Thursday, August 20, 2026 @ 6:00 PM, Tanoan Country Club, 10801 Academy Blvd NE

The Program: Navigating the Middle East in Turbulent Times -In the Region , Around the Globe

Ambassador Leaf will deconstruct the current turbulent state of the region – without benefit of a crystal ball, of course – to lay out risks, opportunities, what the Trump administration has gotten right (a few things) and what it has gotten disastrously wrong (the war, decimating the U.S. national security agencies/personnel and operating without anything remotely like a policy process for making critical decisions of peace and war).

Presenter: Ambassador Barbara Leaf served as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2022-2025, overseeing 21 diplomatic posts, $7.5 billion in foreign assistance, and policies and programs from Morocco to Yemen. Appointed in January 2021 as Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa and Special Assistant to President Biden, Ambassador Leaf left The Washington Institute for Near East Policy where she had directed the Arab Politics Program from 2018-2021. Ambassador Leaf served as the U.S. Ambassador to the UAE from 2014-2018. She previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Arabian Peninsula and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq.

Earlier assignments included Basrah, Rome, Director of the Office of Iranian Affairs, Sarajevo, Tuzla, Paris, Cairo, Tunis, Jerusalem, and Port-au-Prince. Awarded the Distinguished Honor Award by Secretary Blinken, Ambassador Leaf received numerous Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards during her career.

Ambassador Leaf has joined Arnold and Porter, where she serves in the storied law firm as a Senior International Policy Advisor. She is also a Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C.

Thursday, August 20, 2026 – 6:00 PM
Tanoan
Country Club, 10801 Academy Blvd. NE