The Assad family ruled Syria for more than 50 years with an iron fist. On 27 November, HTS and its allies launched their surprise offensive and toppled the Assad regime. But what is next?
The end of Assad rule will reshape the region’s balance of power, and HTS is not the only player in Syria’s fast-changing future.
Join Dr. Jerrold Green, Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and former President & CEO of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and Mr. Saed Moujtahed, President of the Syrian Institute for Progress to hear their conversation on what happened, and what’s ahead for the newly “free” country of Syria.
Monday, December 16th, 2024, 5pm PST
Zoom Link will be provided in advance.
Speaker Bios:
Dr. Jerrold D. Green
Dr. Jerrold D. Green is the Global Advisor to Cedars-Sinai, a Los Angeles based healthcare organization and a Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations. Prior to this he spent 16 years as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Council on International Policy and as a Research Professor of Communication, Business, and International Relations at the University of Southern California. Green was a Partner at Best Associates in Dallas, Texas, a merchant banking firm with global operations. He also occupied senior management positions at the RAND Corporation where he was awarded the RAND Medal for Excellence. Dr. Green has a B.A. (summa cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts/Boston, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. His academic career began at the University of Michigan and he subsequently joined the University of Arizona where he became a Professor of Political Science and Sociology as well as Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
Green has lived and worked in Egypt, where he was a Fulbright Fellow, Iran, and Israel. He has been a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Science’s West Asian Studies Center in Beijing; a visiting lecturer at the Havana based Center for African and Middle East Studies (CEAMO), a fellow at the Australian Defense College, and delivered papers at conferences sponsored by the Iranian Institute of International Affairs in Tehran. Dr. Green led three U.S. Department of Defense sponsored fact-finding delegations to Afghanistan, one to Iraq, and has served as an observer at the legal proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Green is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the London based International Institute for Strategic Studies, The California Club where he serves as the Global Advisor, the Lincoln Club, the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California, and the Bill Richardson Center for Diplomacy/FBI Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell Influencers Group. He has served on the Selection Committee for the U.S. Department of State Herbert Salzman Award for Excellence in International Economic Performance by a Foreign Service Officer. Green serves as a member of the Agenda Committee for the annual Halifax International Security Forum where he is an HFX Fellow. Dr. Green is a Reserve Deputy Sheriff with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and was accorded the department’s Meritorious Service Award. He previously served as a Specialist Reserve Officer with the Los Angeles Police Department where he advised on terrorism and intelligence issues. Green was honored by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce with its World Trade Week Stanley T. Olafson Bronze Plaque Award that honors “a member of the international trade community whose outstanding dedication, efforts and achievements have advanced trade in the Southern California region.”
Dr. Green currently serves as a Director of the Whittier Trust Company, on the American Advisory Board of the Thomas Mann House, the Global Council of the Colburn School, the Steering Committee of the USA Eisenhower Fellowships, the Honorary Advisory Council of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS), and served for over a decade on the selection committee for the Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowships conferred by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Green was a member of the United States Secretary of the Navy Advisory Panel for 8 years and was awarded the Department of the Navy, Distinguished Civilian Service Award for his service. He also served for 8 years on the U.S. Department of State Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP), the Board of Directors of the California Club, was a member of the Global Taiwan Institute Bipartisan Task Force on US-Taiwan Relations in the 21st Century, on the Advisory Committee of The Asia Society of Southern California, the Advisory Board of Whitney International University, the Board of Falcon Waterfree Technologies, the Board of Columbia University’s Middle East Institute, and as an International Medical Corps Ambassador. Dr. Green served as a technical advisor to Activision Publishing in Santa Monica, California, where he consulted on the highly successful Call of Duty series.
Saed Moujtahed
President, Syrian Institute for Progress
Saed Moujtahed is an electrical engineer and founder of Apex Consulting, an engineering consulting firm in the United States.
He has been an activist since 2000, putting the Arab-American community on the American political map by volunteering his time to empower Arab-Americans to exercise and protect their rights in the U.S. and to have a strong political voice.
He has worked tirelessly with Congress to defend the rights of the Arab and Muslim American communities against stereotypes and labeling. He was part of a national American Muslim coalition that organized American Arab & Muslims to vote for Governor George W. Bush as a block vote during the U.S. Presidency’s campaign in 2000. He also successfully campaigned for Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney for her 2004 election, which she won.
Saed Moujtahed has also been a Syrian-American activist from the beginning of the Syrian Revolution back in 2011. He established and chaired for nearly a year the Government Relations Committee for the Syrian American Council (SAC). He has spent most of his time during the past eight years lobbying our Administration to support the Syrian people in attaining their struggle for freedom. He has traveled to many cities throughout the U.S. to rally the Syrian-American community’s support and to motivate them to overcome the psychological fear that most Syrians inherited from this barbaric regime for over 48 years.
He is currently President of the Syrian Institute for Progress (SIP), an organization that he founded in 2012 focuses on addressing and supporting the needs of Syrian refugees. Though SIP, he continues to provide information and advice to our Administration on the dynamic changes of the Syrian Revolution and the Opposition in order to help find the most suitable and lasting solution to the crisis.
Saed Moujtahed also launched a successful program, the Burnt Children Relief Foundation (BCRF), which brings Syrian burnt children to the U.S. for medical treatment.
