Geopolitical Summit to feature Vali Nasr and Moises Naim


Vali Nasr (left) and Moises Naim (right) will be the keynote speakers at FIU's Geopolitical Summit on Oct. 29

Vali Nasr (left) and Moises Naim (right) will be the keynote speakers at FIU’s Geopolitical Summit Oct. 29

By Joel Delgado ’12 MS ’17

FIU’s fourth Geopolitical Summit, America at the Crossroads: Power and Strategy in U.S. Foreign Relations, will feature an expert on international economics and global politics as well as a leading American expert on the Middle East.

Vali Nasr, dean of the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, and Moises Naim, a senior associate in Carnegie’s International Economics Program, are the keynote speakers for this signature event which will take place Tuesday, Oct. 29, in the Graham Center Ballrooms at Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

Naim – whose research at Carnegie focuses on international economics and global politics – will be the guest speaker for the summit’s first session at 9 a.m., The End of Power: From Boardrooms to Battlefields and Churches to States, Why Being In Charge Isn’t What It Used to Be.

At the conclusion of Naim’s talk, a diverse panel of FIU experts – including Frank Mora from the Latin American and Caribbean Center, Jose M. Aldrich and David Wernick from the College of Business, and Jennifer Gebelein from the Department of Earth & Environment – will engage in a discussion moderated by John Stack, executive director of the School of International and Public Affairs.

After an intermission, the summit will continue with the event’s second and final session at 1:30 p.m., The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat. Nasr, a leading American expert on the Middle East, will highlight the session and his latest book The Dispensable Nation, which takes a look at the strategic risk of a shrinking American role on the global stage.

Following the format of the first session, a panel of FIU experts will discuss Nasr’s book and America’s role in foreign policy. The panel will include Shlomi Dinar, Mohiaddin Mesbahi and Maya Boutaghou from the School of International and Public Affairs along with Cyra Akila Choudhury from the College of Law.

The summit, which began in 2009 in conjunction with the opening of the university’s School of International and Public Affairs, has become one of FIU’s signature events and has brought in some of the world’s leading experts in geopolitical affairs, including Thomas Friedman, Fareed Zakaria and others.

Students, faculty and staff may RSVP for the summit up until the day of the event by visiting the summit’s RSVP page.

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