sahbi atig, hosni mubarak, and nabil alkofahi were all in power. in many cases, this was banned. today, many countries are in transition and these parties are part of a historic office of change. in tunisia, morocco, egypt, these parties have one substantial victories at the ballot, and now or will soon occupy key government posts. the rise of these parties are a political reality. the decisions that they make will powerfully shaped the region's for years to come. we convene this conference because in spite of their growing power, these parties remain poorly understood in washington and other key capitals outside of the region. many leaders have never served in government and have had limited contacts with the west. the rise to power have provoked a lot of uncertainty and trepidation among policymakers. they replace autocrats. and so we felt it would be enormously valuable to bring together both sides of this new equation for an overdue conversation. our hope for today is for candor and a pointed exchange of views. we invite everyone to listen carefully and to ask tough questions

marwan muasher, marina ottaway, and nabil alkofahi from carnegie staff who have worked for untold hours to pull this audience together. and the swiss government, the open society institute, and the heinrich -- of may today's conference possible to their generous financial support. the carnegie endowment is deeply grateful to all of them. and most importantly, i want to thank all of you for joining us. a day like this obviously depends on those who have traveled, in some cases, great distances to join us. and we are particularly grateful for them, and we're delighted to have all of you here for what i think will be and importantly from which we will all leave the wiser. so with that said, it's my pleasure to turn the floor over to the head of our middle is program, marwan muasher, who is moderating this first panel. welcome, and enjoy your day. [applause] >> thank you very much, jessica. before we start, let me just thank some -- i want to remind everybody, lease, they can have their cell phones off, and to use your translation machine, you have to turn to six for english and eight for a