Forum Network

Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

Funding provided by:

WorldBoston

WorldBoston was founded in 1961 as the Boston Center for International Visitors, a nonprofit organization with a mission to connect hundreds of emerging leaders from around the globe each year with their counterparts in Greater Boston's business, government, academic, cultural and scientific communities. In 2002, the organization merged with the World Affairs Council of Boston, a nonpartisan forum founded in 1949 to engage the public in discussions about critical international issues. WorldBoston today is an active independent member of both the National Council for International Visitors and the World Affairs Councils of America, and a dynamic and respected community leader in Boston.s global network. With its expertise in fostering international exchanges and unique mix of educational programs, WorldBoston continues to build on its distinguished tradition of promoting dialogue among leaders, cross-cultural connections and public learning.

http://www.worldboston.org/

Business & Tourism in the Post-Covid World

Thu, Jan 28, 2021

The final installment of The Mission Persists 2020 series is a conversation with Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organization, Zurab Pololikashvili and Executive Vice President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Myron Brilliant. Under Brilliant’s leadership, the Chamber developed the largest international government relations program of any U.S. trade association, conducting programming in over 50 markets. During the past decade, Brilliant has strengthened the organization’s ties to the global network of American Chambers of Commerce and foreign business associations and deepened engagement with multilateral and regional organizations, including the G20, IDB, IMF, World Bank, and WTO. Between 2009 and 2010, he was Minister of Economic Development of Georgia. As a Minister of Economic Development of Georgia, Mr Pololikashvili was responsible for overseeing the country’s long-term fiscal growth strategies, advancing foreign trade and investment policy initiatives as well as for promoting the development of the tourism, infrastructure and transportation sectors. He was instrumental in launching an innovative policy for the development of tourism in Georgia, prioritizing the sphere on both the government and private sector agendas. Image: WorldBoston and Pexels.com

Forum Network

Partner:

WorldBoston
Great Decisions: Struggles Over the Melting Arctic

Wed, Mar 24, 2021

U.S. President Donald Trump left many scratching their heads when it was rumored that he was looking to purchase the large island nation of Greenland from Denmark. While any potential deal seems highly unlikely, the event shows the changing opinion within the U.S. government toward engagement with the Arctic region. Because of climate change, large sheets of arctic ice are melting, exposing vast stores of natural gas and oil. With Russia and China already miles ahead with their Arctic strategies, can the U.S. catch up? Image: Jean-Christophe André, Pexels

Forum Network

Partner:

WorldBoston
Chat & Chowder with Dr. Nicholas Christakis: Apollo's Arrow

Wed, Jan 13, 2021

_Apollo's Arrow_ offers a riveting account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as it swept through American society in 2020, and of how the recovery will unfold in the coming years. Drawing on momentous (yet dimly remembered) historical epidemics, contemporary analyses, and cutting-edge research from a range of scientific disciplines, bestselling author, physician, sociologist, and public health expert Nicholas A. Christakis explores what it means to live in a time of plague — an experience that is paradoxically uncommon to the vast majority of humans who are alive, yet deeply fundamental to our species. Unleashing new divisions in our society as well as opportunities for cooperation, this 21st-century pandemic has upended our lives in ways that will test, but not vanquish, our already frayed collective culture. Featuring new, provocative arguments and vivid examples ranging across medicine, history, sociology, epidemiology, data science, and genetics, _Apollo's Arrow_ envisions what happens when the great force of a deadly germ meets the enduring reality of our evolved social nature. Image: Book Cover

Forum Network

Partner:

WorldBoston
U.S. Relations with the Northern Triangle

Mon, Nov 30, 2020

Combatting illegal immigration is a priority for the Trump administration. The Northern Triangle of Central America, made up of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, is a special target of the administration, which hold those nations responsible for the large flow of migrants from Latin America to the U.S. [In 2019, the administration redirected approximately $405 million of aid intended for the Northern Triangle to other foreign policy priorities](https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/IF10371.pdf), according to the Federation of American Scientists. Lisa Haugaard is the Executive Director of the [Latin America Working Group](https://www.lawg.org/), an organization focused on mutual respect, justice, and a shared commitment to the human rights of all the peoples of the Americas. She shared her view of the current migration crisis and answered many audience questions.

Forum Network

Partner:

WorldBoston
Anne Searcy: Ballet in the Cold War

Mon, Dec 7, 2020

In 1959, the Bolshoi Ballet arrived in New York for its first ever performances in the United States. The tour was part of the Soviet-American cultural exchange, arranged by the governments of the US and USSR as part of their Cold War strategies. _Ballet In The Cold War_ explores the first tours of the exchange. American fans lined up overnight to buy tickets to the Bolshoi, and Soviet audiences packed massive theaters to see American companies. But the tours also began a series of deep misunderstandings. American and Soviet audiences did not view ballet in the same way. Each group experienced the other's ballet through the lens of their own aesthetics. Americans loved Soviet dancers but believed that Soviet ballets were old-fashioned and vulgar. Soviet audiences and critics likewise appreciated American technique and innovation but saw American choreography as empty and dry. Drawing on both Russian- and English-language archival sources, this book demonstrates that the separation between Soviet and American ballet lies less in how the ballets look and sound, and more in the ways that Soviet and American viewers were trained to see and hear. It suggests new ways to understand both Cold War cultural diplomacy and twentieth-century ballet. Image: Book Cover

Forum Network

Partner:

WorldBoston
The Philippines and the U.S.

Mon, Dec 14, 2020

The Philippines has had a special relationship with the United States since the islands were ceded by Spain to the United States after the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century. However, since the election of Rodrigo Duterte, the country has pivoted more toward China, and away from the U.S. Duterte has also launched a large-scale war on drugs that many criticize for its brutality. What does the future hold for U.S, relations with the Philippines? Image: WorldBoston

Forum Network

Partner:

WorldBoston
National Security: A Conversation with General H.R. McMaster

Thu, Nov 12, 2020

Across multiple administrations since the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy has been misconceived, inconsistent, and poorly implemented. As a result, America and the free world have fallen behind their rivals in power and influence. Meanwhile, threats to security, freedom, and prosperity, including nuclear proliferation and jihadist terrorism, have grown. In Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World, H.R. McMaster lays out a comprehensive indictment of a quarter century of flawed policies and strategies, told from his perspective as a soldier, commander, scholar, and national security advisor. A central theme of the book is what he calls “Strategic Narcissism” — a mind-set that all too often leads presidents and their advisors to craft policies based on wishful thinking and to define problems as one may like them to be rather than to understand them on their own terms. Overcoming Strategic Narcissism, McMaster argues, is critical to defending America and the free world from grave and developing threats.

Forum Network

Partner:

WorldBoston
Feargal Cochrane: Breaking Peace—Northern Ireland and Brexit

Mon, Nov 23, 2020

In 2021, Northern Ireland commemorates its centenary, but Brexit, more than any other event in that 100-year history, has jeopardised its very existence. Events since 2016 have complicated political relationships within Northern Ireland and further destabilised the devolved institutions established in the wake of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Feargal Cochrane’s urgent analysis argues that Brexit is breaking peace in Northern Ireland, making it the most significant event since Partition. Endless negotiations and uncertainty have brought contested identities back to the forefront of political debate. Always so much more than a line on a map, the border has become an existential marker of identity as well as a reminder of the dark days of violent conflict. Cochrane explores how and why the Brexit negotiations have been so destabilising for politics in Northern Ireland, opening the door to a violent past.

Forum Network

Partner:

WorldBoston
The State of the State Department and Transatlantic Diplomacy

Mon, Nov 16, 2020

WorldBoston’s annual State of the State Department is a high-level speaking event, serving as an annual occasion to assess the strength of a critical instrument in the pursuit of U.S. national interest, within a policy context. In addition to critically evaluating the current state of the State Department, we will also look at U.S. diplomacy through the lens of the transatlantic relationship. Ambassador Nicholas Burns will be joined by E.U. Ambassador to the U.S. Stavros Lambrinidis for an exciting conversation about the dynamic between the State Department and transatlantic diplomacy.

Forum Network

Partner:

WorldBoston
The Evolution of the U.S. Space Force

Thu, Oct 1, 2020

Lt. Gen. Liquori and Lt. Gen. Jack Weinstein (Retired) join WorldBoston to discuss the importance of the space domain to U.S. national security and the evolution of the U.S. Space Force. Established on December 20, 2019, the U.S. Space Force (USSF) is a very new branch of the Armed Forces. The USSF organizes, trains, and equips space forces in order to protect U.S. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force. How did the USSF come to be? Why is it of interest to the U.S. to have a Space Force? What U.S. and allied interests is the USSF protecting in space? (Photo: [Flickr/CaptSpaulding](https://www.flickr.com/photos/captspaulding/45792072805/in/photolist-2cLukSD-L7cCai-doQSr3-55rD9h-CgLVGe-2jtXDDj-wmY3qQ-P3G7ap-2gEe4mP-Dbpp8q-DiZNGU-2hpAWHk-LUvoRa-GFh513-21XMVuB-cAFg55-LRNhtq-8U65MG-cAFgVC-MVTSPo-23SbGUR-2jeKKuA-L5nbx9-2jfQ9ZT-2iYAkQQ-e7Xfe8-9S7MGp-LRNkM9-cAFgfY-8DNuSJ-7yuQFL-2jroGGB-cAFiVo-cAFiEq-Uo7ck-vj7kj2-cAFjyJ-24Tqmg2-cAFguE-cAFhPW-cAFfT7-LK6z2G-cAFis1-2i2oeDL-cAFieL-CFUThG-KXFJHi-cAFi2y-NknZvL-DbJMfH/) , image cropped)

Forum Network

Partner:

WorldBoston

What matters to you.