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Starts: 12/13/2021 @ 12:00 pm
Ends: 12/13/2021 @ 1:00 pm

Online

Mr. Gedeon Werner, Novak Family Endowed Polish Chair at Quinnipiac University, will shed a light on the most recent dispute between Poland and European Union. This event is generously sponsored by Glenmeadow, Sir Speedy, and Wilbraham and Monson Academy.

Featured

Starts: 12/01/2021 @ 1:00 pm

On Wednesday, December 1 at 1:00 PM EST, The World Affairs Council will present an Instant Issues Online event on The State Department & Racial Equity featuring Desiree Cormier Smith, Senior Advisor in the Bureau of International Organizational Affairs, and Maryum Saifee, Senior Advisor in the Secretary of State's Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The program will be moderated by longtime member and friend of the Council, Western New England School of Law Professor Matthew Charity. This event is generously sponsored by Glenmeadow, Sir Speedy, and Wilbraham and Monson Academy.

Featured

Starts: 11/22/2021 @ 6:30 pm

Join us in celebrating our virtual 95th Annual Meeting with featured speaker Esam Boraey, Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Wesleyan University, on "From Egypt to the US: Lessons for Activists From the Arab Spring". Esam Boraey is a human rights activist working for freedom and democracy in the Middle East. He began his career as an activist over 10 ago when he and a group of 6 other youth leaders gathered on the steps of Egypt’s Supreme Court, calling for justice, freedom, and democracy, in the first direct protest against the president in over six decades. He played a key role in the Egyptian revolution of 2011, which helped overthrow Hosni Mubarak.

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Starts: 10/19/2021 @ 6:00 pm

The World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts and the Five College Center for East Asian Studies are pleased to present National Committee on U.S. China Relations (NCUSCR) CHINA Town Hall virtually on Tuesday, October 19. The local program will start at 6:00 PM EDT with Smith College Associate Professor of Government and NCUSCR Public Intellectuals Program Fellow Sara Newland on Taiwan and the future of US-China relations. At 7:00 PM EDT we will join the NCUSCR 's broadcast, featuring CNN host and best-selling author Fareed Zakaria on how the U.S.-China relationship affects our cities, towns, and communities. From supply chains to national security, new technologies to climate change, the future of both countries will be determined by their relations with one another and the global community. Zakaria will examine the challenges and opportunities for both countries as they confront the most critical issues of the 21st century.

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Starts: 10/02/2021 @ 10:00 am
Ends: 10/02/2021 @ 3:30 pm

Godwin College, East Hartford, CT

The World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts is pleased and proud to join the World Affairs Council of Connecticut in presenting Global Security Forum 2021 on October 1 & 2. The Global Security Forum brings the world's top leadership directly to the citizenry. Generals, experts, policymakers, and foreign leaders convene in Connecticut, a center for national defense, to address the most critical global security issues of today and the opportunities of tomorrow. Previous Global Security Forums have featured speakers including current Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, General Daniel Hokanson, 29 th Chief, National Guard Bureau, General David Petraeus, U.S. Army (Ret.), Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, nominee, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, Dr. Richard Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations, and more. GSF 2021 will be hosted virtually and in person to address the central theme: Competing for the future. GSF2021 will explore emerging technologies, evolving battlefronts, and shifting global power centers to address why nations must innovate to day in order to compete for tomorrow.

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Starts: 09/22/2021 @ 7:00 pm

The World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts and Springfield will co-present a virtual event titled "Sports Diplomacy in Western Massachusetts and Beyond," scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 22, starting at 7 p.m. The evening will feature Ryan Murphy, Program Officer in the Sports Diplomacy Division of the State Department. Since 2009, Murphy has been directly overseeing the International Sports Programming Initiative (ISPI) for the Sports Diplomacy Division of the State Department, the division’s annual sports grant competition portfolio. In addition, he also serves as a liaison with the United States Olympic Committee and National Governing Bodies of Sport. Mr. Murphy will be in in conversation with Ms. Irene Rotondo ’22, Editor-in-Chief of The Springfield Student and a Communications/Sports Journalism major.

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Starts: 09/09/2021 @ 2:00 pm

Dr. Katherine Brown, President and CEO of Global Ties US and author of "Your Country, Our War: The Press and Diplomacy in Afghanistan", will on Thursday, September 9 at 2:00 PM EDT on "Afghanistan: How to Keep Supporting Our Allies" via Zoom. The event is free and open to the public. Before joining Global Ties US--the largest and oldest citizen diplomacy network in the United States--in 2018, Dr. Brown was a Public Policy Manager at Facebook, Inc., where she was also in residence as a Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) International Affairs Fellow. From 2013-2016, she served as the Executive Director of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State, an office authorized by Congress to appraise and strengthen U.S. engagement activities with foreign citizens. Dr. Brown previously served in the U.S. government as an assistant to the National Security Advisor at the White House; as a communications advisor at the American Embassy in Kabul; and as a Professional Staff Member at the Committee on Foreign Affairs at the U.S. House of Representatives.

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Starts: 06/09/2021 @ 12:00 pm

Consul General of Mexico Alberto Fierro Garza will speak at an Instant Issues Online event on Mexico/US Today: Neighbors, Partners and Friends on Wednesday, June 9 at Noon (EDT). Consul General Fierro was previously the Minister for Culture and Education at the Mexican Embassy to the United States and Executive Director of the Mexican Cultural Institute. He has been a member of Mexico's Diplomatic Corps since 1993. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has served as Director General for Educational and Cultural Cooperation and Deputy Director General for North America. He was the Consul of Mexico in Orlando, FL and in St. Paul, MN. Early in his career he served as Deputy Cultural Attaché at the Mexican Embassy in Washington and as Cultural Attaché at the Mexican Embassy in Canada. If you have difficulty registering, try using a browser such as Chrome or a different device. If you do not have a PayPal account, you can click through when paying and check out with a regular credit card as a guest. Contact us if you continue to have trouble and we will get you registered. This event is generously sponsored by Glenmeadow, Sir Speedy, and Wilbraham and Monson Academy.