This seminar was jointly sponsored with the Center for Security Policy.  The briefing was given by Professor Raymond Stock, a former Visiting Assistant Professor of Arabic and Middle East Studies at Drew University (2010-11), and Guggenheim Fellow (2007).  He lived in Cairo for 20 years (1990-2010). He was denied entry and deported by the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak on a return visit in December 2010, apparently due to a critical column he wrote.  With a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania (2008), Professor Stock has published widely on the Middle East in such periodicals as The Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, and the Middle East Quarterly.  His translations from Arabic fiction have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, London Magazine, and other venues.  He has further translated books by Egyptian Nobel laureate in literature Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006), whose biography he is writing for Farrar, Straus & Giroux in New York.  Professor Stock discussed: the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt; the continuing development of an Egyptian nuclear bomb; and Egypt’s relationship with Iran.

This event was extremely well attended, with a large audience of congressional staffers.