Live tonight – David Gardner on Obama and the Middle East

You can now watch the event here. 

David Gardner will be discussing Obama and the Middle East with Channel 4’s Jon Snow at the Frontline Club tonight. David is a Financial Times Associate Editor and the Chief Leader Writer. He recently published Last Chance: The Middle East in the balance. We start at the slightly later time than normal of 8.15pm GMT/9.15pm PST, tonight Tues April 21. If you can’t join us at the club in person, you can watch the discussion and join in the chatbox below, on the Club Events page or on the Frontline Club live channel page,

While the world waits expectantly for the Obama administration’s Middle East policy, Financial Times Associate Editor and Chief Leader Writer – the hugely respected David Gardner speaks frankly with Channel 4 News’ Jon Snow about what needs to be done now.

Gardner advocates nothing less than a reappraisal of what realpolitik means as we enter the 21st century. Truly ‘smart power’, he argues, would not continue to prop up despotic regimes from Syria to the Gulf in the interests of short-term stability.

In his new book: Last Chance: The Middle East in the Balance he argues that if democracy is suppressed for even a few years longer in the Arab world, the Middle East will be lost to anti-Westernism and violence for several generations. link