News Sources: Middle East Peace Conference

Arab countries are warming — slightly — to a U.S.-pushed Mideast peace conference in Annapolis amid a flurry of fierce last-minute lobbying. But heavyweight Saudi Arabia still wouldn't say Wednesday if it plans to send a high-level delegation and Syria also remained on the fence. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

David Lesch - Professor of History, Trinity University - Lesch is an expert on Middle East and American foreign policy. He is the author of 1979: The Year that Shaped the Modern Middle East and, recently, The New Lion of Damascus, about Syrian president Bashar al-Asad, to whom Lesch has had unprecedented access. He served as news analyst and consultant to the National Security Agency during the Persian Gulf War, and is a consultant to the U.S. State Department. College:

Fawaz Gerges - Professor of Middle East Studies, Sarah Lawrence College - A MacArthur Fellow, Gerges studies Arab politics, militant Islamic movements, the Arab-Israeli peace process and America's relations with the Arab world. Gerges is the author of America and Political Islam: Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests? and The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global. He has contributed to major foreign affairs publications and newspapers.

Virginia Tilley - Associate Professor of Political Science, Hobart and William Smith Colleges - Tilley specializes in the politics of economic development and ethnic conflict, especially in developing countries. She has researched indigenous politics in Arab-Israeli conflict and settlement policy. Her book The One-State Solution A Breakthrough for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Deadlock is forthcoming.