The SMU Tower Center presents a Middle East Lecture: The New Power Brokers of the Middle East - The Rise of the Gulf

Date: Friday, March 28, 2025, 12:00-1:30 pm

Location: Florence Hall, Room 201, 2nd floor, 3330 University Blvd. Dallas TX 75205

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is required and the seats are first come, first served. Please click below for registration.

With the fall in importance of the traditional Arab power centers in Cairo, Baghdad, and Damascus, the wealthy states of the Gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have become regional political and economic power brokers through massive expenditures on domestic "vision" development plans, significant investment in non-oil trade, clean energy, logistics, and new technologies such as artificial intelligence, and extensive but top-down social reforms. While they look to build on already close ties with the United States, they have joined a group of "middle powers" who have begun to define their nation's interests on their own terms and not as part of a larger ideological block.  

Featuring:

Ambassador Douglas A. Silliman, President, Arab Gulf State Institute

Doug Silliman served for 35 years in the U.S. Foreign Service in some of the world's hot spots, including Haiti, Pakistan, Tunisia, Jordan, and Turkey. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq 2016-2019 and where he oversaw the defeat of ISIS, and as U.S. ambassador to Kuwait 2014-2016 where he celebrated the 25th anniversary of the liberation of Kuwait and the U.S. military's crucial role in the liberation. He is currently the president of the Arab Gulf States Institute, a non-profit research center focused on the countries of the Gulf and their relations with the United States and the rest of the world.

Moderator:

Sabri Ates, Associate Professor of History,  William P. Clements Department Of History

Professor Ates specializes in Ottoman-Iranian relations, Kurdish history, late Ottoman Empire, sectarianism in the Middle East, and borderlands. He is currently working on a project tentatively called: “Sheikh Abdulqadir Nehri and the Pursuit of an Independent Kurdistan.” In addition to this project, Ates is also working on two articles: “1639 Treaty of Zohab: Founding Myth or Founding Document,” as well as an article on the role of sectarianism in Ottoman-Iranian relations.

Invitation image: The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia Hold the First Session of Their Joint Consular Committee, Nov. 26, 2024

Any person who requires a reasonable accommodation on the basis of a disability in order to participate in this program should contact the SMU Tower Center at tower@smu.edu in advance at least 4 days prior to the event to arrange for the accommodation.

SMU Tower Center | http://www.smu.edu/TowerCenter

Southern Methodist University (SMU)

3300 University Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75275-0117

214-768-3954  tower@smu.edu

Parking:  Binkley Garage, 3105 Binkley Ave.,  Dallas, TX 75205

(Accessible parking and elevator. For more accessibility questions email us at tower@smu.edu.)