The panel presentation and discussion entitled "Middle East as Global Challenge" celebrated the dedication of the Dorothy R. and Norman E. McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives on October 28, 2006. The event was part of the launch of the $300 million Campaign for Mount Holyoke. The center--which was established in 2004--unites Mount Holyoke's international programs and advances students' understanding of global problems and solutions from cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural, and cross-national perspectives.
The panel was moderated by Eva Paus, the Carol Hoffmann Collins Director of the McCulloch Center, and featured experts Anthony Lake, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; Eynat Shlein-Michael, counselor for Middle Eastern affairs at the Embassy of Israel, Washington, DC: and, Rami Khouri, editor-at-large of the Beirut Daily Star and director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut. Lake, who was Five College Professor of International Relations at Amherst and Mount Holyoke colleges from 1981 to 1992, served as national security adviser in the Clinton administration. In 2004, Khouri was the first Global Scholar-in-Residence at the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives.
Rather than focusing on Iraq or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the event sought to look at the Middle East more broadly. Each panelist discussed regional trends and perspectives, as well as what they regard as major security threats and their suggestions for real solutions.