The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series lunch presentation by Kevin Peraino on “Reporting from the Middle East: The View of a Former Foreign Correspondent”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on December 10, 2014. Kevin Peraino is a veteran journalist who has reported from throughout the world, including Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, Israel, Sudan, and Iraq. He was the Jerusalem Bureau Chief at Newsweek from 2005 to 2010, and has also written…

The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series “after work” presentation by Rear Admiral David Titley (Ret.) on “The Evolving Understanding of Climate Risk & National Security: People, Not Polar Bears”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on January 14, 2015. Dr. Titley is currently the Director of the Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk at Penn State University. Previously, he served as a naval officer for 32 years. While serving in…

The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series breakfast presentation by Charlotte Ponticelli on “Women in Afghanistan: Challenges & Opportunities Post-2014”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on March 4, 2015. Charlotte M. (Charlie) Ponticelli is an international and governmental affairs expert currently serving as Program Director & Advisor for the American Committees on Foreign Relations. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Business and Economics School at The Catholic University of America.…

The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series breakfast presentation by Sheila Smith, PhD on “Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and A Rising China”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on April 15, 2015. Dr. Smith is a senior fellow for Japan Studies, at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She joined CFR from the East-West Center in 2007, where she specialized in Asia-Pacific international relations and U.S. policy toward Asia. From 2004 to…

The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series breakfast presentation by Sheila Smith, PhD on “Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and A Rising China”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on April 15, 2015. Dr. Smith is a senior fellow for Japan Studies, at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She joined CFR from the East-West Center in 2007, where she specialized in Asia-Pacific international relations and U.S. policy toward Asia. From 2004 to…

The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series dinner presentation by Iulian Buga, Ambassador of Romania to the U.S., on “Romania’s Position & Policies in International Security”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on May 13, 2015. Ambassador Buga was appointed to his current position, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States of America in 2013. Ambassador Buga has held numerous ambassadorial postings, receiving his first posting in 2001 to head his country’s…

The public is invited to attend the annual Mitchell Krauss Ambassadors’ Roundtable dinner presentation by Ambassador Donald P. Gregg, Former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, current chairman of the Pacific Century Institute in Los Angeles, and chairman emeritus of The Korea Society in New York City, on “North Korea, the Dangerous Outlier”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on May 13, 2015. In 2012, Gregg was appointed chairman of the Pacific Century Institute. In…

The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series breakfast presentation by Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith on “Iraq, ISIS and Syria”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on September 16, 2015. Ambassador Galbraith is the Senior Diplomatic Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation where his work focuses on Iraq, the greater Middle East, conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction. From 1979 to 1993, Galbraith was a senior advisor on Near East and South…

Stamford, Conn.-Oct. 21, 2015 – The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable dinner presentation by Molly Williamson, Middle East Institute Scholar and Former Foreign Service Officer, on “Geoeconomic Factors in Diplomacy”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on Nov. 4, 2015. Williamson is a former Foreign Service Officer, having served six presidents, achieving the rank of Career Minister. She is a scholar with the Middle East Institute, a consultant, and frequent guest lecturer at…

Stamford, CT-September 23, 2015 – The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series lunch presentation by Mary Galligan on “Cyber Security and the Importance of Resiliency”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on October 7, 2015. The cosponsor of the event is General Reinsurance Corporation. Galligan recently retired from the FBI after more than 25 years’ service. In 2013, she became the New York Office’s first female Special Agent in charge.She served as Special…

Stamford, Conn.-Nov. 25, 2015 – The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series breakfast presentation by Dr. Fiona Hill on “Mr. Putin: Understanding the Man at War with the West”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on Dec. 9, 2015. Dr. Hill is director of the Center on the United States and Europe, and senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. From 2006-2009, she served as the National Intelligence Officer…

The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series breakfast presentation by Ben Lerner on “Drones and the National Security Landscape”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on March 2, 2016. "You don't have to be one of the good guys to acquire drone technology. Hostile nation-states, as well as non-state actors such as terrorist organizations or drug cartels, are getting their hands on drones as well." – Ben Lerner Mr. Lerner is Vice President…

The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series breakfast presentation by Ambassador Thomas M. T. Niles, former US Ambassador to Canada, Greece, and the European Union and Vice Chair of United States Council for International Business, on “In or Out: UK Referendum on the EU”. This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on April 13, 2016. Ambassador Niles served 36 years in the United States Foreign Service, including three key ambassadorial appointments - to Canada,…

Stamford, Conn.-April 27, 2016 The public is invited to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable series breakfast presentation by Orville Schell, PhD on “Is it Necessary and Possible to Collaborate with China?” This event will take place at the Stamford Yacht Club on May 11, 2016. Orville Schell is currently the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society in New York. Schell has worked for the Ford Foundation in Indonesia, covered the war in Indochina as a…

The World Affairs Forum will hold the Wilbur Miller Annual Meeting and Dinner for members and guests at the Stamford Yacht Club in Stamford on June 8, 2016. The keynote speaker will be Christopher Sabatini, PhD, Adjunct Professor, Columbia University; Editor, LatinAmericaGoesGlobal.org and Executive Director, Global Americans, who will present on “The Rot at the Heart of the Brazilian Economy”. From 2005 to 2014 he was the senior director of policy at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas…

Dr. Andrew C. Kuchins, Senior Fellow, Center for Eurasian, Russian and Eastern European Studies (CERES), Georgetown University "The problem of polarization has gotten worse, and I think the tendency to caricaturize Putin and demonize him is a problem. Henry Kissinger said shortly after the Ukraine Crisis that, "demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy." For me, the fundamental thing is to always try to understand the government or leader you are analyzing, to try to be as objective as…

The World Affairs Forum presents Dr. Edward Morse, Managing Director and Global Head - Commodities, Citi Research at an Ambassadors' Roundtable Breakfast & Lecture. "There is no doubt that at least some of the rapid increase in world energy prices between 2005 and 2008 was the result of insufficient investment in oil and gas production in the Middle East, Russia and, to some extent, in China.... In most cases, underinvestment was intentional, to slow production growth in order to influence…

The World Affairs Forum invites the public to attend an Ambassadors’ Roundtable dinner and presentation with Dr. Jonathan Cristol, Fellow, World Policy Institute and Bard College's Center for Civic Engagement. "The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (a.k.a. "the Iran Deal") is rightly heralded as one of President Obama's great foreign policy achievements, and it is also rightly heralded as a foolish gambit and a sell out of our friends and allies." - Dr. Cristol Dr. Jonathan Cristol is a fellow…

World Affairs Forum to host Dr. Evan Ellis, Research Professor of Latin American Studies, U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute for an Ambassadors' Roundtable presentation and breakfast. "Whatever the course that Venezuela follows, the outcome is likely to present the U.S. with difficult policy choices. It may, for example, have to work with a regime of nominally socialist kleptocrats closely aligned with and dependent on China and Russia, in order to avoid the collapse of the country in a…

Robert Silvers Former Assistant Secretary for Cyber Policy, U.S. Department of Homeland Security There has been much discussion of an impending "Cyber Pearl Harbor," but nation-states have to date employed less dramatic, more insidious campaigns that have nevertheless succeeded in destabilizing other countries and their industries. Former DHS Assistant Secretary for Cyber Policy Robert Silvers will discuss the geopolitical cyber landscape, and how the new Administration might confront the challenges and seize the opportunities. Robert Silvers served as the Assistant…

Aaron Stein is a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. His research interests include US-Turkey relations, Turkish foreign policy, the Syrian conflict, nonproliferation, and the Iranian nuclear program. Dr. Stein was previously a doctoral fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy, an associate fellow for the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and a researcher with the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM). He also worked as a consultant for…

Michael Wahid Hanna is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. He is also an adjunct senior fellow at the Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law. Hanna works on issues of international security, international law, and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia. Hanna directed The Century Foundation’s 2015 International Working Group on Pakistan, chaired by Ambassador Thomas Pickering, and served as a co-director of The Century Foundation’s 2011 International Task…

Dr. Catherine Lotrionte Director, Institute for Law, Science & Global Security, Georgetown University Wednesday, June 6, 2018 5:30pm Cash Bar 6:00pm Annual Meeting 7:00 - 9:00pm Dinner & Presentation Stamford Yacht Club, 97 Ocean Drive West Reservation Deadline: Monday, June 4 Members: $90, Non-members: $100 http://www.worldaffairsforum.org/events/am-dinner-20180606/ Dr. Catherine Lotrionte is the Director of the Institute for Law, Science and Global Security and Visiting Assistant Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Professor Lotrionte teaches courses on national security…