Despite canceled flights and a lack of a credit card, Jawad Nabulsi drove a rented car eight hours from Chicago to make it to Chautauqua. That persistence is what got him to the Amphitheater 45 minutes prior to Tuesday’s morning lecture. It is also what got him through Egypt’s turbulent recent history.
Robin Wright believes “we may be in the greatest period of empowerment in world history.” Wright will share the the…
Beau Willimon arrived in Chautauqua Institution at 2 a.m. Saturday fresh from Washington, D.C., and two episodes into production on the fourth season of “House of Cards.” If he was exhausted during his lecture Saturday, it didn’t show.
Journalist Robin Wright has reported on every war, revolution and uprising in the Middle East since 1973, as well as conflicts in other regions. In all, she has reported from more than 140 countries for publications including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker and Time magazine.
On Oct. 6, 1973, Robin Wright landed in Beirut. That day, Jews all over the world were celebrating Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. At the same time, a coalition of Arab states, directed by Egypt and Syria, led a surprise attack on Israeli-occupied territories, initiating the Yom Kippur War.
The Iranian presidential election of 2009 is under heavy scrutiny. Somehow, the government was able to count up paper ballots in a single day, ending with a 64 percent win for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
When Robin Wright traveled to Iran on Oct. 6, 1973, on assignment for The Christian Science Monitor, she didn’t know a war was about to begin.
“That was also the day the fourth Middle East War broke out, and I’ve been covering the Middle East since then,” she said.
The intelligence chief of a Persian Gulf country once told me his secret formula for judging the national political mood.
“Watch the traffic,” he advised.
The Chautauquan Daily 