The Institute of World Politics

About the lecture:

Brandon Weichert will discuss how sanctions against Russia have exacerbated the decline of the European Union and how it has hit places like Poland the hardest. He will review the unintended consequences of sanctions and whether or not sanctions were the best U.S. policy towards Russia after Ukraine in 2014.

About the speaker:

Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and the founder of The Weichert Report. His book on national security space policy will be released shortly. Brandon holds a B.A. in Political Science from DePaul University and is an Associate Member of New College at Oxford University (GDBM!). Recently, Brandon obtained his M.A. in Statecraft and National Security Affairs with a Specialization in Defense Policy from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.

On top of being a contributor to the conservative publication, American Greatness, Brandon does speaking engagements, presents papers, and conducts media interviews. He has been featured on BBC World News World Update with Dan Damon, he has been interviewed by The Christian Science Monitor, he has appeared on The Dino Report with Dino Costa, and he has been featured on the Seth & Chris Show offering his expertise as a national security and foreign policy specialist.

ABOUT THE LECTURE:

Amb. Alberto Piedra will give his thoughts on his personal relationship with Fidel Castro prior to and during the first three months of his revolutionary government (1959) as Director General of Exports and Imports at the Ministry of Commerce in Havana.

ABOUT THIS SPEAKER

Amb. Alberto Piedra is the Donald E. Bently Professor of Political Economy at The Institute of World Politics, where he teaches courses on political and economic freedom and on Western moral tradition. He formerly served as U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala, U.S. Representative to the Economic and Economic and Social Council of the Organization of American States, and Senior Advisor at the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs at the Department of State. He has also served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations as the Senior Area Advisor for Latin America.

His academic career has included posts as the Director for the Latin American Institute and as the Chairman of the Department of Economics and Buisness at at the Catholic University of America.

Nikolas Gvosdev is Professor of National Security Affairs, holding the Captain Jerome E. Levy Chair in Economic Geography and National Security at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He also serves as a Senior Fellow for the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Eurasia Program and Program on National Security.

He was formerly the Editor of The National Interest magazine and a Senior Fellow at The Nixon Center in Washington, D.C. Gvosdev received his doctorate from St Antony's College, Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes Scholarship. A frequent commentator on Russian and Eurasian affairs, his work has appeared in such outlets as Foreign Affairs, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Orbis, and he has appeared as a commentator on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and BBC. He is the co-author of US Foreign Policy and Defense Strategy: The Rise of an Incidental Superpower, and the co-author of Russian Foreign Policy: Vectors, Sectors and Interests.

About the Lecture:

The authority of the President in national security affairs is a long-contested issue. Join us for a discussion on the parallels of this debate between this and past eras. Mr. Thomas Wilson will provide a peek into the internal dynamics of the Iran-Contra investigation, which will include an examination of the political and legal issues involved, noting the constitutional issues raised and contested. Mr. Wilson's central role in a political and legal drama that lasted well into the 1990's makes him uniquely well placed to discuss the investigation.

About the Speaker:

Mr. Thomas Wilson has led a varied and high profile career. After graduating with a BA in history from Georgetown University, he went on to pursue a law degree from Georgetown Law School. Upon graduation, rather than going into legal practice, he decided to join the US Army, serving in the 6th Special Forces Group (Airborne), in the United States from 1967 to 1968, and in the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in the Republic of Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantryman's Badge, and Parachute Wings (from the United States, Israel, and the Republic of Vietnam).

After military service, he pursued an MBA from Columbia University before going into legal practice. His legal career spanned more than 40 years and included representing clients such as CIA Costa Rica Station Chief Jose Fernandez in the Iran-Contra affair; the Assistant to President George H. W. Bush in an Independent Counsel investigation into the 1992 search of then Presidential candidate Bill Clinton's passport file; a client investigated for making allegedly illegal campaign contributions to the 1996 Clinton/Gore re-election campaign; the former Director of MKULTRA, the CIA's Cold War drug testing program; as well as a major private security firm in a very sensitive, high-profile investigation sited in Baghdad, Iraq. Mr. Wilson has been lead counsel on a host of matters before numerous appellate tribunals, including most United States Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. Until his retirement in 2013, he served as of counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe, L.L.P., where he practiced general litigation with specialties in complex civil, administrative and white-collar criminal litigation.

April 6, 2017, marks the hundred year anniversary of the US declaration of war on Germany. Following more than two and a half years of neutrality, the United States mobilized for war on a scale the nation had never before seen. More than two million Americans were to serve in the US armed forces during World War I. Once American combat power arrived in Europe, it tipped the military balance against Germany, frustrating Germany’s Spring Offensive of 1918 and resulting ultimately in the German surrender of November of that year.

In commemoration of the centennial of America’s entry into World War I, the Institute of World Politics and the Center for Military and Diplomatic History are hosting three of the world’s leading historians of the war: Michael S. Neiberg, Edward Lengel, and John H. Maurer.

MICHAEL S. NEIBERG is the inaugural Chair of War Studies in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the United States Army War College. His published work specializes on the First and Second World Wars, notably the American and French experiences. His most recent book on the First World War is Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I(Harvard University Press, 2011). The Wall Street Journal recently named it one of the five best books ever written about the war. In October, 2012 Basic Books published his The Blood of Free Men, a history of the liberation of Paris in 1944. In May, 2015 Basic published his Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe. In October, Oxford University Press published his Path to War, a history of American responses to the Great War, 1914-1917.

EDWARD LENGEL is Chief Historian of the White House Historical Association, located in historic Decatur House on Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. Before beginning work there in the fall of 2016, he directed the Washington Papers project for many years. A military historian, he is the author of several books, including General George Washington: A Military Life; To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918; First Entrepreneur: How George Washington Built His-and the Nation's-Prosperity; and the Army Historical Foundation award-winning Thunder and Flames: Americans in the Crucible of Combat, 1917-1918. He is also a regular contributor to magazines including Military History and Military History Quarterly, and appears often on television and radio including NPR and the History Channel.

JOHN H. MAURER is the Alfred Thayer Mahan Professor of Sea Power and Grand Strategy at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He is a graduate of Yale University and holds an M.A.L.D. and Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He is the author or editor of books examining the outbreak of the First World War, military interventions in the developing world, naval rivalries and arms control between the two world wars, and a study about Winston Churchill's views on British foreign policy and grand strategy. He also serves as a senior research fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, on the Editorial Board of Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs, and Associate Editor of Diplomacy and Statecraft. In recognition for his service and contribution to professional military education, he has received both the U.S. Navy's Meritorious Civilian Service Award and Superior Civilian Service Award.

JOHN J. TIERNEY, JR. is the Walter Kohler Professor of International Relations at the Institute of World Politics. He was the Special Assistant and Foreign Affairs Officer, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency from 1981-1993. He has served as Executive Director of the Congressional Caucus on National Defense and the National Security Research Group, U.S. House of Representatives; Chairman, Politics Department, Catholic University; and Professor of International Relations, University of Virginia and The Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz will discuss the recent protests against President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.

Marek Chodakiewicz is a Professor of History at The Institute of World Politics and the holder of the Kosciuszko Chair in Polish Studies.

Dr. Chodakiewicz writes weekly columns for popular Polish press and contributes to the SELOUS Foundation internet hub. He has also published on foreign policy in various venues, including The Journal of World Affairs, American Spectator, and National Review Online.

In addition to numerous popular and scholarly articles, Dr. Chodakiewicz authored, co-authored, edited, and co-edited over fifteen scholarly monographs and documentary collections. His latest include Intermarium: The Land Between the Black and Baltic Seas (2012), which is a depiction of the Eastern Borderlands of the West on the rim of the former Soviet Union, and On the Right and Left (2013), which is a textbook of intellectual history of modern ideologies.

His interests include the post-Soviet zone, the Second World War and its aftermath, Europe in the 19th and 20th century, Western civilization and its intellectual tradition, extremist movements in history, conspiracy theory and practice, and comparative civilizations.

About the lecture

Retired senior CIA Scientific Intelligence Officer Gene Poteat will discuss women in espionage, with a focus on American women spies.

About the speaker

S. Eugene (Gene) Poteat is a retired senior CIA Scientific Intelligence Officer, and has served as President of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). He was educated as an electrical engineer and physicist. He holds a Masters in Statecraft and National Security Affairs from IWP. His career in intelligence included work with U-2 and SR-71 class of aircraft and various space and naval reconnaissance systems. He also managed the CIA's worldwide network of monitoring sites. He holds patents on covert communications techniques. His CIA assignments included the Directorate of Science and Technology, the National Reconnaissance Office, Technical Director of the Navy's Special Programs Office and Executive Director of the Intelligence Research and Development Council. He served abroad in London, Scandinavia, the Middle East and Asia. He received the CIA's Medal of Merit and the National Reconnaissance Office's Meritorious Civilian Award for his technological innovations.

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