Conversations With Power: Turmoil in the Middle East

Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns, the former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and Greece, is one of America’s top foreign policy experts and viewed as one of the most articulate spokespeople on globalization and U.S. foreign policy. Burns is currently the professor of the practice of diplomacy and international politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and addresses foreign relations and policy, U.S. competitiveness, perceptions of America, and the global impact of the fiscal crisis.

Dr. Kenneth Pollack, the director and senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, is an expert on Middle Eastern political-military affairs, with an emphasis on the Persian Gulf region. With an extensive background in national security, intelligence, and foreign policy, he has also written myriad books and articles. Pollack began his career as an Iran-Iraq military analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency and twice served on the staff of the National Security Council. He addresses foreign policy, the Middle East, national security, and intelligence.

For 30 years, Major Garrett has reported from the front lines of the nation’s pressing issues, doggedly chasing and breaking news stories. He began his illustrious journalism career as a police and general assignment reporter, and has since covered Congress for two major magazines and served as White House correspondent for three television networks. He is the Chief Washington Correspondent for CBS News, covering the White House, the biggest stories coming out of Washington, and more. He also serves as Correspondent at Large for National Journal and speaks about the state of politics today, the inner workings of Washington, DC, and the role of the media.