Senior Research Scholar,School of International and Public Affairs
Executive Director, Gulf/2000 Project
International Affairs Building, Room 1111
Phone: 212-854-1788
ggs2@columbia.edu
http://sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/ggs2-fac.html

Gary Sick received a PhD from Columbia University in 1973. He is the author of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran (Random House 1985) and October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan (Random House 1991). He is also the co-editor of four books on the Persian Gulf published by the Gulf/2000 project and Palgrave (formerly St Martin's) Press in New York.

Gary Sick served on the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan. He was the principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis. Sick is a captain (ret.) in the U.S. Navy, with service in the Persian Gulf, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. He was the deputy director for International Affairs at the Ford Foundation from 1982 to 1987, where he was responsible for programs relating to U.S. foreign policy, and . is a member (emeritus) of the board of Human Rights Watch in New York as well as founding chairman of its Middle East and North Africa advisory committee.

Gary Sick is the executive director of Gulf/2000, an international research project on political, economic, and security developments in the Persian Gulf.

The Gulf/2000 Project is sponsored by the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in New York City. The Gulf/2000 project addresses major issues concerning the Gulf region on a multi-dimensional basis. Its four main objectives are: A) To establish a network of specialists from every Gulf country and throughout the world to exchange information and expertise on important issues, regardless of political or ideological affiliation. B) To organize a series of conferences and workshops. C) To establish and maintain an electronic library, research facility and live information exchange on the Internet, accessible to all participants in the project. D) To commission a series of research papers from experts in the field to examine long-term trends affecting the future stability and security of the Persian Gulf region. These papers serve as the intellectual agenda for the workshops and are edited and published as research texts.

The initial inspiration and startup funding for the project was provided by the W. Alton Jones Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Today, major funding is provided by the Ford Foundation, with additional support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation, and the ExxonMobil Foundation. The project is not associated with any government.

Component: Democracy and Religion in Research and Practice