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Day at the Wilson Center
On February 25, 2013, the Center hosted the spring installment of A Day at the Wilson Center, the thrice-annual day of programming for Wilson Center supporters. Sam Donaldson, President of the Wilson Council and ABC News Veteran, moderated a dialogue examining recent and upcoming leadership changes in China, Japan and South Korea as well as implications for U.S. foreign policy. The panel featured Ambassador Stapleton Roy, Director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Sheila Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Scott Snyder, Director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy for the Council on Foreign Relations.
In the following panel, three Wilson Center scholars discussed urgent transnational threats and US policy responses. With Robert Litwak, Director of International Security Studies, as moderator, Steven Dudley, Co-Director, InSight Crime, discussed the drug wars and the rise of gangs in the American Southwest, Sharon Weinberger, Contributing Writer, Wired.com and Columnist for BBC Future, gave an overview of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and US Air Force Colonel Wolfe Davidson provided a window into the real world of Special Operations.
At the panel and luncheon discussion, moderator Cynthia Arnson, Director of the Latin American Program, with Ambassador Patrick Duddy, former Ambassador to Venezuela, Margarita Lopez Maya, Professor at at the Central University of Venezuela and Risa Grais-Targow of the Eurasia Group examined the country’s political and economic futures post-Chavez and their implications for the global business community and U.S. policy toward Venezuela.
The Day concluded with a special sneak preview of Girl Rising, directed by Academy Award nominee Richard Robbins, a film that demonstrates the power of education to change a girl – and the world. Afterwards Jane Harman, Director, President and CEO of the Wilson Center and Shelly Esque, Vice President of Corporate Affairs and President of the Intel Foundation, provided remarks and Rangita de Silva de Alwis, Director of the Global Women’s Leadership Initiative, moderated a panel featuring Tara Sonenshine, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of State, Holly Gordon, Executive Director, 10X10 Campaign, and Shradha Basnyat, student at Wellesley College.
