September 10, 2020

Much has happened in Syria and in the greater Middle East since January, when we hosted Dr. Joshua Landis at a dinner meeting of TCFR at the Tulsa Country Club. Our September 10 meeting will begin with a conversation between Bob Donaldson and Dr. Landis, exploring the developments in Syria itself and the connections with recent events in Lebanon and with the diplomatic breakthrough between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. We will then proceed to our normal Q&A format, where participants can ask questions on a broad range of topics related to the region.

Joshua Landis is Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Professor at the University of Oklahoma’s College of International Studies.

He writes “Syria Comment,” a daily newsletter on Syrian politics that attracts over 100,000 readers a month. Dr. Landis travels frequently to Washington DC to consult with government agencies and speak at think tanks. Most recently he has spoken at the Woodrow Wilson Institute, Brookings Institute, USIP, Middle East Institute, and Council on Foreign Relations.

He was educated at Swarthmore (BA), Harvard (MA), and Princeton (PhD). He has lived over 14 years in the Middle East and speaks Arabic and French fluently. He has lived four years in Syria, and spent most summers in Damascus until the revolution began.

He is a frequently published in such journals as Foreign Policy, and Middle East Policy.

He has won the best teacher prize at Oklahoma; helped raised over one million dollars for a new chair in Iranian studies, and helped bring the government funded Arabic Flagship Program to OU. Three Fulbright grants, the SSRC and other awards have helped support his research.