“Middle East Meltdown: Causes & Consequences”
Join the World Affairs Council of Charlotte on September 5th as we host esteemed U.S. diplomat, Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Crocker has served 6-terms as a U.S. Ambassador during some of the most tumultuous times in U.S. history with the Middle East. President Obama called him out of retirement in 2011 to serve as Ambassador to Afghanistan, and President George W. Bush awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Recently a Diplomat in Residence at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, Crocker has also served in academic positions at Yale University, University of Virginia, and as Dean of the Bush School of Government & Public Service. Join us as he shares his insight on U.S. foreign policy under the current administration, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, and his outlook for the years ahead.
View Ambassador Crocker’s recent Op-Ed in the NYTimes.
Date: Wednesday, September 5th
Location:
Hilton Charlotte Center City
222 East Third St.
Charlotte, NC 28202 –Directions
Time:
VIP & General Reception, Networking, and Check-In: 11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.<
Lunch & Presentation: 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Cost:
$45 WACC Member Rate
$60 Non-Member Rate
$35 Student/Educator/TMS Member Rate**
**You must be an institutional education member, individual WACC educator, student, or TMS member to qualify for this rate
Credit card payments (non-PayPal transactions): Please call 704-687-7762 for payment processing over the phone
Check payments: Please make your check payable to “World Affairs Council of Charlotte” and mail it to the following address:
World Affairs Council of Charlotte
UNC Charlotte – CHHS 227
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223
All reservation cancellations must be completed at least 3 business days prior to an event for a full refund. Pease let us know in advance if you have dietary restrictions so that we can make the appropriate accommodations.
Biography
Ryan Crocker is a Diplomat in Residence at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, for the academic year 2017-2018. He is on a leave of absence as executive professor at Texas A&M University where he served as dean of the Bush School of Government & Public Service until August 2016. He also has had appointments as the James Schlesinger Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia and as the first Kissinger Senior Fellow at Yale University.
He retired from the Foreign Service in April 2009 after a career of over 37 years but was recalled to active duty by President Obama to serve as U.S Ambassador to Afghanistan in 2011. He has severed as a U.S Ambassador six times: Afghanistan (2011-2012), Iraq (2007-2009), Pakistan (2004-2007), Syria (1998-2001), Kuwait (1994-1997), and Lebanon (1990-1993). He has also served as the International Affairs Advisor at the National War College, where he joined the faculty in 2003. From May to August 2003, he was in Baghdad as the first Director of Governance for the Coalition Provisional Authority and was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from August 2001 to May 2003. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1971, he has also had assignments in Iran, Qatar, Iraq and Egypt, as well as Washington. He was assigned to the American Embassy in Beirut during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the bombings of the embassy and the Marine barracks in 1983.
Born in Spokane, Washington, he grew up in an Air Force family, attending schools in Morocco, Canada, and Turkey, as well as the U.S. He received a B.A in English in 1971 and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2001 from Whitman College (Washington). He also holds an honorary Doctorate in National Security Affairs from the National Defense University (2010), honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from Gonzaga University (2009) and Seton Hall University (2012), as well as an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the American University of Afghanistan (2013). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the Association of American Ambassadors. In August 2013, he was confirmed by the United States Senate to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors which oversees all U.S. government-supported civilian international media. He is also on the board of directors for Mercy Corps international and is a Trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Ambassador Crocker received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian award, in 2009. His other awards include the Presidential Distinguished and Meritorious Service Awards, the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award (2008 and 2012), the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service (1997 and 2008) and for Distinguished Public Service (2012), the Award for Valor and the American Foreign Service Association Rivkin Award for creative dissent. He received the National Clandestine Service’s Donovan Award in 2009 and the Director of Central Intelligence’s Director’s Award in 2012. In 2011, he was awarded the Marshall Medal by the Association of the United States Army. In January 2002, he was sent to Afghanistan to reopen the American Embassy in Kabul. He subsequently received the Robert C. Frasure Memorial Award for “exceptional courage and leadership” in Afghanistan. In September 2004, President Bush conferred on him the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the Foreign Service. In May 2009, Secretary of the State Hilary Clinton announced the establishment of Ryan C. Crocker Award for Outstanding Achievement in Expeditionary Diplomacy. In July 2012, he was named an Honorary Marine, the 75th civilian so honored in the history of the Corps.