Global I.Q. Podcast

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 Europe on the National Intelligence Council and served for ten years as a European specialist at the Congressional Research Service. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in laws and diplomacy from Tufts University, a magister from the University of Munich, and a B.A. in government and German from Wesleyan University.

Joanna Ridgway will moderate this event. Ridgway is southwest region managing director at Santander Bank. Her international experience includes corporate and commercial banking, strategy development, asset management, corporate debt underwriting, project management and marketing. A two-time TEDx speaker, Ridgway serves on the Council’s board of directors and was a German Marshall Fund 2012 Marshall Memorial Fellow.

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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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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 Condé Nast Traveler and the Best American Essays anthology. Michaelis is an alumnus of Princeton University.

Moderator Talmage Boston is a Dallas attorney and author of four books of history.

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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

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 the 2009 suicide attack by an al-Qaeda informant that killed seven U.S. intelligence operatives. Warrick holds a BA in journalism from Temple University.

Moderated by Jim Falk, who served as president and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth for twenty years and is co-host of “The McCuistion Program,” public television’s long-running weekly discussion forum syndicated by the Foundation for Responsible Television.

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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

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 a B.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from MIT.

Austan D. Goolsbee is the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Goolsbee serves on the Economic Advisory Panel to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and previously chaired the Council on Economic Advisors in the Obama administration. He was named one of the six “Gurus of the Future” by the Financial Times. Like Krugman, Goolsbee holds a B.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from MIT.

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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

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 University. In that position he chairs the Division of Journalism in the Meadows School of the Arts. Before assuming the Belo chair in June of 2003 he was senior vice president and executive editor of the Houston Chronicle.

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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

The National Interest said of Robert Zoellick: “He was instrumental in shaping the course of American foreign policy, and his impact is still felt today.” Having served as president of the World Bank, U.S. Trade Representative, and Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick has deep experience in global trade, technology and U.S. relations with Mexico. Zoellick will offer both a historical framework and understanding of the strategic and existential challenges facing America’s U.S. foreign policy when he appears at the 2021 Baylor Global Business Forum, a joint virtual presentation by the Council and Baylor University.

Zoellick’s recently published book argues that there are five traditions that can be used to better understand post-Cold War presidencies: the importance of North America; the importance of trading, transnational, and technological relations; changing attitudes toward alliances; the importance of public support; and the belief that American policy should serve a larger purpose.

Moderator: Robert W. Jordan, U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (2001-2003)

Robert Zoellick is the non-executive chairman of global investment management firm AllianceBernstein and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Zoellick was president of the World Bank and also served as U.S. Trade Representative, Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury, Deputy Secretary of State, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff. [He has served on the boards of international commercial enterprises and educational institutions.] He holds a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College, a master’s degree from Harvard University, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Robert W. Jordan is Diplomat in Residence and adjunct professor of political science in the John G. Tower Center for Public Policy and International Affairs at Southern Methodist University. His service in Saudi Arabia began in the wake of the September 11 attacks. He was a partner in the international law firm Baker Botts L.L.P. and headed the firm’s Middle East practice based in Dubai until his retirement in 2014.

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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

A new biography published about George Washington is unlike any other. Described as “form-shattering and myth-crushing,” “keen and savage,” as well as “spirited and engaging,” historian Alexis Coe’s “You Never Forget Your First” chronicles the life of our first president from a 21st century and “decidedly feminist” perspective. Coe says, “I set out to write a book that was true, and different, and that added any kind of diversity in approach, perspective, and, of course, author. I set out to take a giant leap away from hagiography and great man history—and really mean it.”

This conversation will be moderated by Professor Jeffrey Engel.

Alexis Coe has frequently appeared on CNN and the History Channel, and in the New York Times and many other publications. She is a host of Audible’s “Presidents Are People Too!” and “No Man’s Land.” Coe holds an MA in history from Sarah Lawrence College and graduated from the honors college at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was a research curator at the New York Public Library and her first book, “Alice + Freda Forever,” is set to become a motion picture.

Jeffrey A. Engel is the founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University and professor in the Clements Department of History. He graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University. Engel also studied at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He taught American history, international relations, and grand strategy at the University of Wisconsin, Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Haverford College. At Texas A&M's Bush School of Government & Public Service, he was a professor and director of programming for the Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs.

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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

Sebastian Mallaby’s decades of experience covering economics make him one of the top financial reporters in the world. He worked as a reporter at The Economist for 13 years before joining the Washington Post in 1999 and was a contributing editor at the Financial Times. Mallaby’s work has also appeared in The Atlantic. At the Post, Mallaby’s topics of interest include “central banks, financial markets, the implications of the rise of newly emerging powers, and the intersection of economics and international relations.”

Sebastian Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations and a contributing columnist for the Washington Post. He is the author of several books, including “More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite” and “The Man Who Knew: The Life & Times of Alan Greenspan,” for which he won the 2016 Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award. Mallaby is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. He graduated from Oxford University in 1986 with a degree in modern history.

Moderator Blaine McCormick is an award-winning management professor at the Hankamer School of Business at Baylor University, where he serves as chair of the Department of Management.

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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

Has China reached the limits of its global expansion? Will it struggle to overcome new risks and endure global backlash as countries around the world come to terms with the repercussions of close relations with China – primarily strategic vulnerabilities to their independence and competitiveness?

Informed by his meetings with activists, business managers, diplomats, and thinkers from across Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and Europe, Luke Patey argues that China’s overreach could be its downfall. After decades of a “predatory economic agenda, headstrong diplomacy, and military expansion,” Patey says many countries have grown weary of China’s ambitions of global domination.

Luke Patey is a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies and Lead Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies whose writing has appeared in major publications. Patey holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Queen’s University in Canada, as well as a master’s degree and PhD. from the Copenhagen Business School.

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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 Washington’s farewell address of 1796, the president advised his successors to “steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." For the first century of American history, presidents heeded Washington’s advice. But events including the Spanish-American War and the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor required new engagements.

World War II and the Cold War fundamentally changed American strategy, as the U.S. began to “run the world rather than run away from it.” Charles Kupchan asks, where is the middle ground between doing too much and doing too little?

Moderated by Jim Hollifield.

A National Security Council veteran under Presidents Obama and Clinton, Charles Kupchan is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University. He previously worked in policy planning at the U.S. Department of State and has taught at Princeton University. Kupchan earned a B.A. from Harvard, and his master’s and doctorate from Oxford University.

James F. Hollifield is the Ora Nixon Arnold Fellow in International Political Economy, Professor in the Department of Political Science, and Director of the Tower Center at SMU. He has served as an advisor to various governments in North and South America, Europe, East Asia and the Middle East and Africa, and currently chairs working groups at the World Bank and the International Development Bank. His published books, scientific articles and reports address democracy, trade, and the political economy of international migration and development.

About the Mel Kusin Lecture on National Security

Twenty years ago, Mel Kusin initiated the World Affairs Council’s International Perspective Series to raise the interest level of North Texas citizens in U.S. foreign policy. Drawing on the best minds from universities and think tanks, Mel worked closely with World Affairs Council members and the American Jewish Committee to pose questions spanning from “Options for a Nuclear Iran: Engage, Contain, or Strike?" to “Power without borders - What is the influence of non-state actors?”.

In remembrance of our dear friend, in 2019 the Council established an annual Mel Kusin National Security Lecture.

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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