Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, LISD Director, and Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt, will provide analysis of the crises in Egypt and Syria, at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, September 16, 2013, in 016 Robertson Hall. This discussion is part of the Woodrow Wilson School's "Up to the Minute" series which focuses on world events as they occur.

A webcast of this event is available on LISD's YouTube Channel

Wolfgang Danspeckgruber is the Founding Director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination at Princeton University. He researches, writes and teaches on security and state building issues in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the wider Middle East; on theory and practice of international diplomacy, private, and crisis diplomacy; the International Criminal Court; and issues concerning Religion and Diplomacy. Since 2001 he has visited Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Georgia, India (Kashmir), Israel, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and has been involved in related private diplomacy. Until 2000, Danspeckgruber was involved in private diplomacy in Southeastern Europe and the Caucasus, and has also worked with the Ahtisaari Team and the EU Special Representative on the status of Kosovo. He conducted fact-finding missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia/Serbia. Danspeckgruber is also founder and chair of the Liechtenstein Colloquium on European and International Affairs (LCM), a private diplomacy forum in Liechtenstein.

Following a 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service, Daniel Kurtzer retired in 2005 having served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt. Kurtzer was instrumental in formulating and executing U.S. policy toward the Middle East peace process and served as a political officer at the American embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv, deputy director of the Office of Egyptian Affairs, speechwriter on the Policy Planning Staff, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and principal deputy assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research. In 1988 he crafted the peace initiative of Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and in 1991 served as a member of the U.S. team that brought about the Madrid Peace Conference.