January 23, 2012 — Coral Gables — Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s ambassador to the United States since 2008, will present “Egypt’s Democracy and Arab Spring” on Wednesday, February 1 at 5 p.m. at Bill Cosford Cinema, Memorial Building, second floor, on the Coral Gables campus. The lecture is free and open to the UM community.
He previously served as Egypt’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva (2005 to 2008) as well as Egypt’s ambassador to Austria and as permanent representative to the International Organizations in Vienna (1999 to 2003). Ambassador Shoukry also served as the director of the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (2004 to 2005) and as secretary for information and follow-up to the president (1995 to 1999).
As a career diplomat who joined the Egyptian Diplomatic Corps in 1976, Ambassador Shoukry served in the Egyptian Embassies in London and Buenos Aires and in the Permanent Mission of Egypt in New York. He headed the Department of the United States and Canada in the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1995. He also specializes in disarmament and non-proliferation issues. Ambassador Shoukry holds a law degree from Ein Shams University.
Shoukry’s lecture will be followed by an interview by Middle Eastern Studies expert Bradford R. McGuinn. Senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Miami, McGuinn teaches courses on regional security dealing with the Middle East and Africa. He teaches also in the areas of political violence and civil-military relations and has published articles and book chapters on a range of security issues.
