Program Description

The UCLA Center for Middle East Development hosted the webinar, "U.S. Middle East Policy During a Pandemic, a Social Crisis, and an Election Year," on June 4, 2020.

This talk focused on how domestic political considerations in the months leading to the U.S. presidential election in November were shaping, and in turn being shaped by both the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and its policy toward the Middle East. The program included a presentation by Zev Furst, followed by an audience question and answer session, moderated by Research Professor Steven Spiegel.
 

About the Speaker

Zev Furst is a leading global political, business and communications strategist who has advised political leaders, corporate executives of Fortune 100 companies, and major nongovernmental organizations. He has managed and worked on presidential and congressional campaigns in the United States, as well as elections in France, Germany, Italy, Venezuela, Israel, Mexico, the Palestinian Authority, Ukraine and Japan.

Mr. Furst is the Chairman and CEO of First International Resources, an international corporate and political consulting firm he founded in 1992. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Kennan Institute in Washington, DC.

About the Moderator

Steven L. Spiegel serves as Director of the Center for Middle East Development at UCLA. Through the innovative and informal negotiation techniques he has developed, Professor Spiegel helps produce cutting edge ideas for promoting Middle East regional security and cooperation through a broad variety of publications.


Sponsor(s): Center for Middle East Development, Burkle Center for International Relations, Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Department of Public Policy