Philip Gordon

The most senior White House official focused on the Middle East, Phil Gordon is a phenomenal and forward-thinking speaker on the state of the Middle East and the United States’ relationship with the region. He explores the three factors causing chaos (the disintegration of the state systems, the Shia/Sunni split, and the Sunni/Sunni split) and the challenges facing Iraq, Libya, Syria, Israel, and Palestine. Believing that if we’ve learned anything in the past, it’s that we can’t just hope for the best, he offers the four things we should be doing in the region, and what we can learn from looking to Tunisia as a model nation state. He also explores how instability in the region affects our nation’s interests and what businesses should know moving forward.