THE FOREIGN POLICY INSTITUTE

Transpacific Integration: China, the TPP and Beyond

In recent years, countries in the Asia-Pacific region have embraced a series of new trade and integration frameworks, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and the Pacific Alliance. However, despite considerable progress, these agreements have lost some momentum. The fate of the TPP is especially uncertain. In the US, which must soon decide whether or not to pass the TPP, favorable views of free trade agreements peaked in 2014 at 59 percent, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. The recent election of Donald Trump as the 45th US president has generated additional uncertainty about existing and future trade arrangements. This event will examine the likelihood of continued progress on transpacific trade and investment facilitation in a rapidly changing global environment. 

8:30 – 9:00

Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 – 9:15

Opening Remarks

9:15 – 10:45    Session 1: Toward Latin American Cross-Pacific Trade Integration

• Sergio Amaral, Ambassador of Brazil to the United States

• Antoni Estevadeordal, Manager, Integration and Trade Sector, Inter-American Development Bank

• Ariel Armony, Senior Director of International Programs; Director, University Center International Studies, University of Pittsburgh

Moderator: Carla Hills, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Hills & Company

11:00 – 12:30 Session 2: Making the Case for Multilateral Trade: Prospects for the TPP

• Miles Kahler, Senior Fellow for Global Governance, Council on Foreign Relations

• Cathleen Cimino-Isaacs, Research Associate, Peterson Institute for International Economics

• Naboth van den Broek, Georgetown University Law Center

Moderator: Adrian Hearn, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne

SAIS Review Launch Volume 36: Ungoverned Spaces

We launched the SAIS Review's 36th Volume: "Ungoverned Spaces." Volume 36 is a two-part publication. Volume 36, No. 1: "Here be Dragons," discusses Ungoverned Spaces on Land and Sea. And, Volume 36, No 2: "Terra Incognita," analyzes Ungoverned Spaces in Space and Technology.

Panelists:

Carla Freeman
Director, Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins SAIS

Melissa E. Hathaway
President, Hathaway Global Strategies. Senior Advisor, Cyber Security Project, Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School

Henry H. Hertzfeld
Research Professor of Space Policy and International Affairs, The George Washington University Elliot School of International Affairs

Camille Pecastaing
Senior Associate Professor, Middle East Studies, Johns Hopkins SAIS

Journalism and Diplomacy in Bologna, Italy

How have current and previous American executives handled diplomacy during their presidencies? Do presidential candidates Clinton and Trump stray from this dynamic? How does one navigate journalism within China? How does one navigate journalism within Washington, DC?

James Mann is a Washington-based author and SAIS Foreign Policy Institute Fellow who has written a series of award-winning books about American foreign policy and about China, and is currently working on the biographical volume of George W. Bush for The American Presidents series.  He is a former newspaper reporter, foreign correspondent and columnist who wrote for more than twenty years for the Los Angeles Times.  He also worked for The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New Haven Journal-Courier.  Mann has also been senior writer-in-residence at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a fellow of the American Academy in Berlin; winner of the Edward Weintal Prize and the Edwin Hood Award for reporting on American foreign policy as well as other journalism awards. He received his B.A. in sociology from Harvard University.

David C. Unger, Adjunct Professor of American Foreign Policy at SAS Europe, is a long time member of the New York Times Editorial Board and current member of the Council on Foreign Relations; previously a member of the Foreign Policy Roundtable; speaker at Humanity in Action fellowship program, Berlin, June 2015, on Greece and Germany: Crisis of the Euro or Crisis of European Democracy?; presenter and discussion leader at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs on Wealth and Terror: Why America’s Quest for Absolute Security Is a Mission Impossible that Can Also Destroy Our Democracy and Maps of War, Maps of Peace: Finding a Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Question; panel leader at Club of Madrid Terrorism and Democracy Conference (2005); panelist at Harry Truman Library Conference on Politics and Political Legacy of Harry S. Truman’s National Security Policy; guest seminar leader at the S.O.A.S. Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy on Obama and US Foreign Policy, at New York University on Global Civil Society; PhD, University of Texas at Austin. He just published The Foreign Policy Legacy of Barack Obama in the International Spectator.

Dealing with Systemic Corruption, a discussion with Dr. Francis Fukuyama

How can we effectively engage with corruption? Dr. Fukuyama, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies & the Mosbacher Director of FSI's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, uses a critical lens to address corruption within the development arena, while still engaging with political, cultural, and economic spheres of influence. Dr. Fukuyama uses an interdisciplinary approach to creative analysis.

Francis Fukuyama is the Mosbacher director of the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. He was previously Bernard Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), John Hopkins University, and Hirst Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. He has worked at the Rand Corporation and as a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the US Department of State. Francis Fukuyama received his B.A. from Cornell University in classics, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in Political Science. He has written widely on questions concerning democratization and international political economy. His book, The End of History and the Last Man, was published by Free Press in 1992 and has appeared in over twenty foreign editions. His latest book, Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy was published in September 2014.

"Crisis Stability in Space: China and Other Challenges" Study in Policy Launch

The Foreign Policy Institute hosted a panel discussion and reception as we launched our latest study in policy "Crisis Stability in Space: China and Other Challenges", authored by Bruce MacDonald with Adm. Dennis Blair, Dean Cheng, Karl Mueller, and Victoria Samson.

Shining a light on the instability currently inherent in the space domain, how political and military crises could spill over into space, the danger of possible space war with China, and steps the United States can take to reduce these dangers, Crisis Stability in Space identifies and explains the major features of space's strategic landscape, a new and often misunderstood domain of potential conflict. This publication assesses these challenges and how they affect space deterrence and incentives to escalate or go to war in space.

Panelists:

Bruce MacDonald, SAIS
Dean Cheng, Heritage Foundation                                                                  
Karl Mueller, Georgetown University; RAND Corp.                                  
Victoria Samson, Secure World Foundation

Author Meets His Critics session, featuring Professor Amitai Etzioni

The Foreign Policy Institute and the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies welcomes George Washington University Professor Amitai Etzioni to discuss his newly published book, Foreign Policy: Thinking Outside the Box. The volume is a publication in the Chatham House series, “Insights,” on critical issues in international affairs.

In this "Author Meets His Critics" discussion, leading foreign policy experts commented and critiqued the book, to which Professor Etzioni responded.

Panelists:

Professor David Lampton, Director, China Studies, SAIS

Professor Dan Serwer, Director, Conflict Management, SAIS

Professor Michael Green, Senior VP for Asia & Japan Chair, CSIS; SFS, Georgetown

Moderator:
Professor Carla Freeman, Director, FPI, SAIS

Responding to Lebanon's Syrian Refugee Crisis

As a result of  Lebanon's open border policy, Syrian refugees now make up nearly a quarter of the country's population, placing an enormous strain on its limited resources. The government has responded with visa restrictions, placing new pressures on a vulnerable refugee population amid a prolonged political impasse, heightening Lebanese frustrations over a breakdown in services.

Against this backdrop, United Nations (UN) agencies in Lebanon are working to address refugee needs as well as the economic and social burden their presence is having on their host country. The Middle East Institute and The Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) were pleased to host Philippe Lazzarini, Deputy UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, for a discussion of these issues.

Randa Slim (MEI and SAIS) moderated the discussion.

Speaker Biographies:
Philippe Lazzarini
Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon, United Nations
Philippe Lazzarini is UN deputy special coordinator for Lebanon, resident and humanitarian coordinator, and UN Development Programme resident representative in Lebanon. He has extensive experience in humanitarian assistance and international coordination in conflict and post-conflict areas, including in his assignment until spring 2015  in the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia. Prior to that, he held a number of senior positions in the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and in various field positions in Iraq, Angola, Somalia, and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Prior to joining the United Nations in 2003, Mr. Lazzarini headed the marketing department of a private bank in Geneva. He also served for 10 years with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as the deputy head of communication, head of the ICRC delegations in Rwanda, Angola, and Sarajevo, and as an ICRC delegate in Southern Sudan, Jordan, Gaza, and Beirut.

Randa Slim 
Director for Track II Initiatives, The Middle East Institute and Fellow, The Foreign Policy Institute, SAIS
Randa Slim is director of the Track II Dialogues initiative at The Middle East Institute, and a non-resident fellow of The Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins-SAIS. Former vice president of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue, Slim has been a senior program advisor at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a guest scholar at the United States Institute of Peace, a program director at Resolve, Inc, and a program officer at the Kettering Foundation. A former member of the Dartmouth Conference U.S.-Russian regional conflicts taskforce, she was involved from 1992-2005 in conflict management activities in Central Asia working in Tajikistan and the Ferghana Valley. Since 2002, Slim has developed and managed a number of dialogue and peace-building projects in the Middle East. The author of several studies, book chapters and articles on Middle Eastern politics, dialogue processes and post-conflict peace building, Slim has written for, appeared with, or been cited by several U.S. and international media outlets.

The New World Bank’s Russia Economic Report: The Long Journey to Recovery

Dean Vali Nasr, the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute and the Russia-Eurasia Club

hosted a discussion on The World Bank's New Russia Report: The Long Journey to Recovery

with

Dr. Birgit Hansl, Lead Economist and Program Leader for the Russian Federation, The World Bank

Moderated by Dr. John Lipsky, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute

Birgit Hansl, a German national, is the World Bank’s Lead Economist for the Russian Federation, and Country Sector Coordinator in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network in the Europe and Central Asia Region. 

Since joining the Bank in 2005 through the Young Professionals Program, Birgit worked for the World Bank’s programs in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Prior to joining the Moscow-based Russia team in May 2013, she worked at the World Bank’s headquarter in Washington DC covering public finance and macroeconomic issues in South East Europe, with focus on Macedonia and Romania. 

Before joining the Bank, Birgit worked in academics and a number of bilateral and multilateral organizations, including the British Department for International Development and the United Nations Development Program.

Birgit holds a Ph.D. in Economics and a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics. She completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of California San Francisco and Berkeley. Her first degree was a Masters’ in Economics from the Humboldt University Berlin. 

The IMF's April 2016 Global Financial Stability Report: What Policies Could Normalize Markets?

Dean Vali Nasr and the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute hosted a discussion on "The IMF's April 2016 Global Financial Stability Report: What Policies Could Normalize Markets?" with  Mr. José Viñals, Financial Counsellor, Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, International Monetary Fund and Mr. Douglas Elliott, Partner, Oliver Wyman

This event was moderated by Dr. John Lipsky, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins SAIS

Over the last six months, risks to global financial stability have risen, according to the International Monetary Fund’s April 2016 Global Financial Stability Report.

In advanced economies, the outlook has deteriorated because of heightened uncertainty and setbacks to growth and confidence. Disruptions to global asset markets have added to these pressures. Declines in oil and commodity prices have kept risks elevated in emerging markets, while greater uncertainty about China’s growth transition has increased spillovers to global markets. These developments tightened financial conditions, reduced risk appetite, and raised credit risks, weighing on financial stability. The situation in markets appears significantly improved, but is the turmoil of the past months now safely behind us, or is it a warning signal that more needs to be done to secure financial stability? The IMF’s April 2016 GFSR addresses this key question and many others. 
 

José Viñals is currently the Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is a member of the Financial Stability Board, representing the IMF.

His professional career has been closely tied to the Central Bank of Spain, where he served as the Deputy Governor after holding successive positions.

He has also held the positions of Chairman of the European Central Bank International Relations Committee; and Chairman of Spain’s Deposit Guarantee Funds.

He has been a member of: the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on the Global Financial System; the European Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee; and the high-level group appointed by the President of the European Commission to examine economic challenges in the European Union. He was also a member of the European Union Economic and Financial Committee and a Board Member of the Spanish Securities Authority, the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores.

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Valencia; a Master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics; and Master's and Doctoral (Ph.D.) degrees in Economics from Harvard University. He is a former Faculty Member of the Economics Department at Stanford University. His awards include the Premio Rey Jaime I (King James I Prize) in Economics in 2001.
 

Douglas J. Elliott is a Partner in the financial services consulting practice of Oliver Wyman, where he focuses on public policy and its implications for the global financial sector. From 2009 to 2015, he was a Fellow in Economic Studies at The Brookings Institution, specializing primarily in financial institutions and markets and their regulation and on the Euro Crisis. He has written extensively on financial regulation and its international coordination (seehttp://www.brookings.edu/experts/elliottd.aspx).

He has been a Visiting Scholar at the International Monetary Fund, as well as a consultant for the IMF, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. Prior to Brookings, he was a financial institutions investment banker for two decades, principally at J.P. Morgan.

He has testified multiple times before both houses of Congress and participated in numerous speaking engagements, as well as appearing widely in the major media outlets. The New York Times has described his analyses as “refreshingly understandable” and “without a hint of dogma or advocacy.”

Mr. Elliott graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude with an A.B. in Sociology in 1981. In 1984, he graduated from Duke University with an M.A. in Computer Science.

Global Governance: An Assessment

Dean Vali Nasr and the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute hosted a discussion on "Global Governance: An Assessment" with Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Former Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission

This event was moderated by Professor Pravin Krishna, Chung Ju Yung, Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business
 

Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia has served as a high-level government official in India, as well as with the IMF and the World Bank. He has been a key figure in India’s economic reforms since the mid-1980s. Most recently, Mr. Ahluwalia was Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India from July 2004 till May 2014. In 2011, he was awarded the prestigious “Padma Vibhushan”, India’s second highest civilian honor, by the President of India for his outstanding contribution to economic policy and public service. Dr. Ahluwalia received a BA (Hons) degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi University. He went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and received an M.A. and an M.Phil. degree in Economics from Oxford University. He has received several honorary doctorates, including the Doctor of Civil Law (Honoris Causa) from Oxford University.

Challenges in Environmental Diplomacy

The SAIS Foreign Policy Institute presents a discussion with Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel A. Reifsnyder, led by Dr. Lynn Wagner (’91, PhD ’98) on Challenges in Environmental Diplomacy

What are the challenges in conducting environmental diplomacy? How does it differ from the usual practice of US diplomacy? How are historic agreements, such as the recent Paris agreement, negotiated?

Dr. Reifsnyder has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment in the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Science since March 2006.  He oversees the Environment Directorate, which deals with international environmental issues such as environmental quality, conservation of natural resources, water, and global climate change.  In these areas, Dr. Reifsnyder leads US delegations under multilateral conventions and bilateral agreements. Dr. Reifsnyder served as Co-Chair of the UN climate change negotiations that led to the Paris Agreement in December 2015.  Before that, he served as Chair and Vice Chair of the UN climate negotiations that led to the Durban and Cancun outcomes in 2011 and 2010.  In 2012, he led the US Delegation in the final negotiating session that adopted the Minamata Convention on Mercury. He has been deeply involved in US efforts to phase down HFCs under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. He earned his Ph.D. in international relations from Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 2014.  

Lynn M. Wagner received her Ph.D. from SAIS in 1998. Her research interests focus on the relationship between negotiation processes and outcomes, particularly for environmental negotiations. Dr. Wagner analyzes multilateral environmental negotiations through her work with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). She began working with IISD in 1994 and is currently the Senior Manager of IISD Reporting Services’ Knowledge Management Projects. She is also Reporting Services’ thematic expert for Sustainable Development and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

Asian Economic Outlook and the Roles of the Asian Development Bank

Edwin O. Reischauer Memorial Lecture Series, Foreign Policy Institute, and International Development Program Development Roundtable presents:

Asian Economic Outlook and the Roles of the Asian Development Bank with Takehiko Nakao President and Chairperson, Board of Directors

President Nakao will discuss the economic situations and outlook for Asia, as well as the policy challenges of Asian developing countries. The lecture will include the roles of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in promoting development, the reform efforts to fulfill its roles such as strengthening financing capacity, and the cooperation with AIIB and other partners.

Takehiko Nakao is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was elected President by ADB’s Board of Governors and assumed office in April 2013. Before joining ADB, Mr. Nakao was the Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance of Japan. He has held senior positions in the Ministry of Finance in Japan, which he joined in 1978, including Director-General of the International Bureau, where he fostered close ties with leading figures in the Asia-Pacific region, and G20 nations. He was assigned as Minister at the Embassy of Japan in Washington D.C., between 2005 and 2007, and from 1994 to 1997 served as economist and advisor at the International Monetary Fund. He has published books and numerous papers on financial and economic issues, and in 2010 and 2011 was a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo. Mr. Nakao holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Tokyo and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.

The Gray Rhino: A New Framework for Foreign Policy Risks

The SAIS Foreign Policy Institute hosted a conversation with Michele Wucker about her latest book "The Gray Rhino: A New Framework for Foreign Policy Risks," moderated by Jeff Leonard.

A "gray rhino" is a highly probable, high impact yet neglected threat: kin to both the giant but ignored elephant in the room and the improbable, unforeseeable black swan. Gray rhinos are not random surprises, but occur after a series of warnings and visible evidence. Many of today's biggest foreign policy challenges are gray rhinos: Syria and the resulting refugee crisis, economic and social fractures within the European Union, consequences of the Chinese economic slowdown, the consequences of climate change, and the social unrest and aggressive nationalist politics stemming from global inequality. Gray rhinos follow predictable paths, with different opportunities and obstacles as they unfold -- even as they differ in speed, complexity, and prognosis. At this event, policy analyst Michele Wucker, author of the provocative new book THE GRAY RHINO, and Foreign Policy Institute senior fellow Afshin Molavi discuss how the gray rhino concept can help decision makers to better understand and respond to global risks before it's too late.

Michele Wucker is the author of THE GRAY RHINO: How to Recognize and Act on the Obvious Dangers We Ignore (St Martin’s Press, April 5, 2016), as well as LOCKOUT: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting It Right and WHY THE COCKS FIGHT: Dominicans, Haitians, and the Struggle for Hispaniola. She has been honored as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and a  Guggenheim Fellow, and delivered speeches on five continents. In 2015, she founded Gray Rhino & Company to help leaders and organizations to identify and strategize their responses to known risks. Her previous positions include Vice President for Studies at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs; President of the World Policy Institute, which she re-launched in 2007; and Latin America Bureau Chief at International Financing Review. Her writing has appeared in publications including CNN.com, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal; and she has been interviewed by many media including National Public Radio, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and Fox News. Visit her website at www.wucker.com and follow her on twitter @wucker.

Jeffrey Leonard is CEO and co-founder of Global Environment Fund, a middle market private equity firm that invests worldwide in growth companies that enable renewable energy, energy efficiency, environmental control and clean up.   Jeff is a member of the Board of New America, chairman of the Board of the Washington Monthly, and previously was chairman of the Board of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA).  He holds a PhD from Princeton, an MSc from London School of Economics and a BA from Harvard. Jeff is the author of 5 books and numerous articles on energy policy, international trade and environmental issues.  His book, Pollution and the Struggle for the World Product (Cambridge Press 1988) was awarded the best book on comparative policy studies by the International Studies Association in 1990. 

Prospects for an Economic Growth Rebound in Southeast Asia

Dean Vali Nasr and the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute hosted a discussion on “Prospects for an Economic Growth Rebound in Southeast Asia” With Gita Wirjawan, Chairman, Ancora Group and Founder, Ancora Foundation

Moderated by Dr. John Lipsky, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute

Mr. Gita Wirjawan is the Chairman of Ancora Group, an Indonesian group with interests in private equity investing, natural resources, real estate, sports, and music, which he founded in 2007. A statesman, entrepreneur, investment banker and musician, Mr. Wirjawan's career spans the highest levels of government and business.

Prior to resuming his role at Ancora, Mr. Wirjawan served as minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia (BKPM). For his extraordinary accomplishments as a cabinet member, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono awarded him the BintangMahaputra Adipradana.

As an investment banker, he has held key appointments at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan. Mr. Wirjawan played leading roles in many mergers, corporate restructuring, corporate financing and strategic sales involving leading companies in Southeast Asia. His various board roles included service as a Commissioner of state-owned oil giant, Pertamina, and as an Independent Board Director of Axiata Group Berhad.

Outside the world of business, his passion lies in philanthropy, education, sports and music. As a philanthropist, he has endowed scholarships for Indonesians to attend the best universities in the world, including Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge, and Sciences Po. In 2008, he established the Gita Wirjawan Graduate Fellowship at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. He is also in the process of establishing 1,000 kindergartens throughout Indonesia. An avid golfer, he has established academies to groom future Indonesian golfers. He is also currently Chairman of the Indonesian Badminton Association. And through Ancora Music, he has produced a range of albums that have been critically acclaimed. Mr. Wirjawan is a member of the advisory board of the Institute for Societal Leadership at Singapore Management University, the international advisory board of ACE Group and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Previously, a he served on the Dean's Leadership Council at the Harvard Kennedy School.

He holds a BS from the University of Texas at Austin, an MBA from Baylor University, and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. He has an honorary doctorate in business administration from Naresuan University, Thailand. He qualified as a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Texas, USA, and holds a Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Long-Term Growth Prospects in the Middle East and Central Asia

Dean Vali Nasr, the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute, and the International Monetary Fund hosted a panel discussion on Long-Term Growth Prospects in the Middle East and Central Asia with Mr. Mitsuhiro Furusawa, Deputy Managing Director, IMF; Mr. Masood Ahmed, Director, Middle East and Central Asia Department, IMF; Dr. Uri Dadush, Senior Associate and Director of the International Economics Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Senior Fellow, OCP Policy Center, Rabat Morocco; 

 Mr. Hung Tran, Executive Managing Director, Institute of International Finance

Moderated by Dr. John Lipsky, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute

Art of Diplomacy Lecture Series: Recovering Diplomatic Agility

The SAIS Foreign Policy Institute presents a discussion with Ambassador Chas Freeman (USFS, Ret.) led by Dr. Daniel Serwer on Recovering Diplomatic Agility

How does diplomacy further American foreign policy goals around the world and what should its role be in our increasingly connected and social global society? What tools are currently being utilized in American foreign diplomacy? What tools should be?

Ambassador Freeman is a senior fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. He was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 1993-94. He served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1986-1989 and U. S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989-1992. Chas Freeman served as Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires in the American embassies at both Bangkok (1984-1986) and Beijing (1981-1984). He was Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State from 1979-1981. Ambassador Freeman was also the principal American interpreter during the late President Nixon’s path-breaking visit to China in 1972.

Dr. Serwer is Director of the Conflict Management program at SAIS. As vice president of the Centers of Innovation at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Dr. Serwer led teams working on rule of law, peacebuilding, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance and gender.  He was also vice president for peace and stability operations at USIP, overseeing its peacebuilding work in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq and Sudan and serving as executive director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group. Prior to USIP, Dr. Serwer was in the U.S. Foreign Service for 21 years serving in Rome as deputy chief of mission and charge' d'affaires, as well as in Brasilia.

The Future of the Global Economy with Dr. Paul Achleitner

Dean Vali Nasr and the Foreign Policy Institute presented  The Future of the Global Economy with Dr. Paul Achleitner Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank AG

Moderated by Dr. John Lipsky, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute
 

Born 1956 in Linz, Austria, Paul Achleitner was educated at the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and Harvard Business School (HBS). He holds a Ph.D. from HSG and an honorary professorship from WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management.After four years at Bain & Co. in Boston he joined Goldman Sachs in 1988 where he served in New York, London and Frankfurt in various capacities, since 1994 as a partner of the firm. Between 2000 and 2012 Paul Achleitner was CFO of Allianz in Munich.

Besides chairing the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank Paul Achleitner serves on the Supervisory Board of Bayer and Daimler as well as on the Shareholders' Committee of Henkel. He also chairs the German Government Commission of Capital Markets Experts and is a member of the International Advisory Board of Allianz, the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institution, the European Advisory Board of the Harvard Business School and the Advisory Council of the Munich Security Conference. Since 2013, he is Co-Chairman of the Hong Kong / Europe Business Council.

Palestinian Succession Plans: Who Will Replace President Mahmoud Abbas

The SAIS Foreign Policy Institute presents a discussion on:

Palestinian Succession Plans: Who Will Replace President Mahmoud Abbas?

With:

* Ilan Goldenberg, Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security - Discussant

* Grant Rumley, Research Analyst at the Foundation of Democracies - Discussant

* Fadi Elsalameen, Non-Resident Fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute - Moderator

Domestic Political Economy and China's "Going Out" Strategy

A roundtable discussion was hosted by the Centre for International Governance (CIGI) and the Foreign Policy Institute (FPI) at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. It focused on the connection between China's domestic political economy drivers of its new activism in foreign financial policy. The rountdtable discussed the domestic sources of the "going out" strategy, the role of China's domestic institutions in shaping its economic, and the impact of its financial engagement abroad on domestic reform.

Building Peace, Security and Prosperity in Pakistan

Dean Vali Nasr and the Foreign Policy Institute hosted a discussion on "Building Peace, Security and Prosperity in Pakistan" with Senator Sherry Rehman Founding Chair and serving President of the Jinnah Institute 
 

Joining in Discussion was Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, Senior Fellow, SAIS Foreign Policy Institute, and Dr. Daniel Markey, Senior Research Professor and Academic Director of Global Public Policy Program, SAIS

Senator Sherry Rehman is the founding Chair and serving President of the Jinnah Institute, a leading policy think tank in Islamabad with a strategic focus on regional peace. Senator Rehman is the Vice President of the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian which holds the main opposition lead in both Houses of Parliament. Rehman is also the former Pakistani Ambassador to the United States; Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pakistan and ranking member of the National Security Committee in the Parliament, Rehman also held three additional portfolios of Health, Women Development and Culture as Federal Minister. 

An award-winning journalist from Pakistan with 20 years of experience in both broadcast and the print media, she is a former editor of the Herald newsmagazine based in Pakistan. Rehman is also the architect of the first parliamentary charter and bill for women empowerment, as well as for the Protection of Religious Minorities, mover of the Hudood Ordinances Repeal Bill, mover of the Anti-Honour Killings Bill, as well as the Freedom of Information Act 2004. Her bills include the removal of colonial press laws in Pakistan, as well as landmark legislation on Sexual Harassment at the Workplace, Domestic Violence and Affirmative Action for women. In August 2008, Rehman's move to repeal amendments in the Print and Publication Ordinance paved the way for constitutional protection for the print media (RTI Bill). Rehman is the recipient of several awards including the title of Democracy's Hero for her services for democracy; The Freedom Award for her work for media independence; the International Peace Award for Democrats, and the Jeanne Kirkpatrick Award for Women. She was ranked ‘Pakistan's Most Important Woman’ by Newsweek Pakistan, and identified as one of 2011's Top Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine. She was awarded the state's highest civil award, the Nishan-i-Imtiaz in March 2013.

Dr. Daniel S. Markey is senior research professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He is also the academic director for the SAIS Global Policy Program and an adjunct senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

From 2007-2015, Daniel Markey was senior fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at CFR. While there, he wrote a book on the future of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, No Exit from Pakistan: America's Tortured Relationship with Islamabad (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

From 2003 to 2007, Dr. Markey held the South Asia portfolio on the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to government service, he taught in the Department of Politics at Princeton University, where he served as executive director of Princeton's Research Program in International Security. Earlier, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard's Olin Institute for Strategic Studies.

Dr. Markey is the author of numerous reports, articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces. He has written two CFR Special Reports: Reorienting U.S. Pakistan Strategy (2014) and Securing Pakistan’s Tribal Belt (2008). In 2010, he served as project director of the CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force on U.S. strategy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His commentary has been featured widely in U.S. and international media.

Dr. Markey earned a bachelor's degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in politics from Princeton University.

Dr. Shirin Tahir-Kheli was named by Newsweek in 2011 as one of the "150 Women Who Shake the World". She specializes in South Asia, Nuclear Non-Proliferation, United Nations and U.S. Foreign Policy, Women's Empowerment.

From March 2003 to April 2005, she served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations at the National Security Council. She proposed and coordinated the building of the Children's Hospital for treatment of Cancer in Basra, Iraq from 2004-2009. The hospital, the first of its kind in Iraq, and a public-private partnership, opened in 2010.

During 2004 - 2006 she served as the key U.S. official in the formulation of U.S. policy toward United Nations Reform. She oversaw the diplomatic effort to press for critical changes in the UN system from her position as Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council and later as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State for UN Reform.

Shirin Tahir-Kheli was appointed by Secretary Condoleezza Rice as her Senior Advisor for Women’s Empowerment on April 5 2006. There, she established the first ever office focused on integrating Women's Empowerment into U.S. foreign policy. She set-up and oversaw the work of the Women Leaders' Working group comprising some sixty female heads of state, foreign ministers, political leaders, attorney generals and speakers of parliaments, focused on political participation, education, economic empowerment and justice. Tahir-Kheli  spear-headed the State Department initiative for "Women's Justice" which brought together at the Department of State on March 12, 2008, judges from around the world to work on measures to alleviate the severity of violence against women and women's lack of access to justice, which continues.

Dr.Tahir-Kheli was Research Professor of International Relations at the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC. From 1999-June 2002, she served as the founding Director, South Asia Program, FPI/SAIS.

Earlier, in her service in the United States government, Tahir-Kheli served as: Head of the United States delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in 2001; Alternate United States Representative to the United Nations for Special Political Affairs (1990-93), a post that carries the rank of Ambassador; Member, United States Presidential Commission on the Public Service during 1992-93; Director of Near East and South Asian Affairs (1986-89), White House National Security Council; Director of Political Military Affairs(1984-1986) at the National Security Council. She joined the Reagan Administration in 1982 as Member, Policy Planning Staff in the Office of the Secretary of State.

Ambassador Tahir-Kheli has dedicated her efforts to finding areas of agreement between India and Pakistan that could change their relationship to one of productive peace. Toward that end, she has been chair of the BALUSA Group comprising senior Indian and Pakistani and US participants that is geared to influencing policy toward cooperation.

She is the author and editor of several monographs, including: India, Pakistan and the United States: Breaking with the Past published by the Council on Foreign Relations (1997), and The United States and Pakistan: The Evolution. 

The UAE and the World in an Age of Turmoil

SAIS Middle East Studies and the Foreign Policy Institute presented a discussion with  Ambassador Omar Saif Ghobash UAE Ambassador to Russia

H.E Omar Saif Ghobash, UAE Ambassador to Russia, will discuss a wide range of issues from the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS (Da’esh) to the geo-economic rise of the UAE and the economic turmoil in emerging markets. Ambassador Ghobash brings a unique set of experiences to his diplomatic career, from business leader, art gallery founder, philanthropic foundation director, and advanced degree holder in mathematics.

His Excellency Omar Saif Ghobash, the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Russia, took up his post in 2009. Prior to his Ambassadorial post, Ambassador Ghobash was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Emirates Foundation, a philanthropic initiative launched by the government of Abu Dhabi. He has also worked as a diplomat in the UAE Mission to the United Nations, specializing in legal affairs. Ambassador Ghobash has been active for several years in private business, having established companies in the UAE and overseas in the financial and legal arenas, as well as continuing his work in the technology and education fields. Amongst other interests he is a Board Member of Motif, a UK-based genetic research company and of Third Line Art Gallery in Dubai which nurtures Emirati and other Arab artists. He holds a degree in Law from Balliol College, Oxford, and has completed an advanced degree in Mathematics from the University of London, UK. Ambassador Ghobash speaks Arabic, English, Russian, French, Italian and Spanish.

Afshin Molavi, Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute, moderated the discussion.

This event was open exclusively to the SAIS community and remarks are off-the-record.

SAIS Women's Leadership Initiative Launch

Dean Vali Nasr launched the Johns Hopkins SAIS Women's Leadership Initiative with The Honorable Barbara Barrett, Chairman of the Aerospace Corporation and former United States Ambassador to Finland.
 

This event was moderated by Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute and was part of the Women Who Inspire series.

Barbara Barrett is chairman of the Aerospace Corporation  and a member of the boards of California Institute of Technology, Sally Ride Science, RAND Corporation, Smithsonian Institution, Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans and Lasker Foundation. She and her husband Craig own Triple Creek Ranch in Montana, named by Travel + Leisure as the best hotel in the world for 2014.

In 2012 Barrett served as interim president of Thunderbird School of Global Management. In 2008 and 2009, Barrett was U.S. Ambassador to Finland. Previously, Barrett was senior advisor to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, a fellow teaching leadership at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, CEO of the American Management Association, deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration and vice chairman of the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board. She also served on the boards of Space Foundation, Milton Hershey School and Hershey Trust Company, Mayo Clinic, Exponent Corporation, Raytheon and Piper Aircraft. Barrett was founding chairman of Valley Bank of Arizona and chaired the State Department’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Working Group, the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce’s Export Conference. She was a partner in a large Phoenix law firm and, before she was thirty, she was an executive of two global Fortune 500 companies.

Barrett was president of the International Women’s Forum. As a member of the U.S.-Afghan Women's Council, she founded Project Artemis, a program to train and mentor Afghan women entrepreneurs at Thunderbird School of Global Management. She is a member of the Global Leadership Foundation and Council on Foreign Relations, and has been a frequent participant with Club of Madrid and the World Economic Forum. In her community, Barrett was chairman of the Arizona District Export Council, World Affairs Council, Economic Club of Phoenix and Thunderbird School. In 1994, she was the first female Republican candidate for Governor of Arizona.

Barrett earned her bachelor's, master's and law degrees at Arizona State University. Honorary doctorates have been conferred by ASU, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Thunderbird School of Global Management, the University of South Carolina, Pepperdine University and Finlandia University. The Honors College at ASU was named for Barrett and her husband, Craig, in 2000.

She has been recognized with the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service, Horatio Alger Award for Distinguished Americans, Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship and Sandra Day O’Connor Board Excellence Award. In 2014, Barrett received the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Presidential Medal from President Laurie Leshin.

An instrument-rated pilot, Barrett was the first civilian woman to land in an F/A-18 Hornet on an aircraft carrier. She climbed Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro in August 2007 and bicycled 900 kilometers around Finland while Ambassador. She has trained as an astronaut, and was the backup spaceflight participant for the Soyuz TMA-16 flight to the International Space Station.

Manipulating Religion for Political Gain in Pakistan: Consequences for the U.S. and the Region

The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Foreign Policy Institute Studies in Policy paper launch.

FPI Studies in Policy: For more than three decades, leading experts and scholars have addressed critical topics in foreign policy and security through the publication of independent, policy relevant analyses through the FPI. The FPI is proud to build on this tradition with the FPI Studies in Policy series, featuring monograph-length studies of politics, economics, and political economy that inform current international policy and security debates.

The Foreign Policy Institute and FPI Fellow Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli launched her recent paper, Manipulating Religion for Political Gain in Pakistan: Consequences for the U.S. and the Region. This is the first in the series of FPI Studies in Policy.

Cyberphobia

Dean Vali Nasr, the Foreign Policy Institute and the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies hosted A Conversation with Edward Lucas, senior editor at The Economist and senior vice-president at the Center for European Policy Analysis.  Lucas discussed his new book Cyberphobia and ways in which cyberspace is not the secure zone we may hope, how passwords provide no significant obstacle to anyone intent on getting past them, and how anonymity is easily accessible to anyone – malign or benign – willing to take a little time covering their tracks.

Edward Lucas is a senior editor at The Economist, the world’s foremost newsweekly. His expertise includes energy, cyber-security, espionage, Russian foreign and security policy and the politics and economics of Eastern Europe.

He is also a senior vice-president at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

In 2008 he wrote The New Cold War, a prescient account of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. In 2011 he wrote Deception, an investigative account of east-west espionage. He is a strong critic of the fugitive NSA contractor Edward Snowden, and author of an e-book>The Snowden Operation. His latest book is Cyberphobia. He has also contributed to books on religion and media ethics.

An experienced broadcaster, public speaker, moderator and panelist, Edward Lucas has given public lectures at Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge and other leading universities. He is a regular contributor to the BBC’s Today and Newsnight programmes, and to NPR, CNN and Sky News. He is regularly cited by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the top 100 Twitterati.

For many years a foreign correspondent, he was based in Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Moscow and the Baltic states. He is currently in London, as a senior editor at The Economist, responsible for the daily news app Espresso. He also writes obituaries. His weekly syndicated column has appeared since 2005; he also writes for the Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Foreign Policy and Standpoint.

As well as working for the Independent, the BBC and the Sunday Times, he also co-founded an English-language weekly in Tallinn, Estonia: the Baltic Independent. His undergraduate degree is from the London School of Economics and he speaks five languages — German, Russian, Polish, Czech and Lithuanian.

He is married to the writer Cristina Odone and has three children. His father is the Oxford philosopher JR Lucas.

The Role of the IMF in Greek Financial Reforms

Elena Panaritis led a discussion on the role of the IMF in Greek Financial Reforms. Professor Jaime Marquez, International Economics and Associate Director of Masters in International Economics and Finance, also joined as a discussant. Professor Cinnamon Dornsife, International Development Program and Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute, moderated the discussion.

Elena Panaritis is an institutional economist, social entrepreneur, and policy innovator. She has served as Member of the Hellenic Parliament and adviser to Greece’s Prime Minister. As an economist at the World Bank, she spearheaded property rights reform in Peru, receiving International Best Practice awards. Her book Prosperity Unbound: Building Property Markets with Trust recounts her experience and expands on her methodology. Elena is the founder of Panel Group LLC, a triple-bottom-line business that focuses on distressed economies. She has also founded Thought for Action, an NGO that creates awareness about transforming informality and countries under solvency crisis, such as Greece.

Forum on U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security: A Conversation with William J. Burns

Dean Vali Nasr and the Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute invite you to A Conversation with William J. Burns,
President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State

Moderated by Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute

William J. Burns is president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States. Ambassador Burns retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a thirty-three-year diplomatic career. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become deputy secretary of state.

Prior to his tenure as deputy secretary, Ambassador Burns served from 2008 to 2011 as under secretary for political affairs. He was ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs from 2001 to 2005, and ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001. His other posts in the Foreign Service include: executive secretary of the State Department and special assistant to former secretaries of state Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright; minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. embassy in Moscow; acting director and principal deputy director of the State Department’s policy planning staff; and special assistant to the president and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council.

Ambassador Burns speaks Russian, Arabic, and French, and he has been the recipient of three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards and a number of Department of State awards, including three Secretary’s Distinguished Service Awards, two Distinguished Honor Awards, the 2006 Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Ambassadorial Award for Initiative and Success in Trade Development, the 2005 Robert C. Frasure Memorial Award for Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking, and the James Clement Dunn Award for exemplary performance at the mid-career level. He has also received the highest civilian honors from the Department of Defense and the U.S. intelligence community. In 2013, Foreign Policy named him “Diplomat of the Year”.

Ambassador Burns earned a bachelor’s in history from LaSalle University and master’s and doctoral degrees in international relations from Oxford University, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar. He is a recipient of four honorary doctoral degrees and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ambassador Burns is the author of Economic Aid and American Policy Toward Egypt, 1955-1981 (State University of New York Press, 1985). In 1994, he was named to Time magazine’s list of the “50 Most Promising American Leaders Under Age 40” and to its list of “100 Young Global Leaders.”

A Conversation on American Foreign Policy in the Middle East & South Asia with Dean Nasr and Ambassador Tahir-Kheli

Please join Dean Nasr and FPI Senior Fellow Ambassador Tahir-Kheli for a discussion on American foreign policy towards the Middle East. The event will take place over a light breakfast and last for 45 minutes. We will discuss the future of the region, the state of American diplomacy, as well as the Dean’s experiences as an advisor to senior policymakers and world leaders.

Dr. Vali Nasr, in addition to being Dean of SAIS, is a member of the Foreign Affairs Policy Board of the U.S. Department of State. He served as Senior Advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke between 2009 and 2011. He has previously served as Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and Senior Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government. He is the author of The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat.

Dr. Shirin Tahir-Kheli, named by Newsweek in 2011 as one of the “150 Women Who Shake the World”, has held numerous posts in and outside of government including Director of Near East and South Asian Affairs at the White House National Security Council, and the founding Director of the SAIS South Asia program. 

Restructuring Finance for a New Global Economy

Moderated by Dr. John Lipsky, Senior Fellow, SAIS Foreign Policy Institute
  

Bertrand Badré, was appointed in 2013 as the Managing Director for Finance and World Bank Group Chief Financial Officer (MDCFO). Prior to joining the World  Bank,  Mr. Badré was the Group Chief Financial Officer  at Société Générale.

He also served as the Group Chief Financial Officer of Crédit Agricole from July 

2007 to July 2011. Between 2004 and 2007, Mr. Badré was Managing Director of 

Lazard in Paris responsible for the Financial Services Group. In 2003, he was 

invited to join President Chirac’s diplomatic team and was closely involved in the preparation of the G8 summit in Evian. Mr. Badré is a graduate of ENA (Ecole 

Nationale d'Administration) and Institud'Etudes Politiques de Paris. He also 

studied history at Paris IV University (La Sorbonne), and graduated from HEC 

(Hautes Études Commerciales in Paris) business school.

The UN in the New Global Landscape

Dean Vali Nasr and the Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute hosted a presentation on The UN in the New Global Landscape with His Excellency Jan Eliasson, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The event was moderated by Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute

Born in Göteborg, Sweden, in 1940, Jan Eliasson was an exchange student in the United States from 1957 to 1958. He graduated from the Swedish Naval Academy in 1962 and earned a master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration in 1965.

Eliasson served as Diplomatic Adviser to the Swedish Prime Minister from 1982 to 1983, and as Director General for Political Affairs in the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1983 to 1987.

From 1988 to 1992, he was Sweden’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York where he was part of the UN mediation missions in the war between Iran and Iraq, headed by former Prime Minister Olof Palme. In 1992, he was appointed the first UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and was involved in operations in Somalia, Sudan, Mozambique and the Balkans – taking initiatives on landmines, conflict prevention and humanitarian action.

In 1993 and 1994, Eliasson served as mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Eliasson was State Secretary for Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 2000 and the Swedish Ambassador to the United States from 2000 to 2005. From 2005 to 2006 he served as President of the UN General Assembly.

Eliasson’s distinguished career as a Swedish diplomat culminated in his serving as Minister for Foreign Affairs in 2006. From January 2007 to July 2008, Eliasson was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Darfur. On 2 March 2012, Jan Eliasson was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the UN by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He took office as Deputy Secretary-General on 1 July 2012.

Eliasson is married to Kerstin Eliasson, who was Sweden’s State Secretary for Education and Science from 2004 to 2006. They have three grown children.

A Conversation on Public Diplomacy with Amb. Holliday and Dr. Serwer

How effective is the United States at countering ISIS’s narrative? How can it do better? How does public diplomacy further American foreign policy goals around the world and what should its role be in our increasingly connected and social global society? Please join Ambassador Stuart Holliday and Professor Serwer for a discussion on public diplomacy’s role in American foreign policy.

Ambassador Stuart Holliday is President and CEO of Meridian International Center, a leading non-partisan public diplomacy institution. He has served as U.S. Ambassador for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations. His portfolio included responsibility for U.S. policy on U.N. peacekeeping, sanctions, and counterterrorism programs.

Dr. Serwer is Director of the Conflict Management program at SAIS. As vice president of the Centers of Innovation at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Serwer led teams working on rule of law, peacebuilding, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance and gender.  He was also vice president for peace and stability operations at USIP, overseeing its peacebuilding work in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq and Sudan and serving as executive director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group.

Promoting Sustainable Usage of the Oceans—Security, Collaboration and Development

This day-long conference is the second in a series on the Blue Economy related events at SAIS.  The agenda for the day included the following -

Keynote:    Promoting Sustainable Ocean Development

Panel 1:     Promoting Global Collaboration for Sustainable Oceans Development

Panel 2:     Security and Development in the South China Sea

Panel 3:     Promoting Sustainable Ocean & Water Development in the Middle East

Panel 4:     Sustainable Ocean Development in Latin America

Hosted by The Maritime Alliance, SAIS, and FPI, and co-sponsiored by Conservation International.

China’s Changing Relations with Developing Countries: Implications for U.S. Policy

Relations between China and developing countries are evolving on multiple fronts.  Through China’s ideational and economic influence in the developing world, its role in the architecture of international development finance, the use of the renminbi in trade and investment,  and its peacekeeping activities and environmental impact, China’s new engagement with developing countries is transforming longstanding patterns of international relations. Opening with a keynote by Suisheng Zhao on the influence of the “China model,” this two-day conference at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) assembles leading experts to explore China’s changing relations with developing countries and to address the implications of these changes for US policy. 

To the right is Suisheng Zhao's keynote address. Check out the rest of the panel videos here:

Panel 1, China and Developing Countries and the Changing International Order.

Panel 2, Changes and Continuities in China's Relations with Africa.

Special Lecture, The China Dream - What does it Mean for Developing Countries.

Panel 3, China as Opportunity for Developing Countries - Is it Delivering or Disappointing?

Worldmaking: The Art and Science of American Diplomacy with David Milne and James Mann

A new intellectual history of U.S. foreign policy from the late nineteenth century to the present

Worldmaking is a fresh and compelling new take on the history of American diplomacy. Rather than retracing a familiar story of realism versus idealism, David Milne suggests that U.S. foreign policy has also been crucially divided between those who view statecraft as an art and those who believe it can aspire toward the certainties of science.

Worldmaking follows a colorful cast of characters who built on each other's ideas to create the policies we have today. Woodrow Wilson's Universalism and moralism led Sigmund Freud to diagnose a messiah complex. Walter Lippmann was an internationally syndicated columnist who commanded the attention of leaders as diverse as Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Charles de Gaulle. Paul Wolfowitz was the intellectual architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq--an ardent admirer of Wilson's attempt to "make the world safe for democracy." Each was engaged in a process of worldmaking, formulating strategies that sought to deploy the nation's vast military and economic power--or indeed its retraction through a domestic reorientation--to "make" a world in which America is best positioned to thrive.

From the age of steam engines to the age of drones, Milne reveals patterns of aspirant worldmaking that have remained impervious to the passage of time. The result is a panoramic history of U.S. foreign policy driven by ideas and the lives and times of their creators.

EU Migration Crisis

Dean Vali Nasr and The Human Security Initiative of the Foreign Policy Institute invite you to a discussion on:

The EU Migration Crisis with Michel Gabaudan, President of Refugees International; Ambassador Reka Szemerkenyi (S'95), Ambassador of Hungary; Ambassador Peter Wittig, Ambasador of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Moderated by Maureen White, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute

Michel Gabaudan became president of Refugees International in September of 2010, leading RI forward in its mission to bring attention and action to refugees and displaced people worldwide. Prior to his role with RI, Michel served as the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) Regional Representative for the United States and the Caribbean. Michel’s career with UNHCR spanned more than 25 years, including international service in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific.

Trained as a medical doctor in addition to holding a master’s degree in tropical public health, Michel spent a decade working in Guyana, Zambia, Brazil, London and Yemen before joining UNHCR as a Field Officer in Thailand in 1978. His UN career took him to field operations in Cameroon and Pakistan as well as several years at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, where he served as the first public health advisor to the organization.

Subsequently, he served as a Secretary to CIREFCA, the International Conference on Refugees in Central America, where he led a joint UNHCR- UNDP team for a year and a half, supporting peace processes in Latin America. He was then assigned as Charge de Mission in Guatemala where he negotiated the first phases of the return of refugees. In 1995, he was appointed as the Regional Representative in Mexico responsible for all Central American countries. That same year, Michel was the recipient of the Order of the Quetzal, Guatemala’s highest honor. The award was bestowed upon him in appreciation for his involvement in the country's peace process.

He then went on to become head of UNHCR’s funding and donor relations service at headquarters in Geneva. Between 2001 and 2004, Michel was the Regional Representative in Australia. Prior to coming to Washington, he served as the Regional Representative for UNHCR in Beijing.

Ambassador Reka Szemerkenyi was appointed Ambassador of Hungary to the United States in 2015. Previously, from 2011 to 2014, she was Chief Advisor on Security Policy to the Prime Minister of Hungary.

Working at the Prime Minister's office she covered Trans-Atlantic issues, Central European regional relations, the Balkans, Russia, with a particular emphasis on energy security and cyber security. Between 2006 and 2011, she was Head of International Public Affairs and Chief Advisor on International Relations to the Chairman of the Board of MOL Group, the Hungarian Oil and Gas Company. In this capacity, her role was to cover European Union energy policy and security developments and the establishment of the Central European regional energy cooperation, as well as to provide professional support for executive decisions on a wide range of issues in international affairs.

Between 1998 and 2002, she was State Secretary for Foreign Policy and National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Hungary. From 1991 to 1994, she was Senior Advisor to the State Secretary of the Ministry of Defense of Hungary.

She completed her Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies as a Fulbright Fellow at SAIS, Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC (1993-5). She earned her Doctoral Degree at Péter Pázmány Catholic University of Budapest in 2006, her PhD Thesis being: Energy Security - West European and Warsaw Pact Energy Strategies between 1945-1990.

Ambassador Peter Wittig has served as German Ambassador to the United States since April 2014.

Prior to this, he was German Ambassador to the United Nations in New York and represented Germany during its tenure as a member of the UN Security Council from 2011 until 2012. There, he drew on his wide expertise in United Nations matters, having previously served as Director-General for United Nations and Global Issues at the German Foreign Office in Berlin and having been posted to the German Permanent Mission in New York in the late 1980s.

Wittig joined the German Foreign Service in 1982. He has also served in Madrid, at the headquarters as the private secretary to the Foreign Minister, and as Ambassador both in Lebanon and then in Cyprus. He was the German Government Special Envoy on the “Cyprus question” (the division of Cyprus). He has acquired extensive knowledge of the Middle East.

Before starting his career in the German Foreign Service, Wittig studied history, political science, and law at Bonn, Freiburg, Canterbury, and Oxford universities and taught as an assistant professor at the University of Freiburg. His wife, Huberta von Voss-Wittig, has worked as both a journalist and a writer. The couple has four children: Valeska, Maximilian, Augustin, and Felice.

China and North Korea: Strategic and Policy Perspectives from a Changing China

At a time when China's historically close "as lips and teeth" relations with North Korea appear to be changing, this volume provides unique access in English to the diverse perspectives informing China's North Korea policy and insights into how Chinese specialists assess a country that, while both its neighbor and ally, is also a threat to international security and China's national interests. The editor has gathered original essays by some of today's leading Chinese experts on China's foreign policy toward North Korea, the history of Beijing's relations with Pyongyang, and North Korea's politics and economy. Contributors include scholars from China's elite universities and think tanks in Beijing, as well as from provinces bordering North Korea.

Join us for the official book launch of this new volume, featuring a discussion with the editor and select contributors.

Moderator:  

Carla FREEMAN, Editor of China and North Korea: Strategic Policy Perspectives from a Changing China, Director of the Foreign Policy Institute at SAIS, Associate Director of the China Studies Program at SAIS

Panelists:  

• SHI Yinhong, Chairman of the Academic Committee of the School of International Studies and Director of the Center on American Studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing

• CHENG Xiaohe, Associate Professor at the School of International Studies, Renmin University of China in Beijing

• Nathan BEAUCHAMP-MUSTAFAGA, Research Assistant at RAND Corporation

A Conversation with Kenneth M. Jacobs

A Conversation with Kenneth M. Jacobs,  Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lazard

Moderated by Dr. John Lipsky, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute

Kenneth M. Jacobs has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Lazard since November 2009. Previously he had served as Chief Executive Officer of Lazard North America since 2002. Mr. Jacobs was a Managing Director of Lazard since 1991 and had been a Deputy Chairman of Lazard from January 2002 until November 2009. Mr. Jacobs joined Lazard in 1988. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago and the Brookings Institution. Mr. Jacobs earned a B.A. in economics from The University of Chicago in 1980 and an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1984. 

U.S. Foreign Policy Towards the Middle East: Priorities and Challenges

A Conversation with Ambassador Anne Patterson, Assistant Secretary of State for Near, Eastern Affairs

Moderated by Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute

Ambassador Anne W. Patterson is one of the most distinguished diplomats in the United States. She currently serves as the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Ambassador Patterson has previously served as the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Deputy Permanent Representative at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, as well as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt (2011-2013), Pakistan (2007-2010), Colombia (2000-03), and El Salvador (1997-2000).

In 2008, Ambassador Patterson was promoted to the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest rank in the Foreign Service. She has been awarded the Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award twice, in 2008 and 2010, the Ryan Crocker Award for Expeditionary Diplomacy in 2010, and was named one of Foreign Policy magazine's top 100 Global Thinkers in 2011.

A native of Fort Smith, Arkansas, Ambassador Patterson graduated from

Wellesley College.

A Conversation on the Middle East with Stephen J. Hadley Former U.S. Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

Moderated by Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute

Stephen Hadley served as the National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2009. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Hadley served as Deputy National Security Advisor. In addition to covering the full range of national security issues, he had special responsibilities in several areas including a U.S./Russia political dialogue, the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, and developing a strategic relationship with India.
 

From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Hadley was both a principal in The Scowcroft Group (a strategic consulting firm headed by former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft) and partner in the Washington D.C. law firm of Shea & Gardner (now part of Goodwin Proctor). In his consulting practice, he represented U.S. corporate clients investing and doing business overseas, including in China, the United Arab Emirates, and Western and Eastern Europe. At Shea & Gardner, he represented U.S. corporate clients in transactional and international matters—including export controls, foreign investment in U.S. national security companies, and the national security responsibilities of U.S. information technology companies. From 1989 to 1993, Mr. Hadley served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy for President George H.W. Bush, and from 1974 to 1977 he served on the National Security Council staff of President Gerald R. Ford.

Mr. Hadley remains engaged on U.S. national security policy, currently serving on the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. He is also a Director of the Atlantic Council, serving on its Executive Committee and is a member of the Board of Managers of the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, Chairman of RAND’s Center for Middle East Public Policy Advisory Board, and a member of Yale University’s Kissinger Papers Advisory Board. He previously held positions as co-chair of the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel, a member of the Department of Defense Policy Board, and a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Mr. Hadley also serves as Senior Advisor on International Affairs to the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). In this capacity, Mr. Hadley has co-chaired a series of senior bipartisan working groups on topics ranging from Arab-Israeli peace to U.S. political strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan to U.S./Turkey relations. He also contributes to the Institute’s programs in the Middle East and Asia.

Mr. Hadley graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University in 1969. In 1972, he received his J.D. degree from Yale Law School, where he was Note and Comment Editor of the Yale Law Journal.

George W. Bush Again: This Time as History with James Mann

The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Rome Auditorium
1619 Massachusetts Ave, NW
 
JAMES MANN is a Washington-based author who has written a series of award-winning books about American foreign policy and about China, including Rise of the Vulcans: A History of Bush’s War Cabinet, The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power, The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan, Beijing Jeep, About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship with China From Nixon to Clinton, and The China Fantasy. He is a former newspaper reporter, foreign correspondent and columnist who wrote for more than twenty years for the Los Angeles Times. He is now a Fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute.

ISIS and Implications for the Security of the Middle East and West

Souad Mekhennet with Afshin Molavi

Souad Mekhennet is a SAIS Foreign Policy Institute fellow, journalist and author. She works for the Washington post and German TV and has been covering terrorist movements since 9/11.

The award winning journalist has travelled the Islamic world extensively and was able to conduct interviews with commanders of various terrorist organizations.

National Insecurity: American Leadership in an Age of Fear

David Rothkopf

Moderated by

Amb. Tahir-Kheli, PhD

In National Insecurity, David Rothkopf offers an entirely new perspective into the hidden struggles, the surprising triumphs, and the shocking failures of those charged with leading the United States through one of the most difficult periods in its history. Thanks to his extraordinary access, Rothkopf provides fresh insights drawing on more than one hundred exclusive interviews with the key players who shaped this era.

At its core, National Insecurity is the gripping story of a superpower in crisis, seeking to adapt to a rapidly changing world, sometimes showing inspiring resilience—but often undone by the human flaws of those at the top, the mismanagement of its own system, the temptation to concentrate too much power within the hands of too few in the White House itself, and an unwillingness to draw the right lessons from the recent past. Nonetheless, within that story are unmistakable clues to a way forward that can help restore American leadership.

David J. Rothkopf is CEO and Editor of the FP Group, where he oversees all operations of Foreign Policy Magazine.  He is also the President and CEO of Garten Rothkopf, an international advisory company specializing in global political risk, energy, resource, technology and emerging markets issues.

Mastering the Endgame of War

Dominic Tierney

In 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor with little idea how a war against the United States could ultimately be won. Indeed, throughout history, statesmen have often plunged countries into war without thinking through the outcome. Leaders focus on the initial rounds—capturing the hill— rather than achieving strategic success. In recent years, the United States has been particularly prone to this problem. In 2003, Washington invaded Iraq without adequate planning for the post-war stabilization phase. This talk explains why the United States adopts a short-term horizon when the stakes are so high. And it outlines a strategy for mastering the endgame of war based on “reverse engineering victory” or working backward from success.

Post-ISIS Iraq: Challenges and Prospects

Abbas Kadhim

Dr. Abbas Kadhim provides a dynamic discussion on the implications of the war on ISIS, the challenges and opportunities Prime Minister al-Abadi faces moving forward, and their effect on U.S. foreign policy.

Innovations in International Development: Lessons from a Front Line Social Entrepreneur

Elena Panaritis

Elena Panaritis is an institutional economist, social entrepreneur, and policy innovator. She has served as Member of the Hellenic Parliament and adviser to Greece’s Prime Minister. As an economist at the World Bank, she spearheaded property rights reform in Peru, receiving International Best Practice awards. Her book Prosperity Unbound: Building Property Markets with Trust recounts her experience and expands on her methodology. Elena is the founder of Panel Group LLC, a triple-bottom-line business that focuses on distressed economies. She has also founded Thought for Action, an NGO that creates awareness about transforming informality and countries under solvency crisis, such as Greece.

The War Trap: Ethical Problems in the Ending of War

David Rodin

What are the ethical dilemmas associated with war termination? In addition to jus ad bellum (the ethics of entering into war), jus in bello (the ethics of conducting war), and jus post bellum (the ethics of conduct in a postwar state), David Rodin identifies a fourth type of ethics associated with war: jus terminatio (the ethics of war termination). Is it just to end a war once the conditions of entering into it have been fulfilled? This is correct but incomplete. Rodin identifies the possibility of “rational entrapment” in war: that strategic escalation may compel actors to continue a war disproportionate to their interest, out of a desire to avoid the costs associated with the risk of defeat, the dilemma of sunk costs, or the moral hazard of peace negotiations.

Political Order and Political Decay

Francis Fukuyama

Volume two is finally here, complement the most important work of political thought in at least a generation. Taking up the essential question of how societies develop strong, impersonal, and accountable political institution, Fukuyama follows the story from the French Revolution to the so‐called Arab Spring and the deep dysfunctions of contemporary American politics. He examines the effects of corruption on governance, and why some societies have been successful at rooting it out.

Preventing Nuclear Terrorism Globally: Results and Remaining Challenges

Deepti Choubey

The 2014 Nuclear Security Summit – the third installment of a global effort to prevent nuclear terrorism – hosted by the Netherlands concluded in March with meaningful outcomes thwarting terrorist access to the building blocks for a nuclear bomb. The United States will host the fourth, and likely the last, Summit in 2016. To prepare for it, top officials from 50+ Summit participating countries will gather in Washington, DC near the end of October to further advance the global nuclear security agenda and plan for the effective implementation of a strengthened global nuclear security architecture.

Track Two Diplomacy Toward an Israeli-Palestinian Solution: 1978-2014

Yair Hirschfeld

Track-Two Diplomacy toward an Israeli-Palestinian Solution, 1978– 2014

is an important insider account of the negotiating sessions and internal policy and strategy debates during the thirteen-year process that led to the September 1993 Oslo Accords. Signed on the White House lawn in the presence of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat, the treaty was a landmark occasion followed shortly thereafter by the unraveling of the Israeli-Palestinian permanent status negotiations. The historical narrative focuses on series of negotiations and ongoing efforts under particular Israeli governments.

Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel

Joshua Muravchik

During the Six Day War of 1967, polls showed that Americans and Europeans favored the Israelis over the Arabs by overwhelming margins. Fast forward 40 years and Israel has become perhaps the most reviled country in the world. Although Americans have remained constant in their sympathy for the Jewish state, almost all of the rest of the world treats Israel as a pariah. What caused this remarkable turnabout? Making David into Goliath traces the process by which material pressures and intellectual fashions reshaped world opinion of Israel.

The Crisis in Ukraine

Zbigniew Brzezinski with Bruce Parrot

Dr. Brzezinski is a Counselor and trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; trustee of the Trilateral Commission; national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter and member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board; 1981 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom; former faculty member at Columbia and Harvard Universities; Ph.D., Government, Harvard University.

The Politics of American Foreign Policy

Peter Gries with Jim Mann

The Politics of American Foreign Policy weaves seamlessly together in-depth examinations of the psychological roots and foreign policy consequences of the liberal-conservative divide, the cultural, socio-racial, economic, and political dimensions of American ideology, and the moral values and foreign policy orientations that divide Democrats and Republicans. Within this context, the book explores in detail why American liberals and conservatives disagree over US policy relating to Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, and

international organizations such as the UN.

Dark Skies: Space Weapons, Planetary Geopolitics and Whole Earth Security

Dan Deudney with Scott Pace

The first human steps into outer space have been among the most spectacular and potentially consequential events in the globalization of Earth.  ‘Space Expansionist’ thought makes ambitious and captivating claims about both the feasibility and the desirability of human expansion into outer space.  But if arguments for space expansionism are broken down into their parts, and systematically assessed, a very different picture of the space prospect emerges. There are strong reasons to think that the consequences of the human pursuit of space expansion have been and could be very undesirable-- even catastrophic.

The Eternal Nazi - From Mauthausen to Cairo, the Relentless Pursuit of SS Doctor Aribert Heim

Souad Mekhennet and Guy Raz

Dr. Aribert Heim worked at the Mauthausen concentration camp for only a few months in 1941 but left a devastating mark. According to the testimony of survivors, Heim euthanized patients with injections of gasoline into their hearts. He performed surgeries on otherwise healthy people. Some recalled prisoners' skulls set out on his desk to display perfect sets of teeth. Yet in the chaos of the postwar period, Heim was able to slip away from his dark past and establish himself as a reputable doctor and family man in the resort town of Baden-Baden. His story might have ended there, but for certain rare Germans who were unwilling to let Nazi war criminals go unpunished, among them a police investigator named Alfred Aedtner. After Heim fled on a tip that he was about to be arrested, Aedtner turned finding him into an overriding obsession. His quest took him across Europe and across decades, and into a close alliance with legendary Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. The hunt for Heim became a powerful symbol of Germany's evolving attitude toward the sins of its past, which finally crested in a desire to see justice done at almost any cost.As late as 2009, the mystery of Heim’s disappearance remained unsolved. Now, in The Eternal Nazi, Nicholas Kulish and Souad Mekhennet reveal for the first time how Aribert Heim evaded capture--living in a working-class neighborhood of Cairo, praying in Arabic, beloved by an adopted Muslim family--while inspiring a manhunt that outlived him by many years. It is a brilliant feat of historical detection that illuminates a nation’s dramatic reckoning with the crimes of the Holocaust.

US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Regional Security Dilemma

General Mahmud Durrani

General Durrani commentedn the current status of the Pakistan US relations and its impact on the security and stability of Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as on the GOP’s effort at peace talks with the Pakistani Taliban. He also shared his recommendations for bringing some peace to the region with the SAIS community.

Afghanistan - A Distant War

Robert Nickelsberg

In his new book, Afghanistan: A Distant War, veteran photojournalist Robert Nickelsberg offers a vivid close-up of life and conflict in Afghanistan. Nickelsberg gave an in-depth image presentation and discussed his experiences in Afghanistan over a twenty year

period.