Meet our Next Speaker
Blas Nuñez-Neto
December 11, 2025
Topic: Status of Asylum Laws and Practices
Blas Nuñez-Neto is a Senior advisor at WestExec. He is a leading expert on homeland security, counter-terrorism, immigration, and trade policy with extensive management experience and a broad range of contacts in the executive branch, Capitol Hill, foreign governments, and the private sector. In a number of key roles inside and outside the government, he has tackled some of the most challenging policy issues facing the country, negotiating landmark international agreements and brokering bipartisan legislation.
He most recently served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor for Migration and Southwest Border Coordination at the National Security Council, where he coordinated the whole of government response to migration and border management and helped formulate national policies designed to address migratory flows.
Prior to this appointment, Blas served as Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy and Acting Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In these roles, he led the response to the unprecedented surge in global migration that followed the COVID-19 pandemic, and headed diplomatic engagements with countries in the Western Hemisphere to coordinate migratory policy and negotiate international agreements. He also held key leadership positions at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the largest federal law enforcement agency, serving as the Chief Operating Officer and as a Senior Advisor to the Commissioner.
Blas previously served as Associate Director and Senior Policy Researcher for the RAND Corporation’s Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center. Additionally he provided expert counsel for Members of Congress as a Senior Professional Staff Member at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and as an Analyst at the Congressional Research Service.
Blas holds an M.A. in Government Administration and a B.A. in Political Science and English from the University of Pennsylvania.
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:
- Silkroad Trio (Soft Power in Action) Introductory Panel Silkroad Performance
- Ambassador Christopher Hill: Foreign Policy Challenges in Uncertain Times
- Mohamed Bouabdallah and Carla Canales: Soft Power — An Essential Element of Foreign Relations
- Farah Pandith: SOFT POWER — How We Win: The Threat from Hate and the Power of Compassion
- 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:
It’s pretty simple: just click here to fill out a membership form.
For Current Members Only:
Renewal dues are payable now for the Forum year ending 09/30/2026. Click here to pay online.
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