Upcoming Speakers
Matt Goodwin
May 6, 2024
Topic: Brexit, Trump, Le Pen and the Rise of National Populism
Matt Goodwin is an academic, bestselling author, pollster, and speaker known for his research on: politics, populism, elections, voting, public opinion, Brexit, Europe, academic freedom and more. He is Professor of Politics at Rutherford College, University of Kent, recently served as Senior Visiting Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, at Chatham House, Senior Fellow with the UK In a Changing Europe, Senior Fellow at the Legatum Institute, and Senior Advisor to the UK Education Committee. In 2022, Matt was appointed Social Mobility Commissioner.
The author of six books, he wrote the No.2 Sunday Times bestseller Values, Voice, and Virtue: The New British Politics, and the Sunday Times bestseller, National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy, which was translated into multiple languages and listed among the Financial Times and Times Literary Supplement as one of the books of the year. He is also co-author of the 2015 Political Book of the Year, Revolt on the Right, which was long-listed for the Orwell Prize and listed among the Financial Times and Guardian books of the year.
Goodwin has published dozens of academic studies and research reports on European politics and populism. He regularly writes for and appears in international media, including the BBC News, Financial Times, New York Times, and Politico. He also shares his views on his Substack, writing fortnightly newsletters and discussions with leading experts, thinkers, and writers.
Goodwin has consulted and given talks to more than 400 organizations, from the UK Prime Minister’s Office to the President of Germany, US State Department, European Commission, Google, Deutsche Bank, UBS, JP Morgan, Rothschild and Cie, Trilateral Commission, Goldman Sachs, Clifford Chance. Between 2011-2015, he sat on the UK government’s working group on tackling prejudice.
Goodwin holds a BA in Politics and Contemporary History, MA in Political Science, and PhD in Political Science. After finishing his doctorate, Matt joined the Institute for Political and Economic Governance at the University of Manchester where he was later awarded an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2015, he was appointed Professor of Politics at the University of Kent and was awarded an ESRC Senior Fellowship to examine Britain’s 2016 EU referendum. In 2018, he was named a European Young Leader. In 2019 he was seconded to the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House and in 2021 was appointed Director of the Centre for UK Prosperity at the Legatum Institute where he remains a Fellow, working on issues relating to academic freedom, levelling-up, and politics.
Robert Einhorn
May 20, 2024
Topic: Are We Heading Toward a World with Many Nuclear-armed States?
Robert Einhorn is a senior fellow in the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative and the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, both housed within the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. Einhorn focuses on arms control (U.S.-Russia and multilateral), nonproliferation and regional security issues (including Iran, the greater Middle East, South Asia, and Northeast Asia), and U.S. nuclear weapons policies and programs.
Before joining Brookings in May 2013, Einhorn served as the U.S. Department of State special advisor for nonproliferation and arms control, a position created by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009. In that capacity, he played a leading role in the formulation and execution of U.S. policy toward Iran’s nuclear program, both with respect to sanctions and negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries. He also helped shape the Obama administration’s overall approach to nonproliferation; supported nonproliferation goals through diplomatic contacts with China, Russia, and key non-aligned countries; and addressed nuclear security and strategic stability challenges in South Asia. He played a key role in the development of the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review and served as U.S. delegation head in negotiations with South Korea on a successor civil nuclear agreement.
Between 2001 and 2009, Einhorn was a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he directed the Proliferation Prevention Program. Prior to joining CSIS, he was assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation from 1999 to 2001, deputy assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs from 1992 to 1999, and a member of the State Department policy planning staff from 1986 to 1992. Between 1972 and 1986, he held various positions at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), including as ACDA’s representative to the strategic arms reduction talks with the Soviet Union. In 1984, he was an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Einhorn has written extensively in the area of arms control and nonproliferation. He authored “Negotiating from Strength: Leverage in U.S.-Soviet Arms Control Negotiations” (Praeger Publishers, 1984), co-edited “Protecting against the Spread of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons: An Action Agenda for the Global Partnership” (Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2003), and “The Nuclear Tipping Point: Why States Reconsider their Nuclear Choices” (Brookings Institution Press, 2004), and published numerous articles in such journals as Survival, The National Interest, Foreign Policy, Arms Control Today, The Washington Quarterly, The Nonproliferation Review, and Yaderny Kontrol.
Einhorn holds a bachelor’s in government from Cornell University and a master’s in public affairs and international relations from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.
Jack Goldsmith
June 10, 2024
Topic: The Pros and Cons of Proposed Changes to the Israeli Court System
Jack Goldsmith is Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University. He is the author, most recently, of After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency and In Hoffa’s Shadow: A Stepfather, A Disappearance in Detroit, and My Search for the Truth, as well as of other books and articles on many topics related to presidential power, terrorism, national security, international law, and internet law. Before coming to Harvard, Goldsmith served as Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, from October 2003 through July 2004, and Special Counsel to the General Counsel to the Department of Defense from September 2002 through June 2003. Goldsmith taught at the University of Chicago Law School from 1997-2002, and at the University of Virginia Law School from 1994-1997. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, a B.A. and M.A. from Oxford University, and a B.A. from Washington & Lee University. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Court of Appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, and Judge George Aldrich on the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal.
Dr. Elizabeth Cameron
July 29, 2024
Topic: Global Health and Pandemics
Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) Cameron is a Professor of the Practice and Senior Advisor to the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health. She also serves as a senior advisor for global health security at the U.S. Agency for International Development and is a Practitioner Senior Fellow of the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.
Cameron is a global leader in health security and biodefense. She has served for over two decades, within and outside of government, to facilitate change. She spent two tours on the White House National Security Council (NSC) staff, twice helping establish and lead the NSC Directorate on Global Health Security and Biodefense. In this role she built and led a robust team focused, every day, on leaning forward to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to biological crises. Cameron oversaw U.S. global COVID-19 response efforts and was instrumental in developing and launching the Global Health Security Agenda and addressed homeland and national security threats surrounding biosecurity and biosafety, biodefense, emerging infectious disease threats, biological select agents and toxins, dual‐use research, and bioterrorism. She served on the Biden-Harris transition team.
Cameron has held senior posts at the Departments of State and Defense, where she created and oversaw biological and chemical security efforts. From 2010‐2013, she served as office director for Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) and senior advisor for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs. In this role, she oversaw the implementation of the geographic expansion of the Nunn‐Lugar CTR program. For her work, she was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service. From 2003‐2010, Cameron oversaw the expansion of Department of State Global Threat Reduction programs and supported the expansion and extension of the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, a multilateral framework to improve global CBRN security.
Outside of government, Cameron was the Vice President for Biological Policy and Programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and architect of NTI | bio, a program aimed at countering biological catastrophes. There she helped lead the development of the first Global Health Security Index and worked to build international consensus to launch a new global organization geared at improving biosafety and biosecurity.
Cameron got her start in government as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellow in the health policy office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy where she worked on the Patients’ Bill of Rights, medical privacy, and legislation to improve the quality of cancer care. From 2001‐2003, she also served as a manager of policy research for the American Cancer Society.
Cameron holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the Human Genetics and Molecular Biology Program at Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Biology from the University of Virginia. Cameron is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
John Lee
September 9, 2024
Topic: Indo-Pacific Security
John Lee is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. He is also a senior fellow (non-resident) at the United States Studies Centre and adjunct professor at the University of Sydney.
From 2016 to 2018, he was senior national security adviser to Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. In this role, he served as the principal adviser on Asia and for economic, strategic, and political affairs in the Indo-Pacific region.
Dr. Lee was also appointed the Foreign Minister’s lead adviser on the 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper, the first comprehensive foreign affairs blueprint for Australia since 2003 and written to guide Australia’s external engagement for the next ten years and beyond.
He has held adjunct professorships at the Australian National University and University of Sydney. He is one of the foremost experts on the Chinese political economy and on strategic and economic affairs pertaining to the Indo-Pacific.
Dr. Lee’s articles have been published in leading policy and academic journals in the United States, Asia, and Australia.
He received his master’s and doctorate in international relations from the University of Oxford and his bachelor of laws and arts degrees (first class, philosophy) from the University of New South Wales.
He is based in Sydney, Australia.