UC Riverside, CA
March 24 2006
Ambassador Ghougassian Speaks at UC Riverside About Recent Diplomacy
in Iraq
Inland area residents have a chance to hear one part of the Iraq
story from someone who was there
(March 23, 2006)
U.S. Forces accompany Ambassador Ghougassian at Bahgdad University
RIVERSIDE, Calif. () — UC Riverside will welcome The
Honorable Joseph Ghougassian, Ph.D., J.D., former Ambassador of the
United States to the State of Qatar and a government advisor in Iraq,
for a public lecture at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 18 in the University
Theatre. He is the final speaker in the 2006 Chancellor’s
Distinguished Lecture Series.
His topic is “Diplomacy: A Tool for Peace, Education and Human
Rights,” and he will draw on his experience as an advisor on higher
education issues to the Coalition Provisional Authority – the
U.S.-led organization charged with running Iraq until power shifted
to the Iraqi-led transitional government.
Ambassador Ghougassian has an interesting story to tell. He worked as
a senior adviser to President Ronald Reagan in the Department of
Domestic Policy; directed the Peace Corps in the Yemen Arab Republic;
and then was named Ambassador to the State of Qatar, which shares a
border with Saudi Arabia. He was the first naturalized U.S.
Ambassador from the Middle East, and in the job he honed his skills
in bringing disparate, antagonistic peoples together, realizing such
skills could change the world. He was able to negotiate an end to a
14-century ban on the public practice of Christianity in Qatar, and
was subsequently knighted by the Pope in the Order of St. Gregory the
Great. Most recently, he was tapped to help find a solution to the
turmoil in Iraq.
`Our job was go to Kirkuk, look into the property disputes between
the Turks, the Kurds, the Arabs and the Christians, and to calm down
the situation.” Ghougassian was well qualified. `My fluent Arabic won
the confidence of the Arab tribal sheiks; my Armenian ethnicity
helped me with the Kurds and my Christian religion put the people at
ease, because Christians in Iraq are viewed as fair-minded and honest
people.”
In his role as advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq
in the effort to rebuild the country’s higher education system, he
directed the Iraq Fulbright Program that brought the first 25 Iraqi
scholars to American universities after a long absence. During his
time as an advisor, he lived in one of Saddam Hussein’s former
palaces in the `green zone.’
Born in Cairo, Egypt, he was an early bloomer in academics, receiving
his first two degrees (a B.A. and an M.A. in philosophy) from the
Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, in 1964 and 1965. He earned a
doctorate in philosophy from Louvain University in Belgium by the age
of 22, and was brought to the United States by a job offer: teaching
philosophy and psychology at the University of San Diego. He
subsequently received a bachelor of science degree in family studies
from Louvain University in 1974 and a master’s degree in
international relations and a law degree from USD.
He is back in the U.S. now, writing articles on diplomatic and
international affairs for the media, and lecturing. He is on the
faculty at Trinity College, Anaheim and chairman of Arabian Gulf
Consultants, an international business and international law
corporation. He speaks Armenian, English, French, Arabic, Italian and
Spanish.
Sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor, the distinguished lecture
series is an annual event featuring personalities from the arts,
sciences, letters, and other sectors of society. It’s purpose is to
stimulate the region’s intellectual community, inspire students to
think beyond the lecture hall and lab, and to involve members of the
community in the academic life of the UCR campus. The theme this year
is, “Beyond Boundaries: Explorations and Experimentation in Science,
Art, and Statecraft.’ In addition to formal public presentations,
each lecturer will participate in seminars with undergraduate and
graduate students and visits with faculty
The first speaker in this year’s lecture series was Richard R.
Schrock, an MIT professor who spent his undergraduate years at UCR
and recently shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The second speaker
was former U.S. Poet Laureate and UCR alumnus, Billy Collins.
The lectures are free and open to the public. Parking on campus costs
$6. The talk will be followed by a reception on the patio outside
University Theatre.
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