Keynote Speakers

Henry Kissinger

Former U.S. National Security Advisor & Secretary of State

Leon Panetta

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA

Eric Schmidt

Former Chairman & CEO of Google; Former Executive Chairman of Alphabet

John Brennan

Former Director of the CIA

Michèle Flournoy

Former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy

Graham Allison

Founding Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School

John Allen

President of the Brookings Institution

Stephen Schwarzman

Chairman & CEO of Blackstone; Founder of Schwarzman Scholars

Tamir Pardo

Former Director of Mossad

Joshua Cooper Ramo

Co-CEO & Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates

Robert O'Brien

Former U.S. National Security Advisor

Workshop Experts

Below is a running list of participating guests that will be present at our program. Updates are made daily. Some guests are not listed due to security measures.

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Panelists and Special Experts

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Amb. Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley - Chief Diversity Officer for the U.S. Department of State

Bishop Garrison -  Senior Adviser to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin for human capital, diversity, equity, and inclusion

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Nitin Chadda - Co-Founder and Managing Partner at WestExec Advisors; Former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense

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Jonathan Woetzel - Asia-based Director of the McKinsey Global Institute

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Steven Lee Myers - Beijing Bureau Chief at the New York Times

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Niclas Kvarnstrom - Swedish Ambassador to Singapore; Former Director of the Department for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the Swedish Foreign Ministry

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Europe

Spencer Boyer - Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Policy

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Alton Buland - U.S. Department of Defense Director for European Policy

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Mary Beth Long -  Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs

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Sonya Seunghye Lim - Former Chief of Station, Senior Intelligence Service (SIS/SES) at the Central Intelligence Agency

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Amb. Joseph Manso - U.S. Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

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Mark Libby - Chargé of the U.S. Mission to the European Union

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Bruce Turner - Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance (AVC), U.S. Department of State

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Alan Harms - Former International Weapons Specialist for the Defense Security Cooperation Agency

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Igor Zgrabljic - Government Affairs & Public Policy Manager at Google

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Shashank Joshi - The Economist's Defense Editor

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Ali Wyne - Senior Analyst with Eurasia Group's Global Macro Practice focusing on U.S.-China relations and great-power competition​

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Patrik Engstrom - Head of National Border Policing for Sweden; Former United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime International law Enforcement Advisor

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Vivien Terrien - Référendaire for the Court of Justice of the European Union

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Michelle Lee - Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration at the U.S. Department of State

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Bahram Rajaee - Political Officer at the U.S. Mission to the OSCE

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Middle East and North Africa 

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Robert Eatinger - Former Deputy General Counsel for Operations for the Central Intelligence Agency

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​Nicholas Rasmussen - Executive Director of the Global Internet Forum for Countering Terrorism 

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Amb. Henry Wooster - U.S. Ambassador to Jordan

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Amb. Matthew Tueller - U.S. Ambassador to Iraq

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Amb. Roger Carstens - U.S. Special Presidental Envoy for Hostage Affairs

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Jonathan Winer - U.S. Special Envoy to Libya

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​Amb. Deborah Jones - Former U.S. Ambassador to Libya and Kuwait

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Kelly Stemdem - Harvard Kennedy School Middle East Initiative Fellow

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Yuree Noh - Harvard Kennedy School Middle East Initiative Fellow

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Rachna Korhonen - Executive Director for the Joint Executive Office for Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs 

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Irfan Saeed - Director of the Office of Countering Violent Extremism in the Bureau of Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State

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Paul Watzlavick - Director Office of Analysis for Near East Affairs, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, United States Department of State 

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Carl Kress - Regional Director for U.S Trade and Development in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Eurasia, and East Asia

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Khaled Khalifa - Regional Representative at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Saudi Arabia

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Yasmeen Hibrawi - Head of Public Affairs at U.S. Consulate Dubai

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Latin America and the Caribbean

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Minister Roberto Alvarez - Foreign Minister of the Dominican Republic

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Amb. Ambassador Jeff DeLaurentis - Acting Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs, U.S. Mission to the United Nations

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Admiral Douglas Fears - Director for Joint Interagency Task Force South

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David Shedd - Former Director of the Defense Security Agency

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Carmen Medina - Former Deputy Director of Intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

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Amb. Philip Goldberg - U.S. Ambassador to Colombia

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Amb. Alfonso Silva Navarro - Chilean Ambassador to the U.S.

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Amb. Linda Talglialatela - U.S. Ambassador to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean, and the OECS

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Amb. Todd Chapman - U.S. Ambassador to Brazil

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Dana Brown - Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico

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Katherine Dueholm - Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Mexico and Central America at the U.S. Department of State

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Michael Eddy - USAID Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau

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Barbara Feinstein - USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean

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Col. Fred Taylor - Former Joint Space Operations Center Deputy Director and National Reconnaissance Office Liaison

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East Asia and the Pacific 

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Ankit Panda - Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

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John Park - Director of the Korea Project at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center

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Kenneth Weinstein - Former President of the Hudson Institute

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Daniel Nadel - Director of the Office of International Religious Freedom at the U.S. Department of State

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Tomonori Saski - Former Representative to the Japanese Ministry of Defense

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Dr. Parag Khanna - Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap

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Michael Pettis - Carnegie Senior Fellow & Professor of Finance at Guanghua School of Management at Peking University

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Alex Stamos - Former Chief Security Officer at Facebook

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Justin Yifu Lin - Former Chief Economist of the World Bank

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Chas Freeman - Main interpreter for President Nixon during 1972 visit to China; Former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia

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Larry Diamond - Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University

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Richard Fontaine - CEO of the Center for a New American Security; foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain

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Tom Orlik - Chief Economist for Bloomberg Economics

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Shane Deichman - Vice President, Strategy & Operations Caliola Engineering LLC; Program Manager for Space Integration & Early Warning in the Command, Control, Battle Management, and Communications (C2BMC) Directorate at the Missile Defense Agency (MDA)

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LaToya Young - Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, Office of Sanctions Policy and Implementation at the U.S. Department of State

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Philippe Le Corre - Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Europe and Asia Programs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Former Special Assistant and Counsellor for international affairs to the French Defense Minister

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Eurasia 

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Rolf Mowatt-Larsen - Former Director of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy; 23 years as a senior leader in the Central Intelligence Agency on weapons of mass destruction in European affairs

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Rick Ledgett - Former Deputy Director of the U.S. National Security Agency 

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Christopher Turner - 25-year career in the CIA with sensitive assignments in the Far East, South Asia, and Europe. Honored with the Intelligence Star [*], a rare commendation for valor under fire

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Chris Kirchhoff - Former Advisor to the  National Security Advisor on the National Security Council and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Department of Defense. ​

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Andrew Weber - Five-and-a-half years as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs; Current Senior Fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks 

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Christopher Anderson - Political Officer in the U.S. Foreign Service; Regional expertise in Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia/Mongolia.

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Gary Espinas - Senior United States Army Field Artillery and Foreign Area Officer

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Jamil Jeffer - Senior Vice President for Strategy, Partnerships & Corporate Development, IronNet Cybersecurity
Founder & Executive Director, National Security Institute at GMU Law School

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Sub-Saharan Africa 

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RDML Heidi Berg - Director of Intelligence, U.S. Africa Command

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Amb. Richard Bell -  U.S. Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire 

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Amb. Nina Fite - U.S. Ambassador to Angola

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​Amb. Eric Whitaker - U.S. Ambassador to Niger

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Elizabeth Fitzsimmons - Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State

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George Conway - UNDP Crisis Bureau Deputy Director

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Richard Nelson - USAID Director of the U.S. Mission to Uganda

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Amb. Peter Vrooman - U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda

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South Asia 

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John Frick - White House National Security Council Director for Security Cooperation

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Colonel Candice Frost - Commander Joint Intelligence Operations Center at United States Cyber Command

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Amb. Kenneth Juster - Former U.S. Ambassador to India

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Amb. Marcia Bernicat - Senior Official for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment 

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Heide Fulton - Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, U.S. Department of State

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Jim Warden - Director of Nuclear Energy, Safety and Security in the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation in the U.S. Department of State

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Dean Thompson - Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State

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Lunch Roundtables

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Alison Bouwmeester - Former senior leader at the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Operations

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Amb. Craig Cloud - U.S. Ambassador to Botswana

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Laurie Goodstein - International News Editor at the New York Times

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Henry Haggard - Former White House National Security Council Director for European Affairs

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Maryum Saifee - Foreign Service Officer at FSI, U.S. Department of State; Former Senior Visiting Fellow at the Truman National Security Project

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Tanya Shugar - Africa Division Chief at the U.S. Department of Labor

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