The Frontline Club

Do recent developments in the region allow us to draw any conclusions about the future of Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Hizbollah and the wider Middle East? Ian Black is The Guardian's Middle East editor Alistair Harris is an independent security consultant and former UK diplomat and UN staff member based in Lebanon. He is also involved in academia on issues relating to Lebanon, post-conflict stabilisation and peacebuilding. Dr. Jonathan Spyer is a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Herzliya, Israel. His commentary on Middle Eastern affairs is published regularly in the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz and the Guardian Nicholas Noe is founder and editor-in-chief of the Beirut-based news translation service mideastwire.com. He was previously a news editor on the Lebanon Daily Star / Herald Tribune, and has written for numerous regional and international publications. He is also the editor of the recent book Voice of Hezbollah: The Statements of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (Verso). Mohamed Chebaro is Bureau Chief for Al Arabiya News Channel in London. Throughout his career, he has covered instances of war, genocide, and forced migration, from Ethiopia to Kosovo and Rwanda to Afghanistan. He has reported on radicalisation and the root causes of terrorism. Mohamed was born in Lebanon, completed his studies at the American University of Beirut and then went on to complete his post-graduate degree at SOAS in London.

At a time when the world waits anxiously to see what will happen next in Zimbabwe, Heidi Holland talks about her book which gets to grips with the man at the helm of a corrupt regime; the man behind the monster. Holland's tireless investigation begins with her having dinner with Mugabe the freedom fighter and ends in a searching interview with Zimbabwe's president in December 2007, more than 30 years later. Heidi Holland is author of Dinner with Mugabe and has been an author and journalist for over thirty years. She also runs a busy guest house in Melville, Johannesburg. Adam Roberts is the news editor of Economist.com. He joined The Economist as an intern in the foreign department in June 1998. From December 1998 until May 2001, he worked as a writer on foreign affairs, with a particular focus on developing countries and transnational issues. From 2001 to 2005, he was the Southern Africa correspondent, based in Johannesburg.

John Moore has spent most of the last year photographing Pakistan's slide into instability and in December 2007 was one of the few photographers present at the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Tonight, for one night only, he presents his work and talks in the context of the events in Pakistan over the last twelve months. John was recently awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal at the Overseas Press Club of America Awards for his coverage of the Bhutto assassination. This was in addition to the two first places he won at the World Press Photo Awards 2008 for the same story. John has lived in Pakistan for over two years and has worked as Senior Photographer for Getty Images since 2005. He has worked throughout South Asia, Africa and the Middle East and was part of the AP team that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for their coverage of the war in Iraq.

Alex de Waal, author of Darfur: a Short History of a Long War, talks about the history of Darfur, its conflicts, and what the future holds in store. His book investigates the identity of the infamous "Janjawiid" militia and the nature of the insurrection and charts the unfolding crisis and the international response. Nima Elbagir is a reporter for Unreported World and recently made a film which secured unprecedented access to one of the main Arab militias accused of belonging to the infamous Janjaweed, who are blamed for the atrocities in Darfur.

As the race for the US elections continues to attract world attention, Matt Frei, BBC Washington correspondent, explains the intricacies of the election process and gives us his views on the remaining candidates. Matt Frei has been the BBC's Washington Correspondent since 2002 reporting on major events including hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Presidential election. Prior to that he was the BBC's Asia correspondent based in Singapore and Hong Kong and from 1992 to 1996 he was BBC Southern Europe correspondent in Rome. He has witnessed many dramatic events including the fall of Berlin Wall and reported on the intifada and the Gulf War as the London foreign affairs correspondent. He is currently the main presenter of BBC World News America and has just published a book called Only in America. Moderated by Jonathan Rugman who is the Diplomatic Correspondent for C4 News. His varied beat includes foreign policy, Iran, Iraq, Europe and the Middle East. As Washington correspondent he covered US Presidential and mid-term elections and Hurricane Katrina, along with films from Venezuela, Bolivia and Mexico.

Among those taking part will be broadcaster John Simpson (BBC), journalist Marie Colvin (The Sunday Times), journalist Christopher Dickey (Newsweek), film director Roman Polanski (taped), journalist Olivier Todd (former BBC Paris Correspondent), literary agent Ed Victor (taped), documentary maker Jeffrey Lee (former BBC Correspondent producer) journalist Jonathan Randal (former Washington Post correspondent), Richard Mayne and film producer Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor - taped). The evening will be chaired by film-maker Anthony Geffen who worked with Edward Behr on several documentary projects including the acclaimed and controversial film Hirohito: Behind The Myth. Born in 1926, Edward Behr was one of the most distinguished foreign correspondents of his generation. He wrote for the most important news outlets of the day: Reuters, Time-Life, Time and Newsweek. He covered the world's hot-spots, from Africa to China and Vietnam, from Cuba to Prague and Paris. He interviewed Chairman Mao about the Cultural Revolution, learnt to tango from Fidel Castro, and in 1968 alone covered Saigon during the Tet Offensive from Saigon, the Spring Uprising in Prague and the student riots in Paris. Inspired by Evelyn Waugh's Scoop, Edward went on to write his best-selling memoirs, which became the foreign correspondents' primer, Anybody Here Been Raped And Speaks English? The title was inspired by a request from a BBC camera crew he allegedly overheard whilst covering fighting in the Congo in 1961. Edward's work has been admired by fellow correspondents and a generation of subsequent journalists. The British journalist James Cameron described him as 'One of the most experienced foreign correspondents of his and my generation'; author Simon Winchester called him 'One of the best, surely no correspondent's life was ever as ever as hilarious and bizarre'. Marie Colvin credited her decision to become a foreign correspondent to reading Behr's book. Edward was extraordinarily prolific. He wrote some nineteen successful and very varied books ranging from the authoritative to the entertaining. Among them were The Algerian Problem, Kiss The Hand You Cannot Bite: The Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus, Hirohito: Behind The Myth, The Last Emperor (winner of the Gutenberg prize which accompanied Bertolucci's film of that name) Les Miserables: History In The Making and The Story of Miss Saigon. He even wrote a novel, Getting Even, based on his experience as a foreign correspondent. Edward's work also included a wide range of award-winning television documentaries ranging from Ceausescu: Behind The Myth to The American Way of Death as well as films on Prohibition, Bombay, and the Kennedy Family. Drawing on his expertise on the Far East, he collaborated on the hit musicals Les Miserables and Miss Saigon.

May 14th marks the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. We talk to Professor Shai Feldman, one of the world's leading experts on the Middle East, who talks about the political and ideological challenges that face Israel in its 60th year. Professor Shai Feldman is Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University which analyses Middle East economic, political and cultural developments, generates policy ideas, and offers a forum for interaction between academia and the world of public policy. From 1997-2005, he served as Head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.  He is a Member of the Board of Directors of Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and from 2001-2003, he served as a member of the UN Secretary General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. Feldman is also a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute. Paul Adams is the BBC's Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for BBC News 24, with a brief that covers a wide range of foreign and diplomatic stories. He has just come back from two weeks of travelling around Israel, making programmes for the World Tonight and will be chairing an hour-long debate on Israel at 60 which will be on World Service Radio on Saturday 10th May at 8pm.   In his previous role as the BBC's Middle East Correspondent, his reports included Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the Pope's historic visit to Israel and the dawning of the year 2000 in Bethlehem. He returned to the Middle East for the first anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death and the tenth anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.

Ray Fitzwalter, executive producer of World in Action and author of The Dream that Died - the rise and fall of ITV - talks about his forthcoming book. He gives us a unique insider account of the rise and fall of ITV, as seen through the fate of Granada Television, and the ripple effect on the standard of broadcasting we see on our screens today.

Marcus Bleasdale has now spent eight years covering the brutal conflict within the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the work was published in his book One Hundred Years of Darkness. Tonight he will present his work focusing on the people in Eastern Congo's mining towns, where militia groups and government forces battle on a daily basis for control of the mineral-rich areas where they can exploit gold, coltan, cassiterite and diamonds. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to the deadliest war in the world today. An estimated 5.4 million people have died since 1998 and according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) as many as 45,000 people die each month in the Congo, mostly from preventable diseases. After successive waves of fighting and ten years of war, there are no hospitals, few roads and limited NGO and UN presence because it is too dangerous to work in many of these regions. The West's desire for minerals and gems has contributed to a fundamental breakdown in the social structure. Marcus Bleasdale has won numerous awards over the last decade and has been published widely by The Sunday Times Magazine, The Telegraph Saturday Magazine, Geo Magazine, The New Yorker, TIME and Newsweek, LIFE and National Geographic Magazine.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has witnessed one of the world's worst ongoing humanitarian crises, where as many as 5.4 million people may have died since 1998. We discuss why this country is beset by so many problems and if there are any forseeable solutions for it. Although the country has now emerged from what has been called "Africa's first world war", credible mortality studies estimate that over 1,000 people continue to die each day from conflict-related causes, mostly disease and malnutrition but ongoing violence as well. The country is also beset by rampant corruption within the transitional government, and pervasive state weaknesses have created an atmosphere in which both members of the national army as well as members of armed groups frequently perpetrate abuses against civilians. At the same time the country is believed to be one of the world's richest countries in terms of raw materials. Moderated by Michela Wrong - columnist and author Marcus Bleasdale - has spent eight years covering the brutal conflict within the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the work was published in his book One Hundred Years of Darkness. He is widely published in the UK, Europe and the USA. Dino Mahtani - Former Reuters correspondent, previously based in DRC, and former west and central Africa correspondent for the Financial Times. Mulegwa Zihindula - spokesman for Kabila during 2002-2004. Now based in London, he is doing a Masters at SOAS. Moderated by Michela Wrong who is a columnist for the New Statesman and author of In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo.

Andrew Gilligan, former BBC Radio 4 Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent and the man in the centre of the Hutton Inquiry and the 'sexying up of the dossier' scandal, tells his side of the story. Gilligan is best known for his report about the government's dossier about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction which was published ahead of the invasion of Iraq and contained the infamous '45-minutes claim'. He resigned from the BBC following the publication of the Hutton Inquiry report, which among other things criticised Gilligan's journalistic standards. He now writes for The Evening Standard about defence and diplomatic affairs. Moderated by Gavin MacFadyen - Director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism.

With recent events in Tibet raising questions about international support for the Olympics, our panel discusses the possibility of boycott. Can the Olympics still act as a catalyst for reform in China or is its human rights record only getting worse as a result? And will the international spotlight force China to make a long-term change in its foreign policy in Africa? Shirong Chen is the China Editor of the BBC World Service. Tom Porteous is the London Director of Human Rights Watch. Simon Tisdall is the assistant editor of The Guardian and foreign affairs columnist. Liu Weimin is Counsellor of Press and Communications for the Chinese Embassy Moderated by Isabel Hilton - an expert in Chinese affairs, having gained an MA in Chinese, at Edinburgh University; scholarships at the Peking Languages Institute and Fudan University, Shanghai. She has also undertaken postgraduate work on 20th century Chinese literature at Edinburgh.

Edward Lucas, the Central and Eastern Europe correspondent for The Economist, talks about Russia's increasing military muscle, its use of energy politics to pursue its international agenda and the affect of a resurgent Kremlin on the rest of the world. Edward Lucas has been covering the region for more than 20 years, witnessing the final years of the Cold War, the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the Soviet empire as well as Boris Yeltsin's downfall and Vladimir Putin's rise to power. From 1992 to 1994, he was the managing editor of The Baltic Independent, a weekly English-language newspaper published in Tallinn. He is the author of The New Cold War. Moderated by Olexiy Solohubenko - BBC World Service Executive Editor, Europe, Americas Europe Region

Robert Fisk, the iconic Middle East correspondent for the Independent, talks about his reporting career spanning three decades. Fisk has reported from the Middle East for more than 31 years - during which time he has covered 11 major wars as well as countless insurgencies and massacres. He holds more British and international awards than any other foreign correspondent and is the author of the critically acclaimed The Great War for Civilisation: the Conquest of the Middle East, an eyewitness history of the region's tragedy. His latest book, The Age of the Warrior, is a collection of his Saturday columns for the Independent, which allows him to "speak out against the fraud and injustice of a world in which consent has become automatic". It covers issues ranging from the Middle East to the use and misuse of words, and the influence of cinema and novels on our age.

Following its declaration of independence in February, Kosova is now facing a long uphill struggle to take its place among the estabished European nations. Our panel discusses the politics behind the creation of the newest European state and the hurdles that it faces if it's to become a peaceful and prosperous nation. Daut Dauti - journalist and former spokesman for the Kosova government. Tim Judah - Journalist and author who lives in London and specialises in Balkan affairs. Judah is the author of two books on the Balkans: The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia and Kosovo: War & Revenge. He is currently writing an "all you need to know" book about Kosovo. Misha Glenny - Journalist and author specialising in south-eastern Europe. Glenny is the author of The Fall of Yugoslavia, The Balkans: Nationalism, War and the Great Powers and more recently McMafia: Crime without Frontiers. Dr Nebojsa Vladisavljevic - Tutorial fellow at LSE, specialist in democratisation, nationalist mobilisation, communism/post-communism with a particular focus on former Yugoslavia. Moderated by Allan Little - the BBC's Foreign Affairs Correspondent. Little spent four years in the former Yugoslavia, reporting on conflicts throughout the region. He is the co-author of the much-acclaimed Death of Yugoslavia.