In as many questions as possible. It is my great pleasure to introduce todays speaker, philip gordon. He is a senior fellow at the u. S. Foreign policy here at cfr. For joining the council fill a special assistant to the president and white house coordinator for the middle east, north africa in the gulf region under president obama. He previously served the assistant secretary of state for european affairs. He is responsible for the relations of more than 50 countries in europe and eurasia along with nato, eu, and the organization for security and cooperation in europe. Phil has also had a distinguished scholarly career having written and coauthored numerous books on u. S. Policy and foreign affairs. Today we are here to recognize his newest book, losing the long game, the false promise of regine change in the middle east. Former u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Powers hails it as an examination of u. S. Regime change efforts in the middle east. The journalist robin whit