John Zogby currently sits as Chairman of the Board and Chief Insights Officer of IBOPE Zogby International (IZI). He was formerly founder, President, and CEO of Zogby International. In 2008, Zogby authored The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream. His analytical expertise has also been published on the opinion pages of The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Christian Science Monitor, and many others. He is a founding co... [Read more...→]

About the Ambassador:

François Delattre was appointed Ambassador of France to the United States in February 2011 after serving as Ambassador of France to Canada (2008-2011), Consul General in New York (2004-2008) and Press and Communications Director at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. (1998-2002). A member of President Jacques Chirac's foreign policy team (1995-1998), François Delattre was responsible for European and trans-Atlantic defense and security matters and managing the B... [Read more...→]

Robert Powell is responsible for the Economist Intelligence Unit's political and economic research in the Middle East. He has been a member of the Middle East analysis team since May 2001. A graduate of Trinity College in Dublin, Mr. Powell has a background in international history and the news, reporting regularly on politics and economics in the Middle East. He has traveled extensively across the region, including Israel, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. He also has extensive ... [Read more...→]

Dr. Wawro will also be selling and signing copies of his book, Quicksand: America's Pursuit of Power in the Middle East.

Dr. Geoffrey Wawro is the General Olinto Mark Barsanti Professor of Military History and Director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas in the Dallas Metroplex. From 2000-2005 he was Professor of Strategic Studies at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. A Modern European historian by training, Dr.... [Read more...→]

Is your company considering international expansion? Join us on June 28 to hear speakers from the Irish government and experts in Irish law, taxation and company set-up on how to use Ireland as your springboard into Europe, EMEA, and Asia.

Program Speakers: Harry Harrison (Irish Tax Desk, PricewaterhouseCooper); Seamus Carrol (Vice President of Emerging Business, IDA Ireland); Dennis Agnew (Corporate Partner, Bryne Wallace); and Andrew Ryan (Finance Director, IFG Managed Services, L... [Read more...→]

Over the past century there have been numerous successful espionage and military deception operations, but only a handful have been truly imaginative ploys. We will discuss some of the cleverer ops since 1914 up until the present -- schemes and deceptions conducted by the Russians, the British, Americans and Israelis. From the CHEKA's brilliant Trust operation of the early 1920s against the West, several WW II ploys, to the CIA's clandestine exfiltration of five American diplomats from revolu... [Read more...→]

During Ramadan 2010, Islam's holy month of fasting and reflection, New Yorkers Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq took a roadtrip across America, stopping each evening to break their fasts at a different mosque in a different state. The two drove over 13,000 miles during the trip and blogged about it daily on their site, www.30mosques.com. During the trip they prayed inside the infamous "Ground Zero Mosque" in Manhattan, got pulled over by a cop in Mississippi, and visited the first mosque ever built ... [Read more...→]

Raymond Gilpin directs the economics and conflict center at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington DC. He leads the Institute's work on analyzing relationships among economic actors during all stages of conflict (including prevention, mediation, resolution and post-conflict). In doing so, he collates sound practices from practitioners and experts, and designs appropriate capacity-building tools for conflict environments. He also teaches the economics and conflict course at the U... [Read more...→]

Featured speakers of the "China: Boom or Bubble?" are Steve Dunway, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council in Foreign Relations ("Why China May Falter"); John Rogers, Founder of Transforming Asia-North America ("China and Go-Aheadism; the ~ism That Works"); and Qin Haijing, First Secretary Economic Affairs Officer and Senior Foreign Exchange Advisor.
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WAC Announces the Winter 2011, Global Issues Forum featuring Ambassador Matthew Barzun, Somalia Pirates expert-Dr. Raymond Gilpin, and 30 Mosques in 30 Days bloggers, Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq.

Jan 7, 2011: Amb. Matthew Borzun, U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden: "Diplomacy in the 21st Century: A View from Stockholm and Louisville"
Feb 3, 2011: Dr. Raymond Gi... [Read more...→]

Matthew W. Barzun was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 7, and sworn in on August 12, 2009 as U.S. Ambassador to Sweden. Ambassador Barzun is an internet pioneer who was the fourth employee at CNET Networks, where he worked from 1993-2004. Ambassador Barzun served in a number of roles at CNET, including Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy officer, and member of the executive committee.

During his time there, he launched Download.Com, which grew to become CNET’s bigges... [Read more...→]

The Global Visionaries award celebrates emerging leaders (ages 40 and under) throughout Kentucky and Southern Indiana who have exhibited leadership, vision and interest in the area of international affairs. Twenty-five emerging leaders will be selected in honor of the 25th Anniversary of the World Affairs Council of Kentucky and Southern Indiana (WAC).

Professor Alexander’s teaching, research, and speaking activities encompass terrorism, security, and legal issues. His professional experience includes: Director, International Business Development, Grant Thornton (Chile); In-House Counsel, Heron International (U.K.) and Bezeq Globe (Israel); Executive Director, The NAFTA Research Institute (U.S.); and Financial Advisor, UBS Financial Services (U.S.). He worked as a consultant to the State Department, World Bank, Organization of American St... [Read more...→]

About the Consul General: Born and raised in Italy, Dr. Marco Nobili is a graduate of the University of Venice and University of Trieste. He entered the diplomatic career in 1999 and pursued his diplomatic training while assigned at the General Directorate for European Affairs of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2001, he was posted at the Italian Embassy in Khartoum ( Sudan) as Second Secretary for Economic Affairs. In June 2003, he officially assumed the head of the Consulate ... [Read more...→]

Ambassador John Limbert is currently a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs while on leave from a professorship at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Prior to his retirement from the Foreign Service in 2006, Ambassador Limbert served as the Dean of Language Studies at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center.

A Senior Foreign Service Officer, Ambassador Limbert served as President of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) from ... [Read more...→]

Author of Great Negotiations: Agreements that Changed the Modern World, Fredrik Stanton is the former president and publisher of the Columbia Daily Spectator, which is the seventh largest English-speaking daily newspaper in New York City. He has also written for the Boston Herald and the United Nations Association’s A Global Agenda.

Mr. Stanton has served as an election monitor in Armenia, Republic of Georgia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Azerbaijan.

Mr. Stanton received a BA in Political... [Read more...→]

In the summer of 2007, Jere Van Dyk, a journalist working for CBS News, signed a contract with Times Books to write a book about the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. In February 2008, six years after Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped by militants and beheaded, Van Dyk became the second American journalist to be kidnapped in Pakistan. CAPTIVE: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban (Times Books/Henry Holt and Company; on sale: June 22, 2010) is not the book Van Dyk... [Read more...→]

Sep 15, 2010 - Jere Van Dyk, author and journalist: "Captive: My Time as a Prisoner of the Taliban"
Oct 13, 2010 - Ambassador John Limbert, Senior Foreign Services Officer: "America and Iran: Breaking the 30 Year Rules"
Nov 18, 2010 - Dean Alexander, National Security Expert: "Al-Qaeda Inspired Terrorists on U.S. Soil"

Hosted by the U of L Women's and Gender Studies Department, this event is a unique opportunity to meet Valentine Kalende, a journalist from Kampala, Uganda. Throughout Kalende's life, she has been continually interested in creating social change. Her career has led her to specialize in LGBT community work and advocacy for the last seven years. Along the way, she has been arrested, thrown out of houses by landlords, harassed by angry mobs, denied by family, excommunicated from church and disc... [Read more...→]

The World Affairs Council of Kentucky & Southern Indiana cordially invites our members and friends to join us in celebration of 25 Years of service to our community, when Mayor Jerry Abramson designates June 10, 2010 World Affairs Council Day!

The Mayor's declaration will be immediately followed by the next event in our Cultural Conversation Series with a delegation of Iraqi Leaders, including a mayor, two religious leaders, political communicators and public relations professionals - ... [Read more...→]

In September, 2008, Daniel Kutner assumed the position of Consul General of Israel to the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States, based in Philadelphia. He is the official representative of the State of Israel to the Mid Atlantic Region, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Kentucky, West Virginia and Southern New Jersey.

Prior to assuming his post as Consul General of Israel in Philadelphia, Mr. Kutner headed the Bureau for Economic and Strategic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreig... [Read more...→]

Born in Gonaives, Haiti, happily married and father of five children, Jacques Edouard Alexis went to school initially at Freres de L'Instruction Chretienne (Jesuit Brothers), then to Lycee Toussaint Louverture, Port-au-Prince. He later attended the State University of Haiti where he graduated Suma Cum Laude at the Faculty of Agronomy. Named Professor at his Alma Mater, he was quickly awarded a scholarship by ACDI (Canadian Agency for International Development) to attend Universite Laval, Queb... [Read more...→]