The CNA Seminars are a series of luncheon and dinner meetings with senior leaders within the Department of Defense, Department of State, and prominent national security experts from outside government. These sessions are held at The CNA Corporation (CNAC) roughly once a month at noon and once a month in the evening, with a light lunch or dinner as appropriate.
Rear Admiral Michael McDevitt, USN (Ret.), Vice President and Director of our Strategic Studies division will direct the 90-minute seminars. Following a presentation by the guest speaker, the remaining seminar time is dedicated to discussion and lively debate. Normally, the sessions are unclassified and follow Chatham House rules of non-attribution.
All Seminar presentations take place in the multi-purpose room of CNAC's Shaknov Conference Center.
See map and directions to CNAC
Upcoming Seminars
April 3 (Thursday) - 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. — Ambassador Mary Carlin Yates, Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Activities, United States Africa Command will be our distinguished speaker. AFRICOM is unique in having two co-equal deputies--a civilian deputy and a military deputy. Ambassador Yates directs the command's plans and programs associated with health, humanitarian assistance, humanitarian mine action, disaster response, and security sector reform. From 2005 to 2007, she served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the United States European Command. A career member of the United States Senior Foreign Service, Mary Carlin Yates was U.S. Ambassador to Ghana from 2002 to 2005 and U.S. Ambassador to Burundi from 1999 to 2002. She has also served in Zaire (Congo), France, Philippines and Korea.
April 9 (Wednesday) - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. — ADM Gary Roughead – Postponed to June 19
April 24 (Thursday) - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. — Kurt Campbell – "Difficult Transitions: Why Presidents Fail in Foreign Policy at the Outset."
June 19 (Thursday) - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. — ADM Gary Roughead – Topic TBD
Recent Seminars
March 25 (Tuesday) - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. — Major General Charles J. Dunlap Jr., Deputy Judge Advocate General of the United States Air Force. He speaks and writes widely on legal and national security issues. An early indication of his ability to provoke was his 1992 National War College paper, later published in Parameters: "The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012." More recently General Dunlap has written a monograph "Shortchanging the Joint Fight" which critiques the U.S. Army and Marine Corp's counterinsurgency manual for failing to sufficiently take account of the role of air power. In his January 9 New York Times op-ed, "We Still Need the Big Guns," General Dunlap points out that the lesson of Iraq is that "old fashioned force works." For this seminar, he will be expanding on the points made in his op-ed and monograph.
March 6 (Thursday) - 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. — General Joseph Ralston, former Commander, U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe NATO, will be our distinguished speaker on 6 March, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Joe is now a Vice Chairman with the Cohen Group.
February 28 (Thursday) - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. — Dr. Thomas J. Christensen, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. The rise of China is going to be an issue for the next administration, as it will for many succeeding administrations. There is no one in the United States Government better positioned to discuss US-China relations and speculate about future issues than Tom. He is on public service leave from Princeton University where he is Professor of Politics and International Affairs and Director of the Princeton-Harvard "China and the World" Program.
February 5 (Tuesday) - 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. — our distinguished speaker will be Admiral Henry G. "Harry" Ulrich, III, USN (Ret.) who relinquished command of Naval Forces Europe and as NATO's Allied Joint Force Commander Naples in November. Admiral Ulrich will discuss his experiences in conducting maritime security operations along the Mediterranean littoral, the Gulf of Guinea, and the Black Sea. He will reflect on lessons learned and will discuss why maritime security operations in these areas will be important to the nation in the future.
January 29 (Tuesday) - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. — the Honorable Dr. Patrick M. Cronin, newly appointed Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) of the National Defense University, will discuss the challenges posed by Iran and North Korea. Dr. Cronin is the editor and co-author of Double Trouble: International Security and the Challenge of Iran and North Korea. His presentation is in keeping with our early 2008 theme of near-term issues facing the country and the next administration.
January 7 (Monday) - 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. — Dr. David Gordon, the State Department"s Director of Policy Planning, kicks off the year by previewing the policy challenges facing us in the months to come. The Director and Policy Planning Staff serve as a source of independent policy analysis and advice for the Secretary of State. Their mission is to take a longer term, strategic view of global trends and frame recommendations for the Secretary.
December 13 (Thursday) - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. — Vice Admiral John Stufflebeem, Director, Navy Staff, will give "A View from Lisbon: NATO Transformation, Pakistan Relief, and Lebanon Crisis Response." His previous assignment was Commander 6th Fleet, Deputy Commander Naval Forces Europe, Joint Force Maritime Component Commander Europe, Commander Strike and Support Forces NATO and Allied Commander Joint Command Lisbon. A naval aviator who has flown more than 4,000 hours, Admiral Stufflebeem has served in a variety of assignments including as Military Aide to President George H.W. Bush.
December 6 (Thursday) - 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m — Mr. Ahmed Rashid, one of Pakistan's top journalists, will speak about the current situation in Pakistan and the policy choices confronting that nation's leaders. His 2000 book, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, was a New York Times bestseller.
November 26 (Monday) - 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. — Gen. Joseph Ralston has been the Vice Chairman of The Cohen Group since his retirement from the United States Air Force in 2003. He was Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1996-2000) and the Commander of the U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, NATO (2000-2003). He was appointed by President Bush to serve a one-year term (Aug 2006-Aug 2007) as a Special Envoy for countering the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). He will discuss the urgent need to resolve the PKK, Turkey, Iraq crisis.
November 7 (Wednesday) - 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. — Mr. Stephen Fidler, Defense and Security Editor of the Financial Times, based in London and in the U.S. on a reporting trip, will offer insights from his editor's notebook on France and NATO, the UK defense budget, and other European security issues (very topical subjects in a week in which President Bush will meet with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel).
A note on the CNA Seminar Series
The CNA Seminar Series continues our long history of providing a venue where active duty officers serving in the greater-Washington, DC area and government officials can interact with experts and distinguished guests. Our role is to ensure each session is intellectually exciting, unique, and very relevant to policymakers involved in making decisions regarding the nation's security, the economy, and foreign policy. We hope you can join us.
As always, we welcome any views or suggestions that you may have. Please send inputs to cnaseminar@cna.org or direct to RADM McDevitt. Contact information is as follows:
| Staff Member | Telephone Number | |
|---|---|---|
| Michael McDevitt | 703-824-2194 | mcdevitm@cna.org |
| Mrs. Brenda Caldwell | 703-824-2185 | caldwelb@cna.org |
| Ms. Vivian Walker | 703-824-2661 | walkerv@cna.org |
