Global Tennessee

GMT20251008-165825_Recording_640x360 - Trim crop by Tennessee World Affairs Council

What do the Olympics reveal about international influence, branding, and global power? Join TNWAC on Wednesday, August 27th, for a fascinating webinar moderated by Karl Dean featuring Terrence H. Burns (Chairman and Owner, T. Burns Sports Group, LLC). Terrence will explore how the Olympic Games transcend sport to shape geopolitics, national identity, and global narratives. What You’ll Learn: – How the Olympic brand has become a tool of soft power – The intersection of global sports, politics, and diplomacy – Real-world insights into international branding and influence

Nashville at the Crossroads: Global Growth, Local Challenges, and Future Opportunities by Tennessee World Affairs Council

Geopolitical Divergences on the Korean Peninsula by Tennessee World Affairs Council

Reshaping of the Middle East by Tennessee World Affairs Council

After an unprecedented year of elections, new leaders around the globe who have promised change will be expected to deliver in 2025. The world will also be coming to terms with the outcome of America’s elections in November and the implications for global security, trade, and climate policy. New alliances are forming, and old ones are fraying in an increasingly tense and dangerous world. But the adoption of green tech continues to outpace the most optimistic forecasts, even as concerns grow over artificial intelligence and its voracious appetite for chips, energy, water, and data. Tom Standage, Deputy Editor of The Economist and editor of The World Ahead 2025, will consider these and other trends and their implications for geopolitics, business, and culture in the coming year.

Mark Reese began his thirty-year career in Central Asia as the first Peace Corps volunteer to serve in Kokand, Uzbekistan, from 1994-1996. Through the University of Washington, he subsequently established and managed a Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs program centered around Islamic studies and curricula reform in Uzbekistan through the Department of State’s Uzbekistan Partnership Program in Islamic Studies. Mr. Reese managed translation and cultural advisement task orders for a broad spectrum of government and private industry clients. Over seven years, he conducted groundbreaking work through dynamic educational program development as Founding Director for the Center for Regional Studies at the United States Naval Academy. His flagship work surrounds his translation of Abdullah Qodiriy’s O’tkan Kunlar, the first full-length novel in the Uzbek language. For his efforts, the Republic of Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev awarded Mr. Reese the Presidential Order of Do’stlik for furthering awareness of the Uzbek language and culture. In 2023, he was awarded the Tourism Fo’ydasi for developing tourism content in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. As CEO of Suhbat LLC, Mark is currently engaged in strategic communications and cultural program development for a variety of clients in Central Asia.

The dialog between the President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of America (WACA), Matthew Hughes, and Hon. Karl Dean, will verse around the importance of WACA and all 90 World Affairs Council in engaging the public and leaders in global affairs in an age of rapidly shifting international order. At the center of the discussion will be the impact of WACA in informing and educating students about global professional opportunities and the importance for them to understand different corporate cultures.

Moderated by Chinese journalism expert Jeremy Goldkorn, this in-depth discussion with James Siebens (Fellow, Stimson Center's Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy program) explored how China leverages armed coercion to achieve its goals without direct conflict. This session is essential for anyone interested in global security, international relations, and current geopolitical dynamics.

The Middle East is at a hinge moment. The old order is collapsing, and a new one has yet to emerge. While the region’s tectonic shifts predate Hamas’s terror attack on Oct. 7, the ensuing conflict in Gaza and its reverberations across the region are the crucible in which the new contours of the Middle East will take shape. USIP's Mona Yacoubian will provide insights on the regional flashpoints that have erupted in the wake of the Gaza conflict as well as the broader implications for a region in a state of enormous flux.

Do you wonder what jobs and careers there are in international affairs? There’s more than you think. Every Fall and Spring the World Affairs Council assembles diplomats, business people, NGO officials, returned Peace Corps volunteers and more to talk about their experiences and insights and to answer your questions at this very popular panel. The ICP will feature four panelists from different professions sharing hard to come by information on working in multicultural societies. This is a special opportunity to listen to distinguished professionals’ experiences and insights and to discuss: preparation and transition from colleges to careers including the tools; skills and competencies needed to enter the profession; the upsides and downsides of working in those jobs and internship opportunities in their organizations. The panel is aimed for college students, high school students and young professionals but they're open to everyone including TNWAC members and partner institutions around Tennessee.

This discussion will focus on Chinese engagements in Africa and Latin America, and the implications for US strategic relations and interests. Tugendhat will give opening remarks based on the view from Washington, the view from Beijing, and common views among many Global South capitals around these significant engagements. This will then lead into a series of questions and answers with the moderator and audience.

ARCHIVE - Global Nashville with Karl Dean - Dr. Sarah Gardial - Dean Massey College of Business by Tennessee World Affairs Council

Hard to come by insights and perspectives from Distinguished Professor of History Thomas Schwartz and moderator, Dr. Breck Walker. At the beginning of the Cold War, Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg announced his support for Democratic President Harry Truman’s Marshall Plan for Europe by proclaiming that “Politics stops at the water’s edge.” In more recent times, however, American domestic politics appears to have had a strong effect on foreign policy, particularly in election years. In this webinar, we will discuss the potential impact of America’s election year politics on the important issues of foreign policy, including the Middle East, Ukraine, and China.

Ambassador William Taylor, former US Ambassador to Ukraine, talked to a TNWAC Global Town Hall in Nashville on November 29, 2023 about the war in Ukraine. The session was moderated by Vanderbilt University Distinguished History Dr. Thomas Schwartz. They covered the background and context of the fight over Ukraine as well as the current situations and issues and the role of the United States and the West. Ambassador William B. Taylor is vice president, Europe and Russia at the U.S. Institute of Peace. In 2019, he served as chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv and as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009. During the Arab Spring, he oversaw U.S. assistance and support to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. He served in Jerusalem as the U.S. government’s representative to the Mideast Quartet. He served in Kabul in 2002 and in Baghdad in 2004. In the 1990s, Ambassador Taylor coordinated U.S. assistance to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He earlier served on the staff of Senator Bill Bradley. Ambassador Taylor is a graduate of West Point and Harvard’s Kennedy School and served as an infantry platoon leader and combat company commander in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and Germany.

On the anniversary of the launch of ChatGPT, TNWAC's Global Dialogue featured Paul Maguire, co-founder and CEO of Knowmadics and entrepreneur and technical innovator. TNWAC President Emeritus Patrick Ryan and Maguire talked about the evolution of AI leading to the current boom in AI technologies; democratization of data access through Open AI models and the warnings about damage that can be caused by malicious use of AI. Is the emergence of AI into mainstream technological uses another "Oppenheimer moment", where technologies that provide great benefit can also pose great risks. They discussed the global competition for AI dominance coupled with great power competition between the United States and China and other American adversaries. They concluded with comments on industry developments like the CEO shakeup at ChatGPT. Paul Maguire is CEO and Co-Founder of Knowmadics, Inc, an innovative solutions provider. A serial entrepreneur, Mr. Maguire co-founded Knowmadics with Claire Ostrum in 2013, where he continues his track record of growing small businesses to successful acquisition. Prior to Knowmadics, Mr. Maguire served as President of Ultra Electronics ProLogic, where he managed the integration of small government IT contractor ProLogic following its 2008 acquisition by Ultra Electronics, as well as two other acquisitions worth a combined $128M. He had earlier served as ProLogic’s Vice President of Business Development and Strategy, driving the company’s growth from $1.7 million to $50 million+ over seven years, and ultimately leading to its acquisition. Mr. Maguire previously worked at Autometric as a project, program, and product line manager with both P&L management and sales target responsibilities. His product led Autometric’s 33% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over seven years, which led to Autometric being acquired by the Boeing Company in 2000. Mr. Maguire has more than 12 years of Board experience, and currently sits on the Boards of Knowmadics and professional services firm Markon Solutions. He frequently speaks as a subject matter expert on the uses of commercial technology at the United States Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security events, and at international conferences on Security and Counter Terrorism. Mr. Maguire holds multiple patents and is the principal author of two U.S. Military Remote Sensing User Guides for Multi-spectral Imagery. He also served for eight years in the U.S. Navy, including as an Iraqi Analyst during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield.

Oct 3, 2023 | Watch this important Town Hall conversation from the Tennessee World Affairs Council's distinguished visiting speaker program. Daniel Runde talks about the competition with China and disruption from Russia in shaping American influence in the world and who gets to set global rules. “We’re at a moment in this period of great power competition, whether or not you want to call it a second Cold War, where the national security imperatives of dealing with a resurgent China and a disruptor in Russia require us to go back to the drawing board on our soft power instruments to respond to this new challenge.” — Daniel F. Runde DANIEL RUNDE. Center for Strategic and International Studies Senior Vice President; William A. Schreyer Chair; Director, Project on Prosperity and Development and Author of “American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership Through Soft Power” DR. AMY SAYWARD. Moderator. Executive Director, The Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) Professor of History, Middle Tennessee State University