Westminster Institute talks

https://westminster-institute.org/events/the-chinese-communist-partys-plan-to-dominate-asia-and-the-world/ Steven W. Mosher is an internationally recognized  authority on China and population issues, as well as an acclaimed  author, speaker. He has worked tirelessly since 1979 to fight coercive  population control programs and has helped hundreds of thousands of  women and families worldwide over the years. In 1979, Steven was the first American social scientist to visit  mainland China. He was invited there by the Chinese government, where he  had access to government documents and actually witnessed women being  forced to have abortions under the new “one-child policy.” Mr. Mosher  was a pro-choice atheist at the time, but witnessing these traumatic  abortions led him to reconsider his convictions and to eventually become  a practicing, pro-life Roman Catholic. Steven has appeared numerous times before Congress as an expert in  world population, China, and human rights abuses. He has also made TV  appearances on Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, The Today Show, 20/20,  FOX and CNN news, as well as being a regular guest on talk radio shows  across the nation. He is also the author of the best-selling A Mother’s Ordeal: One Woman’s Fight Against China’s One-Child Policy. Other books include Hegemon:  China’s Plan to Dominate Asia and the World, China Attacks, China  Misperceived: American Illusions and Chinese Reality, Journey to the  Forbidden China, and Broken Earth: The Rural Chinese. Articles by Steve have appeared in The Wall Street Journal,  Reader’s Digest, The New Republic, The Washington Post, National Review,  Reason, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Freedom Review, Linacre  Quarterly, Catholic World Report, Human Life Review, First Things, and numerous other publications. Steven Mosher lives in Virginia with his wife, Vera, and their nine children.

https://westminster-institute.org/events/the-crucifix-on-meccas-front-porch/ David Pinault received his B.A. in French literature from Georgetown University and his M.A.and Ph.D in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include comparative Christology and the status of Christian populations in Muslim-majority societies. Among the countries in which he has done fieldwork are Yemen, Egypt, Pakistan, India, and Indonesia. A recipient of Santa Clara University’s Public Intellectual Award and the Brutocao Award for Teaching Excellence, he has served since 2007 as director of SCU’s interdisciplinary program in Arabic, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies (AIMES). He is also involved in wildlife rescue and animal trafficking issues in Southeast Asia and is a member of the advisory board of ProFauna Indonesia. About the book His 2018 book The Crucifix on Mecca’s Front Porch: A Christian’s Companion for the Study of Islam has an unusual perspective. It argues that a critically minded examination of Islam can help Christians achieve a deeper appreciation of the unique truths of their own faith. It draws on the author’s personal experiences living in Islamic countries and his fieldwork with persecuted Christian-minority communities, especially in Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt, and Indonesia. It includes the author’s own original translations of Islamic texts in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, as well as primary-source materials in Latin that were written by Christian participants in the Crusades. The author focuses on Muslim interactions with the Christian tradition. He examines and takes issue with the misguided approach of Christians like Hans Küng and Muslims like Mustafa Akyol, who in the interests of Christian-Muslim rapprochement, minimize theological differences between the two faiths, especially in the area of Christology. Such attempts at rapprochement, he writes, do a profound disservice to both religions. Illustrating the Muslim view of Christ with Islamic polemical texts from the eleventh to the twenty-first centuries, the author draws on Hans Urs von Balthasar, and other theologians of kenotic Christology, to show how Islamic condemnations of divine “weakness” and “neediness” can deepen our appreciation of what is most uniquely Christian in our vision of Jesus, as God-made-man, who voluntarily experiences weakness, suffering, and death in solidarity with all human beings. A book that’s both timely and urgently needed, The Crucifix on Mecca’s Front Porch invites readers to reflect on the stark differences between Christianity and Islam and come to a fresh appreciation of the Christian faith.

https://westminster-institute.org/events/who-lost-afghanistan/ Hy Rothstein recently retired from the faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. Hy spent considerable time in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Philippines observing the conduct of those wars. Dr. Rothstein has written and edited books about Afghanistan (Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare (2006) and Afghan Endgames – Strategy and Policy Choices for America’s Longest War (Feb 2012), Iraq (The Three Circles of War (2010)), an anthology that explores the similarities between insurgency and gang violence (Gangs & Guerrillas (2011), a comprehensive volume on deception titled, The Art and Science of Military Deception (2013) and, Assessing War, which addresses the challenges of measuring success and failure during war.  Dr. Rothstein also served in the US Army as a Special Forces officer for more than twenty-six years. When not working, Hy single-hands his 40 foot sail boat on California’s central coast.

https://westminster-institute.org/events/you-will-be-assimilated-chinas-plan-to-sino-form-the-world/ David Goldman is an American economist, music critic, and author, best known for his series of online essays in the Asia Times under the pseudonym Spengler. He is the Wax Family Fellow at the Middle East Forum, a Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, and a member of the Board of Advisors of Sino-Israel Government Network and Academic Leadership (SIGNAL). According to the Claremont Review of Books, the “Spengler” columns in the Asia Times have attracted readership in the millions.

https://westminster-institute.org/events/iraq-past-present-and-pivotal-future/ Hassan Mneimneh is Principal at Middle East  Alternatives in Washington DC. He is Scholar at the Middle East  Institute and Contributing Editor at Fikra Forum at the Washington  Institute for Near East Policy. He was previously Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall  Fund of the United States (GMF), Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute,  Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), and Director  of the Center for Global Engagement at the Institute for American  Values. Between 1999 and 2008, Mneimneh assumed leading functions at the  Iraq Memory Foundation, the Iraq Foundation, and the Iraq Research and  Documentation Project. Mneimneh specializes in the affairs of the Middle East, North Africa,  and the wider Islamic world with a particular emphasis on radicalism  and factionalism. In previous capacities, he has focused on the  significance of socio-political and cultural developments in the MENA  region to US and European policies; assessed civil reaction to  radicalizing tendencies in Muslim societies; and studied the evolution,  record, and prospects of radical Islamist formations worldwide. He has  written, in English, Arabic, and French, on political, cultural,  historical, and intellectual questions concerning the Arab and Muslim  worlds.

Transcript: https://westminster-institute.org/events/china-and-us-strategic-competition/ Seth Cropsey is a senior fellow and director of the Center for American Seapower at Hudson Institute. He specializes in defense strategy, U.S. foreign and security policy in the Middle East and East Asia, and the future of U.S. naval power. Cropsey began his career in government at the U.S. Department of Defense as assistant to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and subsequently served as deputy undersecretary of the Navy in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, where he was responsible for the Navy’s position on efforts to reorganize DoD, development of the maritime strategy, the Navy’s academic institutions, naval special operations, and burden-sharing with NATO allies. In the Bush administration, Cropsey moved to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) to become acting assistant secretary, and then principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. Cropsey served as a naval officer from 1985 to 2004.

Transcript: https://westminster-institute.org/events/analysis-of-the-geopolitics-of-the-libya-conflict-june-2020/ Dr. Walid Phares served as a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump and Mitt Romney and is Fox News national security expert. Dr. Phares is an engaging and highly sought after Middle East expert  and pacesetter, often predicting trends and situations on the ground  years before they occur. He is a Fox News Expert, advisor to the US  Congress and the European Parliament and served as a senior advisor on  national security foreign policy to presidential candidate Mitt Romney  2012. Dr Phares is the only expert/author who predicted the Arab Spring a year before it occurred in his pacesetting book, The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East (Threshold,  a division of Simon and Shuster 2010). Dr Phares holds an extensive CV  and noteworthy achievements in the fields of academia, government  strategies, media and publishing critical advice on combating terrorism  and countering jihadi radicalization both stateside and abroad. Dr Phares holds a Ph.D in international relations and strategic  studies from the University of Miami, and a Political Science Degree  from St Joseph University and a Law degree from the Lebanese University  in Beirut and a Master in International Law from Universite’ Jean Moulin  in Lyons, France. Dr Phares taught political science and Middle East studies at Florida  Atlantic University between 1993 and 2004. Since 2006, he has taught  Global Jihadi strategies at the National Defense University in Washington DC. Dr Phares lectures on campuses nationwide and  internationally, including at the US Intelligence University. He  lectured at Georgetown University, George Washington University,  American University, Columbia, University of Chicago, Pepperdine, Boston  College, Brandeis, UC Berkley, University of Colorado at Boulder,  Loyola New Orleans, UC Santa Barbara, and many others including Ecole  Militaire of France in Paris. Dr Phares lectures also to various  academic associations including the Association for the Study of the  Middle East and Africa in Washington DC and Middle East American ethnic  organizations.

Transcript: https://westminster-institute.org/events/the-reemergence-of-civilizations-including-russias-as-the-defining-factor-in-the-future-of-the-middle-east/ Dr. David Wurmser is a Senior Analyst at the Center  for Security Policy. He has over 35 years of experience in foreign  policy with the State Department, Department of Defense, the National  Security Council and the American Enterprise Institute.  He is a  well-known expert on Middle East issues, especially the U.S.- Israel  relationship. From December 2018 until September 2019, Wurmser also served as  senior advisor to U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton. Recently  he was credited for authoring a series of memoranda for the White House  to provide the rationale for striking hard at the Iranian regime,  including the elimination of Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani.  Wurmser served as Middle East Adviser to former Vice President Dick  Cheney from 2003-2007.  He also served as a special assistant to Bolton  when he was Under Secretary of State for Arms Control in the George W.  Bush administration and as a research fellow on the Middle East at the  American Enterprise Institute from 2002-2003. Immediately following the 9/11 attacks, Wurmser consulted for the  Office of the Secretary of Defense on a war‐related classified project  on understanding the nature and strategic significance of terrorist  group networks and their interactions with states.  Wurmser served in  the U.S. Navy Reserve as an intelligence officer at the rank of  Lieutenant Commander. He was mobilized during the Operational Vigilant  Warrior following Iraq’s surge toward Kuwait in 1994 to serve on the  Iraq Intelligence Task for the DIA. He was mobilized twice more for the  same task force in 1996 and 1998 ‐‐ for which the Department of Defense  awarded him the prestigious Defense Meritorious Service Medal. Dr. Wurmser holds a Ph.D. in U.S. Foreign Policy and Middle East  affairs from Johns Hopkins University.  He is a prolific writer and has  done many TV and radio interviews.  He is the author of the 1999 book Tyranny’s Ally: America’s Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein, which the New Yorker called the intellectual framework for President Bush’s freedom strategy the Middle East.

Transcript: https://westminster-institute.org/events/inside-iran-what-forces-will-decide-its-future-and-how/ Mehdi Khalaji is the Libitzky Family fellow at The Washington Institute, focusing on the politics of Iran and Shiite groups in the Middle East. A Shiite theologian by training, Mr. Khalaji has also served on the editorial boards of two prominent Iranian periodicals and produced for the BBC as well as the U.S. government’s Persian news service. From 1986 to 2000, Mr. Khalaji trained in the seminaries of Qom, the traditional center of Iran’s clerical establishment. There he studied theology and jurisprudence, earning a doctorate and researching widely on modern intellectual and philosophical-political developments in Iran and the wider Islamic and Western worlds. In Qom, and later in Tehran, Mr. Khalaji launched a career in journalism, first serving on the editorial board of a theological journal, Naqd va Nazar, and then the daily Entekhab. In addition to his own writing, he has translated the works of the humanist Islamic scholar Muhammad Arkoun. In 2000, Mr. Khalaji moved Paris where he studied Shiite theology and exegesis in the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. He also worked for BBC Persian as a political analyst on Iranian affairs, eventually becoming a broadcaster for the Prague-based Radio Farda, the Persian-language service of the U.S. government’s Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. At Radio Farda, he produced news, features, and analysis on a range of Middle Eastern, Iranian, and Islamic issues. Mr. Khalaji writes a bilingual English and Persian blog, MehdiKhalaji.com. He previously addressed Westminster on the subject of How the Iranian Revolution Changed the Role of the Shia Clergy.

Transcript: https://westminster-institute.org/events/is-the-muslim-brotherhood-still-a-threat-today/ Cynthia Farahat is a Writing Fellow at the Middle  East Forum and a founder of the Egyptian Liberal party, which was the  first secular classical liberal political party in the history of modern  Egypt. She co-authored Desecration of a Heavenly Religion, which  analyzed and criticized Egypt’s blasphemy law. The book was officially  banned in Egypt by al-Azhar University in Cairo in 2008. Cynthia’s work  on countering Islamic terrorism has lead Lebanon’s intelligence  officials to officially bar her from entering the country. She also  received hundreds of death threats from Islamists and was placed on an  al-Qaeda affiliated hit list. Recently she has briefed over 120  Congressional offices on the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood by  discussing her personal story as well as her research, from a cache of  thousands of previously undisclosed documents, into the nature of the  Brotherhood. In 2011, the abduction of her brother, the assassination of her  friend, and numerous threats to her life prompted her to flee to the  United States where she was granted political asylum. She is  currently writing a book on the Muslim Brotherhood’s involvement in  transnational terrorism.