Join the World Affairs Council of Charlotte for a timely and engaging luncheon conversation with Candace Rondeaux, a leading expert on global security, irregular warfare, and authoritarian power.

As part of the WACC Foreign Relations Speaker Series, Candace Rondeaux will explore how Russian mercenary forces, especially the Wagner Group, are changing the face of modern warfare. She’ll explain how these groups operate outside traditional military structures to carry out Russia’s strategic goals through proxy wars, resource deals, and influence campaigns across regions like Ukraine, the Middle East, and Africa.

Rondeaux will also discuss what this shift means for global security and the growing rivalry between major world powers. Drawing on her extensive research and on-the-ground reporting, she’ll provide timely insights into how the rise of private military actors is reshaping the future of conflict and international order.

 

 

Private Reception Sponsorship and Underwriting Information –DOWNLOAD LINK 

WACC Foreign Relations Speaker Series Sponsorship and Underwriting Information — DOWNLOAD LINK

Program Information: 

Date: Thursday,  October 30, 2025
VIP Reception: 11:30 – 12:00 PM
Lunch & Presentation: 12:00 – 1:30 PM
Location: Hilton Charlotte Uptown
Cost: $50 (WACC Member Rate) | $65 (Non-Member Rate) | $40 (Young Professionals of the WACC Member) | $35 (WACC Student Member / Teacher Member)

  • For non-online payments, please call 704-687-7762
  • Mail your check to (World Affairs Council of Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd., CHHS 227, Charlotte, NC 28223)

 

 

 

Biography: 

Candace Rondeaux is a globally recognized expert on international affairs, US national security, irregular warfare, and the strategic use of organized violence. Her book, Putin’s Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia’s Collapse into Mercenary Chaos (PublicAffairs, May 2025), reveals how mercenaries, mobsters, and oligarchs have become central tools of Kremlin power projection.

She serves as the Senior Director for the Future Frontlines program at New America, an open-source public intelligence service for next-generation security and democratic resilience. She also directs the Planetary Politics initiative, a cross-disciplinary program that aims to find solutions to the wicked problems posed by digitization and decarbonization in a multipolar world. Rondeaux is also a professor of practice with the Future Security Initiative at Arizona State University and a faculty affiliate with ASU’s Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies. Before joining New America and ASU, she served as a Senior Program Officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she led the RESOLVE Network, a global research consortium on countering violent extremism. As Senior Analyst for the International Crisis Group in Afghanistan and Strategic Adviser to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, she produced high-impact analysis on national elections and security sector reform.

Rondeaux’s writing career began on the crime and courts beat, covering breaking news across New York, Florida, Virginia, and Maryland. An award-winning journalist, she reported from Ground Zero after the September 11 attacks for the New York Daily News, chronicled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for the St. Petersburg Times, and was part of The Washington Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. Her reporting later took her to the frontlines of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where she served as the Post’s bureau chief. Her analysis and commentary have also been regularly featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Lawfare, Small Wars Journal, Just Security, Daily Beast, and World Politics Review. She has testified before Congress and provided expert advice to several UN panels and commissions on conflict, the protection of civilians, transnational organized crime, and the outsourcing of violence. She has documented political violence and conflicts in hotspots around the world, including Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Georgia, and Ukraine. She holds a B.A. in Russian Area Studies from Sarah Lawrence College, an M.A. in Journalism from NYU, and an M.P.P. from Princeton University.