Talk entitled ‘The Middle East Road Map: Are the Parties Ready for Peace?’. Dr. Khalil Shikaki, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (Ramallah) Dr. Shikaki took his Ph.D. from Columbia University and taught at several universities including Bir Zeit, Al Najah National University. He spent the summer of 2002 as a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. In 1998-1999 he and Dr. Yezid Sayegh led a group of experts on Palestinian institution building and published their findings in a Council on Foreign Relations report called ‘Strengthening Palestinian Public Institutions’. Dr. Shikaki has conducted more than 90 polls among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza strip. His latest poll included three comprehensive surveys among Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan and Lebanon and his most recent publication is ‘The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: Oslo and the lessons of Failure’ (Sussex Academic Press, 2002).