Daniel Kurtzer, professor, esteemed diplomat, and 29-year career U.S. Foreign Service veteran, will present Carleton College’s weekly convocation on Friday, April 24 from 10:50 to 11:50 a.m. in the Skinner Memorial Chapel.
Entitled “Shifting Sands in the Middle East: Implications for American Policy,” Kurtzer’s presentation is free and open to the public. Carleton convocations are also recorded and archived online at go.carleton.edu/convo.
Ambassador Kurtzer is a lecturer and the S. Daniel Abraham Professor in Middle Eastern policy studies at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He served as U.S. ambassador to Egypt from 1997 to 2001 and to Israel from 2001 until 2005 when he retired after a 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service.
Kurtzer has served many diplomatic posts, including political officer at the American embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv, Deputy Director of the Office of Egyptian Affairs, speechwriter on the Policy Planning Staff, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research.
Throughout his career, Kurtzer has been instrumental in formulating and executing U.S. policy toward the Middle East peace process. Since he has left the government service, Kurtzer has served many positions, including as an advisor to the Iraq Study Group, as a member of the Board of the American University in Cairo, the Advisory Council of the American Bar Association’s Middle East Rule of Law Initiative and the Middle East Institute, as the first Commissioner of the professional Israel Baseball League, and as a member of the New Jersey-Israel Commission. Kurtzer is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the President’s Distinguished Service Award and the Department of State Distinguished Service Award.
Ambassador Kurtzer is a co-author of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East, and The Peace Puzzle: America’s Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011. Kurtzer was also a foreign policy advisor to President Obama’s campaign in 2008 and is a contributor to the Washington Post and other publications that discuss developments in the Middle East.
This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Convocations Committee. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4308. The Skinner Memorial Chapel is located at the corner of College and First Streets in Northfield.
