The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum aims to broaden and deepen understanding of world affairs through small, interactive, professionally led sessions on international issues for a membership of informed individuals.
Next Program
Fulbright, Peace Corps and Higher Education: America’s Global Smart Power Under Assault, How Best to Respond
Wednesday, October 15, 2025 from 12:00 noon – 2 pm
Kevin Quigley
Kevin Quigley is former college president of Marlboro College where he led its merger with Emerson College. As president of the National Peace Corps Association, he led the national campaign resulting in the Peace Corps’ largest appropriation increase in history. He has been a three-time Fulbright Senior Specialist and a Fulbright Association board member and was the first executive director of the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities, where he pioneered a tri-sectoral partnership among global corporations, governments, and civil society organizations designed to improve global workplace conditions.
He is co-founding editor of Fulbright Chronicles, a global, independent, peer- reviewed journal by and for Fulbrighters (www.fulbright-chronicles.com); and with his wife, Susan Flaherty, founded the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation www.peacecorpscommemorative.org), now a Peace Corps community effort to build the Peace Corps Park near the National Mall as a testament to the historic and enduring importance of service and international understanding in the United States’ engagement with the world.
He has extensive teaching and publishing experience on international service, democratization, and higher education issues. Quigley has served on various university boards, including the New England Board of Education, American University of Nigeria, American University of Afghanistan, Parami University (Myanmar), and Swarthmore College. He has degrees from Georgetown University, Columbia University, University College Dublin, and Swarthmore College.
Registration: This SFWAF lunch is $26 for members and $36 for nonmembers. You may pay by check made out to SFWAF and mailed to The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum, Santa Fe, PO Box 31965, NM 87594 or with a credit card using our Paypal account. Please indicate on your check or if using Paypal please note in “add special instructions to the seller” that your payment is for the Thursday, October 16, 2025 program.
Members: if you have not yet paid your 2025-26 membership dues, you may include the $50 per person annual dues in your payment for this program, but please also note in special instructions that dues are included. Because we are a 501(c)(3) organization, dues and contributions are tax deductible in accordance with IRS regulations.
If you are not a member or plan to bring
ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM 2024
America’s Place in the World – Still Indispensable?
Cosponsored by the Santa Fe Community College
Thursday April 25 and Friday April 26, 2024
Jemez Room at Santa Fe Community College (SFCC)
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Is American influence waning? Is the United States stretched too thin? Or is the US still the world’s indispensable nation? Can it be both? If so, for how much longer? How stable – at home and abroad – is American democracy and US leadership? Or is it being irreparably eroded from within and without?
What can we do to address our deepest fears or are mountains being made out of mole hills? Is the threat of war expanding beyond the current conflicts that could draw in the US militarily real? Would an international provocation tip the delicate balance of the containment policy employed by the Biden administration? How would US policy, its effectiveness and the American image abroad change if a conservative Republican were elected to the White House in 2024? This year the Santa Fe World Affairs Forum will take a deep dive into the questions of American international influence as the global order rests on increasingly shaky pillars. Can the US still retain its democratic form of government and compete in this increasingly complex and troubled world? Is so how?
2023 SYMPOSIUM
Thursday April 13 and Friday April 14, 2023
When Ukraine Meets Russia Head-On
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, no one believed that a supposedly weak Ukraine could maintain its independence. As for Vladimir Putin, he expected to topple the Zelenskyy government in a matter of days—or less. And so, flagrantly violating the norms and laws that had promoted world peace and stability for 70 some years, a heavily armored column of Russian troops headed for Kiev. They never got there.
How could Putin have got it so wrong? Hubris, of course, but mostly miscalculation. Putin never expected to confront a brave and fervently patriotic population, a revamped military and the ingenuity and bravery of Ukraine’s civilian and military leadership. Nor did he anticipate a rejuvenation of NATO (Turkey and Hungary excepted) united in support of Ukraine, thus enabling a massive flow of Ukraine-bound weaponry from its arsenals. Or that his invasion would result in neutral Finland’s and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership.
It’s too early to predict the shape of a post-invasion Ukraine. Nor can we be certain that Russia will never again seek to roll back history by invading apparently weak neighbors. But one thing is certain. Putin and his army are being humiliated. He won’t get what he aimed for in Ukraine. Moreover, this conflict’s international ramifications – testing the foundations of the world order – are massive.
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