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Dinner with Dr. Mark Juergensmeyer, “How Will ISIS End?”

SAVE THE DATE!

 Dinner

{Thursday April 20th, 2017}

 

“How Will ISIS End?”

with

 Dr. Mark Juergensmeyer

Professor of Sociology, Global Studies & Religious Studies, Kundan Kaur Kapany Chair of Global and Sikh Studies & Fellow of the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies at University of Santa Barbara

 Founding Director of the Global & International Studies Program & the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies at UCSB

Past President of the American Academy of Religion

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In 2014, ISIS brutally controlled over 34,000 square miles in Syria and Iraq, from the Mediterranean coast to south of Baghdad. Its genocidal campaign went unchecked and contributed to the immigration havoc unseen in recent history. Now as the US and allied forces engage in fierce battles to recapture the two remaining ISIS strongholds of Mosul and Raqqa, the difficult question becomes, how will ISIS End?  And what will come in its place?

Dr. Juergensmeyer, an expert on ISIS and its malignant doctrines, will attempt to answer these questions by exploring three different movements within ISIS aligned in an uneasy coalition, each with its own violent agenda and its own possibilities for long-term continuity even after the fall of ISIS’ territorial claims.  He’ll look at how ISIS is simultaneously a purported movement for Sunni Muslim empowerment, an apocalyptic cult, and a global cyber community of young activists.  Drawing from his recent visits to Iraq and from detailed monitoring of jihadi internet postings, Dr. Juergensmeyer will discuss how each of these movements have different trajectories and in their own way may be around in one form or another long after the roads from Baghdad to Mosul and from Damascus to Raqqa have been secured and freed from ISIS’ control.

Location: Westin Hotel (South Coast Plaza, 686 Anton Blvd, Costa Mesa, CA 92626)

Time: 5:30 PM Registration/Reception

6:30 PM Dinner/ Speaker Event

$70 Members / $55 Students/ $80 Non-Members

REGISTER HERE!

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“Assessment of President Trump’s Emerging “America First” Foreign & Economic Policies” with General (Ret.) David H. Petraeus

The World Affairs Council of Orange County

&

The Richard Nixon Foundation

 

REGISTER NOW!

 

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28th, 2017

 

 “Assessment of President Trump’s Emerging “America First” Foreign & Economic Policies”

 

Dinner with General (Ret.) David H. Petraeus

 

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Venue: The Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum

 

Member $150

Non-Member $175

 

For Sponsorship Level seating please contact our office at (949)-253-5751 or e-mail us at orangecounty@worldaffairscouncil.org

 

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Luncheon with General Michael Hayden – “Playing To The Edge: American Intelligence In The Age of Terror”

 SAVE THE DATE!

Luncheon

{Friday, March 31st, 2017}

 

                       “Playing In The Edge: American Intelligence In The Age of Terror”

with

 General Michael Hayden

                                                                           United States Air Force General, ret.
              Former Director of National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

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 Book Signing

 

Our Council is pleased to announce its very special guest speaker this month, Gen. Michael Hayden, retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He is currently a principal at the Chertoff Group, a security consultancy founded by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Hayden also serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Mason University School of Public Policy. Under President George W. Bush, his tenure as Director of the NSA and CIA involved sweeping changes and modernization to our Nation’s intelligence gathering methods and organizations. In the face of terrorist threats while addressing domestic critics on privacy & civil rights, he navigated a precarious path during a critical time of this nation’s security history. His involvement at the highest levels of our country’s security and his personal account of those years including where we stand today with our nation’s “state of intelligence”  in view of the ongoing terrorist threats, will be the subject of his speech and in more depth his recommended book.

 

General 9780143109983-fullsize-rgbMichael Hayden’s book, Playing to the Edge, was published on February 27th, 2017.

PLAYING TO THE EDGE chronicles Hayden’s tenure (1999-2009) when American intelligence had to respond to terrorism, a major war, and the most sweeping technological revolution in the last five hundred years. For ten years, he participate in every major event in American national security, the fallout and consequences of which are still unfolding today.

       Location: Westin Hotel (South Coast Plaza, 686 Anton Blvd, Costa Mesa, CA 92626)

Time: 11:30 AM Registration

REGISTER HERE!

If you would like to purchase a table, please call our office at (949)253-5751

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“The Russian Threat to the US and the Democracies Around the World”

Save the Date

{ Wednesday, February 22nd, 2017 }

“The Russian Threat to the US and the Democracies Around the World”

Congressman Adam Schiff represents California’s 28th Congressional District, and throughout his tenure in Congress, he has focused on growing the economy, bolstering national security, strengthening our communities, helping small businesses and improving education, safety and healthcare for our children. In his eighth term in the House of Representatives, Schiff currently serves as the Ranking Member, or top Democrat, of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (which oversees all of the nation’s intelligence agencies) and as a Member of the Benghazi Select Committee.

Before he was elected to Congress, Schiff served as State Senator for California’s 21st State Senate District, chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Juvenile Justice and the Joint Committee on the Arts. He also worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles for six years, most notably prosecuting the first FBI agent ever to be indicted for espionage.

 

Location: Westin Hotel South Coast Plaza
(South Coast Plaza, 686 Anton Blvd, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 )

Time: 5:45 PM Registration/Reception

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Where Obama Was & Where Trump Is Going in the Middle East, with Russian, Iran & Syria

SAVE THE DATE

{Wednesday, March 1st, 2017}

“Where Obama Was & Where Trump Is Going in the Middle East, with Russia, Iran & Syria”

with

Michael Doran

Senior Director for the National Security Council under President George W. Bush

doran_michael                                   Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute

Certainly with the new Trump Administration, US policy in the Middle East is certain to change. How significant will be the changes and how will the adversarial issues with Russia and Syria be addressed in this context? With the fall of Aleppo to the Assad forces, the facts on the ground have dramatically changed. Russia and Iran have achieved their strategic goal of leaving the Assad regime in place, at least for now.  A less confrontational approach toward Russia but a more aggressive one against Iran by the new administrations will present an interesting dichotomy on formulating US policy in this region. Much of the future is unknown but what is certain is that US Policy will markedly change and reflect both the reality of a devastated Syria still ruled by the dynastic Assad regime and the Administration’s stated goal  to formulate a “coalition” with Russia against ISIS or whatever entity or entities metastasize from the eventual defeat of the defacto “state” created by this terror group.
  

We are honored to have as our guest speaker Mr. Michael Doran a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC and formerly a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institute. Mr. Doran served as a Senior Director in the National Security Council under President George W. Bush where he was responsible for helping to devise and coordinate United States strategies on a variety of Middle East issues, including Arab-Israeli relations and U.S. efforts to contain Iran and SyriaHe also served in the Bush administration as a senior adviser in the State Department and as deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Pentagon.  He has held teaching positions at NYU, Princeton, and the University of Central Florida. He is the author of Pan-Arabism before Nasser, which analyzes the first Arab-Israeli war as an inter-Arab conflict, and is now completing a book for Simon and Schuster about President Eisenhower and the Middle East. He appears frequently in the media, and has published extensively in Foreign Affairs, The American Interest, Commentary, Mosaic Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

Location: The Westin Hotel South Coast Plaza

(South Coast Plaza, 686 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626)

Time: 5:45 PM Registration/Reception

REGISTER NOW!

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NIPOC (Network of Iranian-American Professionals of Orange County) 2017 Economic Forecast

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Network of Iranian-American Professionals of Orange County

January Special Event
Dedicated
To the memory of our beloved
Dr. Esmael Adibi

2017 Economic Forecast
U.S., California & Orange County

Economic Forecast by: Dr. James L. Doti

President Emeritus and Donald Bren Distinguished Chair of Business and Economics
Chapman University

Thursday, January 19, 2017, 6pm-9pm
Hotel Irvine – 17900 Jamboree Road, Irvine, CA

Admission & Dinner:
NIPOC & SBG Members: $80
Affiliated Members (IAWF, WAC, ISCC) $80
Non-Members: $95
Corporate Tables (10 seats & dinner) $750
Business Display Table: $250 (Includes Logo on Screen)
Business Logo on Big Screens: $200

If you would like to attend the event, please call World Affairs Council of Orange County at (949)-253-5751 or e-mail us at orangecounty@worldaffairscouncil.org

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Dean C. Alexander: The New Administration’s Challenges with Confronting the Islamic State/ISIL

dean alexanderSave the Date: January 12, 2017

Dean C. Alexander is Director, Homeland Security Research Program and Professor, Homeland Security at the School of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration at Western Illinois University. Prof. Alexander’s teaching, research, and speaking activities encompass terrorism, security, and legal issues. He has lectured in ten countries, including to law enforcement and military officials at North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), U.S. State Department, fusion centers, as well as state and municipal police events. Prof. Alexander’s professional experience includes executive, business development, and legal positions in the United States and abroad, including Chile, Israel, and the United Kingdom. Since publishing on terrorism in 1991, Prof. Alexander has written several books on the subject, most recently, co-authoring The Islamic State: Combating the Caliphate Without Borders (Lexington Books, 2015). He is on the Advisory Board of Security Magazine and founding Advisory Council member of the Marsh Center for Risk Insights, research fellow at the Chesapeake Innovation Center (the first homeland security-focused business incubator), and served on the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council executive board for the Central District of Illinois. He earned law degrees from Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M.) and American University (J.D.). He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and studied at the Graduate Institute of International Studies (Geneva).

Location: TBA

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*Premium Members Only * “The Rising Voice of the Kurds”

SAVE THE DATE : {Wednesday January 11th, 2017}

 

*Premium Members Only Event*

 

Luncheon with Kurdish Representative to the United States

Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman

 

                                    “The Rising Voice of the Kurds”Bayan-xan3a

Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman is the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Representative to the United States of America.

Key to her role are strengthening ties between Kurdistan and the United States, advocating her government’s position on a wide array of political, security, humanitarian, economic, and cultural matters and promoting coordination and partnership. Prior to her US appointment in 2015, Ms. Abdul Rahman was the High Representative to the United Kingdom. She was elected to the Leadership Council of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 2010.

Before her career in public service, Ms. Abdul Rahman worked as a journalist for 17 years in Britain and Tokyo. Her late father, Sami Abdul Rahman, was a veteran of the Kurdish freedom movement, joining the Kurdistan Democratic Party in 1963 and playing a critical leadership role in the Kurdish and Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein’s regime. He held the post of Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government and General Secretary of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Sami Abdul Rahman was killed alongside his elder son Salah and 96 others in a twin suicide bombing in 2004.

Venue: Darya Restaurant at SOUTH COAST PLAZA

South Coast Plaza, 3800 S Plaza Dr, Santa Ana, CA 92704

Date: Wednesday January 11th, 2017

Time: 11:30 AM Registration

$50 Student/ $55 Premium Member/ $70 Guests of Premium Member / $105 Non-Premium Member

REGISTER HERE!

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1st Annual Sir Eldon Griffiths “Around the World Discussion in 60 Minutes or Less”

SAVE THE DATE!

                                                                                Wednesday December 14th, 2016 

1st Annual Sir Eldon Griffiths “Around the World Discussion in 60 Minutes or Less”

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Special Performance by:

Mr. Cesar Sanchez, a renowned opera singer who will perform operatic Christmas songs and other classics. He is a Mexican born tenor who was bestowed the title of “Ambassador of the Arts” by the Mexican government. He studied on a full scholarship at Mozarteum Conservatory of Music in Salzburg, Austria. He has performed in La Traviata as Alfred, in Calvalleria as Turridu among his other famous roles. He has travelled the world as an accomplished artist and previously performed for our Council receiving a standing ovation at the conclusion.

The three key note Speakers and Moderator for the “Around the World” discussion will be:

  • James Coyle (Chapman University),
  • Robert O’Brien Esq. (Larson Obrien LLP) and
  • Daniel Wehrenfennig (UCI, Olive Tree Initiative)
  • Moderator Dr. Mark Chapin Johnson, MCJ Foundation Claremont

They will address the past year’s critical developments in world affairs from the Middle East to Asia, Europe, Africa and of course the United States and North America. We can also expect bold predictions and insightful analysis on the upcoming year with the foreign policy of President Trump and his new administration.

 

  Venue: Fairmont Hotel                     Time: 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM

(4500 MacArthur Blvd, Newport Beach, CA 92660)

Reception/Registration: 5:30 PM

  REGISTER HERE!

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Tom Nazario: “Global Poverty: What Everybody Should Know”

Save the Date

{ Wednesday, November 30th, 2016 }

Luncheon – Tom Nazario: “Global Poverty: What Everybody Should Know”

 

Thomas A. Nazario grew up in New York City and completed his undergraduate degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and went on to complete a graduate degree from the City University of New York and New York University. Upon graduation from law school at the University of San Francisco, Professor Nazario practiced criminal law as a public defender in San Francisco for two years.

In 1978, he returned to the University of San Francisco and received a Robert F. Kennedy Fellowship to continue his work in the development of the “Street Law Project” which continues to work extensively with inner-city kids in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Nazario’s expertise lies in the area of Children’s Rights as well as issues related to global poverty.

His work has also led him all over the world documenting human rights violations involving women and children for the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, and for many nongovernmental agencies. Mr. Nazario has visited and reported on Tibetan refugee children living in Northern India, children living in sewers in Romania, children sick or orphaned by AIDS in Botswana, and children sold into sexual slavery in the brothels of Thailand.

In an effort to help those he witnessed living in extreme poverty, in 2007 he founded The Forgotten International, a nonprofit foundation that presently does poverty alleviation work in eight countries around the world and in the United States through dozens of grassroots organizations (www.theforgottenintl.org). To continue to bring awareness of global poverty issues to the forefront, Mr. Nazario wrote an award-winning book entitled Living on a Dollar a Day: The Lives and Faces of the World’s Poor (W.W. Norton & Co. / April 2014) with photographs by a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and a Foreword by the Dalai Lama. It tells the stories, in words and images, of some of the 1.2 billion people in the world who survive on not much more than one dollar a day.

 

Location: Fairmont Hotel
(4500 MacArthur Blvd, Newport Beach, CA 92660)
Time: 11:30 AM-2:00 PM

REGISTER HERE!

Building Our Global Community

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