Join the Beinecke online Monday, November 18, 2024, at 4 PM, for the talk, “What the Start of the Arab Spring Taught me about Diplomacy,” by former U.S. Ambassador Gordon Gray, Yale College ’78. Gray served as U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia from 2009 until 2012, witnessing the start of the Arab Spring and directing the U.S. response in support of Tunisia’s transition.

Zoom webinar registration: https://bit.ly/48iQMXB

During his 35 years of public service, Gray served in Iraq as Senior Advisor to the Ambassador from 2008-2009 and was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2005-2008. His other foreign assignments include Egypt, Canada, Jordan, Pakistan, and Morocco, where he began his career in government as a Peace Corps volunteer. He also served as the Deputy Commandant at the National War College and twice received the Presidential Meritorious Service award. Currently, Gray is the Kuwait Professor of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.

The Beinecke Library recently acquired Gray’s archive, which documents his dedicated government service and commitment to teaching the next generation of foreign service officers. Once cataloged and available, scholars of late twentieth and early twenty first century U.S. foreign policy will be able to access his correspondence, calendars, speeches, and interviews documenting his work and the U.S.’s policy in the region.

Mondays at Beinecke online talks focus on materials from the collections and include an opening presentation at 4pm followed by conversation and question and answer beginning about 4:30pm until 5pm.