March 16, 2017 - President Donald Trump faces a challenging landscape with regard to terrorism, countering violent extremism, regional turmoil, and failed states in the Middle East and surrounding region. Even if the U.S. and its allies disrupt Daesh (or "ISIS") and other terrorist organizations, the problems of violent Islamist extremism and the social and demographic conditions that enable it will persist.

The Perry World House and the American Academy of Political and Social Science jointly hosted a discussion with Richard Clarke (Penn '72), who edited the November 2016 volume of The ANNALS. The volume focuses on the topic of the Middle East, regional transition, and providing paths and priorities for the president and his administration. Malcolm Nance, the executive director of the Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics, and Radical Ideology, moderated the discussion.