Good to see you tonight

From:bkatulis@americanprogress.org To: John_D_Podesta@who.eop.gov CC: john.podesta@gmail.com, Eryn_M_Sepp@who.eop.gov Date: 2014-03-05 01:14 Subject: Good to see you tonight

Three things: 1. I thought the discussion was really adrift on progressive foreign policy. I have this longer piece coming out in Democracy Journal later this month (attached) - called "Against Disengagement" - it aims to answer a question I raised in this recent Washington Post oped: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-foreign-policy-to-do-list/2014/01/30/5ad0bcd4-8925-11e3-916e-e01534b1e132_story.html 2. Here's the trip report from January in the second attachment. Sending the long version again because you said you hadn't seen it. 3. Thanks again for seeing Tawfic and Nick. Just recall that he's the one who hosted us in the region and is backing the Christians research, which is coming together nicely. The other brother you saw last month is more connected, but he hasn't formally backed our work. We have a bunch of research coming out now - an Egypt report this week, and some other work later this spring. Thanks again for everything - we miss you & Eryn. Brian ________________________________ John, Hope you're doing well. We missed you on the January trip and I trust you received the trip report and heard from others about it. I'm writing to see if there's any chance for you to meet with Tawfic Khoury & Nick Papandreou March 4, 5 or 6, even for 15 minutes or so. As you know, Tawfic hosted our delegation for dinner in Dubai and we've continued to cultivate that relationship after your initial discussions. I'm tentatively planning a dinner on Tuesday, March 4 if you get a free chance for a bite to eat outside of the office, but I know they would value any time, even a few minutes. The rest of our work is going well - we're all excited about Vikram. I have a new piece on progressive foreign policy coming out in Democracy next month. Our field research on the Islamist project is just about done and we have really fascinating reports on Egypt & Tunisia coming out with another on Syria later this spring. Plus the Christians in the Middle East conference at Villanova at the end of March is coming together nicely. We miss you and hope you're doing well. Brian