Peter Wittig has served as German Ambassador to the United States since April 2014. Prior to this, he was German Ambassador to the United Nations in New York and represented Germany during its tenure as a member of the UN Security Council in 2011 and 2012. There, he drew on his wide expertise in United Nations matters, having previously served as Director-General for United Nations and Global Issues at the German Foreign Office in Berlin.

Wittig joined the German Foreign Service in 1982. He has served at the Embassy in Madrid; as private secretary to the Foreign Minister at the headquarters, then located in Bonn; and as Ambassador in Lebanon and in Cyprus. He was the German Government Special Envoy on the “Cyprus question” (the division of Cyprus). He has acquired extensive knowledge of the Middle East.

In December 2016, she is starting as an Assistant Professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She studies comparative politics and the political economy of advanced capitalist countries drawing heavily from the political behavior literature developed by students of American politics.

Her current research stems from a long standing interest in the social and political processes behind the emergence, expansion and transformation of what T.H.Marshall called “social rights.” In her dissertation, she examines changes in mass attitudes toward redistributive social policies in advanced capitalist economies. Her other research interests include the study of American politics in a comparative perspective, with a focus on the political consequences of growing income inequality and the analysis of social policy reform, especially in Continental Europe. In the past, she has also done research in the UK and France on state policy towards Muslim minorities.

 Dr. S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana is Associate Director and Assistant Professor of the Practice at Georgetown University’s MA Program in Conflict Resolution. Before coming to Georgetown University she served as a consultant for the Religion and Peacebuilding Program at United States Institute of Peace. She is also one of the founding members of Salam Institute for Peace and Justice, a non-profit organization for research, education, and practice on issues related to conflict resolution, nonviolence, and development (2005-2012), where she served as the Associate Director. 

Dr. Kadayifci-Orellana’s has authored “Standing On an Isthmus: Islamic Narratives of War and Peace in the Palestinian Territories” and co-authored the edited the volume, “Anthology on Islam and Peace and Conflict Resolution in Islam: Precept and Practice.” She has also written various book chapters and journal articles on Muslim women’s peacebuilding initiatives, mediation and peace building, religion and conflict resolution, interfaith dialogue, Islamic approaches to war and peace, and Islam and nonviolence.

Eric Langenbacher is a Teaching Professor and Director of the Senior Honors Program in the Department of Government, Georgetown University, where he teaches courses on comparative politics, political culture, and political films.

His dissertation,“Memory Regimes and Political Culture in Contemporary Germany,” was defended with distinction in September 2002. He is the co-author of "The German Polity, 10th edition" and 11th edition. He has also published edited volumes, "Launching the Grand Coalition: The 2005 Bundestag Election and the Future of German Politics," "Power and the Past: Collective Memory and International Relations", "Between Left and Right: The 2009 Bundestag Election and the Transformation of the German Party System," "From the Bonn to the Berlin Republic: Germany at the Twentieth Anniversary of Unification", "Dynamics of Memory and Identity in Contemporary Europe", and "The Merkel Republic: An Appraisal." 

His research interests center on political culture, collective memory, political institutions, public opinion and German and European politics. He has published in German Politics and Society, German Politics, The International Journal of Politics and Ethics and in numerous edited volumes. 

Joseph Sassoon is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University and holds the al-Sabah Chair in Politics and Political Economy of the Arab World. He is also a Senior Associate Member at St Antony’s College, Oxford. In 2013, his book Saddam Hussein’s Ba‘th Party: Inside an Authoritarian Regime (Cambridge University Press, 2012) won the prestigious British-Kuwait Prize for the best book on the Middle East.

Sassoon completed his Ph.D at St Antony’s College, Oxford. He has published extensively on Iraq and its economy and on the Middle East. Anatomy of Authoritarianism in the Arab Republics (Cambridge University Press, 2016) is his fourth book. Outside the academic world, his interests include running, theatre, traveling and discovering new places around the globe, and watching NFL!