Amb. James Jeffrey

James Jeffrey retired from the Foreign Service after a 35 year career in 2012 with the rank of career ambassador, and assignments including Deputy National Security Advisor, and Ambassador to Iraq, Turkey, and Albania. He was recalled in 2018 for 27 months as chief of mission Syria and Special Representative to the Defeat ISIS Coalition.

Mara Revkin

Dr. Mara Revkin is an Associate Professor at the Duke University School of Law where she conducts empirical research on armed conflict, peace-building, transitional justice, and migration with a regional focus on the Middle East and particularly Iraq and Syria. She has been working with and advising United Nations agencies and other humanitarian organizations in Iraq and Syria since 2016.

William Roebuck

William Roebuck is the Executive Vice President of The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Roebuck completed his diplomatic career in late 2020, after 28 years of service in postings across the Middle East, including Baghdad, Damascus, and Jerusalem. He served as U.S. ambassador to Bahrain from 2015-17 and as Chargé d’Affaires in Libya in 2013.

Joshua Landis

Joshua Landis is Sandra Mackey Chair in the Boren College of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma and director of the Center for Middle East Studies and the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies. He is past President of the Syrian Studies Association and has lived 15 years in the Middle East and four in Syria.

Steven Simon (Moderator)

Steven Simon is Senior Research Analyst at the Quincy Institute and the Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at the MIT Centre for International Studies. From 2011 to 2012 he served on the National Security Council staff as senior director for Middle Eastern and North African affairs. His most recent book, Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East, was published this spring.