Apr
3

Book Club - Born in Blackness

Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War

By Howard W. French

In a sweeping narrative spanning more than six centuries, Born in Blackness vitally reframes the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in the West, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe’s dehumanizing engagement with the “dark” continent. In fact, French argues, the first impetus for the Age of Discovery was not—as we are so often told, even today—Europe’s yearning for ties with Asia, but rather its centuries-old desire to forge a trade in gold with legendarily rich Black societies in the heart of West Africa.

 

“This book is filled with countless eyeopeners… All history is, by definition, revisionist. In connecting the various dots, French is inviting us to reconsider what we understand about how we got here.... Painful and necessary… [an] infuriating and hugely enlightening book.”
— Dele Olojede - Financial Times

 

Howard W. French is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and a former New York Times bureau chief for the Caribbean and Central America, West and Central Africa, Tokyo and Shanghai. The author of five books, he lives in New York City.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. First Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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Apr
12

George C. Marshall Award Gala

George C. Marshall Award Gala

Our 2024 Award Gala is scheduled for Friday, April 12, 2024, at the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, VA.

Attendees will enjoy dinner, a captivating keynote, the presentation of the annual George C. Marshall Award in Ethical Leadership, remarks by the recipient and entertainment, all while networking and supporting the Marshall Center.

2024 Award: Jen Easterly, the Director of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

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Apr
18

Foreign Policy Forum - Space and National Security

SPACE AND NATIONAL SECURITY

DISCUSSION WITH MICHAEL GRIFFIN

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:


Michael D. Griffin is the Co-Founder and Co-President of LogiQ, Inc., a company providing high-end management, scientific and technical consulting services. He was previously the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and in that role shared responsibility with the Deputy Under Secretary for research, development and prototyping activities within the Department of Defense. 

In prior roles Griffin was the Chairman and CEO of Schafer Corporation, the King-MacDonald Professor at University of Alabama in Huntsville, the Administrator of NASA, Space Department Head at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, President of In-Q-Tel, CEO of Magellan Systems and EVP and General Manager of Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group. 

Griffin is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the International Academy of Astronautics, an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He has received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, the AIAA Space Systems Medal and Goddard Astronautics Award, the National Space Club’s Goddard Trophy, the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement, the Missile Defense Agency’s Ronald Reagan Award and has twice been awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal. 

He holds seven earned degrees, including a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, and has been recognized with honorary doctoral degrees from Florida Southern College and the University of Notre Dame. Griffin is a Certified Flight Instructor with instrument and multi-engine ratings, a Registered Professional Engineer in Maryland and California and the lead author of two dozen technical papers and the textbook Space Vehicle Design.


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May
1

Book Club - The Bill of Obligations

The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens

By Richard Haass

In The Bill of Obligations, Council on Foreign Relations President and New York Times best-selling author Dr. Richard Haass offers a provocative guide to how we must reenvision citizenship if American democracy is to survive.

 

The Bill of Rights is at the center of our Constitution, yet our most intractable conflicts often emerge from contrasting views as to what our rights ought to be. As former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out, “Many of our cases, the most difficult ones, are not about right versus wrong. They are about right versus right.” The lesson is clear: rights alone cannot provide the basis for a functioning, much less flourishing, democracy.

Haas offers a cure: to place obligations on the same footing as rights. The ten obligations that Haass introduces here are essential for healing our divisions and safeguarding the country’s future. These obligations reenvision what it means to be an American citizen. They are not a burden but rather commitments that we can make to fellow citizens and to the government to uphold democracy and counter the growing apathy, anger, selfishness, division, disinformation and violence that threaten us all. Through an expert blend of civics, history and political analysis, this book illuminates how Americans can rediscover and recover the attitudes and behaviors that have contributed so much to this country’s success over the centuries.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. First Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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May
16

Foreign Policy Forum - The Kissinger Years

ADVENTURES WITH HENRY: AN INSIDER’S VIEW OF THE KISSINGER YEARS AND LEGACY

DISCUSSION WITH LES JANKA

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:


Retired and now residing with his wife Michele on Hilton Head Island, SC, Mr. Janka previously lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he worked as President of Raytheon Arabian Systems Company.

Prior to joining Raytheon, Mr. Janka distinguished himself as an international affairs expert during a 40-year career as a government relations consultant, business executive and high-level U.S. government official. He served in the White House as Special Assistant to the President, Senior Staff Member on the National Security Council, White House Deputy Press Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Pentagon.

In the nonprofit sector, he has served on the board of directors of American Near East Refugee Aid, the George C. Marshall International Center and the Tangier American Legation Museum.

A frequent lecturer and author on the Washington political scene, Middle East affairs and the formulation of U.S. national security policy, Mr. Janka holds a BA in Economics from the University of Redlands and an MA in Middle East Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.


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Jun
5

Book Club - Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe

Myths About Israel

BY Ilan Pappe

In Ten Myths About Israel, outspoken Israeli historian Ilan Pappe examines the most contested ideas concerning the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel. Pappe contends that the “ten myths” outlined in his book reinforce the regional status quo. He explores the claim that Palestine was an empty land at the time of the Balfour Declaration, the formation of Zionism and its role in the early decades of nation building, and whether the Palestinians voluntarily left their homeland in 1948, among other topics.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. First Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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Sep
4

Book Club - By All Means Available

By All Means Available

BY Michael Vickers

In 1984, Michael Vickers took charge of the CIA’s secret war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. After inheriting a strategy aimed at imposing costs on the Soviets for their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Vickers transformed the covert campaign into an all-out effort to help the Afghan resistance win their war. More than any other American, he was responsible for the outcome in Afghanistan, which helped trigger the last chapter of the Cold War.

In By All Means Available, Vickers recounts his remarkable career, from his days as a Green Beret to his vision for victory in Afghanistan to his role in waging America’s war with Al-Qaeda at the highest levels of government. He depicts his years in the Special Forces—including his training to parachute behind enemy lines with a backpack nuclear weapon in the event of a Soviet invasion of Western Europe—and reveals how those experiences directly influenced his approach to shaping policy. Vickers has played a significant role in most of the military and intelligence operations of the past four decades, and he offers an informed analysis of the greatest challenges facing America today and in the decades ahead.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. First Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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Mar
21

Foreign Policy Forum - Turkey: Regional Powerhouse Astride the Middle East and Ukrainian Conflicts

TURKEY: REGIONAL POWERHOUSE ASTRIDE THE MIDDLE EAST AND UKRAINIAN CONFLICTS

DISCUSSION WITH JAMES JEFFREY

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

James Jeffrey retired from the Foreign Service in 2012 after a 37-year tenure with the rank of career ambassador. His assignments included Deputy National Security Advisor, and he served as Ambassador to Iraq, Turkey and Albania. He was recalled in 2018 for 27 months to serve as chief of mission in Syria and Special Representative to the Defeat ISIS Coalition. He is currently Chair of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center. From 1969 to 1976, he served as a U.S. Army infantry officer with assignments in Vietnam and Germany.


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Mar
6

Book Club - The Age of AI

The Age of AI And Our Human Future

By Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schimidt and Daniel Huttenlocher

In The Age of AI, three of the world’s most accomplished and deep thinkers – the late statesman Henry Kissinger, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and MIT’s Daniel Huttenlocher come together to explore artificial intelligence (AI), how it is transforming human society and what this technology means for us all.

Generative AI is filling the internet with false information. Artists, writers and many other professionals fear for their jobs. AI is discovering new medicines, running military drones and transforming the world around us—yet we do not understand the decisions it makes, and we don’t know how to control them.

The Age of AI is an essential roadmap to our present and our future, an era unlike any other.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. First Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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Feb
15

Foreign Policy Forum - What Is and Isn’t Antisemitism

WHAT IS AND ISN’T ANTISEMITISM

DISCUSSION WITH HANNAH ROSENTHAL

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Hannah Rosenthal, daughter of a Holocaust survivor rabbi and an activist feminist, has dedicated her life to civil and human rights. She has served at all levels of government, including for Presidents Clinton and Obama, a member of Congress and a leading state legislator. President Obama appointed Hannah as Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, and she continues to advise members of Congress, members of the news media and national and international opinion leaders on issues related to antisemitism and the importance of coalition building in this polarized and fractured world. Hannah studied to become a rabbi after receiving her BA in religion. She has received numerous awards for her advocacy, is a popular speaker and is a leading strategist for civil and human rights organizations. 


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Feb
7

Book Club - In the Garden of Beasts

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin

BY Erik Larson

Set in Berlin in 1933-1934, In the Garden of Beasts tells the story of America’s ambassador to Nazi Germany, William E. Dodd, and his daughter Martha, as they witness the rising terror of Hitler’s rule. At first Martha is enthralled by the parties and pomp, as well as the handsome young men of the Third Reich, with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the “New Germany,” she has one affair after another, including with the first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels.

Her father resolves not to prejudge the new government, but soon the shadows deepen. Jews are attacked, the press is censored and drafts of frightening new laws circulate. As that first year unfolds, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance—and ultimately horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder unmasks Hitler’s true character and ruthless ambition.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. First Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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Jan
20

Incident at Griffin’s Wharf: The Boston Tea Party and Beyond

This event is sold out. Add your name to the waitlist if you are interested in being contacted should a spot opens.


Join local historians Tracy and Rich Gillespie as they explore the December 16, 1773 Boston Tea Party and the actions that led to it, similar incidents in other colonies, and Loudoun’s response. 

The five teas thrown overboard at Griffin’s Wharf will be served, with commentary about each tea’s distinct qualities and the role of in Colonial America.

Limited seating

This program is presented in collaboration with the Loudoun County chapter of the Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission.

https://www.visitloudoun.org/loudoun250/

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Jan
18

Foreign Policy Forum - Leadership Lessons from Capital Hill

LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM CAPITOL HILL

DISCUSSION WITH WENDELL PRIMUS

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Wendell Primus was the Senior Policy Advisor on Health and Budget issues to former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi for 18 years. In that capacity, he was the lead House staffer in developing the Affordable Care Act. He also played a major role in Medicare reform legislation in 2015 and various budget agreements. The drug pricing legislation that was part of the Inflation Reduction Act was his proudest staff accomplishment. He also worked closely with Rep. Karen Bass on the Families First Child Welfare Act.    

Prior to this appointment in March 2005, Dr. Primus was the Minority Staff Director at the Joint Economic Committee for two years. He also was Director of Income Security at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where much of his work was centered on Unemployment Insurance. He served in the Clinton Administration at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Prior to his appointment at HHS, he was Chief Economist for the House Ways and Means Committee and Staff Director for the Committee's Subcommittee on Human Resources.  At Ways and Means, he worked on the 1983 Social Security Amendments and numerous budget reconciliation bills affecting Medicare. He was profiled in the New York Times for his work on the 1990 Budget agreement. Dr. Primus earned his Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University.


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Jan
3

Book Club - Against All Odds

Against All Odds: A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II

BY Alex Kershaw

Join us for a special book club event with New York Times best-selling author Alex Kershaw, who will join us for a lively discussion of his recent work: Against All Odds: A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II.

Against All Odds tells the story four men, all in the same unit, who earned medal after medal for battlefield heroism as the Allies raced to defeat Hitler. Maurice “Footsie” Britt, a former professional football player, became the first American to receive every award for valor in a single war. Michael Daly was a West Point dropout who risked his neck over and over to keep his men alive. Keith Ware would one day become the first and only draftee in history to attain the rank of general. In WWII, Ware owed his life to the finest soldier he ever commanded, a baby-faced Texan named Audie Murphy. In the campaign to liberate Europe, each would gain the ultimate accolade, the Congressional Medal of Honor.
 
Tapping into personal interviews and a wealth of primary source material, Alex Kershaw has delivered his most gripping account yet of American courage, spanning more than 600 days of increasingly merciless combat, from the deserts of North Africa to the dark heart of Nazi Germany. Once the guns fell silent, these four exceptional warriors would discover just how heavy the Medal of Honor could be—and how great the expectations associated with it. Having survived against all odds, who among them would finally find peace?


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. First Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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Dec
21

Foreign Policy Forum - Space and National Security

SPACE AND NATIONAL SECURITY

DISCUSSION WITH MIKE GRIFFIN

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Michael D. Griffin is the Co-Founder and Co-President of LogiQ, Inc., a company providing high-end management, scientific and technical consulting services. He was previously the U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and in that role shared responsibility with the Deputy Under Secretary for research, development and prototyping activities within the Department of Defense. 

In prior roles Griffin was the Chairman and CEO of Schafer Corporation, the King-MacDonald Professor at University of Alabama in Huntsville, the Administrator of NASA, Space Department Head at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, President of In-Q-Tel, CEO of Magellan Systems and EVP and General Manager of Orbital ATK’s Space Systems Group. 

Griffin is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the International Academy of Astronautics, an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a Fellow of the American Astronautical Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He has received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, the AIAA Space Systems Medal and Goddard Astronautics Award, the National Space Club’s Goddard Trophy, the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement, the Missile Defense Agency’s Ronald Reagan Award and has twice been awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal. 

He holds seven earned degrees, including a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland, and has been recognized with honorary doctoral degrees from Florida Southern College and the University of Notre Dame. Griffin is a Certified Flight Instructor with instrument and multi-engine ratings, a Registered Professional Engineer in Maryland and California and the lead author of two dozen technical papers and the textbook Space Vehicle Design.

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Dec
17

Last Tours of Dodona Manor for the 2023 Season

Join us for the final day of tours for the 2023 season. Enjoy the holiday decorations and stroll amongst the outdoor decorated trees. Tours reopen for 2024 on March 1.

Walk-ins for tours are welcome, but you should check our online schedule to make sure we are ready to welcome you.

Tours are about 75 min. Tell your docent if you have any time restriction.

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Dec
6

Book Club - Partners in Command

PARTNERS IN COMMAND: GEORGE MARSHALL AND DWIGHT EISENHOWER IN WAR AND PEACE

BY MARK PERRY

The first book ever to explore the relationship between George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, Partners in Command eloquently tackles a subject that has eluded historians for years. As Mark Perry charts the crucial impact of this duo on victory in World War II and later as they lay the foundation for triumph in the Cold War, he shows us an unlikely, complex collaboration at the heart of decades of successful American foreign policy-and shatters many of the myths that have evolved about these two great men and the issues that tested their alliance. As exciting to read as it is vitally informative, this work is a signal accomplishment.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. We run book clubs every first Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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Nov
16

Foreign Policy Forum - The State of LGBTQI+ Rights Around the World

THE STATE OF LGBTQI+ RIGHTS AROUND THE WORLD

DISCUSSION WITH JESSICA STERN

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Appointed by President Biden, Jessica Stern serves as the Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Persons. Special Envoy Stern leads U.S. efforts to protect LGBTQI+ persons globally from violence and discrimination.

Prior to joining the Department of State, Stern led Outright International, a global LGBTQI+ human rights organization, as its Executive Director for ten years. At Outright, Stern helped the organization secure observer status at the United Nations, release human rights reports annually, built the world’s largest COVID LGBTQI+ grant-making program, and quintupled the budget.  Before Outright, Stern was a researcher and advocate at Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Stern has a long history of multilateral engagement.  She was a founding member of the UN LGBTI Core Group and of its secretariat.  Stern successfully campaigned for the first UN General Assembly resolution to include gender identity and for successive Human Rights Council resolutions on sexual orientation and gender identity, leading to the establishment of the Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Stern provided the first LGBTQI+ rights expert testimony in a UN Security Council Arria.  Stern has frequently served as an advisor to UN mechanisms, including as a founding member of the UNWomen LGBTI Reference Group.

Stern is a published author, is frequently cited in the media, and is the recipient of numerous honors, including from Crain’s New York Business, Gay City News, and the Metropolitan Community Church.  As an adjunct associate professor, Special Envoy Stern taught the first LGBTQI+ rights course at Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs.  Special Envoy Stern has lived in Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Uruguay.

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Veterans Day Commemoration
Nov
11

Veterans Day Commemoration

19th Annual Veterans Day Commemoration

Join us for our 19th annual Veterans Day Commemoration on Saturday, November 11, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. This event, cohosted by The George C. Marshall International Center, the Town of Leesburg and Loudoun County, will take place on the grounds of George C. Marshall’s Dodona Manor in historic Leesburg.

Brig. Gen. Adam C. Volant (U.S. Army, Ret.), former Director of Operations for U.S. Army Information Warfare Command, will be our keynote speaker, reflecting on the meaning of the day and the remarkable contributions of veterans to our community. Vintage military vehicles will be on site for exploration, and Dodona Manor will be open for free tours.

Rain or shine. Free and open to the public (no RSVP necessary).

Parking is available at the Loudoun County Government Garage 146 Loudoun Street. Transportation from the Loudoun County Government Garage provided by Cartwheels. We recommend arriving early and parking by 9:30 a.m. to allow ample time to journey to Dodona Manor.

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Nov
1

Book Club - How Civil Wars Start

HOW CIVIL WARS START

BY BARBARA F. WALTER

“How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them” by New York Times bestselling author Barbara F. Walter.

 In this urgent and insightful book, Walter redefines civil war for a new age, providing the framework we need to confront the danger we now face—and the knowledge to stop it before it’s too late.

“As democracies across the world backslide and citizens become more polarized, civil wars will become even more widespread and last longer than they have in the past. This urgent and important book shows us a path back toward peace.”


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. We run book clubs every first Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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Oct
19

Foreign Policy Forum - U.S.- Iran Relations, Past and Present

U.S. - IRAN RELATIONS, PAST AND PRESENT

DISCUSSION WITH VICTOR TOMSETH

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Ambassador Tomseth was born April 14, 1941 in Eugene, Oregon and grew up in nearby Springfield. He received a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of Oregon in 1963 and a master of arts degree in history from the University of Michigan in 1966. He also attended Cornell University’s Southeast Asian area studies program in 1972-73 and the Department of State’s Senior Seminar in National and International Affairs in 1981-82.

Following graduation from the University of Oregon, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal in 1964-65. He joined the United States Foreign Service in August 1966 and, after receiving Thai language training, was posted to Thailand the following year. In 1971 he returned to the United States, serving in the Department of State and spending an academic year at Cornell University until 1976. At that point, following Farsi language training, he was posted to Iran as Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Shiraz. In February 1979, he transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Tehran where he served as Counselor for Political Affairs and Acting Deputy Chief of Mission. On November 4, 1979, he became one of 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days following the seizure of the U.S. Embassy by Islamic militants.

After his release in January 1981, Ambassador Tomseth attended the State Department’s Senior Seminar and then served two years as Director for India, Nepal and Sri Lanka in the State Department’s Near East and South Asia Bureau. In 1984 he was assigned to Colombo, Sri Lanka, as the Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission to that country and the Republic of Maldives. In 1986 he returned to Washington to head the Office of Thailand and Burma Affairs in the East Asia and Pacific Bureau of the State Department. In 1989 he was assigned to Bangkok, Thailand, as Deputy Chief of Mission, the United States’ largest embassy in Asia. In 1993, he was nominated by President Clinton to be the United States Ambassador to Laos and was confirmed by the Senate. He served in that position until August 1996. He retired from the Foreign Service in September that year.

Since retiring, Ambassador Tomseth has remained active in international affairs, serving with the rank of ambassador as the Senior Deputy Head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Mission to Croatia in 1998-99, as the head of the OSCE’s Rapid Expert Assistance and Cooperation Teams task force in 2000. He also served as Senior Area Advisor for East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York for the 1997 and 1999 General Assembly sessions. He currently works as an independent consultant for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), supporting the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s military exercise program.

Ambassador Tomseth has received a number of awards including the Department of State’s Award for Valor and the Wilbur J. Carr Award, the American Foreign Service Association’s Award for outstanding contributions in the field of diplomacy, the President’s Award for Meritorious Service, and the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand presented by the King of Thailand for his contributions to U.S.-Thai relations. Ambassador Tomseth speaks Thai, Lao, Farsi and French. He and his wife, Wallapa, have two children, Christopher and Aranya, and two grandchildren. They reside in Vienna, Virginia.

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Oct
4

Book Club - Sea Power: The History and Geopolitics of the World's Oceans

SEA POWER: THE HISTORY AND GEOPOLITICS OF THE WORLD’S OCEANS

BY ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS, USN (RET.)

From one of the most admired admirals of his generation - and the only admiral to serve as supreme allied commander at NATO - comes a remarkable voyage through all of the world's most important bodies of water, providing the story of naval power as a driver of human history and a crucial element in our current geopolitical path.

From the time of the Greeks and the Persians clashing in the Mediterranean, sea power has determined world power. To an extent that is often underappreciated, it still does. No one understands this better than Admiral Jim Stavridis. In Sea Power, Admiral Stavridis takes us with him on a tour of the world's oceans from the admiral's chair, showing us how the geography of the oceans has shaped the destinies of nations and how naval power has in a real sense made the world we live in today and will shape the world we live in tomorrow.

Not least, Sea Power is marvelous naval history, giving us fresh insight into great naval engagements from the battles of Salamis and Lepanto through to Trafalgar, the Battle of the Atlantic, and submarine conflicts of the Cold War. It is also a keen-eyed reckoning with the likely sites of our next major naval conflicts, particularly the Arctic Ocean, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the South China Sea. Finally, Sea Power steps back to take a holistic view of the plagues to our oceans that are best seen that way, from piracy to pollution.

When most of us look at a globe, we focus on the shape of the seven continents. Admiral Stavridis sees the shapes of the seven seas. After listening to Sea Power, you will, too. Not since Alfred Thayer Mahan's legendary The Influence of Sea Power upon History have we had such a powerful reckoning with this vital subject.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. We run book clubs every first Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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Sep
21

Off Duty - George C. Marshall in the Secret World with David Robarge

TOPIC:

The Soldier-Statesman in the Secret World

George C. Marshall is best known as the Allies’ “organizer of victory” during World War II and steward of the namesake economic recovery program in postwar Western Europe. Far less well-known is Marshall’s extensive engagement with the world of intelligence during those years. In his Army leadership role in World War II, his diplomatic mission to China right after the war and his service as head of the State and Defense Departments, he grappled with difficult issues concerning intelligence capabilities and authorities, security matters and political and bureaucratic conflicts that persist today in the U.S. intelligence community. How he approached them can provide insights for current intelligence leaders and practitioners as they confront those historically enduring problems.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

David Robarge is Chief Historian of the Central Intelligence Agency. He joined the CIA in 1989 and worked as a political and leadership analyst on the Middle East. After earning a Ph.D. in American history from Columbia, he moved to the History Staff in 1996 and was appointed Chief Historian in 2005.

EVENT DETAILS

Off Duty is an outdoor speaker series hosted by the George C. Marshall International Center. Each event features a speaker discussing a topic that touches on history adjacent to George C. Marshall and the times in which he lived. The events run around 90 minutes long, with light refreshments and opportunities for networking before and after the discussion.

RSVP TO CKOESTER@GEORGECMARSHALL.ORG

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Sep
21

Foreign Policy Forum - Reflections on a Foreign Service Career

REFLECTIONS ON A FOREIGN SERVICE CAREER

DISCUSSION WITH DON CAMP

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Donald Camp is a retired foreign service officer who divided his career primarily between South and East Asia. Peace Corps service in India (1970-72) prepared him for his later work on South Asia at the State Department and with the National Security Council (NSC), which included stints as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia and NSC Senior Director for South Asia in the Obama White House.   

 

Two years of Mandarin language training prepared Camp for six years of service in greater China (one year in Taiwan, two years in Beijing and three years as Consul General in Chengdu). After his retirement from the State Department, he served for three months every autumn as Senior Advisor for South Asia at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations during its General Assembly. He is a graduate of Carleton College and lives in Falls Church, Virginia.

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Sep
6

Book Club - The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life

THE ORIENTALIST: SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF A STRANGE AND DANGEROUS LIFE

BY TOM REISS

Part history, part cultural biography, and part literary mystery, The Orientalist traces the life of Lev Nussimbaum, a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a best-selling author in Nazi Germany. 

Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku, at the edge of the czarist empire, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan.  He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable books about Islam, desert adventures, and global revolution, became celebrated across fascist Europe.  His enduring masterpiece, Ali and Nino–a story of love across ethnic and religious boundaries, published on the eve of the Holocaust–is still in print today.

But Lev’s life grew wilder than his wildest stories.  He married an international heiress who had no idea of his true identity–until she divorced him in a tabloid scandal.  His closest friend in New York, George Sylvester Viereck–also a friend of both Freud’s and Einstein’s–was arrested as the leading Nazi agent in the United States.  Lev was invited to be Mussolini’s official biographer–until the Fascists discovered his “true” identity.  Under house arrest in the Amalfi cliff town of Positano, Lev wrote his last book–discovered in a half a dozen notebooks never before read by anyone–helped by a mysterious half-German salon hostess, an Algerian weapons-smuggler, and the poet Ezra Pound. 

Tom Reiss spent five years tracking down secret police records, love letters, diaries, and the deathbed notebooks.  Beginning with a yearlong investigation for The New Yorker, he pursued Lev’s story across ten countries and found himself caught up in encounters as dramatic and surreal, and sometimes as heartbreaking, as his subject’s life.  Reiss’s quest for the truth buffets him from one weird character to the next: from the last heir of the Ottoman throne to a rock opera-composing baroness in an Austrian castle, to an aging starlet in a Hollywood bungalow full of cats and turtles.

As he tracks down the pieces of Lev Nussimbaum’s deliberately obscured life, Reiss discovers a series of shadowy worlds–of European pan-Islamists, nihilist assassins, anti-Nazi book smugglers, Baku oil barons, Jewish Orientalists–that have also been forgotten.  The result is a thoroughly unexpected picture of the twentieth century–of the origins of our ideas about race and religious self-definition, and of the roots of modern fanaticism and terrorism.  Written with grace and infused with wonder, The Orientalist is an astonishing book.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. We run book clubs every first Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

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Jul
19

Off Duty - Space Shuttle Challenger with Bob Holcomb

TOPIC:

On January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger was launched in extremely cold temperatures and, after 73 seconds of flight, disintegrated due to a failure of one of the solid rocket boosters, causing the vehicle to explode. All seven astronauts aboard perished. 

 

In this Off Duty talk, Holcomb will present background information about how the accident occurred, the decision process to launch in such cold temperatures and how the vehicle was destroyed. In addition to the larger leadership lessons that the accident underscores, Holcomb will discuss some of the accident investigation findings and how the process was revised for future space shuttle launches. 

NOTE: This event will be held in the Haub Room inside Dodona Manor. Seating is limited to 25 attendees. RSVP Today!

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Robert C. Holcomb is an adjunct staff member in the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in Alexandria, Virginia. He received his BS degree from the United States Military Academy in 1973, his MS degree in Operations Research from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Information Technology from George Mason University in 2011. Dr. Holcomb retired from the Army in 1993 as a lieutenant colonel after a twenty-year career. In September 2017, Dr. Holcomb retired from his full-time position at IDA and became a part-time adjunct. Dr. Holcomb’s upcoming book Stone Tapestry: a guided tour through the West Point cemetery and American history will be available from Schiffer Publishing in Summer 2023.

EVENT DETAILS

Off Duty is a speaker series hosted by the George C. Marshall International Center. Each event features a speaker discussing a topic that touches on history adjacent to George C. Marshall and the times in which he lived. The events run around 90 minutes long, with light refreshments and opportunities for networking before and after the discussion.

Join us Wednesday, July 19 from 5:30-7 p.m. ET for an in-person speaker event in the Haub Room at Dodona Manor featuring Dr. Bob Holcomb, an adjunct staff member in the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in Alexandria, Virginia.  

RSVP TO CKOESTER@GEORGECMARSHALL.ORG

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Jul
5

Book Club - Sanctions: What Everyone Needs to Know

SANCTIONS: WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW

BY BRUCE W. JENTLESON

A concise, authoritative overview of a little-understood yet extremely important phenomenon in world politics: the use of economic sanctions by one country to punish another.

It's hard to browse the news without seeing reports of yet another imposition of sanctions by one country on another. The United States has sanctions against more than 30 countries. Russia has repeatedly imposed sanctions against former Soviet republics. China has developed its own approach, including targeting private entities such as the NBA. And it's not just major powers: Japan and South Korea have sanctioned each other over WWII and colonial legacies; Saudi Arabia against Qatar because of differences over Iran; and France, Germany, and Norway against Brazil over the Amazon forest and climate change. In Sanctions: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Bruce Jentleson--one of America's leading scholars on the subject--answers the fundamental questions about sanctions today: Why are they used so much? What are their varieties? What are the key factors affecting their success? Why have they become the tool of first resort for states engaged in international conflict? Jentleson demonstrates
that examining sanctions is key to understanding international relations and explains how and why they will likely continue to bear on global politics.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. We run book clubs every first Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

View Event →
Jun
21

Off Duty - U.S. Post-War Leadership with Brinton Rowdybush

TOPIC:

1947 – When the U.S. Took on Post-War Leadership 

General Marshall was appointed Secretary of State by President Truman in January 1947. That year marked the beginning of the “Cold War” in earnest. Britain stepped back from its leadership role in international affairs and the United States stepped up. George C. Marshall played a critical role in these developments during his first six months in office, ably seconded by several key individuals at the State Department. This period set the stage for the next 40+ years of American foreign policy until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

J. Brinton Rowdybush retired from the State Department in 2011 after more than 20 years as a foreign service officer. His overseas tours were in Mexico, France (twice), Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. He was the U.S. Consul in Bordeaux from 2004-2007 and taught international relations and European politics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 2007-2009. His Ph.D. is in Political Science from UC Berkeley.

EVENT DETAILS

Off Duty is an outdoor speaker series hosted by the George C. Marshall International Center. Each event features a speaker discussing a topic that touches on history adjacent to George C. Marshall and the times in which he lived. The events run around 90 minutes long, with light refreshments and opportunities for networking before and after the discussion.

RSVP TO CKOESTER@GEORGECMARSHALL.ORG

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Jun
15

Foreign Policy Forum - The Challenge of Public Diplomacy in a Social Media Era

THE CHALLENGE OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN A SOCIAL MEDIA ERA

DISCUSSION WITH MIKE MCCURRY

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Mike McCurry is a retired communications consultant, political advisor, and seminary professor residing in Kensington, Maryland. 

McCurry has nearly four decades of experience in the nation’s capital. McCurry served in the White House as Press Secretary to President Bill Clinton (1995-1998). He also served as Spokesman for the U.S. Department of State (1993-1995) and Director of Communications for the Democratic National Committee (1988-1990). McCurry held a variety of leadership roles in national campaigns for the Democratic ticket from 1984 to 2004 and worked as a Press Secretary in the United States Senate from 1976 to 1983, serving Senators Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (D-NJ) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY).

McCurry is also a former member of the governing board of the Wesley Theological Seminary where he served as Director and Professor at the Seminary’s Center for Public Theology.

McCurry has served on several boards or advisory councils including Share Our Strength, the Children’s Scholarship Fund, the White House Historical Association, and the Global Health Initiative of the United Methodist Church.  He is former Co-Chair of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which organizes the fall general election debates between the major candidates for President and Vice President of the United States.  McCurry is formerly of counsel at the Washington, DC public affairs and communications consulting firm Public Strategies Washington, Inc. where he worked as a consultant for nearly 15 years.

McCurry received his Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University in 1976 and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University in 1985 in addition to his MA degree from Wesley Seminary which he received in 2013.

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Jun
7

Book Club - The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies

THE WOMAN WHO SMASHED CODES: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America’s Enemies

by Jason Fagone

Joining the ranks of Hidden Figures and In the Garden of Beasts, the incredible true story of the greatest codebreaking duo that ever lived, an American woman and her husband who invented the modern science of cryptology together and used it to confront the evils of their time, solving puzzles that unmasked Nazi spies and helped win World War II.

In 1912, at the height of World War I, brilliant Shakespeare expert Elizebeth Smith went to work for an eccentric tycoon on his estate outside Chicago. The tycoon had close ties to the US government, and he soon asked Elizebeth to apply her language skills to an exciting new venture: code breaking. There she met the man who would become her husband, groundbreaking cryptologist William Friedman. Though she and Friedman are in many ways the Adam and Eve of the NSA, Elizebeth's story, incredibly, has never been told.

In The Woman Who Smashed Codes, Jason Fagone chronicles the life of this extraordinary woman, who played an integral role in our nation's history for 40 years. After World War I, Smith used her talents to catch gangsters and smugglers during Prohibition, then accepted a covert mission to discover and expose Nazi spy rings that were spreading like wildfire across South America, advancing ever closer to the United States. As World War II raged, Elizabeth fought a highly classified battle of wits against Hitler's Reich, cracking multiple versions of the Enigma machine used by German spies. Meanwhile, inside an army vault in Washington, William worked furiously to break Purple, the Japanese version of Enigma - and eventually succeeded, at a terrible cost to his personal life.

Fagone unveils America's code-breaking history through the prism of Smith's life, bringing into focus the unforgettable events and colorful personalities that would help shape modern intelligence. Blending the lively pace and compelling detail that are the hallmarks of Erik Larson's best sellers with the atmosphere and intensity of The Imitation Game, The Woman Who Smashed Codes is riveting popular history at its finest.


Join us each month to discuss a pre-selected book presenting a foreign policy topic. We run book clubs every first Wednesday of each month (12pm).

We are proud to partner with the Loudoun County Public Library who makes available multiple copies of this book for checkout at the Rust Library.

View Event →
May
18

Foreign Policy Forum - U.S. Interests in Africa: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

U.S. INTERESTS IN AFRICA: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW

DISCUSSION WITH AMBASSADOR ROBERT G. HOUDEK

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Ambassador Houdek retired from the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in September 2007 and currently works as consultant on African affairs. From October 1997 to September 2006, he served as the National Intelligence Officer for Africa. 

 Before joining the NIC, the Ambassador served as an advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Agency for International Development (AID) on the President’s Greater Horn of Africa Initiative. During the first half of 1997, he was detailed to AID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), serving as the negotiator on a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in Eastern Zaire, working to separate legitimate Rwandan refugees from genocidaires and repatriate them to Rwanda.

 Ambassador Houdek was a Foreign Service Officer from 1962 to 1996. Among his many assignments, he served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Eritrea (1993-96), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1991-93), Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (1988-91), Ambassador to Uganda (1985-88), Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya (1980-84) and Deputy Director of the Office of West African Affairs. He also served on the White House staff from 1969 to 1971 as a Special Assistant to then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. 

 In 1991, Ambassador Houdek was awarded the President’s Exceptional Service Medal for his role in evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the last days of the Ethiopian civil war. His honors include several Presidential Service and State Department Superior Honor Awards.

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May
17

Off Duty: Roger Hockenberry

TOPIC

The divide between digital lives and analog lives continues to blur and become indistinct. People spend more and more time curating a better ‘digital’ life and focus on finding affinity in like-minded groups across the digital landscape. This talk will focus on the concept of the rise of a purely digital nation-state, one that is made up of a shared ethos, land, currency and religion. Could this digital nation take the place of our affinity and allegiance to our ‘analog’ country? When working on international treaties and diplomacy, are we accounting for the electronic lives of people and how that may affect policy? This presentation will delve into these questions and explore how our life is a continuum that bridges many worlds.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Roger Hockenberry is CEO and co-founder of Cognitio Corp. He is a proven technologist and business executive with over twenty-five years of experience working with all aspects of information technology. He is the former CTO for the Directorate of Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he helped shape mission capabilities across a broad spectrum of activities.

EVENT DETAILS

Off Duty is an outdoor speaker series hosted by the George C. Marshall International Center. Each event features a speaker discussing a topic that touches on history adjacent to George C. Marshall and the times in which he lived. The events run around 90 minutes long, with light refreshments and opportunities for networking before and after the discussion.

RSVP TO CKOESTER@GEORGECMARSHALL.ORG

View Event →