Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean hosts a conversation with Global Young Professionals Bronte Prins and Mary Love Richardson, of theTennessee World Affairs Council Board.

The Global YP Group is associated with the Tennessee World Affairs Council, a nonpartisan educational organization that works to connect our community to global affairs awareness programs and resources.

The Young Professionals group of the Tennessee World Affairs Council unites like-minded young professionals living and working in Tennessee who are interested in international affairs and global literacy. With a strong focus on networking, YP-TNWAC is committed to creating a connected community and providing opportunities for its members to develop socially and professionally.

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'S TOPICS:

1 - TikTok outcome

2 - The World Needs a Better World Health Organization

3 - The Mediterranean: Sea of Troubles

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.

Aug 25, 2020

Global Update Webinar Featuring Consul General of Mexico in Atlanta, Javier Diaz de Leon

The Nashville Chamber’s International Business Council, in partnership with Baker Donelson, hosted a Global Update Webinar featuring Consul General of Mexico in Atlanta, Javier Diaz de Leon. We discussed the latest in US-Mexico business connections, including the USMCA, Mexico’s response to COVID-19, and opportunities for future collaboration between Tennessee and Mexico.

This event was in partnership with the TN World Affairs Council and Center for International Business at Belmont. Moderating the event will be IBC advisory board member John Scannapieco.

Part One - September 2, 2020

Examining Critical Issues in the Global Pandemic

COVID-19 has touched every part of the world but its effects and the reaction of different countries has been uneven. In an interconnected world we need to understand the pandemic’s impact beyond our borders. Importantly, the progress toward a COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic treatments is a global pursuit. There are, as well, already no shortage of changes made and those to come in reaction to the global catastrophe – in our communities, technology, health and science, government performance, elections, the global economy and our lifestyles.

A group of World Affairs Councils – nationwide, independent, nonpartisan educational organizations – is joining together with an international network of journalists and specialists to organize conversations over the course of two evenings in early September. The goal is to help Americans understand the impact of the pandemic in an interactive program open to all.

We invite you to join this unique partnership to inform and inspire Americans to know more about COVID-19’s impact around the world, the race for a vaccine and how the vaccine has changed the world.

On September 2nd and 3rd journalists, physicians, researchers, NGO officials and others will come together to discuss the global impact of COVID-19 and the pursuit of a vaccine.

The program is brought to the public in partnership with many of the nationwide networks of World Affairs Councils and an international network of journalists.

The World Affairs Councils of Kansas City, Denver, Colorado Springs, Western Massachusetts, Harrisburg and Tennessee have joined together to organize “COVID Complexities: A Global Town Hall,” an international virtual event set for September 2nd and 3rd.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2020

@ 7-8p ET/6-7p CT/5-6 MT

Panel One -- COVID-19: Impact in the Developing World

The opening night of the two-night program will begin with a scene-setting keynote from Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, U Penn Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and a former advisor for health policy in the Obama White House. That will kick off a deep dive into COVID-19 beyond America’s borders.

Through the eyes and reporters’ notebooks of journalists based around the world we’ll learn from: Yu Fen Tsao, Radio Free Asia’s Executive Director about “China, WHO and the Origins of the Pandemic”; Henry Flores, Regional Reporter Director for Unbound, an NGO that focuses on vulnerable communities on the situation in Latin America; Linord Moudou, VOA’s senior health reporter for Africa on COVID-19 in Africa; and Niusha Boghrati, Radio Farda RFE/RL Iranian Service Executive Editor on the situation in Iran.

The conversations will be aided by questions from our worldwide audience, consisting of nationwide World Affairs Council viewers, the general public, student groups and a virtual group tied in through our global network of partners.

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. [Register Below]

Topics for September 2, 2020:

1 – Japan: Abe Stands Down

2 – Russian Election Interference: Here We Go Again

3 - Turkish-Greek Face Off in the Eastern Med

TNWAC needs your support now more than ever. With a suggested donation of $100, you can help the Council continue to offer free and public programming to discuss global issues of critical importance to Americans’ security and prosperity. www.TNWAC.org/donate

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.

Join us as we talk with Prof. Thomas Schwartz, Distinguished Professor of History and Politics at Vanderbilt University

ABOUT THE BOOK

The definitive biography of Henry Kissinger―at least for those who neither revere nor revile him

Over the past six decades, Henry Kissinger has been America’s most consistently praised―and reviled―public figure. He was hailed as a “miracle worker” for his peacemaking in the Middle East, pursuit of détente with the Soviet Union, negotiation of an end to the Vietnam War, and secret plan to open the United States to China. He was assailed from the left and from the right for his indifference to human rights, complicity in the pointless sacrifice of American and Vietnamese lives, and reliance on deception and intrigue. Was he a brilliant master strategist―“the 20th century’s greatest 19th century statesman”―or a cold-blooded monster who eroded America’s moral standing for the sake of self-promotion?

In this masterfully researched biography, the renowned diplomatic historian Thomas Schwartz offers an authoritative, and fair-minded, answer to this question. While other biographers have engaged in hagiography or demonology, Schwartz takes a measured view of his subject. He recognizes Kissinger’s successes and acknowledges that Kissinger thought seriously and with great insight about the foreign policy issues of his time, while also recognizing his failures, his penchant for backbiting, and his reliance on ingratiating and fawning praise of the president as a source of power. Throughout, Schwartz stresses Kissinger’s artful invention of himself as a celebrity diplomat and his domination of the medium of television news. He also notes Kissinger’s sensitivity to domestic and partisan politics, complicating―and undermining―the image of the far-seeing statesman who stands above the squabbles of popular strife.

Rounded and textured, and rich with new insights into key dilemmas of American power, Henry Kissinger and American Power stands as an essential guide to a man whose legacy is as complex as the last sixty years of US history itself.

ABOUT PROFESSOR THOMAS SCHWARTZ, PHD

See his bio on TNWAC.org

TNWAC needs your support now more than ever. With a suggested donation of $100, you can help the Council continue to offer free and public programming to discuss global issues of critical importance to Americans’ security and prosperity.

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. [Register Below]

Topics for Sep 9, 2020

1 – UNGA

2 – China’s Military Power

3 – Brexit: Still

TNWAC needs your support now more than ever. With a suggested donation of $100, you can help the Council continue to offer free and public programming to discuss global issues of critical importance to Americans’ security and prosperity. www.TNWAC.org/donate

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.

TNWAC needs your support now more than ever. With a suggested donation of $100, you can help the Council continue to offer free and public programming to discuss critical global issues affecting Americans' security and prosperity. www.TNWAC.org/donate

Dr. Susan Haynes

Susan Turner Haynes is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Lipscomb University. Prior to her doctorate, Haynes was selected as a Public Policy and Nuclear Threat (PPNT) fellow at the University of California, San Diego. Haynes research specializes in Chinese nuclear strategy (Chinese Nuclear Proliferation: How Global Politics is Transforming China’s Weapons Modernization, 2016). In addition, Haynes has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Asian Perspectives, Asian Security, PS: Political Science and Politics, Strategic Studies Quarterly, The Nonproliferation Review, and Comparative Strategy.

Dr. Yang Zhong

Professor Zhong's is Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His main research interests include Chinese local government and politics, mass political culture in China, Sino-U.S. relations and relations between China and Taiwan. He has published two scholarly books and edited several others. He has published three scholarly books and edited several others. He has also published over 50 journal articles and book chapters. Some of his works have appeared in top political science journals such as The Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly and Comparative Political Studies. Dr. Zhong also serves as an External Research Associate at China Policy Institute of the University of Nottingham.

Mr. Jeremy Goldkorn

Jeremy Goldkorn is the founder and director of Danwei, a research firm which began life in 2003 as a website that translated and analyzed Chinese media, Internet, government regulation, and censorship. In 2009, shortly after Goldkorn opened a consulting business in Beijing to operate the website, it was blocked, and the company pivoted to providing media and market research services. The Financial Times acquired Danwei in 2013. Goldkorn is an affiliate of the Australian National University’s Centre on China in the World, and a co-editor of the China Story website and annual China Story Yearbook published by the Centre. He is is co-host of the Sinica podcast, and founder of Great Wall Fresh, a social enterprise to help Chinese peasant farmers run small tourism businesses catering to foreign outdoor enthusiasts.

Ms. Bonnie S. Glaser

Bonnie S. Glaser is a senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at CSIS, where she works on issues related to Asia-Pacific security with a focus on Chinese foreign and security policy. She is concomitantly a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. Ms. Glaser has worked for more than three decades at the intersection of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and U.S. policy. From 2008 to mid-2015, she was a senior adviser with the CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies, and from 2003 to 2008, she was a senior associate in the CSIS International Security Program. Prior to joining CSIS, she served as a consultant for various U.S. government offices, including the Departments of Defense and State.

Mr. John Scannapieco

John Scannapieco is head of the global business team at Baker Donelson.

Examining Critical Issues in the Global Pandemic

Thanks to sponsors: University of Harrisburg of Science and Technology and the Kansas University Medical Center

COVID-19 has touched every part of the world but its effects and the reaction of different countries has been uneven. In an interconnected world we need to understand the pandemic’s impact beyond our borders. Importantly, the progress toward a COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic treatments is a global pursuit. There are, as well, already no shortage of changes made and those to come in reaction to the global catastrophe – in our communities, technology, health and science, government performance, elections, the global economy and our lifestyles.

A group of World Affairs Councils – nationwide, independent, nonpartisan educational organizations – is joining together with an international network of journalists and specialists to organize conversations over the course of two evenings in early September. The goal is to help Americans understand the impact of the pandemic in an interactive program open to all.

We invite you to join this unique partnership to inform and inspire Americans to know more about COVID-19’s impact around the world, the race for a vaccine and how the vaccine has changed the world.

On September 2nd and 3rd journalists, physicians, researchers, NGO officials and others will come together to discuss the global impact of COVID-19 and the pursuit of a vaccine.

The program is brought to the public in partnership with many of the nationwide networks of World Affairs Councils and an international network of journalists.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020

@ 7-8p ET/6-7p CT/5-6 MT

Panel Two – COVID-19: Global Response and the Future

The second evening of the COVID-19 Global Town Hall will focus on the responses to COVID-19 including the global pursuit of a vaccine and therapeutic remedies with a conversation with Irina Lagunina, Senior Editor at Radio Svoboda, Radio Free Europe’s Russian service; what was America’s response in an international context with Dr. Sandy Johnson, Director of Global Health Affairs at the University of Denver; and how the pandemic has impacted efforts at peace and security in an already troubled world, with Susan Stigant of the U.S. Institute of Peace. Other invited panelists will be announced.

As with panel one, the Wednesday evening panel will feature a distinguished keynote speaker to focus the conversation and the participation of a nationwide audience in the United States and attendees from a global network.

COVID COMPLEXITIES – A GLOBAL TOWN HALL

A Collaboration among World Affairs Councils And An International Network of Journalists

Organized through a partnership of: World Affairs Councils of Kansas City, Denver, Harrisburg, Tennessee, Colorado Springs, Western Massachusetts and Kentucky & Southern Indiana

Part One - September 2, 2020

Examining Critical Issues in the Global Pandemic

COVID-19 has touched every part of the world but its effects and the reaction of different countries has been uneven. In an interconnected world we need to understand the pandemic’s impact beyond our borders. Importantly, the progress toward a COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic treatments is a global pursuit. There are, as well, already no shortage of changes made and those to come in reaction to the global catastrophe – in our communities, technology, health and science, government performance, elections, the global economy and our lifestyles.

A group of World Affairs Councils – nationwide, independent, nonpartisan educational organizations – is joining together with an international network of journalists and specialists to organize conversations over the course of two evenings in early September. The goal is to help Americans understand the impact of the pandemic in an interactive program open to all.

We invite you to join this unique partnership to inform and inspire Americans to know more about COVID-19’s impact around the world, the race for a vaccine and how the vaccine has changed the world.

On September 2nd and 3rd journalists, physicians, researchers, NGO officials and others will come together to discuss the global impact of COVID-19 and the pursuit of a vaccine.

The program is brought to the public in partnership with many of the nationwide networks of World Affairs Councils and an international network of journalists.

The World Affairs Councils of Kansas City, Denver, Colorado Springs, Western Massachusetts, Harrisburg and Tennessee have joined together to organize “COVID Complexities: A Global Town Hall,” an international virtual event set for September 2nd and 3rd.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2020

@ 7-8p ET/6-7p CT/5-6 MT

Panel One -- COVID-19: Impact in the Developing World

The opening night of the two-night program will begin with a scene-setting keynote from Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, U Penn Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and a former advisor for health policy in the Obama White House. That will kick off a deep dive into COVID-19 beyond America’s borders.

Through the eyes and reporters’ notebooks of journalists based around the world we’ll learn from: Yu Fen Tsao, Radio Free Asia’s Executive Director about “China, WHO and the Origins of the Pandemic”; Henry Flores, Regional Reporter Director for Unbound, an NGO that focuses on vulnerable communities on the situation in Latin America; Linord Moudou, VOA’s senior health reporter for Africa on COVID-19 in Africa; and Niusha Boghrati, Radio Farda RFE/RL Iranian Service Executive Editor on the situation in Iran.

The conversations will be aided by questions from our worldwide audience, consisting of nationwide World Affairs Council viewers, the general public, student groups and a virtual group tied in through our global network of partners.