Global I.q. Minute With Jim Falk

When a new president is elected, administration officials change but the White House staff often does not. Many of these “White House lifers” maintain their roles for decades – like Dale Haney, the chief groundskeeper since 1972. In The Secret Life of the White House, Susannah Jacob paints a vivid picture of the daily life of the residence staff behind the scenes – illuminated with interviews from dozens of former and current longtime professionals. Jacob argues these individuals are symbols of the independence of the White House, conserving the legacies of past presidents and “continuing to do their jobs and serve whoever moves in.” Susannah Jacob is a writer and former speechwriter for President Barack Obama. As a Ph.D. student in Yale University’s Department of History, Jacob's interests focus on twentieth century America, labor, and political history. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and the New York Times. She holds a B.A. in history from the University of Texas at Austin. J

Fifty-three years after the phrase “Space! The final frontier…” entered U.S. pop culture via the television series “Star Trek,” the United States Space Force became the newest branch of the American Armed Forces. Operating within the Department of the Air Force, the USSF began developing military doctrine for space power and military space systems to protect the U.S. and its allies in space in December 2019. In an exclusive, members-only event, Lt. Gen. William J. Liquori will pull back the curtains for an inside view of how the need for a military presence in space came to be – followed by a look ahead to what’s in store for this exciting new endeavor. Lt. Gen. William J. Liquori is the deputy chief of space operations, strategy, plans, programs, requirements, and analysis for the U.S. Space Force. Lt. Gen. Liquori’s service includes commanding a space operations squadron and the 50th Space Wing, as well as positions within the USAF Space Command, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the White House.

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that companies and labor unions enjoy the same right to political speech as individuals, many restrictions on money in American politics were lifted. Super PACs now rule our political landscape and can pour hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns, as long as their efforts remain independent of candidates. The influx of large sums of money into politics can damage trust in government, suppress turnout, and put corporate interests before the interests of constituents. To what extent is this a uniquely American issue? How much influence is for sale and what can be done about it? Meridian Young Professionals are invited to join our virtual conversation with Ann Drumm of American Promise on the impact money has in our local and federal system and whether a new constitutional amendment is appropriate to combat this phenomenon. About Ann Drumm and American Promise: Ann Drumm is regional organizer for American Promise, a nati

Fiona Hill, one of the nation’s foremost experts on Russia, is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 through 2019. In November 2019, Hill testified before the House Intelligence Committee during the committee’s impeachment hearing. Dr. Hill has researched and published extensively on Russia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, specifically on issues related to regional conflicts and energy. She is the author of “The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold” and “Energy Empire: Oil, Gas and Russia’s Revival.” Hill also co-authored “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin” with Clifford Gaddy. Dr. Fiona Hill holds a master’s degree in Soviet studies and a doctorate in history from Harvard University. She also holds a master’s degree in Russian and modern history from St. Andrews University and has studied at the Maurice Thorez Inst

John Boehner was a small business owner when he first decided to run for elected office after witnessing what he considered the negative effects of “high taxes and red tape” on American entrepreneurs. After two decades in office, Boehner became Speaker of the House in 2011 and immediately found himself in opposition to President Obama’s vision for America. In On the House, Boehner reflects on his time in Congress, recounting the lessons of success and failure he has learned from leaders – from Gerald Ford to Joe Biden – he has encountered. John Boehner is the former Speaker of the House of Representatives (2011-2015). From 1991 until his resignation in October 2015, Boehner represented the Eighth Congressional District of Ohio as a Republican. In Congress, Boehner’s stated goals were a “smaller, less costly, and more accountable federal government.” Since 2016, he has been a senior strategic advisor at Squire Patton Boggs LLP. Moderated by Liz Brailsford, WACDFW President & CEO. . . Do you believe in the im

It’s no secret that China is in the midst of dynamic change. Through an incisive look at President Xi Jinping’s political and economic reforms, Elizabeth Economy analyzes that transformation as it’s occurring today. One of the nation’s foremost experts on Chinese domestic and foreign policy, Economy writes with authority in her latest book, “The Third Revolution,” about the widespread implications of China’s actions on the rest of the world. In an attempt to regain its past glory, Economy argues that China has embarked on a mission to reimagine global norms to better fit the vast nation’s “ambitious geostrategic objectives.” Elizabeth Economy was called by Politico Magazine one of the “10 Names That Matter on China Policy” in 2018. She is a senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Her work is widely published and she is the author of several books on China. Economy holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, an M.

A decade after the Arab Spring began in 2011, where does the Middle East stand today? At the time, the uprisings stunned the world and appeared to ignite a flame of freedom across the Arab world. But what came of the movements? From an ongoing civil war in Syria to the burgeoning democracy of Tunisia and reemerging protests in the region, the lasting effects of the Arab Spring span a wide range. In the western world, a debate continues as to whether the Arab Spring was a failure, a success, or if perhaps we are still in its midst. Scholar Steven Cook will delve into these questions and more, illuminating the reasons why this debate is important and what it means for U.S. policy. Steven Cook is the Enri Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he is also director of the International Affairs Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars. His work focuses on Arab and Turkish politics in addition to U.S.-Middle East policy, subjects abo

When so many of our home goods and clothing items are made in China, it may be a good idea to step back and understand how those goods actually get to us. In 2012, an Oregon mother, Julie Keith, came face to face with the reality of cheap American consumerism when an SOS letter from China fell out of a box of $5 Halloween decorations. The writer’s name was Sun Yi, an engineer imprisoned in a Chinese labor camp, where he was forced to carve foam headstones and stitch clothing for more than 15 hours a day as part of his “reeducation” by the Chinese government. In Made in China, Amelia Pang follows Sun Yi’s story, as well as those of others like him, tracking down China’s “falsified supply chains,” that start with gulag-like labor camps and end in American homes. Amelia Pang is an award-winning investigative journalist of Uyghur descent. She is an editor at EdTech Magazine. Her book, Made in China, to be released in February 2021, was shortlisted for the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award by the Col

Our virtual conversation with former Secretary of Defense General Jim Mattis will be moderated by Council President Emeritus Jim Falk. General Mattis served as the 26th secretary of defense from January 2017 through December 2018 after retiring from his 43-year career as an infantry marine in 2013. Through his decades of experience, General Mattis has developed an acute understanding of American foreign policy and the United States’ role on the global stage and is a fierce advocate for education. . . Do you believe in the importance of international education and connections? The nonprofit World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth is supported by gifts from people like you, who share our passion for engaging in dialogue on global affairs and building bridges of understanding. While the Council is not currently charging admission for virtual events, we ask you to please consider making a one-time or recurring gift to help us keep the conversation going through informative public programs and targeted events f

Paul Haenle will discuss the factors driving the downturn in the U.S.-China relations in recent years and the outlook for the relationship under the Biden administration. He will share his perspective on how Washington and Beijing can chart a more constructive path forward for the relationship, analyzing areas of confrontation, competition, problem-solving, and cooperation. About Haenle: Taken from https://carnegietsinghua.org/experts/490 Paul Haenle holds the Maurice R. Greenberg Director’s Chair at the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center based at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. In addition to running the Carnegie–Tsinghua Center, Haenle is also an adjunct professor at Tsinghua, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses to Chinese and international students on international relations and global governance. Haenle also sits on the board of directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. Prior to joining Carnegie, he served from June 2007 to June 2009 as the director for China, Taiwa

Former military officers and award-winning authors Admiral James Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman have written a geopolitical thriller about an imagined naval clash between the U.S. and China in the South China Sea in 2034. Based upon “actual decisions already made,” the novel imagines how “a single technological leap forward” enables China to blind and bind our military. Jim Mattis’ review of the novel said, “…Jim Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman’s chilling novel presents a realistic series of miscalculations leading to the worst consequences. A sobering, cautionary tale for our time.” Jay Young is moderating this conversation. Contributors' Circle members will be able to spend an extra 15 minutes of Q&A time with Admiral Stavridis. James Stavridis is a four-star admiral whose 30 years in the U.S. Navy included postings as Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and Commander of U.S. Southern Command, where he led all U.S. military operations in Latin America. Admiral Stavridis is the author of nine books on the milit

Ayman Safadi has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs & Expatriates for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan since 2017 and has also served Deputy Prime Minister since October 2020. As you can see in his Twitter posts, he meets on a daily basis with foreign ministers and heads of state of countries in all regions of the world. In previous public appointments, he served as adviser to King Abdullah, Minister of State, spokesperson for the Jordanian government, and spokesperson for the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq. Safadi began his professional career in journalism and communications. He has served as CEO of Abu Dhabi Media Company, Director General of Jordan Radio and Television Corporation, editor-in-chief and columnist for the Al-Ghad daily newspaper, and editor-in-chief of The Jordan Times. Mr. Safadi holds a B.A. in English Language and Literature from Yarmouk University and a Masters of International Journalism from Baylor University. Taken from https://www.baylor.edu/business/globalbusinessforu

Diplomacy’s equivalent of the military’s special forces is the “expeditionary diplomat,” a resourceful professional with specialized training from the Department of Defense and CIA who can take on the toughest diplomatic assignments in high threat, unstable or failed states. Join diplomatic correspondent Paul Richter, author of the “The Ambassadors,” for a virtual conversation with three of America’s preeminent diplomats – Ryan Crocker, Robert Ford and Anne Patterson – whom he profiled in his book along with Christopher Stevens, who was killed in Libya in 2012. Paul Richter covered the State Department and foreign policy as a Washington-based correspondent for the Los Angeles Times before leaving the publication in 2015. Throughout his three-decades-long career, Richter reported from 60 countries. He is a graduate of Clark University in Massachusetts. Ambassador Ryan Crocker was a career Foreign Service Officer, who served as Ambassador to Afghanistan (2011-2012), Iraq (2007-2009), Pakistan (2004-2007), Sy

Elizabeth Kolbert asks: “After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it?” In 2015, Kolbert won a Pulitzer Prize for her book chronicling humanity’s destructive behavior towards nature. She now turns her focus to the ways in which that very same human development may now be used to protect and save the planet. Meeting with scientists, engineers, and researchers, Kolbert shines a light on the environmental innovations in development worldwide and some of the world’s most unique ecosystems. Moderated by Lee Cullum, host, CEO. Elizabeth Kolbert is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her three-part series on global warming, “The Climate of Man,” won the 2006 National Magazine Award for Public Interest. She has won numerous awards for her work on environmental topics. Before joining The New Yorker in 1999, Kolbert was a political reporter at the New York Times. Lee Cullum is the host of CEO, a public television and radio program featuring a series of interviews with North Texas business lea

How do we weigh the benefits of artificial intelligence with its potential harm? In Turning Point, Darrell West outlines a policy blueprint to maximize the benefits and minimize the downsides of AI. As AI becomes increasingly an unavoidable part of our lives, West breaks down the uses of AI, how it actually works, and how “the transformative technology of our time” causes economic disruptions. Near-term policy decisions may be the deciding factor in where this revolutionary technology leads to utopia or dystopia. Darrell West is the vice president and director of governance studies at Brookings Institution. He is the Co-Editor-In-Chief of TechTank and the director of the John Hazen White Manufacturing Initiative. His article “E-Government and the Transformation of Service Delivery and Citizen Attitudes” was named one of the 75 most influential articles since 1940 by the Public Administration Review in 2014. . . Do you believe in the importance of international education and connections? The nonprofit World

At what cost should the U.S. continue leading the world? The Biden Administration has indicated in its first month that it is taking a different stance regarding alliances, particularly with Europe. How will this affect transatlantic relationships? Karen Donfried, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, has spent the entirety of her career trying to answer questions just like these. Since first joining the German Marshall Fund in 2001, Donfried has held numerous positions within the organization, as well as in the U.S. government and the World Economic Forum. Her work in this arena was recognized with the honor of the Cross of the Order of Merit from the German government, which she received in 2011, in addition to many other awards. Karen Donfried took the helm of the German Marshall Fund in 2014 after working as a special assistant to the president and senior director for European affairs and on the National Security Council. Donfried spent time as a national intelligence officer for E

Eleanor Roosevelt died nearly sixty years ago, but she remains a monumental figure in modern American history – a woman who devoted her life to the betterment of others as a diplomat, activist, humanitarian, and the longest-serving First Lady. David Michaelis’ newest book Eleanor offers readers the first-ever single-volume biography of all six decades of Eleanor Roosevelt’s extraordinary life. From orphaned child to wife of the country’s longest-serving president and everything that followed, Michaelis covers all of the important moments of Eleanor’s life while digging deeper to reveal the person she was outside of her remarkable accomplishments. Called “a sympathetic view of a complicated woman who changed and grew with every challenge” by the Wall Street Journal, Eleanor paints a picture of an American ideal. David Michaelis has authored six books, including national bestsellers “N.C. Wyeth” (1999 Ambassador Book Award for Biography winner) and “Schulz and Peanuts.” His work has also been featured in Cond

When Syrian president Bashar al-Assad deployed chemical weapons against his own people in 2012, he crossed the “red line” drawn by President Obama. To avoid committing to another never-ending war, the U.S. president accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to facilitate the removal of Assad’s chemical weapons. But it soon became clear that Russia’s end goal was to preserve Assad’s rule, leaving the U.S. with dwindling influence over the outcome of the civil war in Syria – all the while ISIS gained more territory as the group took advantage of the gaping power vacuum created by the region’s instability. In Red Line, Joby Warrick draws on his original reporting to tell “a character-driven narrative” about how avoiding one catastrophe can unintentionally lead to another. Joby Warrick is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and national security reporter for the Washington Post. In addition to Red Line, Warrick has authored two books – “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS” and “The Triple Agent”, which recounts

Nobel Prize-winning economist, best-selling author and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman says that there are economic misunderstandings about subjects such as health care, housing bubbles and tax reform that seem immortal, and he calls this “zombie economics.” He attempts to slay a few of these zombies in his newest book, breaking down the most pressing policy issues into engaging and easily understandable pieces. For his appearance at the 2021 Baylor Global Business Forum, Krugman will be in conversation with Austan Goolsby, another economist well known for his ability to explain economics clearly. Paul Krugman’s op-ed column has appeared in the New York Times since 1999 and he has authored and edited more than 27 books. One of the founders of the “new trade theory,” Krugman won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work. He is a distinguished professor at the Luxembourg Income Study Center at the City University of New York and professor emeritus at Princeton University. He holds

Ira Rosen, who has been a producer at 60 Minutes for nearly 25 years, reveals how episodes come together for one of American television’s longest-running programs. Full of personal anecdotes about some of the show’s biggest stars, including Chris Wallace, Diane Sawyer, and Barbara Walters, his book “Ticking Clock” exposes interview secrets, power dynamics between colleagues, and the journalistic process behind “unearthing shocking revelations.” This tell-all account of “the show that invented TV investigative journalism” is a “60 Minutes story on 60 Minutes itself.” Ira Rosen has been a producer at 60 Minutes for nearly 25 years, during which time he has worked on many of the most important stories the show has covered. Rosen has won 24 National Emmy Awards, four du Pont Awards, two RFK Awards, and two Peabody Awards. He is co-author of “The Warning: Accident and Three Mile Island.” Moderator Tony Pederson holds the rank of professor and is the Belo Distinguished Chair in Journalism at Southern Methodist Un