Global I.Q. Podcast

Ambassador P. Michael McKinley

Ambassador McKinley (Ret.) joined The Cohen Group as a Senior Counselor after a decorated 37-year career at the Department of State. Ambassador McKinley most recently served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State until October 2019, covering a wide range of global policy issues. This month he penned the sagacious "We All Lost Afghanistan" — a must-read piece published in Foreign Affairs.

As a four-time ambassador, he led some of the largest and most sensitive U.S. embassies in the world as the U.S. Ambassador to Peru (2007-2010), Colombia (2010-2013), Afghanistan (2014-2016), and Brazil (2017-2018). Ambassador McKinley has also had extensive experience with regional conflicts and peace negotiations across three decades on three continents including Afghanistan, where he played a central role in shaping key policy decisions.



Ambassador Anne W. Patterson is moderating this event. Like Ambassador Mckinley, Ambassador Patterson has led critical U.S. embassies around the world. In addition to being appointed as Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern and North African Affairs at the Department of State (2013-2017), she served as Ambassador to Egypt (2011-2013), Pakistan (2007-2010), Colombia (2000-2003), and El Salvador (1997-2000). Ambassador Patterson recently retired with the rank of Career Ambassador after more than four decades in the Foreign Service. Currently, she is a senior fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale and a member of the Commission on National Defense Strategy.

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Emily Haber has been Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United States since June 2018. Prior to her transfer to Washington, DC, she served in various leadership functions at the Foreign Office in Berlin. In 2009, she was appointed political director and, in 2011, state secretary, the first woman to hold either post. Thereafter, she was deployed to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, serving as state secretary in charge of homeland security and migration policy from 2014 until 2018.

Emily Haber has many years of experience with Russia and the former Soviet Union, including Head of the Political Department. At the Foreign Office in Berlin, she served as Head of the OSCE Division and as Deputy Director-General for the Western Balkans, among other positions.

Moderated by Lee Cullum, journalist at Public Media of North Texas (KERA/PBS) and Senior Fellow at the John Tower Center for Public Policy and International Affairs at SMU.

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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 for students and teachers.

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Fisher and Garten will discuss Garten’s new book, THREE DAYS AT CAMP DAVID, which describes how and why the Nixon administration broke the link between the dollar and gold, setting shock waves throughout the world economy and upending America’s most important political and military alliances. They will explain why this decision was perhaps the biggest one ever made in the international monetary system since the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944, how it led to floating exchange rates, to more financial engineering, more intense globalization, and even to the emerging world of crypto and digital currencies. And they will examine the challenges to the dollar today, from China, from new forms of currency, from new kinds of protectionism, and from dysfunctional elements of our political system and institutions.

Jeffrey Garten is the former dean of the Yale School of Management, undersecretary of commerce for international trade, and managing director of the Blackstone Group. He now teaches courses at Yale on the global economy, international crisis management, and US foreign economic policy. He is the author of several books on global political and economic subjects including FROM SILK TO SILICON: The Story of Globalization Through Ten Extraordinary Lives.

Richard Fisher was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 2005 to 2015. He began his career in private banking before becoming assistant to the secretary of the treasury during the Carter administration. He served as deputy U.S. trade representative in the Clinton administration. Ambassador Fisher’s experience also includes working for Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s strategic advisory firm and founding his own firm, Fisher Capital Management. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

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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 for students and teachers.

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This breaking-news program provides context on the current state of affairs in Haiti in the wake of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise on July 7, 2021, as well as insight on the broader U.S.-Haitian relationship, and the history of Haitian leadership.

Paula Caldwell St-Onge (B.Sc.Queen's University, MBA (Leadership and Sustainability) University of Cumbria, recipient of the Head of the Public Service Award for Excellence in Policy and the Queen’s Gold Jubilee medal, began her career in the Public Service in 1989. She worked in several government departments where she gained expertise in communications, environmental sustainability and political risk. She has been a Director General of Canada’s Environmental Federal national programs on Enforcement, Environmental assessments and Emergency and Preparedness as well as Director General of the Pan African bureau at Global affairs Canada.

She has lived and served abroad for 28 years having been brought up in Latin America and the Caribbean and served as Senior Trade Commissioner, Minister Counsellor of Trade, Consul General and Ambassador in Brazil, Mexico, Texas (and 5 surrounding States), and Haiti respectively. She speaks five languages fluently and is married to Daniel St-Onge and the couple has one daughter.

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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 for students and teachers.

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Awakening, a global look at the worldwide impact of the #MeToo movement, shines a light on the far-reaching effects of the rise in women’s activism that sprang from a hashtag. Weaving together the personal stories of women from seven vastly different countries, and focusing on the international cultural reckoning the movement sparked, Awakening looks at #MeToo on the world stage through political analysis and anecdotal evidence, providing an in-depth look into how the campaign has reached across borders since its beginning in 2017.

Rachel Vogelstein is the director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she is also the Douglas Dillon senior fellow. During the Obama administration, Vogelstein served as top counselor on women’s issues to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was a member of the White House Council on Women and Girls. She currently sits on the boards of Planned Parenthood Global and the National Women’s History Museum. She is a contributing writer on global women’s issues at the Washington Post and Foreign Affairs. Vogelstein holds degrees from Columbia University and Georgetown Law School.

Meighan Stone is the senior fellow for Women and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. She previously served as president of the Malala Fund from 2014-2017 and was an entrepreneurship fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. Stone’s work in women’s advocacy, international development, and media projects has led her to partner with the ONE Campaign, the UN, the World Economic Forum, FIFA World Cup, and the G7 Summit. She has written about global women’s issues for TIME and Foreign Affairs, among others. Stone holds a B.A. from George Mason University and a master’s degree from Columbia University.

Moderated by Michelle A. Thomas, Assistant Vice President, Chief Compliance Office, AT&T.

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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 for students and teachers.

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China’s restriction on the free flow of information is no secret in the western world. Many are aware of the “Great Firewall,” as well as the intense surveillance of visitors and Chinese citizens. But what is life really like under such invasive conditions?

In The Perfect Police State, Asia-based reporter Geoffrey Cain shares intel from inside China’s surveillance network in the country’s westernmost province of Xinjiang. Informed by first-hand testimony and Cain’s own investigations into China’s “effective and enduring technological dystopia,” Cain argues that China has indeed created a perfect police state.

Geoffrey Cain is an award-winning foreign correspondent and author. He was formerly a correspondent at The Economist and is a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Time, The New Republic, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, and Bloomberg. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a security fellow at the Truman National Security Project. Cain is a Fulbright scholar who earned a master’s degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, as well as a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University.

Moderated by Lee Bratcher

Lee Bratcher is the Executive Director for the Institute of Global Engagement at Dallas Baptist University as well as a faculty member teaching international relations and blockchain courses. Lee received a blockchain instructors’ certification from IBM and researches blockchain solutions in land administration. He is a Captain in the US Army reserves working as an instructor for ROTC cadets at DBU and UT Dallas. Lee was awarded a master’s in International Relations from St. Mary’s University and is in his sixth year as a Ph.D. candidate at UT Dallas.

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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 for students and teachers.

Donate: https://www.dfwworld.org/donate

Yemen is a nation on the brink of collapse. Devastated by more than 5 years of civil war, the humanitarian situation in Yemen is dire. Economic volatility and conflict have stretched Yemenis’ ability to cope to the breaking point, leaving millions deeply vulnerable and famine a real threat. In the first half of 2021, about 16 million people face acute levels of food insecurity, with a return of famine-like conditions for the first time in two years. Over 24 million people rely on humanitarian assistance to get by. According to the 2021 Global Report on Food Crises—an analysis of global food insecurity by 16 partners including the United Nations World Food Programme—conflict remains the leading driver of hunger globally, with about 99 million severely hungry people living across 23 conflict-affected countries. If adequately funded this year, the United Nations World Food Programme aims to provide emergency food assistance to about 13 million people as well as malnutrition treatment and prevention to 3.3 million children and mothers. Join our panelists for an inside view into Yemen’s hunger crisis and how the U.N. World Food Programme is feeding and assisting Yemenis and working to build resilience.

About the speakers

Oscar-Winning Film Maker Skye Fitzgerald

Skye Fitzgerald: Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Documentary Branch). Oscar/Emmy/IDA-Nominated Director Skye Fitzgerald is directing The Humanitarian Trilogy: HUNGER WARD (2020) documents the impact of the war and famine in Yemen on children, families, and health care workers. LIFEBOAT (2018) highlights search and rescue operations off the coast of Libya and was nominated for an Academy Award® and national Emmy® award. 50 FEET FROM SYRIA (2015) focuses on doctors working on the Syrian border and was voted onto the Oscar® shortlist.

Annabel Symington – WFP Yemen, Communications Officer 

Annabel Symington is a Communications & Media Officer for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Yemen, where she acts as spokesperson for the operation, the agency’s largest in the world, and heads up the communications team. She joined WFP in January 2019, flying straight to Yemen to support the operation on site. Previously, Annabel was a foreign correspondent working for leading media organizations including The Times (UK), The Wall Street Journal, BBC, and The Economist, reporting from Pakistan, India, China, Brazil, and across West Africa. She worked for Agence France-Presse for five years, first as a News Editor from Hong Kong and then moving to Kathmandu as Nepal Bureau Chief. Annabel is a British citizen and her home is London, though she is usually on the road.

Chase Sova - World Food Program USA, Senior Director, Public Policy and Tought Leadership

Chase Sova has professional experience in the areas of climate change and agricultural development with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, International Center for Tropical Agriculture and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. Focused on agriculture policy, Chase has worked in 15 developing countries across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. He holds a Ph.D. in political ecology on climate change and agriculture from Oxford University.

Moderated by President Emeritus Jim Falk

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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 for students and teachers.

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When Jean Becker closed up President Bush’s Houston office in 2019 after his death, she told the Houston Chronicle, “What a pleasure. What a journey.” In The Man I Knew, the former chief of staff to President George H. W. Bush shares an intimate look into the post-presidency of one of America’s most influential one-term presidents. Becker served as Bush 41’s chief of staff for nearly 25 years, handling monumental tasks like the opening of the George Bush Presidential Library in 1997 and overseeing the former president’s state funeral in 2018.

From the perspective of one of the president’s closest confidantes, who was at his side when he died, The Man I Knew offers a behind-the-scenes look into how President Bush continued to lead a life of service after losing the 1992 election – going on to see his own son become president after him and serving as a mentor to Presidents Clinton and Obama.

Jean Becker was chief of staff for President George H. W. Bush from 1994 until his death in 2018. In 1999, Becker took a leave of absence to focus on editing and research for the memoir, All the Best, George Bush. Becker also served as deputy press secretary to First Lady Barbara Bush (1989-1992), with whom she worked on Barbara Bush, A Memoir. Becker is a former journalist and a member of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. She holds bachelor’s degrees in political science and journalism from the University of Missouri.

Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian. In 2015, Meacham published his biography of President George H. W. Bush, Destiny and Power, which became a New York Times bestseller. A former executive editor at Random House, Meacham is a contributing writer to the New York Times Book Review and a contributing editor for TIME. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the Society of American Historians, and holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from The University of the South.

Chris Buckley is an author and political satirist who served as chief speechwriter to President George H. W. Bush during his vice presidency. Buckley’s experience in Washington inspired his novels, The White House Mess and Thank You for Smoking. He has served as editor of Esquire and Forbes and has written for the New York Times and The New Yorker, among others. He is a graduate of Yale University.

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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 for students and teachers.

Donate: https://www.dfwworld.org/donate

Jason L. Riley’s biography of Sowell, Maverick, tells the story of the successful and provocative career of one of America’s foremost intellectuals and the experiences that shaped his insights and ideas. In Riley’s recently released companion documentary Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World, Larry Elder said of Sowell, “He is America’s greatest contemporary living philosopher.”

Jason Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs. He is the author of several books, as well as a columnist and editorial board member for the Wall Street Journal, which he joined in 1994. Riley is a commentator on Fox News and frequently appears on ABC, NBC, CNN, PBS, and NPR. He holds a B.A. in English from The State University of New York at Buffalo.

Moderated by Talmage Boston

Talmage is a partner in Shackelford, Bowen, McKinley & Norton, LLP's Dallas office who specializes in commercial litigation. He’s a past board member of the WAC of D/FW and recipient of the Mallon Circle Award. In addition to lawyering, he’s the author of four critically acclaimed history books, and is regarded as one of the country’s leading onstage interviewers.

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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 for students and teachers.

Donate: https://www.dfwworld.org/donate

In the early 1960s, President Kennedy said the United States was in an "hour of maximum danger," as the Soviet Union was winning the space race. Then, on February 20, 1962, Friendship 7 began its orbit of Earth. With astronaut John Glenn on board, Friendship 7 got America back into the space race at one of the tensest moments of the Cold War. Jeff Shesol draws on historical archives, interviews, and Glenn’s personal notes to tell the story of the mission that changed the dynamics of the space race and restored American confidence during the Cold War.

Jeff Shesol’s two previous books, Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court and Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud That Defined a Decade, have won numerous awards. He also spent three years in the White House as one of President Clinton’s speechwriters. Shesol is a founding partner of West Wing Writers and formerly taught presidential history at Princeton University. He is a Rhodes Scholar who holds a master’s degree in history from Oxford University and a B.A. from Brown University.

Peter Baker is the New York Times’ chief White House correspondent. Baker spent 20 years at the Washington Post, including four years as Moscow bureau chief in collaboration with his wife, journalist Susan Glasser. He has authored six award-winning books.

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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 for students and teachers.

Donate: https://www.dfwworld.org/donate