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You are invited to join our September 2 Webinar: Turkish Politics at the Crossroads:  Growing Democracy in Illiberal Soil with Gary Grossman, Founding Associate Director of Academic Programs and Associate Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University.

The Republic of Turkey has been one of the most dynamic countries in the world since it was established in 1923, founded with the explicit purpose for its emergence as a modern, secular democracy.  Over the past century, progress toward this goal has occurred in fits and starts, democratically elected governments overthrown by the Turkish military four times. This presentation explores Turkey’s prospects for democracy in the 21st century in the context of its current government, the longest-lasting regime in its history.

Dr. Gary M. Grossman is the Founding Associate Director of Academic Programs and Associate Professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University. He is also currently a Visiting Scientist with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. He offers more than three decades of experience in the management of political, social, and technological development projects around the world with a particular focus on Turkey and Eurasia and was a Fulbright research scholar at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara.

This is the eighth and final webinar in our summer series Summer with SFWAF: Hot Weather, Hot Topics. We have offered two webinars a month held on Wednesday mornings from May 20 – September 2, 2020 for members and friends on a variety of current international affairs topics with foreign affairs experts in Washington, DC, New Mexico and Arizona. A list of our webinar speakers will be on our website sfwaf.org. Speaker bios are on the Speakers webpage. On September 16, 2020 we begin a three part 2020 election webinar series for SFWAF and LWV New Mexico members in conjunction with the League of Women Voters of Santa Fe County.

We are using the Zoom Webinar Format for this and our other programs. If you are interested in this program, please email sfwaforum@outlook.com for additional information.

Welcome! You are invited to join our August 12 webinar: “Israel-Palestine: Are prospects for a two-state solution dead?” with Ellen Laipson, Director of the International Security program at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

This talk will address current developments and dynamics in the long saga and search for Arab-Israeli peace. While Israel improves its ties to major Arab states, the prospects for a successful resolution of the “Palestine question” remain low. We will discuss Israeli and Palestinian politics, the Trump Administration’s peace plan, and complicated debates over settlements, annexation, and questions of international law.

Welcome! You are invited to join our July 29 webinar: “A Zero-Based Foreign Policy?” with US Ambassador (rtd) Robert Hunter.

Following the election in November, we will either continue with more of the same or have in January a new administration committed to doing things “differently” in foreign policy. For some of Biden’s advisors who speak in public, that means recapturing some of the practices that Trump has abandoned, notably a commitment to “liberal internationalism,” institutions, US “leadership,” solid relations with allies, and the like. But with the pandemic and its aftermath the United States (as well as others, of course) will find itself having to rethink and recalibrate at least some important aspects of its foreign policy. The Trump team – unless changed radically – has proven incapable of dealing with even this part of the agenda; but will Biden choose people able to do meet the daunting tasks either?

Perhaps this is a time when we should consider a “zero-based foreign policy,” starting with “things that we have to do for our security and well-being” that include guarding against “things that go bump in the night,” a foreign policy that pays more attention to our domestic situation than previously and one that includes a team capable of the strategic analysis needed to understand what is important to us and what is not and a foreign policy that ultimately faces the difficult, long term questions about America’s future role in the world.

Ambassador Robert Hunter served in the LBJ White House (education) at the time of the Great Society; was Ted Kennedy’s first foreign policy advisor; and was lead official on Europe and the Middle East on the Carter NSC staff. He was US ambassador to NATO (1993-1998) and was a principal architect and the lead negotiator of the post-Cold War transformation of NATO. He served on the Defense Policy Board and State’s International Security Advisory Board. He has taught at 5 universities; written 1200+ publications; taken part in 8 presidential campaigns; and written speeches for more serious candidates for president (12) than anyone else in US history. BA: Wesleyan University; PhD, London School of Economics.