US politics | The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum

A 40 year view of institutional corruption in Central Asia and in US and International Assistance There

August 26, 2020

Nancy Lubin

You are invited to join our August 26 Webinar: “A 40 year view of institutional corruption in Central Asia and in US and International Assistance There” with Nancy Lubin, President, JNA Associates, Inc, a research and consulting firm on the former USSR, especially the Caucasus and Central Asia.

This talk will explore the challenges of US and international aid in addressing corruption — and deep-seated ‘institutional corruption’ – in all sectors in formerly Soviet Central Asia and within the US, European and international assistance communities themselves. Drawing from Lubin’s four decades of research, consulting and personal experience in this region, we will discuss the nature of ‘corruption’ in this part of the world; why some aid programs succeed; and why far too many assistance efforts have only exacerbated the very corruption they are committed to address and undermined their own objectives — not only because of the difficulties of working in this part of the world, but because of institutional factors that pervade the foreign assistance community itself.

This is the seventh in our summer series Summer with SFWAF: Hot Weather, Hot Topics. We have been offering two webinars a month normally held on a Wednesday from 11:00 am to 12:15 pm Mountain Time throughout summer 2020 on a variety of current international affairs topics of concern to SFWAF members and friends.

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.

If you are not a member but interested in membership, please email sfwaforum@outlook.com for additional information.

Because we are a 501(c)(3) organization, dues and contributions are tax deductible.

For pricing and reservations, click here: https://sfwaf.org/payment/

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A 40 year view of institutional corruption in Central Asia and in US and International Assistance ThereDeepak Maharjan2020-08-24T18:36:43-07:00

Our Woman in Havana: Past Experiences and Future Assessments

June 7, 2018

Vicki Huddleston

Miguel Díaz-Canel is the president of Cuba. For the first time in almost 60 years a Castro does not lead the country. Raul Castro, however, remains the first secretary of the Communist party and the power behind Díaz-Canel. What does this mean for the future of US-Cuban relations?

In her recent book Our Woman in Havana: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of America’s Long Struggle with Castro’s Cuba Vicki Huddleston, one of America’s top Cuba-hands and Chief of the US Interests Section in Havana from 2000-2002 who later served as Ambassador to Madagascar and Mali, discusses her experiences as America’s de facto Ambassador to the island nation during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W Bush and assesses the changes she has witnessed over the past 18 years in the island’s history, economics and politics as well as the continuing troubled relationships between Washington and this island only 90 miles off the US coast.

Ambassador Vicki Huddleston, a Santa Fe resident and SFWAF Board Member, is an American diplomat with lengthy expertise in foreign, defense, and development policy. She was a senior advisor to the Secretary of Defense and led American diplomatic missions in Mali, Madagascar, Cuba and Ethiopia. In Haiti she was Chief of Party for a USAID Value Chain project. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and as a Congressional Fellow worked on the staff of former Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM).

Vicki’s opinion pieces on Cuba, Mali, and Ethiopia have appeared in The New York Times, The Miami Herald, and The Washington Post. Before Our Woman in Havana, she co-authored Learning to Salsa – New Steps in Cuban Relations. She has recently spoken at the World Affairs Council-Washington, DC, the Miami Book Fair, DACOR-Washington, DC and the American Foreign Service Association. Autographed copies of her book are available at Collected Works, 202 Gallisteo Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501.

This program will be in the Santa Fe Community College Board Room (room #223).

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Our Woman in Havana: Past Experiences and Future AssessmentsDeepak Maharjan2019-05-01T14:20:25-07:00

Making the Hard Case for Soft Power: Advocacy, Citizen Diplomacy, and America’s Image Abroad

March 5, 2018

Sherry Mueller

Former Secretary of State Elihu Root called for citizens to take a concerted interest in international relations in his article entitled,” A Requisite for the Success of Popular Diplomacy,” published in the first issue of Foreign Affairs (September 1922). This article prompts reflection on essential questions affecting the U.S. image abroad.

Why do we as a society undersell soft power and magnify the benefits of hard power?
How do we more effectively advocate for Fulbright, the International Visitor Leadership Program, Peace Corps, and other programs that give individual citizens a chance to make a difference in our turbulent world?
How do we encourage Millennials to be more actively involved in citizen diplomacy and international exchange?

Sherry Lee Mueller, Ph.D., Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at the School of International Service (SIS), American University, Washington, D.C., teaches courses on cultural diplomacy. In 2017 she received an Excellence in Teaching Award as an adjunct professor from the School of International Service. Ms Mueller served as President of Global Ties U.S. (formerly NCIV) from 1996 to 2011. Prior to that she also held various leadership positions at the Institute of International Education (IIE).

Ms. Mueller has served as a speaker for the U.S. Department of State in Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Washington, D.C., giving lectures and conducting workshops on leadership development for nonprofit organizations. In 2014, Georgetown University Press published the second edition of her book Working World: Careers in International Education, Exchange, and Development. Ms. Mueller earned her M.A.L.D. and Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

This program will be in the Santa Fe Community College Board Room (room #223).

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Making the Hard Case for Soft Power: Advocacy, Citizen Diplomacy, and America’s Image AbroadDeepak Maharjan2019-05-01T14:20:25-07:00

Update on the Politics & Economics of Brexit

February 6, 2018

Christine Sauer and Kendra Koivu

The Brexit negotiations continue against the backdrop of changing political and economic landscapes in the UK and on the European continent. In their joint talk, UNM Professors Kendra Koivu (Political Science) and Christine Sauer (Economics) will provide an update on the status of the negotiations and discuss the possible implications of Brexit under different scenarios.

Christine Sauer is Professor of Economics and Associate Director of the International Studies Institute at the University of New Mexico. A native of Germany, she earned her Ph.D. in Economics from Brown University specializing in international macro and monetary economics. Scholarly work consists of a book, “Alternative Theories of Output, Unemployment, and Inflation in Germany” (1989) as well as refereed articles and conference presentations. Dr. Sauer is an award-winning teacher (2008-2009 Outstanding Teacher Award, 2011-2013 UNM Presidential Teaching Fellow) who has lectured and taught courses on the European Union to diverse audiences at UNM and elsewhere. She has also previously addressed the Santa Fe World Affairs Forum on the European Union and the EURO.

Kendra Koivu is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico. She received her doctorate from Northwestern University, where she studied comparative politics, qualitative methods, and international relations. Her substantive research interests include organized crime, narcotics trafficking, early twentieth century Eurasian politics, statebuilding, and political economy. Her work has been published in outlets such as Comparative Political Studies, Studies in Comparative International Development, and PS: Political Science and Politics. She is currently working on a book manuscript titled Consorting with Criminals: Smuggling and Statebuilding in the Interwar Period.

This spring/early summer, Professors Koivu and Sauer will co-lead an interdisciplinary study-abroad program for UNM undergraduates that focuses on the politics and economics of the European Union, “The EU at Sixty: What’s Nexit?”

This program will be in the Santa Fe Community College Board Room (room #223).

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Update on the Politics & Economics of BrexitDeepak Maharjan2019-05-01T14:20:25-07:00

Iran and North Korea: A Status Report

Sold Out!

December 4, 2017

Arvid Lundy and Cheryl Rofer

Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs have been much in the news lately, with continuing testing of missiles and, in North Korea’s case, a nuclear explosive. President Donald Trump has responded with threatening tweets, stoking fears of nuclear war. The two countries’ histories are very different, but both feel they have reason to fear the United States. One response is to develop nuclear weapons, deliverable by missile. Iran’s progress toward nuclear weapons was stopped by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, negotiated in 2015. North Korea currently moves ahead without restriction.

We’ll discuss the motivations of both countries, where they are now, the response from the United States, and what the future might bring.

Cheryl Rofer was a chemist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 35 years. She now writes scientific and political commentary for the web publications Nuclear Diner and Balloon Juice. She has over 9000 followers on Twitter. She regularly provides background information on nuclear topics to reporters and has been quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Vox. Her work at Los Alamos included projects in fossil fuels, laser development, and the nuclear fuel cycle. She is past president of the Los Alamos Committee on Arms Control and International Security and a founding member of SFWAF. She has published in scientific and political science journals and edited a book. She holds an A.B. from Ripon College and an M.S. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Arvid Lundy has extensive experience in nuclear export controls, nuclear proliferation intelligence, electronic instrumentation design, and clinical medical physics. Arvid spent thirty one years at Los Alamos National Laboratory as project engineer, group leader, and program manager. His career included over 100 foreign trips for the US government on nuclear issues, especially international nuclear export control.
This program will be in the Santa Fe Community College Board Room (room #223).

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Iran and North Korea: A Status ReportDeepak Maharjan2019-05-01T14:20:26-07:00

The Origins and Consequences of the “Reagan Doctrine” Wars in Angola, Central America and Afghanistan

November 13, 2017

Todd Greentree

There were three active fighting fronts during the final phase of the Cold War: Angola, Central America, and Afghanistan. Rather than mere small wars on the Third World periphery, these were complex civil wars and regional conflicts provoked and protracted by global superpower confrontation. They lasted for decades and casualties were in the millions. U.S. involvement began during the Ford Administration in Angola just four months after the fall of Saigon in April 1975, and continued in Central America and Afghanistan through the Carter and Reagan administrations. Vaguely remembered as proxy wars of dubious importance, these conflicts were in fact integral to the U.S. experience of limited war since World War II. They outlasted the Cold War itself, and, although little understood, their consequences persist today.

Todd Greentree is a Research Associate with the Changing Character of War Centre at Oxford University. A former U.S. Foreign Service Officer, he has served in five wars, from El Salvador in the early 1980s through Afghanistan in 2012. Recently, he has conducted programs with the U.S. Center for Civil-Military Relations in Chile, Honduras, and Colombia. Dr. Greentree was a professor of Strategy and Policy at the Naval War College, a Visiting Scholar in the Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS, and taught foreign policy at the University of New Mexico. The author of numerous publications, he is currently writing a book about the “Reagan Doctrine” Wars.

Todd and his wife Marjolaine, a senior humanitarian official formerly with the International Red Cross (ICRC) and United Nations, recently moved back to Santa Fe after a two-year sojourn in Monterey, California.

This program will be in the Santa Fe Community College Board Room (room #223).

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The Origins and Consequences of the “Reagan Doctrine” Wars in Angola, Central America and AfghanistanDeepak Maharjan2019-05-01T14:20:26-07:00