Date and location are TBD—but please save the date for BCFR’s annual event in conjunction with INDIAFEST. There is much to discuss when it comes to India….President Trump’s recent visit, U.S.-India trade disputes, rising anti-Muslim sentiment fueled by the BJP, U.S.-India security collaboration, ongoing tensions with Pakistan, and how both the U.S. and India are dealing with a rising China. Stay tuned for further details.

Larry Kaplow is the Middle East Editor for NPR, where he edits and directs coverage of the region. In his time at NPR, Kaplow's team has covered the Syrian civil war, the Trump administration's reduction in refugee admissions, the Iran nuclear deal, the US-backed fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.

He has been at NPR since 2013, starting as an overnight news editor. He moved to the International Desk in 2014. He won NPR's Newcomer Award and was part of teams that won an Overseas Press Club Award and an NPR Content Excellence Award.

Prior to joining NPR, Kaplow reported from the Middle East for 12 years. He was the Cox Newspapers' Mideast correspondent from 1997 to 2003, reporting from Jerusalem during the Second Intifada as well as from Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. He did reporting stints on the NATO campaign in Kosovo and the toppling of Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

He moved to Baghdad just before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He covered the invasion, the fall of the regime and continued reporting from Iraq for Cox Newspapers and eventually Newsweek until late 2009. In 2010, he returned to Iraq to help report an episode of This American Life.

He was part of a team that won the top prize from the Military Reporters and Editors Association for stories about failures in the US system for compensating Iraqi war victims.

He was a freelance reporter in Mexico City from 2011 to 2013. He also reported from Guatemala on the efforts to prosecute soldiers responsible for a massacre in the 1980s.

Before reporting abroad, Kaplow worked at The Palm Beach Post and The Bradenton Herald in Florida, covering courts, schools, and state government. He graduated from Duke University and was in the Peace Corps in Guatemala.

Bill Lane is Executive Director of Trade for America, and one of the business community’s leading advocates for free trade and global engagement. A 40-year Caterpillar veteran, Bill led a global team of 38 government affairs professionals in 12 countries. In that capacity, Bill was responsible for Caterpillar’s international advocacy in support of competitiveness, trade liberalization and economic growth.

Bill has held numerous leadership positions in Washington most recently chairman of the Russia PNTR coalition and the U.S. Latin America Trade Coalition, a group that supported Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Colombia and Panama. He is also co-president of the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign, a coalition supporting a robust international affairs budget.

Appointed by Speaker Hastert, Bill served on the HELP Commission, a presidential committee examining the effectiveness of U.S. foreign aid. He was a member of the German Marshall Fund Task Force on Development and Peace Corps Review Team.

Previously, Bill founded and led the USA Engage Effort, the Coalition of American Steel Using Manufacturers (CASUM) and helped lead the business advocacy efforts in support of the Australia, Chile and Peru FTAs. He was the Company Spokesman in Peoria during the Caterpillar-UAW labor dispute (1991-1993). For ten straight years (2004- 2013), Bill has been named one of Washington’s top corporate lobbyists by the Hill newspaper.

Bill is a 2011 Penn State Alumni Fellow and a member of the Penn State Hammond Society. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Bill received his BS and MA degrees from Penn State and attended the University of Cologne in Germany. He was also a Certified Management Accountant. Bill is on the boards of Global Communities, US-Russia Business Council, National Foreign Trade Council and Washington International Trade Foundation.

Bill received his BS and MA degrees from Penn State and attended the University of Cologne in Germany.

Speaker: Andrew Staunton, British Consul General-Atlanta