The on-going political crisis in Syria was the topic of an “Up to the Minute” panel discussion at the Woodrow Wilson School on February 7, 2012. The panel featured Richard Murphy, former U.S. Ambassador to Syria, Marwa Daoudy, visiting lecturer in international affairs and visiting research scholar at the Wilson School, and Karam Nachar, a graduate student in history and specialist on Syria. The discussion was moderated by Daniel Kurtzer, the S. Daniel Abraham Professor in Middle Eastern Policy Studies at the Wilson School, and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt.

“Is Peace Possible?” Two major points of contention in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were the topic of a Woodrow Wilson School discussion on February 6, 2012, as experts on the Middle East talked about the gap between each side’s position and some of the proposals to bridge them on the issues of “borders” and “security.” Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, and the S. Daniel Abraham Professor in Middle Eastern Policy Studies at the Woodrow Wilson School, and former Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), president of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace in Washington, DC, spoke to an overflow crowd of students and members of the Princeton community in the opening lecture for the Woodrow Wilson School’s 2012 spring semester. Deborah Amos, a Middle East correspondent for National Public Radio and a visiting Ferris Professor at Princeton University’s Council of the Humanities, moderated the discussion and the question and answer session that followed the presentations.