This institute of the international affairs. Here the texas a m university. I would like to welcome our special event tonight with kim, she will speak in a recent book black waves. In the 40 year rivalry that and reveled cultural religion in the middle east. I actually spent the reading weekend reading. I could put down. If you have not read it, i am sure you will try to get the book if you have not already after this evening but i would urge you to read it printed it is absolutely fascinating. It is very well written print is a narrative flow to it is very troubling i have to say but thats part of the book i think. I would like to announce unfortunately that are event in todays with them best or dennis ross who is another expert in the middle east is unable to come to conversation had a family emergency. I was lecture wednesday evening will be postponed until later. Kim is an emmy awarding journalist and writer who comes from a middle east for bbc in the financial times. Reported from iraq and saudi arabia, lebanon and she covered the war between israel and hezbollah earning an emmy for International News coverage. She is also reported for the state department and on american politics regularly traveling with secretaries of state including Hillary Clinton and john kerry. She has been published in the atlantic, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy and is currently a nonic resident scholar at the Carnegie EndowmentInternational Peace at washington and her first book, the secretary, was New York Times best seller. She regularly speaks and continues to speak on American Television and radio and she was born and raised in lebanon. But she now lives between beirut and washington dc. If you have questions, please write them on the cards, the bush school investors who have the blue blazer john, have with them, they have walked up and down the aisles but they will continue to do that. And then went to write the d questions, asked them to the file and they will pick them up ild give them to me and i will then go through them after the speech and then the two of them will sit up here and i will ask questions and then i will take your questions from the cards. Please join me in welcoming kim to the stage. [applause]. Good evening, everybody. Kim good evening everybody. It is truly a delight to be here this evening and thank you for this very generous introduction pretty thank you for hosting me here at the Conference Center and i think you to the institute and the bush for hosting me and i see here in the front row my good friend, thank you very much for helping to make this happen. I am really delighted to be back in texas. I have not been here in a very long time. I must complain about the weather. [laughter]. It gives me at good excuse to return. I hope. I am here to speak to you about my recent book. Step two weeks ago, black wave. As an ebook, is the result of a journey. Every writing endeavor is an journey and many of you i am sure have written books, you know that it can be very isolating experience in a very intellectual lonely experience. This book is a journey but this one is also more than the journey of the writing citizen journey of 20 years of covering the middle east and it is in a way, the combinational also of my experience going up in the region as a child of war. In beirut. I grew up during the civil war and the 80s. And i wanted to write a story about that region that was not your typical story about the region. And that has been written about the middle east im sure, many of you have read about the region and many of you are probably experts sitting here this evening. Im wanted to write our story. Because i have questions that i did not find the answers to read the books c that were out there. I wanted to answer the toughest questions about the region, there are also asked about what went wrong and what happened and why is the way it is. But i wanted to come at it from a disparate perspective and i wanted to come at it from our perspective from the region. I do think that is what is out there at the moment is not enough to explain why we got to where we are. And i also a think that it does not do justice to the people of the region who have tried as well very hard to find a different path forward. The way you do i talk to my readings is that i try to make it acceptable to his white of an audience as possible. Im sure many of you here tonight are experts but i hope that even for the experts, i can bring some different perspecti perspective. As to why the region is the way it is today. What drove me to write this book is as i said, the fact that i found out there was not much out there that really addressed what i found was the core of the problem. It took me a while to be for my finger on what it was, what was the core of the problem. What was the point at which things had changed. But what it wanted to do and a starting point is to give you the conclusion. I know that it is the wrong way around but i do think it is important. I think that what i tryry to do with my writings, and the research that ive done is to go against some of the preconceived ideas that people have about them at least because of the coverage and headlines and just the intensity of the news that comes at us from the middle east. So i want to start by telling you some of the thing to know about, at least iraq. Lets start like that. I want to point out three things. I would start by saying that iran asked saudi arabia despite headlines in the few decades that seem to indicate thats always been like that. Saudi arabiabi and iran have not always been rivals. If not always been enemies. And we forget that. There was a time when iran and saudi arabia were countering communism in the region. They were friendly competitors, allies in that endeavor and you had exchanges between the rails of the two countries and they call each other with titles, they were not necessarily the closest of friends but they were friendly. And they cooperated in a lot of ways. So that is one assumption that people make that its always been like that between iran and saudi arabia and it was not. Afraid to be here vented about it very often, most of them have killed each other. It will always be like that. Sometimes you will hear that they have always killed each other. Those are two things, for those of you dont know, i will supply. Its like the catholics and protestants. They are the two parts of islam, and when some people saw that his heirs should be his relatives and thus became this u. S. And some should be the heir of some of the confidence of those actually became others. But even in the first few decades following those profit steps. Those identities were not as nearly like that. They evolved over time. Thats another priest conceived idea about the region. But even president obama said,d, and killing each other for millennia. I would like to point out that has not been like that. Also does not need to be like that forever. That is what parts of drives the writing in this book is to remind us that there wasnt Different Task and therefore it can be a different future printed different past. The final and 30 misconception the people have particularly because of the constant droning on of the headlines. They are focused on dictators. The boys in the throes of violence and intolerance. The cultural intolerances part of what defines the region. Iin would like to tell you thatt has not always been like that. And that means it does not always need to be like that. So, what happened. I know that is the classic question. But i would like to give you a very different approach. Because that question what happened to us, this conscious. We do repeat it like a mantra. For my own country of lebanon, all of the way to pakistan and saudi arabia to syria. For the past is really, a different country. It is one that is not admired n the horrors of the killings. It is more vibrant place without the crushing intolerance of religious, and seemingly endless war. In the past is not perfect. Had worse as well. But they werent seemingly contained in time and space. In the future did still hold much promise. The question perhaps today in the region that is not necessarily a car too young to remember when the vibrant tolerance wase the norm. Those were the ones whose parents did not tell them of the poetry in the shower and impacts on. It is a very different connotation the states. Our market system they did to the bars of the roots are writing your bike on the banks of the river. All of these things were seen and possible today. But i think especially the question which surprise those in the west who state that he has always been as it is today. And they is a complicated thing they think that the past is perfect. I know that sometimes in the United States, there are people that have nostalgia for a different time, from the 50s or 60s not forget the things that were wrong at the time. We tend to idealize the past. Thats what drove me, i was idolizing the past but i really wanted to understand why things had unraveled. What was the starting point and it unraveled very slowly at first without people really noticing what is happening around them that it took on an unexpected force the last decade or 15ec years. There are many points in any country for any regions of history and explained what happened there are of course many turning points in the middle east in history. Whether it is the end of the empire and the follow last state after world war one. People would say that this is the moment when this when the world lost its way. Some people will point to the creation of israel in 1948. The defeat of the arabs. As the moment where there was a real future. And others will skip directly to 2003 in the invasion of the iraq as the moment where everything became worse that had already been like that. And they were at each others throats. They will fight to the death. And therefore because of the headlines, over the last two decades or so and vote that. Its inevitable. It is eternal, and apart from the inevitable in the internal, none of these explanations are completely correct on their own. They are totally wrong. I insist on underlying debt but none of the speculations about what was the turning point in the region, really give you a complete understanding of why we are where we are today. As i dug deeper and deeper into trying to find the answer of what happened, kept coming back to that one year. 1979. A lot of you will remember that year. The year of the hostage crisis. And also that year of the iran revolution or practice in november. At the same time, as the hostage crisis, you have another type of hostage crisis in Saudia Arabia. When they laid siege. And later that year in november or december and and christmas eve, you had the soviet invasion of afghanistan. That those three events in the iranian resolution because the hostage crisis as a result. But the iranian resolution in the siege of the holy mass, and the invasion of afghanistan they were independent of one another but they became injured trying. The combination of the three were toxic. First of all, from this on these events, was born the rivalry. And as mentioned the two countries would take over and the reason why they shouldnt become enemies, might after what was apparent, no apparent reason why they should become enemies or rivals after the run revolution. Except for the fact that the saudis saw themselves as leaders of the muslim world. The two holy sites of mecca and of islam and medina. But they had landed in february 1979, they had grand ambitions. The unjust even, the community of xian. In his own country and beyond. See in two countries, one was Saudia Arabia and they suddenly trying to get leadership of the muslim world. Not only change the politics of the region this started the slow growth of secretary and language and identity. He both countries yielded those identities in their efforts to dominate the region and rally the people to their side. In the battle they reeled to start it religion and the pursuit is something very simple. In a world leader would understand that is real power. But that is the constant from 1979 to this day. It fastens everything. In its path and i believe they nothing has changed the world as deeply as and fundamentally as the events of 1979 and the wave that started after those events. Other pivotal moments are alliances. The end or start wars. They bring an end they see the beginning of this movement of the politico ideology. 1979, and change the geopolitics. It turned countries. It did more than that because these two countries started using religion as a pulp. It had an impact on culture and society. And so what 1979 did was in transformed society. And it offered cultural and religious references. And unleashed in 1979, they changed who we are in the region and hijacked our collective memory. Ellipsi unleashed by events l, and when they rippled across not just years but several decades over time. Peoples memories of what came before. The iranian resolution does not begin as an effort to bring democracy to the country, its an effort to her where a lot of the leftists were involved. It includes too many details and countries and places. I know that you will see pakistan isnt part of the geography, but what i wanted to really do is show how the dots are connected across countries and across even continents, because theres a tendency to look at the middle east is not only the middle east and a tendency to look at it them as separate but they are very intertwined as well. And of course everyone remembers or should or that it was the u. S. Backed as well and its central to the narrative to the book as i look at how the revolution was pulled out again. To look at how it rippled across the region and how the world reacted and interacted with it his reactions across the arab world and initially they are not all a negative. A lot admired or some people admired how they had managed to rise on top and bring it to power in iran. Was interesting about the research i conducted for this book and i pointed out 1979 as a crucial turning point, was that i found everywhere i asked the question i found the reactions were very v validating. Because i was met with a flood of emotions really, when it asked people in pakistan or egypt or in baghdad, tell me about 1979. Out came all of their memories. In all of their emotions. No one asked them before. When youre leaving and such up he will and when you come to terms and really analyze what youre going through. And so some of these people thought yes, 1979, let me tell you about 1979. Let me tell you how that correct my career or my marriage. Or my childrens education. Why i had to go into exile at that time. Or how i had to move my job after 1979. And97 why. Even people who were not born before 1979 had a story. Its a beginning of an understanding in the region about what that year has done to us. It felt a little bit like i was conducting National Therapy for peoples studies or living rooms as they poured their hearts out to me. I am a a journalist, i am not a historian or an academic. This is more than a reported narrative. I not only relied on our interviews with these countries we dug deep into the archives with my research assistance. We looked at old footage, we read articles, academic articles that were at the time very interesting to see how perspective changed with time when you look at articles theye were after the iran revolution or the siege to see the assessment at the time and read about it now. When you put itir all together get a Virtual Library of the history of the region. I have 19 binders full of papers that tell the story because i thought it was important to be able to see in front of me the pictures, the writings, that articles, the headlines. Imagine finding aim headline from 1979 were saudi arabia originally welcomed the iran and revolution. Although they are sort of sorry to see the chicago, they were initially very concerned about possibility there be a communist takeover of iran. Those were the trends of the time, when they saw the guy that was rising to the top with somebody they could kind of relate to, he was a very conservative man. He wanted to bring that to the country and they welcome that. They said we hope we can cooperate on the basis of our common religion and understanding of how it should be applied to society. So when you look at these events, when you look at these details, you put it all together, you put together a puzzle. Forgotten events, overlooked events, when you have the puzzle in front of you gives a very different understanding of very different reading of the last four decades in history. And it spans seven countries as i mention peering over egypt to pakistan saudi lebanon. Ran, and and it shatters some of those accepted i truths that we have even we have in the region. I can tell you that sometimes we forget that they have not always been killing each other. I grew up in the civil war in lebanon and it was never really used. It wasnt that kind of conflict. But today it is so accepted in our collective memory that we forget what it was like before. That rivalry evolved and mutated over time with consequences that really no one could have foreseen in 1979. Now, there has been a lot written about the middle east, i know that. I am trying to present a different approach. Youll find a lot of poetry and literature, lyrics and music and cultural references in this book. Because i think it is important also, to remember the richness of this region and to humanize this region that has been so devoid of context and the headline so it isnt a book about terrorism is not a book about al qaeda its not a book about isis nor is it a book about the dangers that violence of fundamentalist vote for the west. This has been everything youve already Read Everything youve already seen on television and the headlines. With all duegu respect my colleagues, even i sometimes, because thats just the nature of our o business and thats why i wanted to take a step back and write this book. This is the story of the people and they are very, very, very many whose voices have not been necessarily heard. Who have been silenced but are not silenced because they continue to fight against the intellectual and cultural darkness that has engulfed us in the region. They areth intellectuals, they are poets, their lawyers, they are young progressives, they are arabs, our iranians, pakistanis, they are men and women with an equal number of women and men characters in the book because you do not hear enough about women in the region. Even though they are very feisty, theyre very strong they very powerful. You should see what is happening and iraq, lebanon and iran today with the women leading the protests against the corruption of the countries. They are mostly devout. My characters are mostly devout, they pray, they fast, go to the mosque and t