Meet our Next Speaker
Farah Pandith
August 11, 2025
Topic: SOFT POWER — How We Win: The Threat from Hate and the Power of Compassion
Farah Pandith is a foreign policy strategist and former diplomat. A world-leading expert and pioneer in countering violent extremism, she is the author of the book How We Win: How Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurs, Political Visionaries, Enlightened Business Leaders, and Social Media Mavens Can Defeat the Extremist Threat. She is a frequent media commentator and public speaker, and has written for publications including The Economist, The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Farah served as a political appointee under three presidents – most recently as the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities, serving both Secretary Clinton and Kerry. She has served on the National Security Council, at the U.S. Department of State, and at the U.S. Agency for International Development in various senior roles. She was appointed to the Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council, chairing its countering violent extremism task force.
She is currently a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She serves on leadership or advisory boards of organizations including We Are Family Foundation, America Abroad Media, The Asian American Foundation, USC Center on Public Diplomacy, and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Over the last decade she has been a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, a senior advisor with the Anti-Defamation League and a senior advisor at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream. In 2020, the Muhammad Ali Center named Farah the first-ever Muhammad Ali Global Peace Laureate for her proven track record of and commitment to promoting humanitarian values; she is the creator and catalyst for the Muhammad Ali Index on Compassion.
Farah received an A.B. from Smith College and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Farah was born in India and raised in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Meetings open to members and members’ guests only. Unless otherwise noted, all meetings take place at Elk Hall, 210 Rankin Street in Rockland. The speaker begins promptly at noon and lunch is served from 1 PM.
Audios of Past Presentations
Listed below are links to recent presentations. Click to listen:
- Sherri Goodman: Arctic Security in a Changing Environment and Sherri’s Slides: Threat Multiplier
- Kenneth Frankel: How Current US Policies Create Uncertainty in Western Hemisphere Relations
- Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman: Adrift: The UN, Multilateralism, and US Disengagement
- Joshua Landis: Syria and the Middle East
- Martin Mühleisen on The IMF and World Bank in the New Geopolitical Environment
- Admiral Michael Rogers on Current Hot Spots of the World
- Henry Haggard on The US-Korea Relationship in Transition
- Ambassador Douglas Lute on The Future of NATO
- James Bosworth on Mapping Latin America’s Current Politics
- Clark Adams on Defense Diplomacy in Central Asia and Clark’s slides: Defense Diplomacy
- John Lee on China and Indo-Pacific Security
- Dr. Steven Koonin on The Realities of Climate and Energy. and Steve’s slides: Realities slides
- Dr. Elizabeth Cameron on National Security in an Age of Pandemic Threats
- Ambassador Lawrence Butler: NATO at 75—Relevant, Obsolete, or Dangerous?
- Jack Goldsmith on The Decline of Congress in the Conduct of Foreign Affairs, and accompanying slides
- Robert Einhorn on Nuclear Non-proliferation
- Matthew Goodwin on Brexit, Trump, Le Pen, and National Populism
- Ambassador Anne Hall: The Baltic Nations — Profiles in Courage
- Ambassador Jake Walles: The Israel-Gaza Conflict
- Heather Cox Richardson: Democracy Awakening
- John Deutch: Challenges to Future Climate Policy
- Thomas Blanton: The Downsides of Government Secrecy
- Shanthi Kalathil: Challenges to Democracy in the Age of Misinformation
- Ambassador Charles Ray: Why Africa Matters
- Tom Ricks: First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country
- Amna Nawaz: On the Frontlines: Reporting Overseas and Here at Home
- Christopher Costa: Counterterrorism and the Future Terrorism Threat
- Susan Landau: The Reality of Cyberwar — In Ukraine and Elsewhere
- Jon Wolfsthal: Is a New Era of Nuclear Danger Upon Us?
- Amb. Derek Mitchell: Democracy and International Security
- Admiral Michael Rogers: Russia and Ukraine
For Would-be New Members:
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How to Contact Us
We can be contacted by email, mail, or phone:
The Mid-Coast Forum on Foreign Relations
PO Box 41
Rockport, ME 04856
207-332-6567