Meet our Next Speaker
Anne Garrels
Monday, July 10, 2017
Topic: Putin Country: The Real Russia
Anne Garrels, a long-time foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, covered Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s regime and through the U.S. invasion and its aftermath, and earned international recognition in 2003 by being one of 16 U.S. journalists to remain in Baghdad during the U.S. bombing. Her vivid, around-the-clock reports from the city under siege gave listeners remarkable insight into the impact of the war and the challenges to come.
As U.S.-led forces advanced on the city, Garrels remained at her post, describing the scene on the streets and reactions from those she encountered. Her experiences in Baghdad are chronicled in her book Naked in Baghdad(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2003).
Garrels, who first arrived in Iraq in 2002 under Saddam Hussein, led NPR’s coverage there until 2008. Her reports anticipated and documented the sectarian violence; she traveled the country working independently as well as embedding with U.S. forces.
Since Sept. 11, Garrels has also reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East. Before covering the Middle East, she concentrated on the former Soviet Union and its successor states for many years, earning an Alfred I. Dupont Award for her Russia coverage of diverse topics ranging from social and economic challenges to military and cultural developments. From Tiananmen Square to the battlegrounds of Chechnya, from Bosnia to Kosovo, Israel to Iraq, Garrels has put a human face on conflict, combining experience in the field with a sharp understanding of the policy debates in Washington.
Garrels’ work in Iraq has been recognized with the George Polk Award, the 2004 CPB Edward R. Murrow Award, the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation, the Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University Award, the University of Missouri Medal for Distinguished Service to Journalism, and awards from Interaction and the World Affairs Council. For her contribution to NPR’s coverage of the Gulf War in 1990, Garrels shared an Alfred I. Dupont Award. In 1999, the Overseas Press Club honored Garrels with the Whitman Bassow Award for a series she did on global water issues.
Before joining NPR in 1988, a move she says allowed her to “spread her wings,” Garrels was the State Department correspondent for NBC News. Prior to that, Garrels worked at ABC in a variety of positions over the course of ten years, serving as Moscow bureau chief and correspondent until she was expelled in 1982. From 1984-85 she was the network’s Central American bureau chief.
In 1996-97, Garrels spent a year as an Edward R. Murrow Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a member of the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Garrels graduated from Harvard University in 1972 In March 2016, she published Putin Country: A Journey into the Real Russia [Farrar, Straus, and Giroux].
Meetings open to members and members’ guests only. Unless otherwise noted, all meetings take place at Hedges Hall at Point Lookout. Please plan on arriving by 11:30AM for noon meetings. The speaker begins promptly at noon and lunch is served from 1PM.
Audios of Past Presentations
Listed below are links to past presentations. Click to listen:
- Trita Parsi: Iran Again
- Ambassador Chas Freeman: America’s Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East
- John Harvey: U.S. Nuclear Forces: Decisions for the Trump Administration
- Ali Ahmida: The Libya We Do Not Know
- Julia Preston: Immigration and the US-Mexico Partnership
- Colin Woodard: American Character
- Steven Koltai: Peace Through Entrepreneurship
- Josh Landis: ISIS, Ethnic Cleansing, and Nation-Building in the Middle East
- Paulo Sotero: The Turmoil in Brazil
- Ambassador Steven Steiner: Empowerment of Women in Post-Conflict Countries
- Paul Pillar: Why American Misunderstands the World
- Yossi Alpher: “Israel-Palestine, it will get worse“
- Hedrick Smith on Reclaiming the American Dream
- John Kiriakou on Blowing the Whistle
- Andrew Cockburn on A U.S. Strategy of Assassination
- Andrew Bacevich on America’s War for the Greater Middle East.
- Senator Angus King: A Policy for the Arctic
- Suki Kim: Undercover in North Korea
- Indira Lakshmanan on Negotiating the Iran Nuclear Agreement
- Gareth Porter: Was the Iran Nuclear Crisis Necessary?
- Ambassador Fred Hof on The Mess that is the Arab Middle East
- Jessica Mathews on Can the United States Still Lead?
- Serhii Plokhii on Ukraine and Resurgent Russia
- Swithin Munyantwali on Chinese Involvement in Africa. Is this a true partnership?
- Yosi Alpher on Israel’s Search for Middle-East Allies
- Pamela Cox on Dealing with Stubborn Poverty
- Seyed Hossein Mousavian on Walking the Iran Tightrope
- Ken Hillas on What is Russia Thinking Now?
- Ambassador Peter Galbraith on Iraq and Syria: What’s Next?
- Shibley Telhami on The World Through Arab Eyes
- Jim Hightower’s Common Sense Commentaries
- Dean Cheng on China: The Three Nots
- Michelle Egan on US-EU Relations
- John Mearsheimer on The Follies of US Foreign Policy
- Stephen Kinzer on “The Brothers: John Foster and Allen Dulles and Their Secret World War”
- Ambassador Jack Matlock on Ukraine
- Peter Mattis on Chinese Intelligence
- Ambassador Laurence Pope on The Demilitarization of Diplomacy
- Paul Saunder on Russia and the U.S.
- Greg Thielmann on Iran Negotiations
- Trita Parsi on “Iran: Is Peace Finally in the Offing?“
- Diana Negroponte on Post-Chavez Venezuela
- Aaron David Miller on Gulliver’s Troubles: America and the Middle East
- Fred Kaplan on Counter-Insurgency: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
- Amb. Vicki Huddleston on Africa: al Qaida, Mali, and Who Knows What Else?
- Dana Frank on The U.S. and Post-Coup Honduras: A Human Rights Disaster
- Ray McGovern on Obama in lockstep with Israel on Iran? Why?
- Gregory Johnsen on Yemen, Drones and a Drone Policy
- Larry Wilkerson on Does It Really Matter Who’s President?
- Michael Pillsbury on A China Policy for the United States
- Ambassador Husain Haqqani on The US-Pakistan Alliance
- Joan Johnson-Freese on The Quest to Dominate Space
- Richard Downes: Brazil’s Emergence
- Michael Klare: “The Race for What’s Left”
- Murhaf Jouejati: “Syria: A New Perspective”
- Stephen Walt: “Deja Vu All Over Again?: Iraq, Iran, and the Israel Lobby“
- Josh Landis: “A Policy of Regime Change for Syria?“
- James Farwell on ‘The Pakistan Cauldron‘
- Sa’ad Ibrahim on “The Arab Spring in Egypt“
- Colonel Bill Smullen on “Thinking Strategically about US Foreign Policy“
- Peter Van Buren on “Lessons from the ‘reconstruction’ of Iraq“
- Nazila Fathi on “Iran and its Supreme Leader: Two years after the Contested Election“
- Tom DeMarco on “CyberWar: Science or Science Fiction?“
- Seth Jones on “Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of al Qa’ida Since 9/11“
- Yossi Alpher on “A Win-Win Formula for Palestinian Statehood“
- Allen Wells on “So Far From God, So Close to the United States: Mexico’s Most Pressing Challenges“
- Adam Hochschild on “A New Look at the Conflict That Shaped the 20th Century”
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