The Rumi Forum presented “US-Turkey Relations in the New Era” with Dr. Ian O. Lesser, Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States
Dr. Lesser gave his perspective on the President Obama’s recent high-profile trip to Turkey, and offer thoughts on the new challenges and open questions for the future of US-Turkish relations and Turkey’s place in transatlantic cooperation.
Dr. Ian O. Lesser came to GMF in November 2006 from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, where he led a major project on the future of US-Turkish relations. He is also President of Mediterranean Advisors, LLC, and senior advisor to the Luso-American Foundation in Lisbon. Prior to establishing Mediterranean Advisors, Dr. Lesser was Vice President and Director of Studies at the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, and spent over a decade at RAND as a senior analyst and research manager specializing in strategic studies and Mediterranean security. From 1994-1995, he was a member of the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff at the US Department of State, where his portfolio included southern Europe, Turkey, and the multilateral track of the Middle East peace process. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council of the US, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the advisory boards of Turkish Policy Quarterly and the International Spectator, and is a former senior fellow of the Onassis foundation.
Moderator :
Gunay Evinch, President-Elect, ATAA, is Second generation Turkish American, born in Chicago, raised in San Francisco, and living and working in Washington, DC where ATAA is headquartered. ATAA: Capital Region VP (2004-2006); Secretary General (1998-2000); Author, Turkish Times “Sports News” (1993-98). Education: U.S. Fulbright Scholar and Japan Sasakawa Scholar, International Law and the Armenian Case, Ankara University (1991-93); Juris Doctor, Washington & Lee University, VA (1991); Washington & Lee Grant (1989-91); B.A. Development Economics and B.A. Political Science-Public Service, University of California, Davis (1986); UC Regents Outstanding Senior Award (1986); EU Legal Studies, University of Madrid (1989). Profession: Lawyer, Saltzman & Evinch (1993-present)