Participants  

Mathias Mossberg is a retired Swedish ambassador, the president of the Swedish North-African Chamber of Commerce and senior fellow, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University, Sweden. Prior to joining Lund University, where he led a research project on Israel and Palestine, Ambassador Mossberg was adviser on dialogue with the Muslim world at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and vice president of the EastWest Institute in New York, responsible for its Middle East Program. 

Mark LeVine is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, a contributing editor for Tikkun, and a senior columnist for Al Jazeera. He is the author of Overthrowing Geography and the coeditor of Struggle and Survival in Palestine/Israel (both from UC Press).

Dr. Dror Ze'evi earned his degrees in Middle Eastern History from Tel Aviv University, conducted post-doctoral studies at Princeton University, and has been a visiting scholar and instructor at Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, Bosphorus University and on the faculty at Ben Gurion University since 1992. Dr. Ze'evi is the one of the founders of The Department of Middle East Studies at Ben Gurion University, which he headed from its foundation in 1995 to 1998, and again from 2002 to 2004. His An Ottoman Century: the District of Jerusalem in the 1600s, (SUNY Press, 1996, and also available in Hebrew and Turkish translations), based on primary sources in Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew and European languages, studies a long-neglected period in the history of Palestine and the Middle East. Producing Desire: Changing Sexual Discourse in the Ottoman Middle East, (Forthcoming from the University of California Press) studies major transformations in sexuality and gender conceptions in the Middle East from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. He has lectured and published widely on issues ranging from sex and gender in 16th century research and teaching interests include Middle Eastern society and culture in the modern and early modern period. He also founded The Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy and was its first chairperson, from 1997 to 2002. In the last three years he heads an Israeli contingent in second-track talks with Palestinian politicians and intellectuals.

Hiba Husseini is the Managing Partner of the law firm Husseini & Husseini. With extensive experience in the practice of corporate law and business-related legal development in Palestine, she provides strategy and legal drafting services to various agencies of the Palestinian Authority. She regularly lectures and writes on economic and commercial law reform, corporate governance, the rule of law, and water and environmental issues in Palestine. Husseini served as legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiations team in the Olso, Stockholm and Camp David peace processes. She currently serves as chairwoman of the Al-Mustakbal Foundation and as vice chairwoman of the Palestine Securities Exchange. She serves on the board of trustees of Al-Najah University and the Palestine Consultancy Group. Husseini earned a master's degree in international affairs at George Washington University, a J.D. at Georgetown University and a master's degree in finance at the Sorbonne.

While the actions and policies of external actors such as Russia, the United States, and the European Union have contributed to the international dimensions of the crisis, the conflict’s origins can be found in the deeper historical legacies of Soviet and pre-Soviet nationalism in the Ukrainian lands. Just as Ukraine's past is marked by a deep cultural divide, so too is its future likely to be divided. A more complete understanding of the roots of Ukraine's internal divisions throws into sharp relief the extraordinarily steep challenges that the Ukrainian government will face as it seeks to rebuild and reunify a country divided by the violent conflict in the East.

Dr. Person is an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Comparative Politics at the United States Military Academy (West Point). His research and teaching interests include post-Soviet politics, democratization, authoritarianism, nationalism, mass political participation, and public opinion in nondemocratic states. His current book project (in progress) explores the deep and durable impact that economic crises play in shaping citizens' long-term beliefs about democracy and dictatorship in new democracies. It is based on extensive research carried out across former Soviet states including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, and Estonia. Dr. Person earned his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University. He also holds a master's degree in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from Stanford University, as well as a B.A. in international relations and Slavic Languages & Literature from Stanford.