The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum’s Annual Symposium
Thursday April 10 and Friday April 11, 2025
Cosponsored by the Santa Fe Community College
SFCC Jemez Rooms
Santa Fe, New Mexico
To register for the 2025 Symposium, please email [email protected] with names of registrants, days attending and whether paying by check to SFWAF and mailed to: The Santa Fe World Affairs Forum PO Box 31965, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87594. Or to by Paypal or credit card through our website at https://sfwaf.org/payment
NOTE: LWVSFC members receive the SFWAF membership rate.
Symposium Description
We live in stormy times. The heyday following Communism’s end in the Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe is a faded memory. History has not ended as once
prophesized – it has instead moved on to the rise of populist leaders and their
autocratic control domestically and internationally. The democratic model which
promised so much is under challenge throughout the globe.
Can democracy survive the onslaught of autocrats? Can civil society institutions
prove to be democracy’s underlying strength? But will they hold, or will they too
falter?
There is deepening concern that autocrats, often initially elected democratically,
have used the levers of raw power to dominate mainstream and social media,
subvert education, and control elections first to hobble and then effectively
destroy democracy turning back the clock by sweeping away progress on
desperately needed reforms – from action on climate change to gender and
income inequality.
Moreover, do autocracies now seize the opportunity to attack their neighbors?
Threaten nuclear holocaust unless they get their way, and destabilize the
international order that kept the peace throughout much of the world since the
end of WWII?
How significant is the ripple effect of the seemingly sudden demise of the 40 year
old Assad dynasty not just for Syria itself but also for the greater Middle East,
Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia and beyond? How can a
seemingly small pebble tossed into a sea turn into a tsunami of global proportions
within a single week?
This symposium will analyze what such political changes, including those in this
country, portend for democracy and the future of our world.
Hours: The April 2025 Symposium will begin registration on Thursday at 9:00 am
and conclude at 3:45 pm; Friday will begin at 9:00 am and conclude at 4:00 pm.
Both days include a continental breakfast, a buffet lunch. Coffee, tea and water
will be available during the program and at breaks.
2025 Symposium Speakers include:
Gary A Grappo, US Ambassador (rtd) to the Sultanate of Oman is currently a
Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Middle East Studies, Korbel School of
International Studies, University of Denver and CEO of Equilibrium Consulting
where he provides analysis and guidance on foreign affairs. A career Foreign
Service Officer he served as Charge and Deputy Chief of Mission of the US
Embassy in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Minister Counselor for Political
Affairs at the US Embassy Baghdad as well as assignments in Jordan and
Jerusalem;
Dr. Siegfried Hecker, former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and
current professor of practice at Texas A&M University and at the Middlebury
Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA;
Dr. Emile Nakhleh, Former Senior Intelligence Service (SIS) Officer (CIA), Founding
Director, Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program (CIA), Founding Director,
Global and National Security Policy Institute (UNM), Life Member, Council on
Foreign Relations, Consultant on the Middle East, political Islam, radicalization,
terrorism, and intelligence.
Manuel Montoya, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics, University of New
Mexico with focus and publications on the global economy – from international
trade to the creative economy. He is a Council on Foreign Relations member,
Rhodes Scholar, recent recipient of UNM’s Presidential Teaching Fellowship,
UNM’s highest teaching honor. Developer of the Podcast, “Vessels and Voids”, he
explores the link between popular culture and the development of global civil
society;
Jody Olsen, PhD, Peace Corps Director (2018-2021), former Deputy Director,
Country Director (Togo) Regional Director (Europe & Asia), visiting professor and
director of the Center for Global Education, University of Maryland-Baltimore,
including co-chair of Women of the Peace Corps Legacy and member of the
Maryland Governor’s Commission for Service and Volunteerism;
Eric Rubin, US Ambassador (rtd) to Bulgaria and former president of the American
Foreign Service Association – the professional association and labor union of the
Foreign Service; An active duty US Foreign Service Officer who focused on US
policy and national security from 1985-2023. His assignments included Deputy
Asst. Secretary of State for European Affairs and Deputy Chief of Mission in
Moscow from 2008 through 2014.
Cost: SFWAF Members and affiliates both days: $100; Non-members: $120.
Thursday only: $75; Friday only $65. College and university students both days:
$60.
The symposium fee includes continental breakfasts, buffet lunches, coffee and
tea service both days. Note: Registration opens at 9 am on Thursday and 9:15
on Friday. Conference seating is first come, first serve.
Registration and Payment:
Email [email protected] by Friday, April 4. Space is limited and
reservations are first come, first serve.
Payment can be made by credit card through our Paypal account:
https://www.sfwaf.org/payment/. Note on special instructions that this is for
the 2025 symposium and also include first and last names of the registrants.
Alternatively, you may register by mailing us a check made out to SFWAF and
sending it to us at Santa Fe World Affairs Forum, PO Box 31965, Santa Fe, NM
- (Please include your name, names of all registrants and your contact
information if you are not a SFWAF member) Please also email
[email protected] if you mail a check.
Photo credit: Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), observed after sunset in October 2024, by
Dennis Webb