A panel of former Middle East leaders and ambassadors will hold a wide-ranging public conversation on the regional politics, power dynamics, and historical and ethnic conflicts that have shaped Israel, Palestine and the broader region, and the potential paths toward a peaceful future. The “Pathways to Peace” panel will take place on March 10 at 6 p.m. in Bailey Hall.

“This is a region with a long and complex history, which has too often, in recent years, been reduced to binaries,” said Interim President Michael Kotlikoff, who spearheaded the event. “Through hearing firsthand from experts with direct, on-the-ground experience of the peace process, its collapse and the events of the past decades, we hope to challenge those misconceptions, and deepen our community’s understanding of the region’s current challenges and realities.”

Moderating the event will be Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon. The panelists will be Salam Fayyad, former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority; Tzipi Livni, former vice prime minister and former foreign minister of Israel; and Daniel B. Shapiro, former U.S. ambassador to Israel.

The event is free and open to the Cornell and local community. A general admission ticket is required; tickets can be reserved here, with a limit of four tickets per person.

Crocker was a career Foreign Service officer who held three appointments as ambassador under Republican administrations and three under Democratic administrations. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, in 2009. He is currently a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Fayyad served as minister of finance (2002-05, 2007) and prime minister (2007-13) for the Palestinian Authority. An economist, he previously worked for the International Monetary Fund and managed the Arab Bank in the West Bank and Gaza. In 2013, he founded Future for Palestine, a nonprofit development foundation. He is a visiting scholar at Princeton University.

Livni is former vice prime minister and foreign minister (2006-09) and minister of justice of Israel (2013-14). She has also served as minister of agriculture and housing and other high-level positions. Trained as a lawyer, she has been Israel’s chief negotiator for peace between Israel and Palestine and has led centrist parties, including the largest party in Israel.

Shapiro was the top Middle East policy official at the Pentagon, deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, in which position he coordinated the U.S. Department of Defense’s response to the Israel-Hamas war. He served as U.S. ambassador to Israel (2011-17). Prior to his Pentagon service, he was the U.S. State Department’s Senior Advisor on Middle East Regional Integration.

The event will include a 45-minute Q&A session. Attendees are encouraged to submit questions here. Questions must be received no later than 2 p.m. on March 5 for consideration.