Week in DC: Events 2.1-2.5.2016

Monday, February 1st, 2016
Defense Strategy For The Next President–Brookings Institution
Time: 10-11:30am
Location: Brookings Institution1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036(map)
As President Obama’s second term winds down and the 2016 presidential election draws ever closer, the United States finds itself involved in two wars and other global hotspots continue to flare. As is often the case, defense and national security will be critical topics for the next president. Questions remain about which defense issues are likely to dominate the campaigns over the coming months and how should the next president handle these issues once in office. In addition, with the defense budget continuing to contract, what does the future hold for U.S. military and national security readiness, and will those constraints cause the next president to alter U.S. strategy overseas?On February 1, the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at Brookings will host an event examining defense and security options for the next president. Panelists will include Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute, Robert Kagan of Brookings, and James Miller, former undersecretary for policy at the Department of Defense. Brookings Senior Fellow Michael O’Hanlon, author of “The Future of Land Warfare” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015), will moderate the discussion.Panelists will take audience questions, following the discussion.

The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story Of Cold War Espionage And Betrayal- Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Time: 4-5:30pm
Location: Woodrow Wilson Center1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. 20004(map)
From 1979 until 1985, the CIA ran an immensely productive spy in the heart of the Soviet military-industrial complex in Moscow. Author David E. Hoffman will describe this singularly-important operation, based on declassified CIA cables and his new book, The Billion Dollar Spy, and argue that despite the many achievements of technology in espionage, human sources are still vital. David E. Hoffman is a contributing editor at the Washington Post. He was pre­viously foreign editor, bureau chief in Jerusalem and Moscow, and White House correspon­dent. He is the author of The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Beytrayal (2015), The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy (2009) which won the Pulitzer Prize, and The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia (2002).

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016
Why Food Security Matters– Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Time: 12:30pm
Location: Johns Hopkins SAIS – Rome Building1619 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. (map)
Kimberly Flowers is director of the CSIS Global Food Security Project, which examines and highlights the impact of food security on U.S. strategic global interests. The project evaluates current efforts and provides long-term, strategic guidance to policymakers to ensure that U.S. foreign assistance programs are efficient, effective, and sustainable. Prior to joining CSIS in 2015, Ms. Flowers was the communications director for Fintrac, an international development company focusing on hunger eradication and poverty alleviation through agricultural solutions. From 2005 to 2011, she worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, serving overseas as a development, outreach, and communications officer in Ethiopia and Jamaica, supporting public affairs in Haiti directly after the 2010 earthquake, and leading strategic communications for the U.S. government’s global hunger and nutrition initiative, Feed the Future. Ms. Flowers began her international development career in 1999 as a Peace Corps volunteer in Bulgaria, where she founded a young women’s leadership camp that continues today. She also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica where she worked in youth development. She is a magna cum laude graduate of William Jewell College, studied at Oxford University, and is an alumna of the Pryor Center for Leadership Development.
RSVP Here

Australia’s Global Security And Defense Challenges– Heritage Foundation
Time: 11am-noon
Location: Heritage Foundation214 Massachusetts Ave NE, Washington, D.C. 20002(map)
Join us to hear The Honorable Kevin Andrews, former Minister for Defense, discuss Australia’s path forward in an increasingly complex Asia-Pacific security environment.More About the Speakers The Honorable Kevin Andrews, MPFormer Minister for Defense, Australia

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016
From Science To Marketplace: The Federal Role In Innovation–Bipartisan Policy Center
Time: 8:30am-noon
Location: Bipartisan Policy Center1225 I Street, NW Suite 1000, Washington, D.C. 20005(map)
America’s dedication to innovation, particularly in energy, has served as a foundation for economic prosperity for decades. The latest example is today’s energy boom, driven by U.S. companies working in tight oil and shale gas production, renewable energy, energy efficiency, and many other technology areas. These entrepreneurs continue to build new and successful companies on foundations supported through federally funded research and development spanning the last four decades. Smart federal investments, together with critical private-sector innovations and commercialization, have created dozens of technologies vital to America’s economic growth, competitiveness, and environment. Join the American Energy Innovation Council for an event that will examine the rationale and implications of expanding federal support for energy innovation. The first panel will explore the economic impact of federal investments in energy innovation, focusing on how these investments can best leverage additional investments and ensure America’s competitive advantage in a rapidly evolving global energy marketplace. Phil Giudice, CEO at Ambri, will join us to discuss how his grid storage company is working to develop transformative innovations in energy storage. A second panel will review new, collaborative institutional models that are working to create better bridges across the “valleys of death,” while aligning public and private sector priorities.

Thursday, February 4th, 2016
Development Of Reconciliation And Civic Equality Approaches In Georgia – Paata Zakareishvili,– GMU School for Conflict Analysis & Resolution
Time: Thursday, Feb 4, 2016, 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm

Friday, February 5th, 2016
Energy Security In The 21st Century –Institute of World Politics
Time: 5:30pm
Location: Institute of World Politics1521 16th Street NW Washington, DC (map)
Register
This event is co-sponsored by the IWP Alumni Association.
Brian Kelley Memorial Lectures: The passing of Professor Brian Kelley was a grave loss to the Institute and to our country. His knowledge, experiences and dedication were at a level that is hard to match. In his time at IWP he brought his own knowledge, as well as the knowledge of experts in the intelligence community, to help the students gain as much as they possibly could during their time at IWP. This lecture is meant to honor his memory and continue his tradition of providing students with the opportunity to hear comments from experts in their given careers within the intelligence community. The first Brian Kelley Memorial Lecture was given by Michelle Van Cleave in 2012 on the topic of ‘Foreign Spies and the US Response,’ and the second was given by William M. Nolte on the topc of ‘Counterintelligence After Snowden.’

Ambassador R. James Woolsey has served as the Director of Central Intelligence, as chief negotiator to the CFE (Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) talks with the rank of ambassador, and as General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services. Jim has been one of the most prominent analysts of national security issues, as well as energy policy. He has been a proponent of US energy independence and the protection of major infrastructure vulnerabilities, such as our electric grid upon which everything in our civilization depends. In addition to his five presidential appointments in two Republican and two Democratic administrations, Amb. Woolsey has also served as a board member on a number of publicly and privately held companies, generally in fields related to technology and security. In 2009, he was the Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and in 2010-11, he was a Senior Fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

The Evolution Of The Eurasian Union: Politics, Economics, Geopolitics –Georgetown University
Time: 9:30am-5pm
Location: Georgetown University37 St NW and O St NW, Washington, DC (map)
On Friday, February 5, 2016, the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University will host The Evolution of the Eurasian Union: Economics, Politics, Geopolitics. For one day, CERES will convene experts on Eurasian politics, economics and geopolitics to discuss the evolution and future of the Eurasian Union.