John M. Templeton, Jr.

Tribute to the late Harvey Sicherman by Walter A. McDougall

Remarks by FPRI Acting President Alan Luxenberg

Presentation of Benjamin Franklin Public Service Award to Fouad Ajami by the Hon. John Hillen

FPRI Dinner Booklet and Annual report