2015 BIR Convention in Dubai (17-20 May 2015)

Keynote Session, Tuesday, 19 May 2015 at 11.30:

“Understanding the Middle East and the Arab World: Strengths, Weaknesses and Opportunities”

Political columnist Rami Khouri shares his insights at upcoming World Recycling Convention

The upcoming BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition in Dubai (17-20 May 2015) will provide the international recycling industry with a unique analysis of the current situation in the Arab world.

Many of our members will remember his insightful speech on the economic opportunities in the Middle East during our 2009 Convention in Dubai. In light of the current turmoil in the Islamic world, his deep knowledge and understanding of the Middle East will provide a fine-tuned analysis of the complexities of a region in the process of redefining itself.

Mr Rami Khouri is an internationally renowned political columnist and book author with Palestinian-Jordanian and US citizenship and the former Director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.

In his work, Mr Khouri also serves as a non-resident senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Harvard University, and his internationally syndicated column is published by Agence Global (USA). He is editor at large, columnist and former executive editor of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, and was awarded the Pax Christi International Peace Prize for 2006.

He has been a fellow and visiting scholar at Harvard University, Princeton University, Mount Holyoke College, Syracuse University, The Fletcher School at Tufts University, the University of Oklahoma and Stanford University, and was a member of the Brookings Institution Task Force on US Relations with the Islamic World. He is a Fellow of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (Arab East Jerusalem), and a former member of the Leadership Council of the Harvard University Divinity School, and the International Advisory Council of the International Committee of the Red Cross. He serves on the Joint Advisory Board of the Northwestern University Journalism School in Doha, Qatar, and the international advisory board of the Center for Regional and International Studies at the Georgetown University Doha campus.  

He was editor-in-chief of the Jordan Times for seven years and for 18 years was general manager of Al Kutba, Publishers, in Amman, Jordan, where he also served as a consultant to the Jordanian tourism ministry on biblical archaeological sites. He has hosted programs on archaeology, history and current public affairs on Jordan Television and Radio Jordan, and often comments on Mideast issues in the international media.

He has BA and MSc degrees respectively in political science and mass communications from Syracuse University, NY, USA.