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.
Programs and Webinars
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
For information about attending this webinar please email: sfwaforum@outlook.com
APRIL 2021 WEBINAR SERIES
Democracy in the Time of Autocrats
To register for the 2025 Symposium, please email sfwaforum@outlook.com with names of registrants, days attending and whether paying by check to SFWAF and mailed to: The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum PO Box 31965, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87594. Or to by Paypal or credit card through our website at https://sfwaf.org/payment
April 10-11, 2025
Speakers
Gary A Grappo, US Ambassador (rtd) and currently Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Middle East Studies at the Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver; CEO of Equilibrium Consulting.
Siegfried Hecker, former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and current professor of practice at Texas A&M University and at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA;
Dr. Manuel Montoya, PhD, Associate Professor, University of New Mexico, Department of Economics. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he has delivered over 100 lectures on emerging markets and global conflict worldwide and is a recent recipient of UNM’s Presidential Teaching Fellowship, the university’s highest honor. He has also developed Vessels and Voids, a podcast, which he discusses the link between popular culture and development of global society.
Dr. Jody K Olsen, former Director and Deputy Director of the US Peace Corps and Peace Corps staff member and volunteer who currently co-chairs Women of Peace Corps Committee, chairs the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation Park Advisory Committee and a member of the Maryland Governor’s Commission for Service and Volunteerism. Dr Olsen has also authored A Million Miles: My Peace Corps Journey which was published earlier this year.
Eric Rubin, US Ambassador (rtd) to Bulgaria and former president of the American Foreign Service Association; Summary
We live in stormy times. The heyday following Communism’s end in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe is a faded memory. History has not ended as once prophesized – it has instead moved on to the rise of populist leaders and their autocratic control domestically and internationally. The democratic model which promised so much is under challenge throughout the globe.
Can democracy survive the onslaught of autocrats? Can civil society institutions prove to be democracy’s underlying strength? But will they hold, or will they too falter?
There is deepening concern that autocrats, often initially elected democratically, have used the levers of raw power to dominate mainstream and social media, subvert education, and control elections first to hobble and then effectively destroy democracy turning back the clock by sweeping away progress on desperately needed reforms – from action on climate change to gender and income inequality.
Moreover, do autocracies now seize the opportunity to attack their neighbors? Threaten nuclear holocaust unless they get their way, and destabilize the
international order that kept the peace throughout much of the world since the end of WWII?
How significant is the ripple effect of the seemingly sudden demise of the 40 year old Assad dynasty not just for Syria itself but also for the greater Middle East, Russia, Ukraine,
PAST SYMPOSIUM 2019
Thursday April 11 and Friday April 12, 2019
When Ukraine Meets Russia Head-On
To register for the 2023 Symposium, please email sfwaforum@outlook.com with names of registrants, days attending and whether paying by check to SFWAF and mailed to: The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum PO Box 31965, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87594. Or to by Paypal or credit card through our website at https://sfwaf.org/payment
April 13-14, 2023
Speakers
Ambassador William B Taylor, Vice President for Russia and Europe, US Institute for Peace, former US Ambassador to Ukraine;
Juha Makkikali, Finnish Honorary Consul, Denver, CO;
Dr. Gary M Grossman, Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University and former Fulbright professor (in Turkey);
Dr. Nancy Lubin, President, JNA Associates, Inc a research/consulting firm on the former USSR, especially Caucasus/Central Asia;
Siegfried S Hecker, Professor of Practice, Texas A&M University and Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, CA, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University and Director Emeritus, Los Alamos National Laboratory;
Ambassador(rtd) Larry C Napper, Professor of the Practice Emeritus of International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service, US Foreign Service (1974-2004) including service as Director of the Office of Soviet Union Affairs, US Department of State and US Ambassador to Latvia and Kazakhstan;
John Holden, Sr. Managing Director, China Practice, McClarty and Associates.
Summary
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. Symposium Schedule
Santa Fe Community College Jemez Rooms – #231-2
9:00-9:30 Registration
9:30-10:00
Welcome, SFCC President Dr. Rebecca Rowley, Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber, Dr. Patricia H Kushlis, President, Santa Fe World Affairs Forum
10:00-11:30
Opening Speaker: Ambassador rtd William B. Taylor, USIP
Talk Title: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Why Ukraine Must Win Ambassador Taylor will argue that Ukraine’s victory