Closing Event – Breaking News

Speakers for this event

• Allison Quatrini

  Allison Quatrini

  Allison Quatrini holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from The George Washington University. She is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations and Global Affairs in the Behavioral Sciences Collegium at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Her research focuses on ethnic politics in China, with an emphasis on how ethnic minorities, particularly the Uyghurs, navigate their relationship with the Chinese party-state. Her current book project, relying on 26.5 months of fieldwork, focuses on Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongolian holiday celebrations, considering both how the Chinese state has repurposed them to form its own cultural narrative and how minority groups use the celebrations to form counter-narratives that best represent their understandings of themselves. Allison’s published work has appeared in Nationalities Papers, Qualitative and Multi-Methods Research, The Diplomat, Responsible Statecraft, and The Tampa Bay Times. She has also written for the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University and the Rising Powers Project at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at The George Washington University. Recently, Dr. Quatrini was awarded a grant to complete research on nationalism and festivals in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

• Ambassador Adam Blackwell

  Ambassador Adam Blackwell

  Adam Blackwell serves as Vice President, International at Development Services Group, Inc., managing a global effort on behalf of the U.S. Department of State to monitor and analyze incidents of terrorism and violence worldwide. Currently, he chairs the Advisory Board of OriginAll, and is on the board of the Inter-American Defense Foundation, Trust for the Americas, POLCYB, and Root International, and is a member of The Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. A former Canadian diplomat to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Kenya, Mexico, United Nations, he was Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. At the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C., he served as assistant secretary of finance and administration, secretary for external relations, and secretary for multidimensional security from 2009 to 2016. Adam has led several election observations and good offices missions. He was a member of the Commission to Reform Public Security in Honduras, and the Technical Coordinating Committee to manage the peace process in El Salvador. In 2015–16, he was Ambassador-in-Residence at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies. He served as chair of the World Economic Forum’s Meta-Council on the Illicit Economy, and on task forces on cybersecurity and human trafficking. He is former resident fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, Italy, and author of the books: “If the War on Drugs is Over – Now What?  Security Without Easy Answers” (Freisen Press, 2015) and “Si la Guerra contra las drogas llega a su fin – Que sigue? (Inacipe Mexico 2016). Adam and his wife Caroline live in Belleair, and he is a member of the Clearwater Rotary Club.

• John Maguire

  John Maguire

  John Maguire, who retired last July, was Director of International Relations and Cooperation of France Medias Monde, a French public service media organization, from September 2013. From March 2012 to September 2013, he was Director of International Development, Audiovisuel Exterieur de la France; from May 2010 to March 2012 he served as Director of International Affairs, Radio France Internationale and from 2004 to 2010 he was head of RFI's International Training Department. Before that he spent six years as Managing Editor of RFI's English service. He has forty years experience in the media world and has contributed work to journalistic outlets in France, Ireland and the United States.

• Maryam Shojaei

  Maryam Shojaei

  Maryam Shojaei is a civil rights activist born and raised in Iran. She founded the #NoBan4Women movement which promotes women's rights to attend sports events in her country. She is the author of a forthcoming book, Azadi Means Freedom, on fighting for women's rights in Iran. She studies Women and Gender Studies, and received her Masters in Peace Operations form George Mason University.

• Pierre Guerlain

  Pierre Guerlain

  Pierre GUERLAIN is Professor emeritus of American Studies formerly at Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, France. His fields of research are US foreign policy and US politics. He has done a lot of work on "anti-Americanism" and the image of the US abroad. He published a book about the mutual perceptions of the Americans and the French Miroirs transatlantiques; la France et les Etats-Unis entre passions et indifférences, and articles in various scholarly journals and online publications.

• Robert Bruce Adolph

  Robert Bruce Adolph

  Robert Bruce Adolph is a successful international speaker, author, and commentator, who is a retired senior US Army Special Forces officer and United Nations security chief. He holds graduate degrees in both international affairs & national security studies and is a qualified Military Strategist. In and out of uniform, Robert lived and worked in 16 different countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. He possesses the ultimately tragic trifecta of having supported counterterrorism activities in the military, conducted antiterrorism mitigation measures in the United Nations, and became an actual victim and survivor of terrorism in a jihadist suicide bombing attack in Baghdad, Iraq that killed twenty-two and wounded another more than one-hundred and fifty. He also has the unusual distinction of being twice fired and twice promoted during his nearly 15 years of UN civil service. Robert is a former Chief of the Middle East and North Africa at UN Headquarters in New York City. Per the publisher, his book entitled, “Surviving the United Nations,” is their number one best-seller. He has been a frequent guest columnist for the Tampa Bay Times, Holland’s Atlantic Perspectives Magazine, the US Military Times and many more. In 2022, he served as the mission leader of a multi-national team in support of war crimes investigators for the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Ukraine. Discover more at http://robertbruceadolph.com/

• William Jordan

  William Jordan

  Retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer, Independent Analyst William Jordan served for 30 years (1981-2011) as a political officer in the U.S. Foreign Service specializing in the Arab world and France.  His overseas assignments included Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; Tunis, Tunisia; Damascus, Syria; Amman, Jordan; Paris, France; and Algiers, Algeria, where he served in his final posting as Deputy Chief of Mission. Mr. Jordan’s responsibilities in the Arab world included reporting and analyzing foreign policy trends, especially as they related to the United States, as well as internal politics, human rights conditions, and the rise of radical Islam as a political force.  From 1997-2001, Mr. Jordan was the reporting officer in Paris for labor issues and internal politics.  He returned to Paris in 2007-2009 to work on the Near East and North Africa as well as Russia (including during and after the 2008 Georgia crisis).  From 2002-2007, Mr. Jordan focused his attention on North Africa, notably as Director of the Office of Maghreb Affairs. Since retiring from the Foreign Service, Mr. Jordan has lived in Paris, where, in addition to his work as an independent analyst and consultant, he occasionally comments on the Arab world, northwest Africa, France, and U.S. national security policy for France24, RFI, and the BBC.  He is a board member of and has participated in the annual Saint Petersburg, FL, Conference on World Affairs in addition to lecturing frequently to numerous audiences, including the French Ecole militaire and at the Paris campus of New York University. From May 2020-December 2021, Mr. Jordan served as president of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO).