Dan Bishof, the Department of State’s Director for Eastern Europe, will join the Tennessee World Affairs Council to share insights and exchange views on what factors have influenced U.S. decision-making over the evolution of the war, which has seen Ukraine fight back from the near-loss of Kyiv to recapture significant amounts of its own territory and inflict significant blows on Russia in the Black Sea. Mr. Bishof will discuss the mechanisms the U.S. government has established for tracking and providing oversight of U.S. assistance to Ukraine, and how that assistance impacts the security of not only Ukraine, but also that of Europe and the United States.

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.