Forces of Fortune  The Rise of the New Middle Class in the Middle East  Vali Nasr  Tufts University & Harvard Kennedy School Thursday, April 1  Junior League  1811 Briar Oaks Lane  Registration: 6:00 p.m.  Program: 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.  Members: Free  Non-members: $20  Online registration for this program is closed. To RSVP, please contact the Council. Email: rsvp@wachouston.org Phone: (713) 522-7811

Co-sponsored with the Council on Foreign Relations.

The growing middle class in the Middle East is a quiet but vital force that could dramatically change the region in the years to come. Connected to the global economy and concerned about quality of life, this new business-minded middle class has a vested interest in stability, not radicalism. Their economic, political, and social positions are rooted in market activities, focused on trade, and they are eager to engage in the global economy. Will this growing middle class be the source of lasting reform? Vali Nasr is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University and a senior fellow of the Dubai Initiative run by the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2009 Professor Nasr was appointed Senior Advisor to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke. Before that, he was Professor and Chair of Research, Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School and Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Nasr holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of The Shia Revival, Democracy in Iran, and The Islamic Leviathan. Nasr regularly interviews on major network news shows as an expert on Middle Eastern affairs and writes for the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. His latest book, Forces of Fortune, will be available at the program.