Cas Mudde is a senior lecturer and vice-chairman of the Department of Political Science at the University of Antwerp. He is also the co-founder and convener of the ECPR Standing Group on Extremism and Democracy. Mr. Mudde is the co-editor of the Routledge Studies in Extremism & Democracy book series, which has covered topics such as terrorism in the United States, extremism and terrorism, freedom of speech, and extreme right activists. His current project is a research monograph entitled Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. From January through June of 2006, Mr. Mudde has been a Fulbright EU Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for Comparative European Studies and the Department of Political Science of Rutgers University. He is teaching an undergraduate course on "Radical Right Politics in Western Democracies" as well as leading a series of workshops on "Contentious and Extreme politics" for graduate students.

Mr. Mudde received his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Leiden. Prior to joining the University of Antwerp in July 2002, he taught at the Central European University and the University of Edinburgh. Additionally, Mr. Mudde has held visiting positions at New York University, Univerzita Karlova, University Jaume I, and the University of California Santa Barbara.

Co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel, San Francisco and the Jewish Community Relations Council

Yaron Deckel is considered by many to be one of Israel's top political reporters and commentators. Mr. Deckel has covered the trials and tribulations of Israeli politics since 1985, including five general election campaigns. He is a seasoned radio and television journalist, having unprecedented access to all the major players in Israeli politics during the last 17 years. Since September of 2002, Mr. Deckel has been reporting from Washington as the IBA's Bureau Chief. Of special note is Mr. Deckel's recent interview with President Bush at his Texas ranch - the first exclusive interview granted to an Israeli journalist. Mr. Deckel has also served as guest expert on Israeli politics to NPR, ABC News Radio, CBC TV and others. Additionally, he has briefed U.S. administration officials, congressmen, ambassadorial staff at the U.S. Embassy in Israel, U.S. and European policymakers and business people about the state of Israeli politics. Mr. Deckel holds a Bachelor's degree in Criminology and a Master's degree in Political Science from Bar-Ilan University. His Master's degree focus was on the intersection of politics and the media in Israel.

Co-sponsored with CREEES and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.

Wolfgang Eichwede is a prominent historian and the Director of the Institute for the Study of Eastern Europe at the University of Bremen. His working interests include 20th century international relations as well as cultural and social issues of the Soviet Union and Russia. More recently he has dedicated himself to the study of the political and cultural changes in current Eastern Europe. The Institute for the Study of Eastern Europe has amassed one of the largest archival collections worldwide of documents pertaining to Eastern European social and cultural life. The Institute organized a series of displays in Berlin, Prague, Brussels, and Budapest between 1999 to 2004. Between 1992 and 2002, Mr. Eichwede led a group that investigated the Soviet culture losses during World War II.

Since 2004, Dominic Martin has been Counsellor at the British Embassy Washington, responsible for Political and Public Affairs. Mr. Martin was educated at Oriel College, Oxford and joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1987. He has twice served in New Delhi, India (at the end of the 1980s and from 2001 until 2004), and also served in Buenos Aires, Argentina during the mid-1990s. Prior to this last posting in India, Mr. Martin co-coordinated the UK position in the negotiations on the enlargement of the European Union to include the countries from Central and Eastern Europe.

Frontiers of Freedom: U.S. - European cooperation on Iran, NATO in Afghanistan, and other issues the United States and Europe are tackling in the region.

Co-Sponsored with the Hoover Institution

Since the accession of ten new member states the European Union has launched a new effort to draw its neighbors, from Ukraine to Morocco, closer to the EU. This engagement goes beyond trade and aid to include participation in various internal EU policies and programs but stops short of offering full membership. Economic and political governance are high on the agenda. Bertin Martens will explain how this effort reinforces previous policies and could contribute to real change in the political and economic landscape around the EU.

Bertin Martens is Regional Economist for the Middle East & South Mediterranean in the European Commission's Directorate General for External Relations. He joined the European Commission in 1990 and has worked on various assignments in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe before. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Free University of Brussels and has been a Visiting Fellow at George Mason and Stanford universities. His academic research interests focus on institutional economics and governance.