Ali A. Allawi, former senior minister in the post-Saddam government of Iraq and author of <em>The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace</em>, will deliver the inaugural Peter Green Lecture on the Modern Middle East. His talk, titled “The Iraq Crisis and the Future Middle East Order,” will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008, at 5 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 101. Allawi will sign copies of his book at 4 p.m. in the lobby

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Ali A. Allawi will present an insider’s view of the ongoing crisis in Iraq in the inaugural Peter Green Lecture on the Modern Middle East. His lecture, titled “The Iraq Crisis and the Future Middle East Order,” will be held on Feb. 20, 2008, at 5 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 101. Prior to the lecture, Allawi will take part in a book signing in the lobby beginning at 4 p.m.

Involved for more than 30 years in the politics of Iraq, Allawi held three senior minister positions in the post-Saddam government and is the author of The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace. His lecture will cover how the Iraq crisis has greatly affected the political, economic and social stability of the region, what possibilities exist for a new stable and prosperous Middle East, and the roles and responsibilities of the non-regional actors, especially the United States.

“Mr. Allawi brings enormous experience and insight into the complexities of what is taking place in Iraq. We are delighted to have him deliver the inaugural speech in the Peter Green lecture series,” said Michael Chapman, Brown’s vice president for public affairs and University relations. “We also wish to thank Peter Green for his generous gift, which enables us to bring a myriad of international voices and perspectives to our campus.”

Ali A. Allawi

Born in Baghdad in December 1947, Allawi attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in 1968 with a degree in civil engineering. He continued his postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics in regional planning, and he went on to obtain an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1971.

From September 2003 to June 2004, Allawi served as the interim minister of trade in the new government of Iraq. In April 2004, he was also appointed to the post of the first interim minister of defense of Iraq. In April 2005, he was appointed minister of finance in the transitional Iraq government. He had been active in the opposition to the Baathist regime since 1968. Currently, he is chairman of Progas Holdings, an infrastructure development company. It has recently completed and owns the largest integrated gas terminal import, storage and distribution company in Pakistan. Progas is also developing two major power stations in the area. 


Allawi’s book, The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace, was published by Yale University Press in March 2007. It was named one of the Washington Post’s top 10 non-fiction books for 2007. He is affiliated with St. Antony’s College, Oxford University, where he is a senior associate member and is an honorary fellow of the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies at Exeter University, U.K. Allawi is working on two additional books for Yale University Press. The first, due in summer 2008, is an extended essay titled The Crisis in Islamic Civilisation. The second, due summer 2009, will be a comprehensive political biography of Faisal I of Iraq, set against the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the formation of the modern state system in the Middle East and Iraq.

The Peter Green Lectures on the Modern Middle East

The Peter Green Lectures on the Modern Middle East are funded by a gift from Peter B. Green, an alumnus of the Brown Graduate (A.M., 1980), a Brown parent, and former trustee of the University. He is chairman of Greenaap Consultants Ltd., the Dublin-based investment vehicle that manages the assets of Green and his family.