Here's a socialite blog Who's Who of the event...(scroll down) http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/social-diary/2015/comings-and-goings

More catching up. A week ago Monday, October 26th, more than 400 leading names in international relations, politics and business gathered at New York’s Pier 60 at the Chelsea Piers to salute peacemakers for the Crisis Group’s 2015 In Pursuit of Peace Awards Dinner.

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group and co-founder of The Elders, was presented with Crisis Group’s highest honor, the Chairman’s Award, for his inspiring leadership in pursuit of peace, human rights and sustainable development, by Jordan’s Queen Noor.

Longtime Crisis Group supporter, financier and philanthropist George Soros took to the podium to present Italian stateswoman Emma Bonino with the Fred Cuny Award for the Prevention of Deadly Conflict.

Two central players in the foundation of the new Tunisian democracy, President Béji Caid Essebsi and Nahda Party leader Rached Ghannouchi, jointly received the coveted Founder’s Award for pioneers in peacebuilding (former Tunisian Ambassador Ahmed Ounaies was on hand to accept the honor for President Essebsi).

Former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans was honored with a Founder’s Award for conflict prevention, while the outgoing governor of Nigeria’s Lagos state, Babatunde Fashola, was feted with the Steven J. Solarz Award for Commitment to Peace, Justice and Security. Former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, was honored with Crisis Group’s President’s Award for her exemplary leadership in responding to the plight of civilians affected by war.

pic Richard Branson, Frank Giustra, and Jean-Marie Guéhenno.

pic Sir Harold Evans and Tina Brown.

Other notables who gathered to honor the winners and celebrate Crisis Group’s 20th anniversary of promoting peace included the organization’s President and CEO Jean-Marie Guéhenno and his wife, lawyer Michele Moss; publishing power couple Tina Brown and Sir Harold Evans; Alex Soros; former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, Italian fashion executive Angela Missoni; novelist Joanne Leedom-Ackerman and her husband, financier Peter Ackerman; Italian Ambassador to the U.S. Sebastiano Cardi, entertainment executive John Sykes, financier; and former U.S. Ambassador to Slovak Republic Carl Spielvogel and his wife, author and activist Barbaralee Diamonstein->Spielvogel, and Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch.

pic Queen Noor and Richard Branson.

pic Sandy Berger and Crisis Group's Courtney Lobel.

Okay hold the phone, stop the record!

Let me read that again

Two central players in the foundation of the new Tunisian democracy, President Béji Caid Essebsi and Nahda Party leader Rached Ghannouchi, jointly received the coveted Founder’s Award for pioneers in peacebuilding (former Tunisian Ambassador Ahmed Ounaies was on hand to accept the honor for President Essebsi).

and now let me read what I just read in @Arrvee link

1994

For nearly a year, Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi has been seeking an American visa. Ghannouchi, the most prominent Islamist in the West, is the leader of Al-Nahda (The Revival), Tunisia’s major Islamist grouping.

Al-Nahda is now banned in Tunisia, and Ghannouchi resides in Britain.

He would like to visit the United States this summer, where he hopes to address religious and academic audiences. Until now, the U.S. government has denied him entry, because of his political views and the opposition of the Tunisian government. But Ghannouchi’s visa application is currently under active review.

Last week, Tunisia apparently indicated it would regard a U.S. decision to admit Ghannouchi as “a hostile act.”

Still, there are some who believe Ghannouchi’s visit to the United States would send a positive signal to “moderate” Islamists everywhere, and provide an opening for a dialogue with them. But is Ghannouchi a “moderate”? In the past, Ghannouchi has urged violence against U.S. interests, and he continues to demand Israel’s destruction. Might an American visit send precisely the wrong signal?

Rashid Ghannouchi was born in 1941 in the south of Tunisia. As a student in Damascus and Paris, he embraced the doctrines of the Muslim Brotherhood, which he disseminated on his return to Tunisia. His writings and activities against the government during the 1980s led to his repeated arrest. Ghannouchi chose voluntary exile in 1989.

In 1992, a Tunisian court sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment, for plotting to overthrow the Tunisian government.

Ghannouchi arrived in Britain in November 1991, and requested political asylum. The Tunisian government objected, but members of the Muslim community in Britain took up Ghannouchi’s cause, and he was granted asylum in August 1993.

Fast forward to 2011 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Revolution Oh look it's the Flower themed revolution!

In Tunisia and the wider Arab world, the protests and change in government are called the Revolution or sometimes the Sidi Bouzid Revolt, derived from Sidi Bouzid, the city where the initial protests began.[21][22]

In the Western media, these events have been dubbed the Jasmine Revolution or Jasmine Spring[23] after Tunisia's national flower and in keeping with the geopolitical nomenclature of "color revolutions". The name "Jasmine Revolution" originated from American journalist Andy Carvin, but it was not widely adopted in Tunisia itself.[24]

In fact, the debate surrounding the name and the poetic influences behind the Tunisian revolution was a popular question among Tunisian intellectuals themselves as seen in the following article: Tunisia's revolution of dignity and freedom cannot be color-coded. The name adopted in Tunisia was the Dignity Revolution, which is a translation of the Tunisian Arabic name for the revolution ثورة الكرامة (Thawrat al-Karāmah).[25] Within Tunisia, Ben Ali's rise to power in 1987 was also known as the Jasmine Revolution.[26][27]