Zoom Recording: The Coming War with China
Zoom Recording: Myanmar's Coup and U.S. Policy Options
On March 11th, the BCFR hosted Josh Kurlantzick, Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. During a dire humanitarian crisis in Myanmar following the military’s coup and violent crackdown on civil disobedience movement protestors, Josh was gracious with his time and answered the many questions posed by our members.
WATCH WEBINAR ON DEMAND HERE
Zoom Recording: North Korea's Most Wanted
What a way to start our 2021 program season! The BCFR was honored to host North Korean defector brothers Park Sang-hak and Park Jung-oh for their first joint public appearance before a U.S. audience. The Park brothers were joined by BCFR friend and human rights activist Henry Song.
WATCH WEBINAR ON DEMAND HERE
Key Quotes:
“Many defectors and activists feel that instead of listening to the people in South Korea and pursuing human rights and our system of democracy in South Korea, President Moon is following the orders of Kim Jong-un in North Korea.” - Park Sang-hak
Zoom Recording: Sanctions and Sham Elections, An Update on Venezuela with Eric Farnsworth
In keeping with one of our fall 2020 themes—elections—we hosted AS/COA’s Eric Farnsworth for an update on the situation in Venezuela. Eric visited Birmingham for the first time in spring 2019, and we were delighted to have him join us again.
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Zoom Recording: African Elections--A Survey with CSIS' Judd Devermont
On November 23, 2020 the BCFR hosted Judd Devermont to discuss three upcoming elections in Africa. We looked at one model democracy—Ghana, one failed state attempting a democratic election—Somalia, and Burkina Faso, a country holding elections for the first time since independence amid increasing insecurity.
Judd answered audience questions, including questions related to U.S.-Africa policy expectations under a Biden administration.
Read Judd's recent piece on Birmingham's ties to Africa, “Why Africa Matters to Birmingham.”
Immediately following his conversation with the BCFR, Judd and his team at CSIS published the report “Why Africa Matters to U.S. Cities” which features Birmingham and an interview with Hilda Lockhart from the Alabama Department of Commerce.
Further reading:
Burkina Faso: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/6/amid-insecurity-voters-cannot-register-for-burkina-faso-polls
Ghana: https://www.ndi.org/publications/ghana-election-watch-december-2020-general-elections
Somalia: https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/somalia/political-turmoil-ahead-somalias-elections
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Zoom Recording: Press Freedom and U.S. International Broadcasting Efforts with GMF's Jamie Fly
On November 12, 2020, the BCFR hosted Jamie Fly to discuss the state of press freedom in East and Central Europe. As the recent CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Jamie was able to provide an inside perspective on the disinformation campaigns taking place in the region and the U.S. governments efforts to combat them.
At the time of our webinar, Jamie served as senior fellow and senior advisor to the president, working out of the Berlin, Germany office of the German Marshall Fund (GMF). There he researched transatlantic relations, U.S. foreign policy, great power competition with Russia and China, and democracy and human rights. Jamie also served as a senior fellow, co-director of the Alliance for Security Democracy, and director of the Future of Geopolitics and Asia programs at The German Marshall Fund of the United States, as well as counselor for foreign and national security affairs to Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) from 2013-17, serving as his foreign policy advisor during his presidential campaign. Prior to joining Senator Rubio’s staff in February 2013, he served as the executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) from its founding in early 2009. Prior to joining FPI, Fly served in the Bush administration at the National Security Council (2008-09) and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (2005-08). His articles and reviews have been published in a wide variety of outlets in the United States and Europe. For his work in the Department of Defense, he was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service. Fly received a B.A. in international studies and political science from American University and an M.A. in German and European studies from Georgetown University.
As of early 2021, Jamie was re-installed as CEO of RFE/RL after the ousting of USAGM’s Michael Pack.
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Zoom Recording: Georgian Wine Tasting and Policy Discussion with AMB Batu Kutelia & Giorgi Muchaidze
Last week (10/27/20), the BCFR hosted former Georgian Ambassador to the U.S., Batu Kutelia, as well as Executive Director of The Atlantic Council of Georgia, Giorgi Muchaidze. We discussed the upcoming (10/31/20) parliamentary elections, Russian meddling in the country, and the history and geopolitics of wine in the country…
Following our policy discussion, we had a virtual wine tasting with local wine seller Golden Age Wine and Atlanta-based Uva Imports. If you missed the live discussion and tasting, you can still buy the wines at Golden Age and listen along for an enlightening imbibing experience!
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Zoom Recording from our Discussion on Belarus and Kyrgyzstan with IRI's Bakhtiyor Nishanov
What a great start to our 2020-2021 virtual season! It was great to (finally!) reconvene (at a distance) to learn about the post “election” protests in both Belarus and Kyrgyzstan. Bakhtiyor Nishanov from the International Republican Institute gave a great presentation and was able to answer many questions.
Over the next three weeks we will continue to delve into the Eurasia.