Transcript
MS. FERRIS: (In progress) -- I'm a Senior Fellow here at Brookings and Co-Director of the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement. Of course, Iraq has large numbers of internally displaced persons presently estimated between 2.5 and 3 million people. In looking at the future of those IDPs, whether or not they will be able to return to resume normal lives depends a lot on the question of stability in Iraq. So we've organized this roundtable today to talk about a civilian surge, and particularly the role of civilian assistance in providing stability or stabilization to Iraq, an issue that certainly is high on the agenda as discussions abound in the Obama administration and the general public about the upcoming withdrawal or scaling down of U.S. military combat forces.
We have six very distinguished speakers today each of whom brings a unique perspective to the topic and have been given the amazing challenge of speaking to complex issues in only 7 or 8 minutes each, so we'll be watching guys and see how you do. I am not going to read their complete bios. It would take a long time. You have the written versions in your folders, but let me just begin by introducing them one by one, and then I will ask all of them to say a few words before opening it up for discussion. I would also encourage the panelists to think of questions for each other because the issues that we'll be talking about are indeed lively and often controversial.
We'll begin with Travis Gartner from International Relief and Development who works with the Community Stabilization Program Office in Iraq. He will be followed by Brigadier General David Reist who is Assistant Deputy Commandant of Installations and Logistics of the U.S. Marine Corps, who comes speaking about his experiences particularly in al Anbar Province. He will be followed by Ambassador Henry Clarke who was former head of the Office of Provincial Affairs in Iraq and will speak particularly about the role of provincial reconstruction teams and its contribution. We will then move to Jeanne Pryor from the U.S. Agency for International Development who is Deputy Director of the Iraq Office. She will be followed by Rabih Torbay who is Vice President for International Operations of the International Medical Corps, an NGO which is active inside Iraq. And finally we'll listen to the perspectives from the United Nations with Michel Gabaudan who is the Regional Representative for the U.S. and Caribbean of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Although the first five speakers will be talking primarily about U.S. civilian assistance, the role of the U.N. may in fact turn out to be quite important as we look toward the long-term stabilization of Iraq. Let's begin with you, Travis. Do you want to tell us what IRD does, what community stabilization is, and how you see civilian assistance in Iraq?
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