Thursday, April 29^th

at Rumi Forum
1150 17th St. N.W., Suite 408 Washington, DC 20036

Diversity management is a concept relevant to all actors in international community, in particular to multinational states. Basically it is about differences that are imminent to every human being, society, nation or community of nations and about instruments and politics how to deal with these differences. Diversity management embraces also a need for interfaith and intercultural dialogue. Ambassador Kirn will address this concept from the point of view of Slovenian experience in the past, living in different multinational states, and in the present, as an EU member state. Special emhasises shall be given to the interfaith and intercultural dialogue in the region of Western Balkans, which is still struggling with the consequences of violent dissolution of former Yugoslavia and at the some time striving to secure its euro-atlantic perspective.

Ambassador Roman Kirn began his professional diplomatic career at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of SFR Yugoslavia in 1977. He also served at the Committee on Foreign Relations of Slovenia in Ljubljana, from 1978 to 1980. He rejoined the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1980 and served as First Secretary at the Embassy of SFR Yugoslavia in Rangoon/Burma. He returned to Slovenia in 1984 where he worked at the Committee on Foreign Affairs of Slovenia until 1990, in charge of regional cooperation.

After Slovenia gained it´s independance in 19991 he was appointed a Director of Multilateral Relations Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia. From 1992 to 1996 he served as Minister Counsellor at the Embassy of Slovenia in Prague/Czech Republic. Mr. Kirn was appointed State Undersecretary in the Foreign Ministry in 1996, in charge for multilateral affairs. In this period he was engaged primarily with UN and NATO related issues. He was a member to a number of the Slovenian delegations at the UN General Assembly sessions, he was the head of delegation to the Ottawa process that negotiated the convention on prohibition of the anti-personnel landmines and he was a co-founder of a joint Slovenian-US project, International Trust Fund for demining and mine victims assistance (ITF) in South East Europe and served as its first Chairman of the Managing Board. He was also in charge for the candidacy of Slovenia to gain its first UN Security Council non-permanent seat in 1997.

In August 1996 he joined a week long VIP programme for NATO candidates in Norfolk, at the invitation of the US State department.

Prior to his appointment as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the United Nations in New York, in July 2002, Mr. Kirn served two years (2000-2002) as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Slovenia to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Vienna. He served as Ambassador to the UN until December 2006. During this tenure he held different positions and responsibilities: Vice Chairman of the UNICEF Executive Board, Vice President of the UN General Assembly, Vice President of the 2005 NPT Review Conference, Facilitator for Revitalisation of UN General Assembly, Facilitator for UN Reform.

In January 2007 he rejoined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was appointed the Director of Department for North and Latin America and the Caribbean. During Slovenian EU Presidency he was in charge of transatlantic relations and preparations of the EU-US Summit, held in Slovenia in June 2008.

Mr. Kirn holds a B.A. in International Relations from University of Ljubljana (1976), and speaks English, French, Czech and Serbian/Croatian.

Mr. Kirn was born in Trbovlje, Slovenia, on February 23,1952, is married to Jovana Kirn and has two children.

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at Rumi Forum
1150 17th St. N.W., Suite 408 Washington, DC 20036

Ambassador Shinn has spoken about non-western involvement in Africa with a particular focus on China, India, Brazil, Russia and Iran. All of these countries, especially China, have stepped up their engagement on the continent at a time when western nations have leveled off or even scaled back their activities. With an average annual GDP growth rate of 5 percent since 2000, Africa should be a more attractive region for western trade and investment. Yet, it is the non-western countries that are stepping forward. Ambassador Shinn looks forward to engaging the audience in a dialogue on these issues.

Ambassador David Shinn has been teaching as an adjunct professor in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University for the past ten years. He served for thirty-seven years as a Foreign Service officer in the State Department with overseas assignments in Lebanon, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritania, Cameroon, Sudan and as ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. He has published extensively on issues related to the Horn of Africa and is currently writing a book on China-Africa relations. He has a PhD from GWU

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Friday, February 26^th

A brief discussion of the history of political terrorism and the problem of definition to be followed by an attempt to put terrorism into a relevant context of contemporary politics and a review of some of the characteristics of contemporary terrorism with respect to politics, insurgencies, religion, and suicide.

Ambassador Edward Marks retired from the State Department in 1995, after a forty year career involving services in nine countries, the United Nations in New York, and Washington, DC. Recalled to active duty in June 2002, he served as the State Department counter-terrorism advisor at the US Pacific Command in Honolulu until mid-September 2005.

Since retirement, Ambassador Marks has engaged in various activities and is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at George Mason University, a Senior Associate of The International Center for Terrorism Studies of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and a Senior Fellow at the Joint Forces Staff College. In addition, he is a Trustee of the Command and General Staff College Foundation and a Director of the DACOR (Diplomatic and Consular officers, Retired). He has been a consultant to the United Nations, the Project on National Security Reform, has served on various editorial boards and is the author of numerous articles and publications.

Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Ambassador Marks graduated from the University of Michigan (B.A.), the University of Oklahoma (M.A.), and the National War College. He is married to Aida Marks née Nercess of Tehran, Iran. He served in the United States Army 1956-58, and resides in Washington, DC.

Moderator :

Prof. Yonah Alexander is a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and Director of its International Center for Terrorism Studies as well as a member of the Board of Regents. Concurrently, he is Co-Director of the Inter-University Center for Legal Studies. Both are consortia of universities and think tanks throughout the world. Since 2009, Prof. Alexander also provides academic support to NATO’s Centre of Excellence-Defence against Terrorism in Ankara, Turkey. In addition, he is the former Director of Terrorism Studies at the George Washington University and the State University of New York, totaling 35 years of service. Educated at Columbia University (Ph.D.), the University of Chicago (M.A.), and Roosevelt University of Chicago (B.A.), Professor Alexander taught at George Washington University, American University, the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America, Tel Aviv University, The City University of New York, and The State University of New York.

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Tuesday, December 15^th

Distant as they are from each other, the peoples of the Middle East and China have interacted since well before Islam. In 650 C.E., the then Caliph sent one of the Prophet Mohammed’s companions as an emissary to the newly established Tang Dynasty. That date marks the beginning of Islam in China. Muslims have ever since played a prominent role in Chinese society. As the example of the great Ming, Muslim Admiral Zheng He attests, some of them have also been active in sustaining Chinese contact with Arabs, Persians, Turks, and other Muslim peoples. This cross-cultural liaison was, of course, interrupted by the reorientation of international relations imposed by Western colonialism. The post-colonial era in the Middle East and the return of China to wealth and power are fostering its resumption.

The Prophet Mohammed advised Muslims to “seek knowledge even unto China,” but it would be fair to say that Islam is far more familiar to Chinese than Chinese culture is to Arabs, Berbers, Kurds, Persians, Somalis, and Turks. Official statistics count about 25 million active Muslims in China. Much evidence suggests that the number of Chinese who consider themselves Muslim is well over 100 million. Meanwhile, some of the several hundred thousand Chinese now working in the Arab world will take Middle Eastern versions of Islam home with them. They have converted. There are already 3,500 Koranic schools, nine Islamic universities, and at least 28,000 mosques in today’s China. There will now be more, with additional schools of thought associated with them.

After thirty years of service as a member of the United States Foreign Service, Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr. succeeded Senator George McGovern as President of the Middle East Policy Council in December 1997. He served in that role until February 2009, when he resigned to accept an insistently reiterated request that he return to government to chair the U.S. National Intelligence Council. Following the leak of his appointment and a campaign of public vilification by rightwing elements of the American Israel Lobby, he withdrew his acceptance of the job. He said that he judged that the task of restoring credibility to the analytical product of the US intelligence community could not be accomplished in the face of continuing unscrupulous, politically motivated, personal attacks on him.

Chas Freeman was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs 1993-94, earning the highest public service awards of the Department of Defense for his roles in designing a NATO-centered post-Cold War European security system and in reestablishing defense and military relations with China. He served as U. S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm) 1989-92. He was Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs 1986-89, during the historic U.S. mediation of Namibian independence from South Africa and Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola.

Chas. Freeman served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d'affaires in the American embassies at both Bangkok (1984-1986) and Beijing (1981-1984). He was Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State 1979-1981. He was the principal American interpreter during President Nixon's path-breaking visit to China in 1972. In addition to his Middle Eastern, African, East Asian and European diplomatic experience, he served in India 1966-68.

Ambassador Freeman earned a certificate in Latin American studies from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, certificates in both the national and Taiwan dialects of Chinese from the former Foreign Service Institute field school in Taiwan, a BA magna cum laude from Yale University and a JD from the Harvard Law School. He is the recipient of numerous high honors and awards. He is the author, inter alia, of The Diplomat's Dictionary and Arts of Power: Statecraft and Diplomacy both published by the United States Institute of Peace.

In April 2009, Ambassador Freeman resumed his present position as Chairman of the Board of Projects International, Inc., a Washington-based business development firm that for nearly forty years has specialized in arranging international private-sector joint ventures, acquisitions, and other business operations for its American and foreign clients. Until February 2009, in addition to his role as president of the Middle East Policy Council, he also served as Co-Chair of the United States-China Policy Foundation, as Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council of the United States, and as a member of the boards of the Institute for Defense Analyses, the Washington World Affairs Council, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. He is currently a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a member of several corporate, university, and non-profit advisory boards.

Moderator :

Ambassador M. Osman Siddique served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Fiji Islands with concurrent accreditations to the Kingdom of Tonga, the Republic of Nauru, and the Government of Tuvalu from 1999-2001. Prior to his appointment as the United States Ambassador, he was the Chairman/CEO of a major US Corporation, an entrepreneur and a community leader. Ambassador M. Osman Siddique combines an outstanding professional background with a powerful understanding of both domestic and foreign policy issues. Privileged to be the first American Muslim and the first American of South Asian descent to serve as the United States Ambassador, M. Osman Siddique has exhibited outstanding leadership abilities. As demonstrated in his distinguished business and diplomatic career, Ambassador Siddique is in a unique position to bridge the cross-cultural, ethnic and religious diversity, necessary in dealing with the important issues which the US faces with many Asian and Islamic nations. The current geopolitical reality lends credence to his ability to resolve problems emanating from concerns that border on the fringes of misperception, mistrust and miscommunication.

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The Rumi Forum presented “After the Taliban: Nation Building in Afghanistan” with Ambassador James Dobbins.

In October 2001, the Bush Administration sent Amb. James F. Dobbins, who had overseen nation-building efforts in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, to war-torn Afghanistan to help the Afghans assemble a successor government to the Taliban. From warlords to exiled royalty, from turbaned tribal chieftains to elegant émigré intellectuals, Ambassador Dobbins introduces a range of colorful Afghan figures competing for dominance in the new Afghanistan in his just published book "After the Taliban: Nation Building in Afghanistan". His insider’s memoir recounts how the administration reluctantly adjusted to its new role as nation-builder, refused to allow American soldiers to conduct peacekeeping operations, opposed dispatching international troops, and shortchanged Afghan reconstruction as its attention shifted to Iraq. At his speech, Amb. Dobbins will probe the relationship between the Afghan and Iraqi ventures. He'll demonstrate how each damaged the other, with deceptively easy success in Afghanistan breeding overconfidence and then the latter draining essential resources away from the initial effort.

Ambassador Dobbins directs RAND’s International Security and Defense Policy Center . He has held State Department and White House posts including Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, Special Assistant to the President for the Western Hemisphere , Special Adviser to the President and Secretary of State for the Balkans, and Ambassador to the European Community. He has handled a variety of crisis management assignments as the Clinton Administration’s special envoy for Somalia , Haiti , Bosnia , and Kosovo, and the Bush Administration’s first special envoy for Afghanistan . He is lead author of the three volume RAND History of Nation Building and The Beginner’s Guide to Nation Building. In the wake of Sept 11, 2001, Dobbins was designated as the Bush Administration’s representative to the Afghan opposition. Dobbins helped organize and then represented the United States at the Bonn Conference where a new Afghan government was formed. On Dec. 16, 2001, he raised the flag over the newly reopened US Embassy.

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