Starts: 05/04/2021 @ 2:00 pm

Dr. Peter Abbott, OBE, British Consul General to New England will speak to us on Tuesday, May 4 at 2:00 PM EDT on Global Britain and the UK-US Special Relationship. Dr Abbott has been a member of Her Majesty’s Diplomatic Service for 15 years. Before becoming British Consul General to New England in 2020, he served as Counsellor at the British High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, with operational oversight of the largest mission in the UK’s overseas diplomatic network. Deputy Consul Tom Nickalls will also take part in this presentation. This event is free.

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Starts: 04/15/2021 @ 12:00 pm
Ends: 04/15/2021 @ 1:00 pm

Western New England University School of Law Dean Sudha Setty will speak at a virtual event on National Security Priorities in Biden’s First 100 Days on Thursday, April 15, 2021 at Noon (EDT). Sudha Setty became Dean of the School of Law in 2018, and has served on the faculty since 2006. Dean Setty has taught courses in Constitutional Law, Law & Terrorism, National Security & Government Accountability, Contracts, and Business Organizations. She was a visiting scholar at the University of Cape Town Faculty of Law in 2018, a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law in 2014, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law in 2011. She was awarded Western New England Law School's Catherine J. Jones Professor of Year Award in 2009, 2016, and 2018, was recognized in 2015 as Trailblazer by the South Asian Bar Association of Connecticut, and received the 2017 Tapping Reeve Legal Educator Award from the Connecticut Bar Association. In July 2018, she was elected to membership in the American Law Institute.

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Starts: 03/24/2021 @ 7:30 pm

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Former CNN Asia Correspondent--and Northampton native--Mike Chinoy will speak to us at a virtual event on his new book Are You With Me?: Kevin Boyle and the Rise of the Human Rights Movement on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 at 7:30 PM. This event is presented in cooperation with the Western New England University School of Law. As a foreign correspondent for CNN for 24 years, Mike Chinoy won Emmy, Peabody and Dupont awards for his journalism. While he worked primarily in China and North Korea, he also reported on the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 80s. It was during this time that he met Kevin Boyle. Chinoy is currently a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute and is based in Hong Kong. His books include China Live: People, Power, and Television Revolution (1999), Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis (2008), and The Last POW (2014). Are You With Me? is currently available in Kindle format in the US with the paperback due to be released here on March 1. Generously sponsored by Glenmeadow and Wilbraham & Monson Academy.

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Starts: 02/10/2021 @ 12:00 pm
Ends: 02/10/2021 @ 1:00 pm

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Documentary photographer Winslow Martin will speak at an Instant Issues Online event on Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at noon ET on Behind the Soldier: A Journal of the War over Nagorno Karabakh. In Behind the Soldier Martin chronicles with words and pictures what he witnessed in Armenia, during its war against Azerbaijan. The war was fought over the long-disputed territories of Nagorno Karabakh. Martin stayed in the capital of Yerevan, realizing that everyone, everywhere was in the war. Armenia is a small country, so the battle front was always close to home. His photos of volunteers helping the cause, soldiers going and coming from war, refugees, street demonstrations, funerals, etc. combined with this commentary tell a compelling story about Armenia and life during war. (Pictured here: Volunteers prepare Yerevan’s Yerablur Cemetery for multiple burials a day.) Martin will be in conversation with longtime friend of the Council, Elizabeth Winship, former Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at Elms College and current Head Librarian at Wroclaw International School in Poland. The cost for this event is $10, free for students. Generously sponsored by Glenmeadow and Wilbraham & Monson Academy.

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Starts: 01/26/2021 @ 7:00 pm

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We're pleased to partner with the MS in Leadership and Negotiation at Bay Path University in presenting Dr. Daniel Shapiro at virtual presentation on Negotiating the Non Negotiables in the Arab-Israeli Conflict and Beyond on Tuesday, January 26, 2021 7:00 PM EST. Our world is awash in conflict–from the on-going Arab-Israeli conflict to the combusting mix of the pandemic, economic turmoil, and political divisiveness. Why are modern conflicts so difficult to resolve, and what can we do about it? Drawing on his work in the Middle East and elsewhere, Dr. Shapiro will present a framework he has developed to illuminate underlying psychological complexities fueling present-day conflict—and will offer insight on how to move forward. Dr. Daniel Shapiro is the founder and director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program. Dr. Shapiro teaches a highly evaluated course on negotiation at Harvard College; instructs psychology interns at Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital; and leads executive education sessions at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital. He has served on the faculty at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and at the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is author of Negotiating the Nonnegotiable, which Matthew Bishop of the Economist Group called, “Quite simply, the best book I have ever read on negotiating in situations of extreme conflict,” and is coauthor with Roger Fisher of Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate. Dr. Shapiro has launched successful conflict resolution initiatives in the Middle East, Europe, and East Asia and for three years chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Conflict Resolution. He developed a conflict management curriculum that has reached one million youth across more than 20 countries. He is recipient of numerous awards, including the American Psychological Association’s Early Career Award and the Cloke-Millen Peacemaker of the Year Award.

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

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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

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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.