Past Speakers
Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman
June 2, 2025
Topic: Adrift: The UN, Multilateralism, and US Disengagement
Jeffrey D. Feltman is the John C. Whitehead Visiting Fellow in International Diplomacy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institute. Prior to this position, Feltman served as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. As head of the United Nations Department of Political Affairs Feltman oversees the UN’s diplomatic efforts to prevent and mitigate conflict around the globe.
Before joining the United Nations, Feltman served as US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from August 2009 to June 2012 with the rank of Career Minister. He was previously the United States Ambassador to Lebanon from July 2004 to January 2008.
Before becoming Ambassador to Lebanon, Feltman volunteered to serve at the Coalition Provisional Authority office in Irbil, Iraq, from January to April 2004. Prior to his work in Iraq, he was at the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, where he served first as Deputy (August 2001-November 2002) and then as Acting Principal Officer (November 2002 to December 2003).
He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1986, serving his first tour as consular officer in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He has spent much of his career dealing with Eastern Europe and the Near East. He served in Embassy Tel Aviv as Ambassador Martin Indyk’s Special Assistant on Peace Process issues (2000-2001). Before that, from 1998-2000, Feltman served as Chief of the Political and Economic Section at the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia. He served in the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv from 1995 to 1998, covering economic issues in the Gaza Strip.
Feltman studied Arabic at the University of Jordan in Amman from 1994 to 1995. From 1991 to 1993, Feltman served in the office of the Deputy Secretary of State, Lawrence Eagleburger, as a Special Assistant concentrating on the coordination of U.S. assistance to Eastern and Central Europe. He served as an economic officer at the U.S. Embassy in Hungary from 1988 to 1991.
Feltman was born in Greenville, Ohio in 1959. He speaks Arabic, French and Hungarian. He received his undergraduate degree in history and fine arts from Ball State University in Indiana in 1981 and his Master’s degree in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 1983.
His lengthy reporting cables are widely read in Washington, enjoyed by senior policy officials and analysts for their narrative qualities and insight. Middle East expert Joshua Landis reported in March 2007 that “Feltman has a most unusual arrangement with Secretary Rice; he has a weekly video conference with the Secretary – access of the like only the Ambassador to Iraq can boast.”
Joshua Landis
May 12, 2025
Topic: Syria and the Middle East
Joshua Landis is Sandra Mackey Chair and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies in the Boren College of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
He publishes frequently in policy journals such as Foreign Affairs, Middle East Policy and Foreign Policy. His book: Syria at Independence, Nationalism, Leadership, and Failure of Republicanism will be published by the Arab Center for research and Policy studies this coming year, and he writes and manages “SyriaComment.com,” a newsletter on Syrian politics. He has written many scholarly articles and is a frequent analyst on TV, radio, and in print and has appeared many times on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. He is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute in Washington DC.
He has received three Fulbright Grants to support his research in Syria and won numerous prizes for his teaching. He is past President of the Syrian Studies Association and has consulted with many branches of the U.S. government.
He has lived over 15 years in the Middle East and 4 in Syria. He spent most summers in Syria before the uprising on 2011.
He was educated at Swarthmore (BA), Harvard (MA), and Princeton (PhD).
He is married to Manar Kashour and has two sons, Jonah and Kendall.
Martin Mühleisen
April 14, 2025
Topic: The IMF and World Bank in the New Geopolitical Environment
Martin Mühleisen is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center and a former International Monetary Fund (IMF) official with decades-long experience in economic crisis management and financial diplomacy.
Among other responsibilities, Mühleisen led the IMF’s unprecedented response to the COVID-19 crisis and oversaw work on the institution’s overall strategy and lending policies. He represented the fund in Group of Seven and Group of Twenty (G20) communiqué discussions, participating in six leaders summits before his 2021 retirement from his position as director for strategy, policy, and review. He also played a leading role in the negotiations extending the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights allocation, the New Arrangements to Borrow, and the G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative and Common Framework for Debt Relief.
Mühleisen served several roles at the IMF including chief of staff and principal advisor to Managing Director Christine Lagarde from 2013 to 2017. This period included the completion of the IMF’s Fourteenth General Review of Quotas, China’s inclusion into the SDR basket, the agreement on Greece during the 2015 European Union Summit, and the IMF’s rapid response to the Ebola crisis. As an IMF staffer, Mühleisen worked on several of the major G20 countries, focusing on fiscal- and financial-policy issues. He coordinated the IMF’s work on advanced economies during the global financial crisis, with personal sign-off responsibility for the Euro area programs with Greece, Ireland, and Portugal. He also drove innovations in risk management, knowledge management, and information-technology applications.
A German national and Konrad Adenauer scholar, Mühleisen holds a master’s degree in economics from Cambridge University and a PhD summa cum laude in economics from the University of Munich. He has published and overseen work on macro-financial analysis, the international monetary system and digital currencies, economic linkages, fiscal policy, aging, saving, and inequality.
Admiral Michael Rogers
March 10, 2025
Topic: Current Hot Spots of the World
Admiral Michael Rogers retired from the US Navy in 2018 after nearly 37 years of naval service rising to the rank of four-star admiral. He culminated his career with a four-year tour as Commander, US Cyber Command and Director, National Security Agency. In those roles he worked with the leadership of the US government, the DoD, and the US Intelligence community as well as their international counterparts in the conduct of cyber and intelligence activity across the globe. He also assisted in the development of national and international policy with respect to cyber, intelligence and technology – including extensive work with corporate leadership in the Finance, IT, Telecommunications and Technology sectors.
During his broader service in uniform, Admiral Rogers held positions afloat and ashore around the globe focusing on cyber, intelligence, maritime operations and national security. His joint service was extensive including duty with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Indo Pacific Command and US Atlantic Command. In addition, Admiral Rogers commanded at the unit, Numbered Fleet and service component levels in the Navy.
Admiral Rogers is a graduate of Auburn University and also holds a Masters of Science in National Security. He is a distinguished graduate of the National War College and a graduate of highest distinction from the Naval War College. He is also an MIT Seminar XXI fellow and a Harvard Senior Executive in National Security alum.
Admiral Rogers is currently supporting companies in the private sector, serving as a member of various Boards or acting as a Senior Advisor. He also speaks globally to various business and academic groups and is working internationally in the cyber and national security arenas. He is a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Managements’ Public Private Initiative and a member of the advisory board of Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure.
Henry Haggard
February 10, 2025
Topic: US-Korea Relationship in Transition
Henry Haggard is the founding partner of Seekonk LLC. Following a twenty-five year career at the U.S. State Department during which he attained the rank of Counselor in the Senior Foreign Service, Henry is a Senior Advisor at WestExec, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Baker Institute, Rice University, Senior Associate of the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) and U.S. Senior Advisor at AMCHAM Korea. From 2021-2023, he served as Minister Counsellor for Political Affairs at the United States Embassy in South Korea. Prior to that, he served as Director at the National Security Council under both the Trump and Biden administrations, coordinating United States policy and engagement with Turkey, Greece, and the United Kingdom.
Previous assignments at the State Department include Director of Energy Diplomacy for Asia and the Middle East, Acting Political Minister Counsellor at the United States Mission to the European Union, Chief of Staff to the Secretary’s Special Representative for Syria Engagement, Deputy Principal Officer in Erbil, Iraq, Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, three tours in the State Department’s Executive Secretariat for Secretaries Powell, Rice and Kerry, a tour in Baghdad, and one stint as political-military team lead at the United States Embassy in Paris.
Henry speaks fluent Korean and French and received a BA in International Relations from Brown University and a Masters of Strategic Studies from the US Army War College. He is the founder of The 25 Year Apprenticeship, a resource for diplomatic tradecraft. Henry is a frequent contributor to news broadcasts and other media outlets covering the Korean peninsula and global affairs. He is the proud father of three children, Hugo, Bruno and Esmé.
Douglas Lute
January 13, 2025
Topic: The Future of NATO
Ambassador Douglas Lute is the former United States Ambassador to NATO. Appointed by President Obama, he assumed the Brussels-based post in 2013 and served until 2017. During this period, he was instrumental in designing and implementing the 28-nation Alliance responses to the most severe security challenges in Europe since the end of the Cold War.
A career Army officer, in 2010 Lute retired from active duty as a lieutenant general after 35 years of service. In 2007 President Bush named him as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor to coordinate the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2009 he was the senior White House official retained by President Obama and his focus on the National Security Council staff shifted to South Asia. Across these two Administrations, he served a total of six years in the White House.
Before being assigned to the White House, General Lute served as Director of Operations (J3) on the Joint Staff, overseeing U.S. military operations worldwide. From 2004 to 2006, he was Director of Operations for the United States Central Command, with responsibility for U.S. military operations in 25 countries across the Middle East, eastern Africa and Central Asia, in which over 200,000 U.S. troops operated.
Through his military-diplomatic career, he received numerous honors and awards, including three awards of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award, the Grand Officer of the Order of Merit for the Italian Republic, and the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit for the Federal Republic of Germany.
General Lute holds degrees from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and United States Military Academy at West Point, which named him a Distinguished Graduate in 2018. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a charter member of the Senior Military Advisory Group of the United States Institute of Peace; a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy; and a member of the board of the Atlantic Council of the United States.