Chautauqua Institution is proud to partner for the 31st year with Geoffrey Kemp of the Center for the National Interest to present the annual Middle East Update, a program that brings together foreign policy experts on the grounds of Chautauqua to discuss issues facing the region. The 2024 MEU program will focus on Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel, from the immediate aftermath to today.

Geoffrey Kemp is Senior Director of Regional Security Programs at the Center for the National Interest. He served in the White House during the first Reagan administration as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs on the National Security Council Staff. Prior to his current position, he was a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where he was Director of the Middle East Arms Control Project.

Dalia Dassa Kaye is a senior political scientist and former director of the Center for Middle East Public Policy at the RAND Corporation. Before joining RAND, Kaye lived in The Netherlands where she served as a Council on Foreign Relations international affairs fellow at the Dutch Foreign Ministry and taught at the University of Amsterdam. In 2011–12 she was a visiting professor and fellow at UCLA’s International Institute and Burkle Center. From 1998 to 2003 Kaye was an assistant professor of political science and international affairs at The George Washington University. She is the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including a Brookings Institution research fellowship and The John W. Gardner Fellowship for Public Service.

Ambassador Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He also teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization. For more than 12 years, Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He served two and half years as special assistant to President Obama and as National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, spending the first six months of the administration as the special advisor on Iran to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.