Starts: 12/09/2020 @ 4:00 pm
Ends: 12/09/2020 @ 5:00 pm

The US Department of State Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Deputy Director for Venezuelan Affairs Marlaina R. Casey, will address community members of the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts on December 9 at 4:00 PM EST. Ms. Casey will provide insight into the ongoing situation in Venezuela and US foreign policy in the region. Marlaina Casey has worked for the State Department since 2007 in various capacities including as Director of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Migration and Security Advisor for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; Strategic Communications Officer for Mexico and Canada; Deputy Political Chief and Deputy Consular Chief in Amman, Jordan; Desk Officer for Rwanda and Burundi; and Special Assistant to the U.S. Special Envoy to Africa’s Great Lakes Region. Ms. Casey obtained her MPA and BA from the University of Delaware and studied Spanish at the University of Modern Languages in Granada, Spain. The cost for this event is $5, free for students. Generously sponsored by Glenmeadow and Wilbraham & Monson Academy

Starts: 11/12/2020 @ 6:30 pm

Online

Members of the Council who attended the World Affairs Councils of America National Conference in 2018 may remember we hosted Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, US Representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government, at our table during the Ambassadors Luncheon. (She is pictured here with board member John Perez, Sr.) We are pleased to welcome her to speak to us on "US and Kurdistan Region, Iraq: A Growing Partnership" at a virtual event on Thursday, November 12 at 6:30 PM. Key to her role are strengthening ties between Kurdistan and the United States, advocating her government’s position on a wide array of political, security, humanitarian, economic, and cultural matters and promoting coordination and partnership. Prior to her US appointment in 2015, Ms. Abdul Rahman was the High Representative to the United Kingdom. She was elected to the Leadership Council of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 2010. The event is free, but we hope you will consider making a donation to support the work of the Council. (The program can also be viewed on Facebook Live and a video will be available afterwards.) This program is generously sponsored by Bacon\Wilson PC

Starts: 10/27/2020 @ 12:15 pm

Online

BBC Correspondent Andrew Harding will speak about the rivalry between the United States and China for influence in Africa as well as his new book, These Are Not Gentle People: Two murders. Forty suspects. The trial that broke a small South African town to be published in audio and ebook formats in the US October 1. Andrew Harding is a British journalist and author. He has been living and working abroad as a foreign correspondent for the past 30 years. Since 1994 he has been working for BBC News. He began his career in Moscow in 1991 as a freelancer, working for IRN, NBC Radio, Monitor Radio, FSN, The Evening Standard and later for The Guardian and The Economist. Since then he has lived in Tbilisi, Nairobi, Singapore, Bangkok, and for the past 12 years in Johannesburg. Andrew has covered many International events, from the end of the Soviet Union and Russia's parliamentary rebellion to the Asian tsunami and west Africa's Ebola outbreak. By accident, rather than design, much of his work has been in conflict zones - in Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Abkhazia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Burma, Darfur, DR Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali, South Sudan, Cote D'Ivoire, CAR, Burundi, Uganda, Libya and elsewhere. Andrew has been living in South Africa since 2009. He reported on the Oscar Pistorius trial in Pretoria. It was partly that experience that prompted him to search for another murder case, that might dig deeper under the skin of modern South Africa. Early in 2016 he read about an incident in the Free State and decided to investigate. The result, four years later, was his new book, These Are Not Gentle People. A BBC Radio 4 series and podcast is in the works.

Starts: 06/30/2020 @ 12:15 pm

We’re pleased to welcome back Dr. Javier Corrales, Dwight W. Morrow 1895 professor and chair of Political Science at Amherst College, for an Instant Issues Online event on Why Populism is the Sugar Salt Fat in Our Politics: Examples from the US, Europe, and Latin America on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 at 12:15 PM. The event is free, but you must register online. Javier Corrales's research focuses on democratization, presidential powers, democratic backsliding, political economy of development, ruling parties, the incumbent's advantage, foreign policies, and sexuality. He has published extensively on Latin America and the Caribbean. His latest book, Fixing Democracy: Why Constitutional Change Often Fails to Enhance Democracy in Latin America, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018. He is the co-author with Michael Penfold of Dragon in the Tropics: Venezuela and the Legacy of Hugo Chávez (Brookings Institution Press, 2015), now in its second edition; with Daniel Altschuler, The Promise of Participation: Experiments in Participatory Governance in Honduras and Guatemala (Palgrave/Macmillan 2013), and with Carlos A. Romero, U.S.-Venezuela Relations since the 1990s: Coping with Midlevel Security Threats (Routledge, 2013). He is also the co-editor with Mario Pecheny of The Politics of Sexuality in Latin America: A Reader on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010), and author of Presidents Without Parties: the Politics of Economic Reform in Argentina and Venezuela in the 1990s (Penn State University Press, 2002). He is a frequent and popular speaker at the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts as well as other Councils throughout the WACA network. The Instant Issues series is generously sponsored by Glenmeadow Greenfield Savings Bank Wilbraham & Monson Academy & Sir Speedy Special thanks to Consilium Opis.

Starts: 06/24/2020 @ 12:15 pm

Attorney Mahsa Khanbabai will return for an Instant Issues Online event Thursday, June 24 from 12:15-1:00 PM on "Can the Coronavirus Cure a Broken Immigration System?" This event is free but you must register online. Attorney Mahsa Khanbabai has dedicated her legal career to immigration and naturalization issues, representing individual, nonprofit, educational and business clients. She assists clients with employment visas, family petitions, and citizenship applications, as well as other immigration related matters. A significant part of her practice is devoted to assisting foreign dental students, international medical graduates with J-1 Waiver issues, as well as other employment related work visa matters. She has been an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association for over 20 years and currently serves as the Chair of the New England Chapter and is a member of the AILA Department of State liaison Committee. In her capacity as member of the Congressional Liaison committee she has worked closely with congressional offices to advise on legislative policy and as a CBP Liaison worked with CBP officials on issues related to visa entry at airport and border posts. Attorney Khanbabai is an active member of the International Medical Graduate Taskforce, an association of immigration attorneys specializing in physician related immigration. The Instant Issues series is generously sponsored by Glenmeadow Greenfield Savings Bank Wilbraham & Monson Academy & Sir Speedy Special thanks to Consilium Opis.

Starts: 05/28/2020 @ 1:00 pm
Ends: 05/28/2020 @ 1:30 pm

Journalist Lisa Napoli will speak at an Instant Issues Online event Thursday, May 28 from 1:00-1:30 PM on her new book Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News. This event is free. Registration and instructions on how to connect to the Zoom call will come soon, but please get this on your calendar. In over three decades as a journalist, Lisa Napoli covered presidential campaigns, a hostage standoff, an outdoor hacker convention and the culture of technology, all at a wide variety of news outlets (some which no longer exist) including the New York Times CyberTimes , MSNBC , and the public radio show Marketplace . For five years, she also covered arts and culture at KCRW . Her first book, Radio Shangri-La , is about the impact of media culture on the Kingdom of Bhutan, where she was invited to help start a radio station at the dawn of democratic rule. Ray & Joan is about the late philanthropist Joan Kroc and her husband, the founding chairman of the McDonald’s corporation. Lisa is the founding board president of the Bhutan Media Service, an all-volunteer news outlet created by Bhutanese refugees in diaspora . The Instant Issues series is generously sponsored by Glenmeadow Greenfield Savings Bank Wilbraham & Monson Academy Sir Speedy

Starts: 05/11/2020 @ 12:30 pm

We will be presenting our first Instant Issues Online event this Monday, May 11, 2020 from 12:30 to 1:00 PM. Our speaker will be financial advisor Charlie Epstein on The Coronavirus Playbook - Where Do We Go From Here. This is event is free, but you must register online to participate. Charlie Epstein founded Epstein Financial Services in 1981. As The 401k Coach he has been recognized nationally as one of the industry’s most influential individuals. Charlie established the Family Business Center in Amherst. He has appeared on Fox Business and many local media outlets. The Instant Issues series is generously sponsored by Glenmeadow Greenfield Savings Bank Wilbraham & Monson Academy & Sir Speedy Special thanks to John Perez, Principal Consilium Opis for hosting this event

Featured

Starts: 03/03/2020 @ 12:00 am

3rd Floor Community Room, 1350 Main Street, Springfield, MA 01101

Dr.Vincent Ferraro, Professor of Politics, Emeritus at Mount Holyoke College, will speak at an Instant Issues brown bag lunchtime discussion series event on America and the Middle East: Will the Wars Ever End? on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 in the 3rd Floor Community Room of the MassLive Building at 1350 Main Street, in downtown Springfield. The RSVP deadline is Friday, February 28. For more information and to register online with a credit card, please click the button below. A longtime member and friend of the Council and frequent speaker, Vinnie Ferraro taught at Mount Holyoke for 40 years before retiring in 2016. His studies specializes in International Relations and American Foreign Policy; focusing in the areas of global poverty, third world development, and global development. The Instant Issues series is generously sponsored by Glenmeadow, Greenfield Savings Bank, Wilbraham & Monson Academy & Sir Speedy. Special thanks to NAI Plotkin and 1350 Main Street, LLC.