Global News Review | July 28

Global News Review

Topics for July 28, 2020

• 1 – Global Covid Update – Europe’s New Wave
• 2 – China – Pompeo Declares Engagement A Folly
• 3 – Africa – U.S. Foreign Policy
• 4 – Russia and the World: The View from Moscow
• 5 – Venezuela – Wanted Men

Ambassador Dick Bowers, LCDR Patrick Ryan and Dr. Breck Walker, Ph.D., discuss the top five items in the week’s global news providing commentary and assessments, background and context; and they take your questions and comments.

This week Professor Susan Haynes and Ambassador Cindy Courville will join the conversation about key issues in global news. Dr. Haynes is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Lipscomb University. Amb Cindy Courville served as U.S. Ambassador to the African Union.  (Bio below)

Questions in Advance – Please be ready to ask good questions during the Webinar. Also feel free to send your questions in advance to be asked of our panelists.  Email:  [email protected] 

Ambassador Charles “Dick” Bowers, USFS (Ret) served as the US Ambassador to Bolivia from 1991 through 1994. During that time, the American Embassy in Bolivia’s capital, La Paz, was the largest and most complex U.S. embassy in South America. Ambassador Bowers grew up in the San Francisco Bay area, attended the University of California, Berkeley. He entered the U.S. Foreign Service in 1967. From 1961 to 1964 he served in the U.S. Army as a Russian linguist in West Berlin at the height of the Cold War. As a career member of the U.S. diplomatic corps, Ambassador Bowers served in the U.S. Embassies in Panama, Poland, Singapore, Germany and Bolivia. He retired from the Foreign Service in 1995. Amb Bowers has been a Board Member of the Tennessee World Affairs Council since 2012.

LCDR Patrick Ryan, USN (Ret) is a native of New York City. He enlisted in the Navy at age 17 and volunteered for submarine duty. He served aboard nuclear fast attack and ballistic missile boats during the Cold War, rising to the rank of Chief Petty Officer. In 1982 he was commissioned and served aboard a cruiser in the Western Pacific before becoming a Navy Intelligence Officer. Ryan served aboard the carrier Constellation in the Pacific, the Joint Staff Intelligence Directorate in the Pentagon, the Center for Naval Analysis, and the Intelligence Directorate of U.S. Central Command. Ryan retired from the Navy in 1998 and worked as a consultant on Intelligence Community projects and as the VP/COO of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations. Ryan ran a newsletter publishing business on international affairs from 1999-2016. He founded the Tennessee World Affairs Council in 2007.

Dr. Breck Walker received his PhD in Diplomatic History from Vanderbilt in 2007. His dissertation was on the foreign policy of the Carter administration.  He taught at Sewanee, the University of the South, 2007-2012, and on the University of Virginia’s Semester at Sea Program in Spring 2013 and Fall 2015. He worked as a historian in the Historical Office of the Office of Secretary of Defense 2013-2016, researching and writing a book on early Pentagon cyber policy. Prior to becoming a history professor, Breck worked for twenty years as an investment banker, the last ten as co-head of the Corporate Finance Group at J.C. Bradford & Co in Nashville. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, and J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Stanford University.  Breck serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Tennessee World Affairs Council.

Guest Co-Host | Ambassador Cindy Courville

Ambassador Cindy Courville is a trusted Strategic Policy Adviser with over thirty years of experience in national security, international affairs, conflict management, international conflict resolution and management, policy, education, negotiation, mediation, and gender integration.

As the first U.S. Ambassador to the African Union, Ambassador Courville strengthened U.S. policy positions and strategically implemented policy priorities. She developed international strategic public and private partnerships; prioritized U.S. resource allocation efforts; advanced bipartisan support and collaboration with Congressional members. As a former Special Assistant and Senior Director to the President at the National Security Council, she is widely credited with developing strategic U.S. partnerships, facilitating alliances, negotiations, and communications in Africa.

During her distinguished career in the U.S. government, Ambassador Courville also served as the Chair of the Department of Geostrategic Studies at the National Intelligence University, Director for East African Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Senior Intelligence Officer in the Office of the Chief of Staff at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Deputy Assistant Defense Intelligence Officer for Policy at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Senior Intelligence Officer for Defense Operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Senior Intelligence Political Military Analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Ambassador Courville has a Ph.D. and M.A. degree from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver; and a M.A. and B.A. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She was an Assistant Professor at Occidental College and Hanover College, instrumental in the development and implementation of programs that promoted social, ethnic, racial, cultural, and gender integration of the student body and faculty. Ambassador Courville currently serves as the CEO of Courville Consultants LLC and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Social Science Foundation Board for the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

Guest Co-Host | Professor Susan Haynes