2022 World Affairs Council of the Year
Network of Independent World Affairs Councils of America
Give to support global affairs awareness programs in the community and in your schools. 
Don’t forget to sign up as a World Affairs Council member (TNWAC.org/join) to be eligible to win the monthly quiz prize.
Check your global affairs awareness with these ten questions taken from the week’s news reports provided via @TNWAC #TNWACquiz.
***Alternate Link to Quiz***
Keep up with global current events by following the World Affairs Council on Twitter @TNWAC. #TNWACquiz
QUIZ WINNERS FROM LAST WEEK
David Hillinck, Huntsville, AL
Tigist Tilahun, Nashville, TN
Charles Bowers, Nashville, TN
Kathy Ingleson, Brentwood, TN
If you’re a weekly winner you’ll be entered for the monthly prize drawing but you must be a TNWAC member to win. TNWAC.org/join
Welcome to Colleen Ryan who joins the “What in the World? Weekly Quiz” team that includes Dr. Debbie Barnard, Debbie Monroe and Patrick Ryan. Colleen is a Schwarzman Scholar student at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a member of the TNWAC Advisory Board. Volunteers make the World (Affairs Council) go round!
MARCH 2019 MONTH QUIZ PRIZE
“Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News”
by Clint Watts
A former FBI Special Agent, U.S. Army officer and leading cyber-security expert offers a devastating and essential look at the misinformation campaigns, fake news, and electronic espionage operations that have become the cutting edge of modern warfare—and how we can protect ourselves and our country against them.
Clint Watts electrified the nation when he testified in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. In Messing with the Enemy, the counterterrorism, cybersecurity and homeland security expert introduces us to a frightening world in which terrorists and cyber criminals don’t hack your computer, they hack your mind. Watts reveals how these malefactors use your social media information and that of your family, friends and colleagues to map your social networks, identify your vulnerabilities, master your fears and harness your preferences.
Thanks to the schemes engineered by social media manipulators using you and your information, business executives have coughed up millions in fraudulent wire transfers, seemingly good kids have joined the Islamic State, and staunch anti-communist Reagan Republicans have cheered the Russian government’s hacking of a Democratic presidential candidate’s e-mails. Watts knows how they do it because he’s mirrored their methods to understand their intentions, combat their actions, and coopt their efforts.
Watts examines a range of social media platforms—from the first Internet forums to the current titans of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn—and nefarious actors—from al Qaeda to the Islamic State to the Russian social media troll farm—to illuminate exactly how they use Western social media for their nefarious purposes. He explains how he’s learned, through his successes and his failures, to engage with hackers, terrorists, and even the Russians—and how these interactions have generated methods for fighting back against those that seek to harm people on the Internet. He concludes with a snapshot of how advances in artificial intelligence will make future influence even more effective and dangerous to social media users and democratic governments worldwide. Shocking, funny, and eye-opening, Messing with the Enemy is a deeply urgent guide for living safe and smart in a super-connected world.
About Clint Watts
Clint Watts is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a Senior Fellow at the Center For Cyber and Homeland Security at The George Washington University and a national security contributor for NBC News and MSNBC. He’s the author of the book Messing With The Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians and Fake News.
His research and writing focuses on terrorism, counterterrorism, social media influence and Russian disinformation. Clint’s tracking of terrorist foreign fighters allowed him to predict the rise of the Islamic State over al Qaeda in 2014. From 2014 – 2016, Clint led a team of researchers who tracked and modeled the rise of Russian influence operations via social media leading up to the U.S. Presidential election of 2016. This research led Clint to testify before four different U.S. Senate committees in 2017 and 2018 regarding Russia’s information warfare campaign against the U.S. and the West.
Clint’s writing has appeared in a range of publications to include the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Daily Beast, Politico, Lawfare, War On The Rocks, World Politics Review and the Huffington Post.
Before becoming a consultant, Clint served as a U.S. Army infantry officer, a FBI Special Agent, as the Executive Officer of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (CTC), as a consultant to the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division (CTD) and National Security Branch (NSB), and as a counterterrorism analyst on a range of programs supporting the U.S. Intelligence Community and U.S. Special Operations Command.
You can follow him on Twitter @selectedwisdom
To get in on the quiz make sure you’re getting TNWAC emails (here’s the free subscription link: http://eepurl.com/gt6dn) and make sure you’re following @TNWAC on Twitter.
We’ll post the answers and the names of the winner(s) in next week’s quiz.
Here’s last week’s questions and answers:
WHAT IN THE WORLD? QUIZ
WEEK OF March 18-24, 2019
1. In the wake of the failure of denuclearization talks in Hanoi between President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un THIS was the latest development.
A. Japan detected the test launch of a North Korean submarine launched ballistic missile.
B. Pyongyang’s suspension of negotiations and a forthcoming decision on nuclear weapons and missile testing.
C. Secretary of State Pompeo announced new sanctions against Chinese and Russian banks doing business with Pyongyang.
D. The United States and South Korea announced the resumption of amphibious assault exercises at Inchon.
Correct Response: B. Pyongyang’s suspension of negotiations and a forthcoming decision on nuclear weapons and missile testing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/world/asia/north-korea-kim-jong-un-nuclear.html
2. U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo gave the keynote address at one of the world’s largest petroleum industry conferences in Houston last week touting the growing American position in global energy markets. Meanwhile leading OPEC member Saudi Arabia is coordinating production levels with THIS country to pursue ideal oil pricing levels.
A. Venezuela
B. Russia
C. Canada
D. Nigeria
Correct Response: B. Russia
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ceraweek-energy-opec-insight/all-the-world-a-stage-rising-u-s-oil-clout-on-show-in-houston-idUSKCN1QW28X
3. Israeli warplanes struck about 100 Palestinian targets in THIS territory following the launch of rockets into Israel. Officials believe the rocket strikes were accidental launches during maintenance.
A. Sinai
B. Gaza
C. Golan Heights
D. West Bank
Correct Response: B. Gaza
https://www.apnews.com/06b3bb29c5d54afbb19d4a8588636627
4. The US Senate has voted to end American support for the Saudi Arabian-led coalition’s war in Yemen, invoking the decades-old War Powers Resolution. Nearing its fifth year the war in Yemen has seen the deaths of thousands and the near-starvation of millions of Yemenis resulting from conflict between the recognized government and THIS armed movement.
A. Ba’athists
B. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
C. Houthis
D. Al-Islah
Correct Response: C. Houthis
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudi-yemen/senate-rebukes-trump-on-saudi-backs-war-powers-resolution-idUSKBN1QU1Y1
5. After mass demonstrations brought millions of citizens into the streets to protest the extension of his twenty-year reign, Abdelaziz Bouteflika has postponed next month’s scheduled election and announced he will not seek a fifth term as president of THIS North African country.
A. Tunisia
B. Morocco
C. Libya
D. Algeria
Correct Response: D. Algeria
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/15/703856745/protests-mount-in-algeria-even-as-president-promises-transitional-government
6. Citing deteriorating conditions in the South American country, the United States has announced it is pulling all remaining staff from its embassy in Caracas. This announcement comes as Venezuela has been crippled by THIS.
A. Nationwide landslides caused by torrential rains
B. Striking by the Bolivarian National Police
C. The collapse of the national power grid
D. An influx of refugees from neighboring states
Correct Response: C. The collapse of the national power grid
https://www.npr.org/2019/03/12/702464026/u-s-to-pull-diplomats-out-of-embassy-in-venezuela
7. The U.S. Federal Aviation Authority has joined the European Union, Australia, and others in grounding all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft following catastrophic crashes in WHICH two countries?
A. India and Ethiopia
B. Indonesia and Ethiopia
C. Egypt and Nigeria
D. Egypt and India
Correct Response: B. Indonesia and Ethiopia
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/17/boeing-737-max-8-similarities-crashes-ethiopian-official-says/3194949002/
8. Responding to a statement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo deeming China “in a league of its own when it comes to human rights violations,” the Chinese State Council issued criticism of the United States for attacks on press freedom, racial discrimination, and high levels of gun crime. China has been under international scrutiny for its policies towards the Uighur ethnic minority in THIS western province.
A. Semi-autonomous region of Tibet
B. Yunnan Province
C. Xinjiang Province
D. Gansu Province
Correct Response: C. Xinjiang Province
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/fabrications-china-uighur-internment-camp-conditions-190313070439477.html
9. Air strikes have intensified in the Syrian city of Idlib, the last rebel-held enclave, as the international community gathered for THIS peace-making session to reaffirm support for the Syria’s people and neighbors and to achieve a lasting political solution to the nine-year crisis.
A. Syria Peace Council
B. Geneva II Roundtable
C. Ankara Convention
D. Brussels III Conference
Correct Response: D. Brussels III Conference
https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/brussels-conference-pledges-almost-7-billion-for-syria-1.837184
10. THIS Swedish student has been nominated for a Nobel peace prize for launching an international movement, which inspired climate change demonstrations in over 1,600 cities across over 100 countries on Friday.
A. Greta Thunberg
B. Alva Myrdal
C. Laila Freivalds
D. Anna Lindh
Correct Response: A. Greta Thunberg
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47568227
COPYRIGHT 2019, Tennessee World Affairs Council
We need and appreciate your support of
the World Affairs Council.
SUPPORT OF TNWAC’S EDUCATION OUTREACH
THANKS TO BELMONT UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
THANKS TO THE NASHVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS COUNCIL
THANKS TO THE TNWAC WEEKLY QUIZ PARTNERS
THE MISSION of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Tennessee World Affairs Council is to promote international awareness, understanding and connections to enhance the region’s global stature and to prepare Tennesseans to thrive in our increasingly complex and connected world.
THE VISION of the Tennessee World Affairs Council is a well-informed community that thinks critically about the world and the impact of global events.
Learn more about the Council and find how you can join, donate and volunteer at: www.TNWAC.org —