Hot Topics

The World Affairs Councils of America hosted a Hot Topics Conference Call with Prof. Joshua Landis, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma, for a call on the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Bill Clifford, WACA President and CEO, moderated the call. Click here to listen to the audio of this call.

The World Affairs Councils of America hosted a Hot Topics Conference Call with Dr. Chris Field, Co-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group II, on Earth Day, April 22. The IPCC’s Working Group II recently released the Fifth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Bill Clifford, WACA President and CEO, moderated the call. Click here to listen to the audio of this call.

The World Affairs Councils of America hosted Professor Angela Stent, Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian & East European Studies at Georgetown University, for Sochi 2014 and U.S.- Russia Relations. The call was be moderated by Bill Clifford, President and CEO, World Affairs Councils of America. Click here to listen to the audio of this call.

The World Affairs Councils of America hosted Douglas Foster, Associate Professor, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, and author of After Mandela: The Struggle for Freedom in Post Apartheid South Africa, for Mandela’s Legacy. The call was be moderated by Bill Clifford, President and CEO, World Affairs Councils of America. Click here to listen to the audio of this call.

The World Affairs Councils of America hosted a Hot Topics Conference Call with Dr. Shadi Hamid, Director of Research at the Brookings Doha Center and fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, on Egypt: Political Islam in Crisis? The call was moderated by Dr. Lori E. Murray, Distinguished Chair for National Security at the U.S. Naval Academy, and President Emeritus of WACA. Click here to listen to the audio of this call.

The World Affairs Councils of America hosted a Hot Topics Conference Call with Dr. Abraham Kim, Vice President of KEI and speaker for the Future of Korea program. Dr. Kim addressed the ongoing situation in North Korea and what the future looks like of U.S.-North Korean relations. The call was moderated by President & CEO, Todd Culpepper. Click here to listen to the audio of this call.

World Affairs Councils of America President & CEO Todd Culpepper recently returned from a Travel the World trip to Cuba sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia held January 19-26. Todd spoke on his impressions of the embargoed island nation as well as the state of the economy, their people, and his thoughts on the future of the U.S.-Cuba relationship on a Hot Topics Conference Call on Tuesday, February 19.  Click here to listen to the audio of this call.

On December 20, the World Affairs Councils of America hosted a Hot Topics Conference Call with Dr. Michael J. Green, Senior Vice President for Asia and Japan Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and associate professor of international relations, Georgetown University, on Blast Off: Implications of North Korea’s Successful Missile Test. Click here to listen to the audio of this call.

On September 13, the World Affairs Councils of America hosted a Hot Topics Conference Call with Ambassador Ronald E. Neumann, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Algeria, and Bahrain, and President of the American Academy of Diplomacy, on Diplomacy in Dangerous Places. Ambassador Neumann shared insights from his experience working in embassies in unsafe environments and addressed the attacks on the U.S. embassy in Cairo and the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Click here to listen to the audio of this call.

On July 12,  the World Affairs Councils of America hosted a Hot Topics Conference Call with Dr. Tamara Cofman Wittes, Senior Fellow and Director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, onMorsi, the Generals, and Egypt’s Future. Dr. Wittes discussed the ongoing power struggle in Egypt between the newly elected, Muslim Brotherhood-backed president, Mohamed Morsi, and the Egyptian military. Click here to listen to the audio of this call.