Yesterday, the Global changemakers had the chance to interview Rami George Khouri at the World Economic Forum. Khouri is a Palestinian-Jordanian and U.S. citizen whose family resides in Beirut, Amman, and Nazareth. He is director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. His journalistic work includes writing books and an internationally syndicated column, and he also serves as editor at large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.

Heather Kitt, a young youth expert, who works for the Red Cross International Tracing and Messaging Team, from the United Kingdom and Khalid Sidqi, the founder and chief-in-editor of Interruptions, an experimental publication which focuses on environment, art and culture from Syria, had the chance to ask Khouri about negotiating with different armed groups in the Middle East for the peace process, in addition to obtaining his views on the reasons Lebanon had not shifted towards a democratic, secular and civil state.