Global Tennessee

Join our team of Ambassador Dick Bowers, Dr. Breck Walker and LCDR Patrick Ryan for expert analysis of current global developments.

Give Dick, Breck and Pat 45 minutes and they'll give you the world. Analysis and entertaining commentary on the top events and issues leading global news reports. Hard to find insights and perspectives from diplomacy, academia and intelligence, along with a little fun and your questions.

Tennessee World Affairs Council Election2020 Project

Chair: Professor Thomas Schwartz, Distinguished Professor of History, Vanderbilt University

Ambassador John Kornblum, U.S. Foreign Service (Ret), Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany

Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Distinguished Fellow, U.S. Foreign Service (Ret), Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, to Russia, to India, to Israel, to El Salvador, to Nigeria, and to Jordan

PRESENTED BY THE TENNESSEE WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL AND "THE TENNESSEAN'S" CIVILITY TENNESSEE CAMPAIGN

Our debate watch party included pre- and post-debate discussions with our panel of specialists on campaign operations, polling, media, global affairs and other relevant fields.

Our panel included:

• David Plazas, Opinion Engagement Editor, "The Tennessean" (moderator)

• Mark Braden, Senior VP, Mercury LLC, former campaign manager for Senator Lamar Alexander.

• Rachael Dean Wilson, Director of External Affairs, Alliance for Securing Democracy, former Senator John McCain staff member and press assistant in McCain 2008 campaign.

• Holly McCall, Editor, "Tennessee Lookout" online news

• Sarah Lingo, Executive Director, Sister Cities of Nashville

• Amanda Knarr, Global Account Manager, Forrester Research; TNWAC Board

• Campbell Lahman, Academic WorldQuest Program Rep

• Patrick Ryan, President, Tennessee World Affairs Council

Debate Topics:

COVID-19

American Families

Race in America

Climate Change

National Security

Leadership

Topics for October 21, 2020

1 – Mexico: Dam Water

2 – The Uighurs and Global Human Rights

3 – President Debates and International Affairs

Give Dick, Breck and Pat 45 minutes and they'll give you the world. Analysis and entertaining commentary on the top events and issues leading global news reports. Hard to find insights and perspectives from diplomacy, academia and intelligence.

THIS WEEK we're joined by David Plazas of The Tennessean as our guest host to talk about media issues.

David Plazas

David Plazas is the Opinion and Engagement Director for the USA TODAY Network newsrooms in Tennessee and The Tennessean where he serves an editorial writer, opinion columnist, op-ed editor and an editorial board member. He has written award-winning columns on affordable housing, government accountability and civic engagement. He leads the acclaimed Civility Tennessee campaign.

Charles Richard (Dick) Bowers served as the US Ambassador to Bolivia from 1991 through 1994. During that time, the American Embassy in Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, was the largest and most complex U.S. embassy in South America. Ambassador Bowers grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, attended the University of California, Berkeley. He entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1967. From 1961 to 1964 he served in the U.S. Army as a Russian linguist in West Berlin at the height of the Cold War. As a career member of the U.S. diplomatic corps, Ambassador Bowers served in the U.S. Embassies in Panama, Poland, Singapore, Germany and Bolivia. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1995. Amb Bowers has been a Board Member of the Tennessee World Affairs Council since 2012.

Patrick Ryan is a native of New York City. He enlisted in the Navy at age 17 and volunteered for submarine duty. He served aboard nuclear fast attack and ballistic missile boats during the Cold War, rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. In 1982 he was commissioned and served aboard a cruiser in the Western Pacific before becoming a Navy Intelligence Officer. Ryan served aboard the carrier Constellation in the Pacific, the Joint Staff Intelligence Directorate in the Pentagon, the Center for Naval Analysis, and the Intelligence Directorate of U.S. Central Command. Ryan retired from the Navy in 1998 and worked as a consultant on Intelligence Community projects and as the VP/COO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. Ryan ran a newsletter publishing business on international affairs from 1999-2016. He founded the Tennessee World Affairs Council in 2007.

Breck Walker received his PhD in Diplomatic History from Vanderbilt in 2007. His dissertation was on the foreign policy of the Carter administration. He taught at Sewanee, the University of the South, 2007-2012, and on the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea Program in Spring 2013 and Fall 2015. He worked as a historian in the Historical Office of the Office of Secretary of Defense 2013-2016, researching and writing a book on early Pentagon cyber policy. Prior to becoming a history professor, Breck worked for twenty years as an investment banker, the last ten as co-head of the Corporate Finance Group at J.C. Bradford & Co in Nashville. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, and J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Stanford University. Breck serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee World Affairs Council.

America's Place in the World

*Chair: Professor Thomas Schwartz, Distinguished Professor of History, Vanderbilt University

*General John Allen, President, Brookings; former Commander NATO International Security Assistance Force, Afghanistan (Confirmed)

*Dr. Jessica Tuchman Matthews, Ph.D., Distinguished Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She served as Carnegie’s president for 18 years. (Confirmed)

Thomas Schwartz

Thomas Alan Schwartz is a historian of the foreign relations of the United States, with related interests in American politics, the history of international relations, Modern European history, and biography. His most recent book is Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography (Hill and Wang, 2020). The book has received considerable notice and acclaim. Harvard’s University’s Charles Maier has written: "Thomas Schwartz's superbly researched political biography reveals the brilliance, self-serving ego, and vulnerability of America's most remarkable diplomat in the twentieth century, even as it provides a history of U.S. engagement in global politics as it moved beyond bipolarity."

John Allen

John Rutherford Allen assumed the presidency of the Brookings Institution in November 2017, having most recently served as chair of security and strategy and a distinguished fellow in the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings. Allen is a retired U.S. Marine Corps four-star general and former commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. Forces in Afghanistan. He is the co-author of the book "Turning Point: Policymaking in the Era of Artificial Intelligence" alongside co-author Darrell M. West (Brookings Press, 2020)”

Allen served in two senior diplomatic roles following his retirement from the Marine Corps. First, for 15 months as senior advisor to the secretary of defense on Middle East Security, during which he led the security dialogue for the Israeli/Palestinian peace process. President Barack Obama then appointed Allen as special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, a position he held for 15 months. Allen’s diplomatic efforts grew the coalition to 65 members, effectively halting the expansion of ISIL.

During his nearly four-decade military career, Allen served in a variety of command and staff positions in the Marine Corps and the Joint Force. He commanded 150,000 U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan from July 2011 to February 2013. Allen is the first Marine to command a theater of war. During his tenure as ISAF commander, he recovered the 33,000 U.S. surge forces, moved the Afghan National Security Forces into the lead for combat operations, and pivoted NATO forces from being a conventional combat force into an advisory command.

Allen also participated in the Six Party Talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and played a major role in organizing the relief effort during the South Asian tsunami from 2004 to 2005.

Allen was the Marine Corps fellow to the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the first Marine officer to serve as a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where today he is a permanent member.

Jessica Tuchman Matthews

Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a distinguished fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She served as Carnegie’s president for 18 years.

Before her appointment in 1997, her career included posts in both the executive and legislative branches of government, in management and research in the nonprofit arena, and in journalism and science policy.

She was director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Washington program and a senior fellow from 1994 to 1997. While there she published her seminal 1997 Foreign Affairs article, “Power Shift,” chosen by the editors as one of the most influential in the journal’s seventy-five years.

She holds a PhD in molecular biology from the California Institute of Technology and graduated magna cum laude from Radcliffe College.

Topics for October 14, 2020

1 – World Food Program and Alfred Nobel

2 – World Press Freedom Under Attack

3 -- Nuclear Weapons, Dexamethasone and the 25th Amendment

Give Dick, Breck and Pat 45 minutes and they'll give you the world. Analysis and entertaining commentary on the top events and issues leading global news reports. Hard to find insights and perspectives from diplomacy, academia and intelligence.

THIS WEEK we're joined by David Plazas of The Tennessean as our guest host to talk about media issues.

David Plazas

David Plazas is the Opinion and Engagement Director for the USA TODAY Network newsrooms in Tennessee and The Tennessean where he serves an editorial writer, opinion columnist, op-ed editor and an editorial board member. He has written award-winning columns on affordable housing, government accountability and civic engagement. He leads the acclaimed Civility Tennessee campaign.

Charles Richard (Dick) Bowers served as the US Ambassador to Bolivia from 1991 through 1994. During that time, the American Embassy in Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, was the largest and most complex U.S. embassy in South America. Ambassador Bowers grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, attended the University of California, Berkeley. He entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1967. From 1961 to 1964 he served in the U.S. Army as a Russian linguist in West Berlin at the height of the Cold War. As a career member of the U.S. diplomatic corps, Ambassador Bowers served in the U.S. Embassies in Panama, Poland, Singapore, Germany and Bolivia. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1995. Amb Bowers has been a Board Member of the Tennessee World Affairs Council since 2012.

Patrick Ryan is a native of New York City. He enlisted in the Navy at age 17 and volunteered for submarine duty. He served aboard nuclear fast attack and ballistic missile boats during the Cold War, rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. In 1982 he was commissioned and served aboard a cruiser in the Western Pacific before becoming a Navy Intelligence Officer. Ryan served aboard the carrier Constellation in the Pacific, the Joint Staff Intelligence Directorate in the Pentagon, the Center for Naval Analysis, and the Intelligence Directorate of U.S. Central Command. Ryan retired from the Navy in 1998 and worked as a consultant on Intelligence Community projects and as the VP/COO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. Ryan ran a newsletter publishing business on international affairs from 1999-2016. He founded the Tennessee World Affairs Council in 2007.

Breck Walker received his PhD in Diplomatic History from Vanderbilt in 2007. His dissertation was on the foreign policy of the Carter administration. He taught at Sewanee, the University of the South, 2007-2012, and on the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea Program in Spring 2013 and Fall 2015. He worked as a historian in the Historical Office of the Office of Secretary of Defense 2013-2016, researching and writing a book on early Pentagon cyber policy. Prior to becoming a history professor, Breck worked for twenty years as an investment banker, the last ten as co-head of the Corporate Finance Group at J.C. Bradford & Co in Nashville. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, and J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Stanford University. Breck serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee World Affairs Council.

Karl Dean, former Nashville Mayor talks with community leaders about the things that make Nashville a global city.

Global Nashville with Karl Dean

Join Mayor Dean for a conversation with Mohamed-Shukri Hassan, Director of the Office of New Americans as they talk about community issues in the headlines.

Hassan, who was born in Somalia, worked with or advised the Metro Public Health Department, New American Development Center, Nashville Entrepreneur Center, Metro Arts and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and the New Americans Advisory Council.

The Mayor's Office of New Americans works to engage immigrants and empower them to participate in our government and our community. The number of foreign-born residents in Nashville has more than doubled over the past decade. Nearly 12 percent of our population was born outside of the United States, and nearly half of those people are recent immigrants who entered the country since 2000. In fact, in 2012, Nashville had the fastest-growing immigrant population of any American city. Nashville is the proud home of the nation's largest Kurdish population, as well as growing enclaves of immigrants from Somalia, Burma, and all over the world.

"Shukri-Hassan’s journey to Middle Tennessee is a unique one. Shortly after being born in Somalia in 1986, his family fled their home country due to the growing Civil War. The family bounced from place to place in East Africa, eventually settling in Nairobi, Kenya. Though they found temporary solace, they had dreams to live in the United States of America. Shukri-Hassan’s mother was the first to make the leap overseas through the immigration lottery. After a few years of saving, the rest of the Shukri-Hassan family joined her in Decatur, Georgia."

Join our panel of professionals who have lived and worked abroad, or work in global affairs fields in the States as they talk about and answer questions in an insightful "how-to" session.

The Tennessee World Affairs Council (TNWAC) was pleased to present six professional women in a variety of fields joining us from three countries on two continents.

We welcome your feedback on what you gained by hearing their stories and perspectives -- [email protected]. Thanks.

^ Chair: Dr. Susan Haynes, PhD; Assistant Professor of Political Science, Lipscomb University

^ Amanda Knarr, Global Account Manager, Forrester Research

^ Lindsay L. Rodman, Executive Director, The Leadership Council on Women in National Security (LCWINS); Adjunct Senior Fellow, Center for a New American Security (CNAS); United States Marine Reserve JAG

^ Daniela Segovia, Coordinator, NGO Magnolia Foundation for Peace & Wellness

^ Francine Uenuma, Humanitarian Assistance Advisor to the Military with the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance

^ Nancy Youssef, Chief Business Development Officer, Soles4Souls, Nashville

THE MISSION of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Tennessee World Affairs Council is to promote international awareness, understanding and connections to enhance the region’s global stature and to prepare Tennesseans to thrive in our increasingly complex and connected world.

THE VISION of the Tennessee World Affairs Council is a well-informed community that thinks critically about the world and the impact of global events.

We invite you to support TNWAC through membership and/or a gift -- TNWAC.org

Join our team of Ambassador Dick Bowers, Dr. Breck Walker and LCDR Patrick Ryan for expert analysis of current global developments. (Breck had the day off.)

Topics for October 7, 2020

1 – U.S. Commitment in Iraq

2 – QAnon Goes Global

3 - Pentagon Leaders and Covid: Who’s in Charge

Give Dick, Breck and Pat 45 minutes and they’ll give you the world. Analysis and entertaining commentary on the top events and issues leading global news reports. Hard to find insights and perspectives from diplomacy, academia and intelligence, along with a little fun and your questions.

Charles Richard (Dick) Bowers served as the US Ambassador to Bolivia from 1991 through 1994. During that time, the American Embassy in Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, was the largest and most complex U.S. embassy in South America. Ambassador Bowers grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, attended the University of California, Berkeley. He entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1967. From 1961 to 1964 he served in the U.S. Army as a Russian linguist in West Berlin at the height of the Cold War. As a career member of the U.S. diplomatic corps, Ambassador Bowers served in the U.S. Embassies in Panama, Poland, Singapore, Germany and Bolivia. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1995. Amb Bowers has been a Board Member of the Tennessee World Affairs Council since 2012.

Patrick Ryan is a native of New York City. He enlisted in the Navy at age 17 and volunteered for submarine duty. He served aboard nuclear fast attack and ballistic missile boats during the Cold War, rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. In 1982 he was commissioned and served aboard a cruiser in the Western Pacific before becoming a Navy Intelligence Officer. Ryan served aboard the carrier Constellation in the Pacific, the Joint Staff Intelligence Directorate in the Pentagon, the Center for Naval Analysis, and the Intelligence Directorate of U.S. Central Command. Ryan retired from the Navy in 1998 and worked as a consultant on Intelligence Community projects and as the VP/COO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. Ryan ran a newsletter publishing business on international affairs from 1999-2016. He founded the Tennessee World Affairs Council in 2007.

Distinguished speakers provide an assessment of America's situation in a region it has tried to navigate for decades - the Middle East.

U.S. Foreign Policy Challenges: The Middle East

Patrick W. Ryan, President, TNWAC; LCDR, USN (Ret); Panel Chair

Rami Khouri, distinguished international journalist; Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University​

Dr. Paul Pillar, Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Studies of Georgetown University; career official in the U.S. Intelligence Community

Mona Yacoubian, Senior Advisor to the Vice President of Middle East & Africa, United States Institute of Peace

Rami Khouri

Journalist-in-Residence and director of global engagement at the American University of Beirut, and a non-resident senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He was the executive editor of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, the editor-in-chief of the Jordan Times, and was awarded the Pax Christi International Peace Prize for 2006.

He teaches or lectures annually at the American University of Beirut and Northeastern University. He has been a fellow and visiting scholar at Harvard, Mount Holyoke, Princeton, Syracuse, Northeastern, Villanova, Oklahoma and Stanford universities. He also serves on the Joint Advisory Board of the Northwestern University Journalism School in Doha, Qatar.

He was general manager of Al Kutba, Publishers, in Amman, Jordan, where he also served as a consultant to the Jordanian tourism ministry on biblical archaeological sites. He has hosted programs on archaeology, history and current public affairs on Jordan Television and Radio Jordan, and often comments on Mideast issues in the international media.

He has BA and MSc degrees respectively in political science and mass communications from Syracuse University, NY, USA.

Dr. Paul Pillar

Paul R. Pillar is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Studies of Georgetown University. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Geneva Center for Security Policy. He retired in 2005 from a 28-year career in the U.S. intelligence community, after which he was visiting professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. His senior government positions included National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia, Deputy Chief of the DCI Counterterrorist Center, and Executive Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence. He is a Vietnam War veteran and a retired officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. Dr. Pillar received an A.B. summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, a B.Phil. from Oxford University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University. His books include Negotiating Peace: War Termination as a Bargaining Process (1983), Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy (2001), Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, 9/11, and Misguided Reform (2011), and Why America Misunderstands the World: National Experience and Roots of Misperception (2016). He is a contributing editor of The National Interest.

Mona Yacoubian

Mona Yacoubian is Senior Advisor to the Vice President of Middle East & Africa, United States Institute of Peace. She joined the U.S. Institute of Peace after serving as deputy assistant administrator in the Middle East Bureau at USAID from 2014 to 2017, where she had responsibility for Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Yacoubian was a senior advisor at the Stimson Center focusing on the Arab uprisings with an emphasis on Syria. Prior to joining the Stimson Center, Ms. Yacoubian served as a special advisor on the Middle East at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where her work focused on Lebanon and Syria as well as broader issues related to democratization in the Arab world. From 1990 to 1998, Ms. Yacoubian served as the North Africa analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.