GMT20251008-165825_Recording_640x360 - Trim crop by Tennessee World Affairs Council

What do the Olympics reveal about international influence, branding, and global power? Join TNWAC on Wednesday, August 27th, for a fascinating webinar moderated by Karl Dean featuring Terrence H. Burns (Chairman and Owner, T. Burns Sports Group, LLC).

Terrence will explore how the Olympic Games transcend sport to shape geopolitics, national identity, and global narratives.

What You’ll Learn:

– How the Olympic brand has become a tool of soft power

– The intersection of global sports, politics, and diplomacy

– Real-world insights into international branding and influence

Nashville at the Crossroads: Global Growth, Local Challenges, and Future Opportunities by Tennessee World Affairs Council

Geopolitical Divergences on the Korean Peninsula by Tennessee World Affairs Council

Reshaping of the Middle East by Tennessee World Affairs Council

After an unprecedented year of elections, new leaders around the globe who have promised change will be expected to deliver in 2025. The world will also be coming to terms with the outcome of America’s elections in November and the implications for global security, trade, and climate policy. New alliances are forming, and old ones are fraying in an increasingly tense and dangerous world. But the adoption of green tech continues to outpace the most optimistic forecasts, even as concerns grow over artificial intelligence and its voracious appetite for chips, energy, water, and data. Tom Standage, Deputy Editor of The Economist and editor of The World Ahead 2025, will consider these and other trends and their implications for geopolitics, business, and culture in the coming year.

Mark Reese began his thirty-year career in Central Asia as the first Peace Corps volunteer to serve in Kokand, Uzbekistan, from 1994-1996. Through the University of Washington, he subsequently established and managed a Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs program centered around Islamic studies and curricula reform in Uzbekistan through the Department of State’s Uzbekistan Partnership Program in Islamic Studies. Mr. Reese managed translation and cultural advisement task orders for a broad spectrum of government and private industry clients.

Over seven years, he conducted groundbreaking work through dynamic educational program development as Founding Director for the Center for Regional Studies at the United States Naval Academy. His flagship work surrounds his translation of Abdullah Qodiriy’s O’tkan Kunlar, the first full-length novel in the Uzbek language. For his efforts, the Republic of Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev awarded Mr. Reese the Presidential Order of Do’stlik for furthering awareness of the Uzbek language and culture.

In 2023, he was awarded the Tourism Fo’ydasi for developing tourism content in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. As CEO of Suhbat LLC, Mark is currently engaged in strategic communications and cultural program development for a variety of clients in Central Asia.

The dialog between the President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of America (WACA), Matthew Hughes, and Hon. Karl Dean, will verse around the importance of WACA and all 90 World Affairs Council in engaging the public and leaders in global affairs in an age of rapidly shifting international order. At the center of the discussion will be the impact of WACA in informing and educating students about global professional opportunities and the importance for them to understand different corporate cultures.

Moderated by Chinese journalism expert Jeremy Goldkorn, this in-depth discussion with James Siebens (Fellow, Stimson Center's Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy program) explored how China leverages armed coercion to achieve its goals without direct conflict.

This session is essential for anyone interested in global security, international relations, and current geopolitical dynamics.

The Middle East is at a hinge moment. The old order is collapsing, and a new one has yet to emerge. While the region’s tectonic shifts predate Hamas’s terror attack on Oct. 7, the ensuing conflict in Gaza and its reverberations across the region are the crucible in which the new contours of the Middle East will take shape. USIP's Mona Yacoubian will provide insights on the regional flashpoints that have erupted in the wake of the Gaza conflict as well as the broader implications for a region in a state of enormous flux.