Upcoming Event
Featured speakers: Ambassador Patrick Theros, Dr. Kenneth Katzman, Dr. Debra Shushan, and Ross Harrison.
Bios:
Ambassador Patrick Theros
Strategic Advisor and Senior Fellow, Gulf International Forum
Ambassador Patrick Theros is a Strategic Advisor and Senior Fellow at Gulf International Forum. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the State of Qatar from 1995-1998. Prior to his appointment, he served as Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, responsible for the coordination of all U.S. Government counterterrorism activities outside the United States. From 1991-1993, Ambassador Theros served as the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of Central Command (CENTCOM).
Ambassador Theros joined the Foreign Service in 1963, and served in a variety of positions in Washington D.C., Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Nicaragua and Syria, including charge d’affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassies in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. In 1999, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah Al-Thani awarded Ambassador Theros the Qatar Order of Merit for his efforts in service of the U.S.-Qatar bilateral relationship. His commitment to national service also earned him the President’s Meritorious Service Award and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service (1992). Ambassador Theros has also earned four Superior Honor Awards, the highest awards for distinguished service given by the Foreign Service. After his retirement from the Foreign Service Ambassador Theros assumed the office of President of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council in March 2000 until his retirement in 2017.
Ambassador Theros’ personal commitment to community and public service earned him the rank of Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem (1999), as well as the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom (2005). In addition to his duties as President of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council, Ambassador Theros is also active in the following organizations: The Middle East Policy Council, Board of Directors; The Council of Foreign Relations, Member; The Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, Member; and The American Academy of Diplomacy, Member.
Ambassador Theros graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 1963. He has done advanced studies at the American University in Washington, D.C., the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua, the Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia, and the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He is married to Aspasia (nee Pahigiannis) and has three children. He speaks and reads Spanish, Arabic and Greek professionally.
Dr. Kenneth Katzman
Senior Non-Resident Fellow, Gulf International Forum; Senior Fellow, The Soufan Center
Dr. Kenneth Katzman is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at Gulf International Forum. Dr. Katzman is a Senior Fellow at The Soufan Center. His work focuses on geopolitical and regional dynamics in the Middle East—with a focus on Iran—as well as United States strategy. In late 2022, Dr. Katzman retired from his longtime position as a Senior Analyst with the Congressional Research Service (CRS), an arm of the U.S. Congress that provides analysis and advice to members of the U.S. Congress in their legislative and oversight responsibilities. In that post, Dr. Katzman served as a senior Middle East analyst, with special emphasis on Iran, Iran-backed groups operating in the Middle East and South Asia, the Persian Gulf states, Iraq, and Afghanistan. During his more than 30-year tenure at CRS, he provided reports and briefings to Members of Congress and their staffs on U.S. policy on these countries and issues, and provided analysis of related legislative proposals. On about a dozen occasions, he has testified before various Committees and Subcommittees of Congress on his areas of expertise. He also participated in several congressional delegations to the region at the Member and staff level. During 1996 and again during July 2001—March 2002, he was assigned to the majority staff of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to work on Middle East issues, including organizing hearings and helping to draft legislation such as the Iran Sanctions Act (1996).
As a well-known expert on the region, Dr. Katzman has delivered numerous presentations and briefings at conferences and meetings in Washington D.C. as well as throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South and Central Asia. He has also written numerous articles in various outside publications, including a book entitled The Warriors of Islam: Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (Westview Press, 1993) which was the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation. Since 2017, he has been a contributor to The Soufan Center, including serving as a key drafter of several of the Center’s reports on U.S. policy toward Iran. Dr. Katzman has been quoted frequently on the region and appeared in many regional media, including Al Jazeera, Al Hurra, Al Arabiya, Sharq News, Al Araby, and Al Ghad TV.
In recent years, Dr. Katzman has worked with numerous region-related think tanks and institutions. He has authored scholarly articles for organizations including The Atlantic Council, the Gulf International Forum, the Arab Gulf State Institute of Washington, and the Arab Center D.C. Among his earlier outside publications, during 1998, he wrote expert working papers on the ballistic missile capabilities of Iran and Iraq for the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States (“Rumsfeld Commission”). In late 1999, and again in 2010, the Atlantic Council published his detailed monographs on U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Dr. Katzman holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from New York University (1991). During May 1985—June 1989, Dr. Katzman was an analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, where he prepared written reports for U.S. Middle East policymakers on leadership dynamics in Iran, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf states. Two years in the private defense consulting industry followed his tour at the CIA.
Dr. Debra Shushan
Senior Resident Affiliate, Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization
Dr. Debra Shushan is a Middle East and US foreign policy expert. A senior resident affiliate at Georgetown’s Center for Jewish Civilization, she has taught Middle East politics at the College of William & Mary and other top universities. Her popular podcast/newsletter, The Debrief with Debra Shushan (on Substack) features in-depth conversations with some of the most important voices in US and Middle East politics, with an emphasis on Israel-Palestine. Dr. Shushan is a sought-after speaker and international news analyst. Previously, she directed Israel-Palestine policy and advocacy at progressive Jewish organizations, including J Street and Americans for Peace Now. Dr. Shushan’s research and language studies have taken her to Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Syria, Turkey, and the UAE, in addition to Israel-Palestine. She is a former Marshall Scholar and Truman Scholar. She is a graduate of Harvard University (BA), Oxford University (MPhil), and Yale University (PhD), and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Georgetown University’s campus in Doha, Qatar.
Ross Harrison
Senior Fellow and Book Series Editor, Middle East Institute
Ross Harrison is a senior fellow and book series editor at the Middle East Institute (MEI). He is the author of “Decoding Iran’s Foreign Policy.” Ross is also a faculty member in the Political Science Department at the University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches courses on Middle East politics and US foreign policy in the Middle East. From 2004 to 2020, he was a Professor in the Practice of International Affairs at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Harrison annually teaches a course on strategy and international security to senior Georgian government officials at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies in Tbilisi, Georgia, a program funded by the US Department of State.
He has published extensively on Middle Eastern regional dynamics in leading journals such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest. Mr. Harrison is the author of Strategic Thinking in 3D: A Guide for National Security, Foreign Policy and Business Professionals (Potomac Books, 2013), as well as the co-editor of From Chaos to Cooperation: Toward Regional Order in the Middle East (Middle East Institute, 2017) and Escaping the Conflict Trap: Toward Ending Civil Wars in the Middle East (Middle East Institute, 2019). He also holds an MA from the University of Pittsburgh.