Dr. John Duke Anthony is the founding president and chief executive officer of the National Council on US-Arab Relations (NCUSAR).  Founded in 1983, the NCUSAR is an American nonprofit, nongovernmental, educational organization dedicated to improving American knowledge and understanding of the Arab world. At a ceremony in Washington last week, Dr. Anthony awarded the secretary-general of the Muslim World League, Dr. Mohammed bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, the World’s Religions Peace Award in recognition of his international efforts to promote peace.  After the completion of his US Army active duty military service, Dr. Anthony enrolled at Virginia Military Institute (VMI), where he received his bachelor’s degree in history. He subsequently obtained a master’s degree in foreign service from the Edmund A. Walsh Graduate School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Currently, he holds a Ph.D. in international relations and Middle East studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C.  In 1993, Dr. Anthony received the US Department of State’s Distinguished Visiting Lecturer Award, one of the three awarded over a span of a quarter century, in recognition of his preparation of American diplomatic and defense personnel assigned to the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf states. In 2000, King Muhammad VI of Morocco knighted Dr. Anthony, bestowing upon him the Medal of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite, the country’s highest award for excellence. Dr. Anthony is also the only American to have been invited to each of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s  (GCC) ministerial and heads of state summits since the GCC’s inception in 1981.  An accomplished author, he has also published more than 180 articles, essays, and monographs on a variety of topics related to the Arab world.