World Affairs Conversations

David Hyde, from the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), Gene Massamillo of KMA Zuckert, and Robbie Cowart of Gulfstream provide an overview on supersonic travel and other innovations in aviation which have changed and will change how we travel and experience the world.

Jonathan Hillman, Senior Fellow of the Simon Chair in Political Economy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Director of CSIS Reconnecting Asia Project, discusses China's $1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative. What is it? What are China's goals and objectives? What is the outlook? What are Implications for 'receipient' countries, and for the U.S?

Dr. Brian Ganaway of the College of Charleston, discusses how the collapse of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires over a hundred years ago impact our world today.

Charleston World Affairs Council member Al Thibault discusses the current U.S.-Saudi crisis. Over the past seventy-five years, few countries have been as central to U.S. foreign policy interests as Saudi Arabia. Despite ups and downs, few issues have been as threatening to this relationship as the fall-out from the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Repercussions, still unfolding, include the global price of oil, U.S. policy towards Iran, Turkey, Israel, and Persian Gulf countries, as well as the domestic direction of the Saudi regime.

Dr. Brian Gangway explains how World War I still shapes our world a hundred years after the guns fell silent.

Ambassador Deborah McCarthy, currently with the Academy of Diplomacy, discusses career options in Foreign Affairs.

Dr. Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, discusses the state of world democracy with Dr. Brian Norris, Professor of Political Science at the Citadel.

War in Georgia, Civil war in Ukraine, Crimea annexed, Military intervention in Syria, and cyber-hacking in the U.S. are all tied to Putin's Russia confronting U.S. policy and institutions.

Wayne Merry, Senior Fellow for Europe and and Eurasia at the American Foreign Policy Council discusses these issues in his presentation to the world Affairs Council of Charleston.