2022 World Affairs Council of the Year
Network of Independent World Affairs Councils of America
Welcome: Matthew Hughes, Executive Director, International Relations Council, Kansas City
Introduction: Patrick Ryan, President, Tennessee World Affairs Council
Keynote: Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering
Moderator: Joyce Davis, President, World Affairs Council of Harrisburg
Panel:
SPONSORS
Interested in sponsoring this special roundtable on “UN75: The Journey Continues”? Contact Patrick Ryan (pat@tnwac.org | 931.261.2353)
This joint World Affairs Councils program is made possible by individuals and institutions like you, including these.
Thanks to Nashville Cordell Hull Chapter UNA-USA President Bob Teague and our friends in the Chapter for the generous support of this program.
Thanks to an individual providing a $1,000 contribution in the name of the UN Association USA, Greater Kansas City Chapter.
Thomas Pickering
Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering served as the U.S. Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations in New York under President George H.W. Bush. Tom led the U.S. effort to build a global coalition in the UN Security Council during and after the first Gulf War. He also served as the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs under President Bill Clinton.
Tom holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service. In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he was U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He also served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In Washington, Tom was Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Executive Secretary of the Department of State, and Special Assistant to Secretaries of State William P. Rogers and Henry A. Kissinger.
After government, he was the Senior Vice President, International Relations, of The Boeing Company. In this role, Tom was responsible for Boeing’s relations with foreign governments and the company’s transition to a global organization. Prior to that, he was briefly the president of the Eurasia Foundation, a Washington-based organization that makes small grants and loans in the states of the former Soviet Union.
In 2012, Tom chaired the Benghazi Accountability Review Board at the State Department.
In 1956, Tom entered into active duty in the U.S. Navy, and later served in the Naval Reserve to the grade of Lieutenant Commander. He was assigned to the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the State Department, later to the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and served in Geneva as political adviser to the U.S. Delegation to the 18-Nation Disarmament Conference.
Tom serves as a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is active in a number of not-for-profit boards, including the International Crisis Group, where he was previously Chairman and Co-Chairman of the Board; the current Chairman of the Boards of the American Academy of Diplomacy, the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, and the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. He has been a Trustee at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Institute, among other organizations. Tom maintains close, high-level contacts in all the countries in which he has served, as well as in Europe.
He received a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, with high honors in history, from Bowdoin College. Tom received a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Melbourne in Australia, and received a second master’s degree there. Tom received an honorary doctor-in-laws degree from Bowdoin College, and has received similar honors from 12 other universities.
He received the Distinguished Presidential Award and the Department of State’s highest award, the Distinguished Service Award. Tom is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies. He speaks French, Spanish, and Swahili and has some fluency in Arabic, Hebrew, and Russian.
Gérard Araud
Ambassador Araud was a French diplomat for more than three decades, earning the highest rank in the French diplomatic service, “Ambassadeur de France.” He served as Ambassador of France to the United States from 2014 to 2019. He was also France’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York and France’s Ambassador to Israel.
Araud held numerous other senior positions within the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, including Director General for Political Affairs and Security and Director for Strategic Affairs, Security, and Disarmament (2000-2003). He also served as the French negotiator on the Iranian nuclear issue from 2006 to 2009.
Ambassador Araud is a trustee of the International Crisis Group and a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council. He is a regular contributor on international affairs for the French weekly Le Point, French BFM TV, and French public radio. He is also frequently interviewed by CNN International, the BBC, and other English-language media.
Ambassador Araud is based in New York.
Linda Fasulo
Linda Fasulo is a journalist and author specializing in the United Nations and US foreign policy. Based at the United Nations, Linda is UN Correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC as well as a long-time independent correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR). She also worked for several years as special UN correspondent for US News and World Report.
Her book, An Insider’s Guide to the UN, published by Yale University Press, was selected by School Library Journal as one of the best adult books for high school students and has received much critical acclaim. Tom Brokaw, NBC News writes, “No one knows the big picture and inner workings of the UN better than Linda Fasulo. This book is must-read for anyone interested in international affairs,” and Joseph S. Nye, of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government says that the book “will become the indispensable source on the United Nations for everyone from students to diplomats. I keep it handy on my desk.” An updated second edition of An Insider’s Guide to the UN will be published next year.
Linda is an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, and she has served as an officer and board member of the Overseas Press Club and the United Nations Correspondents Association.
Sam Rushay
Supervisory Archivist, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Sam Rushay has worked at the National Archives and Records Administration for 27 years. He is the supervisory archivist at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, MO, where he worked as an archivist from 1993-1997. From 1997-2007, he was an archivist and subject matter expert at the Nixon Presidential Materials Staff at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. Rushay has published articles about Richard Nixon and Harry Truman. A Columbus, Ohio, native, he earned a B.A. in U.S. History from Ohio State University and obtained a M.A. and Ph.D. in U.S. history from Ohio University.
Across this anniversary year, we have engaged in a global conversation. And the results are striking. People are thinking big – they are also expressing an intense yearning for international cooperation and global solidarity. Now is the time to respond to these aspirations and realize these aims. In this 75th anniversary year, we face our own 1945 moment. We must meet that moment. We must show unity like never before to overcome today’s emergency, get the world moving and working and prospering again, and uphold the vision of the Charter.
–UN Secretary-General António Guterres
World Affairs Councils are independent, nonpartisan organizations dedicated to engaging the public and leading global voices to better understand the world, America’s international role, and the policy choices that impact our daily lives and our future.
