Georgetown’s Center for Security Studies and George Mason’s National Security Institute hosted a panel of experts to examine the ongoing war in Ukraine through the lenses of Turkey, Russia, and Iran and ask: Where do we go from here?

Participants:

• Paula Doyle, NSI Fellow and Former CIA Associate Deputy Director of Operations
• Margaret Peterlin, NSI Advisory Board member and Former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
• James Jeffrey, Former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Turkey, and Albania

 

Paula Doyle joined Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program as an Adjunct Professor of Practice in 2017, after over 30 years of national security and foreign policy experience with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Directory of National Intelligence, and the US Department of State while serving abroad and in Washington. While at the CIA, she led three overseas stations in the Levant and Asia, served as the Chief of Operations for iRAN (2007-2008), and led the CIA’s  global Cyber Operations (2004-2007). Her areas of deep subject matter expertise include Turkey, Iran, Russia, Foreign Cyber Programs and Capabilities, Counterintelligence, Nuclear Weapons  and Proliferation Programs, the Middle East, and NATO. She currently serves as Board Director for the OSS Society and is a Fellow at George Mason University’s National Security Institute.

Margaret Peterlin is on the National Security Institute’s Advisory Board and currently teaches master’s courses at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government at their D.C. location, following service in all three branches of the federal government and in two global companies. She was Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Tillerson, worked for both the Speaker and the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, clerked for a U.S. Court of Appeals Judge on the Fifth Circuit, and served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy. During her time as a Satellite and Telecommunications Officer at the Pentagon, she was selected for the additional assignment of a White House Social Aide. Her formal education includes a bachelor’s degree from The College of Holy Cross. She earned her JD from The University of Chicago where she was the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Chicago Journal of International Law.

James Jeffrey  joined the Wilson Center in December 2020 as Chair of the Middle East Program. He served as the Secretary’s Special Representative for Syria Engagement and the Special Envoy to the Global Coalition To Defeat ISIS until November 8, 2020. Before then, he held senior assignments in Washington, DC, and abroad, including as Deputy National Security Advisor (2007–2008); US Ambassador to Iraq (2010–2012); US Ambassador to Turkey (2008–2010); and US Ambassador to Albania (2002–2004). In 2010 Jeffrey was appointed to the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service, Career Ambassador. From 1969 to 1976, Jeffrey was a U.S. Army infantry officer, with service in Germany and Vietnam. His areas of experience include political, security, and energy issues in the Middle East, Turkey, Germany, and the Balkans.