For half a century most international attention on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been centered around diplomacy in general and a "peace process" that--under a variety of rubrics--was hoped to bring two distinct parties (as well as other concerned actors) to a peaceful resolution. But even as the shape of that resolution became clearer to many outside the conflict (the "two state solution") the various diplomatic processes supporting it decayed. Other long-term processes--shifts in Israeli politics; the decay of Palestinian institutions--undermined the ability and willingness of two actors to resolve their differences diplomatically. By 2022, it is clear that there is no prospect of the a peace based on the two state solution; there is no viable diplomatic process leading in any other direction; and even conceiving of the problem as one between two distinct and clear sides--Israel and Palestine--may not longer reflect what is increasingly termed a "one state reality.." Instead of bemoaning these trends or resisting them, it is time to begin with current and emerging realities as a starting point. What is this one state reality? How is it likely to evolve? What should outside observers pay attention to in order to understand emerging trends? What can they do to ensure that more just and peaceful conditions emerge?

About the Speaker

Nathan J. Brown serves as professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He received his B.A. in political science from the University of Chicago and his M.A. and Ph.D. in politics and Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. His most recent books are Arguing Islam after the Revival of Arab Politics (Oxford University Press, 2017) and Lumbering State, Restless Society: Egypt in the Modern Era (with Shimaa Hatab and Amr Adly, Columbia University Press, 2021). He has also written on Palestinian politics and legal, constitutional, and religious issues in the Middle East.

He received the Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Award for Scholarship from George Washington University in 2015 and the Harry Harding teaching award from the Elliott School of International Affairs in 2014. His dissertation received the Malcolm Kerr award from the Middle East Studies Association in 1987. In 2013-2015, Dr. Brown was president of the Middle East Studies Association, the academic association for scholars studying the region. In 2013, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow; four years earlier, he was named a Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. For the 2009–2010 academic year, he was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. His previous research was funded by the United States Institute of Peace and two Fulbright fellowships. In addition to his academic work, Brown serves on the board of trustees at the American University in Cairo.