Stanger Discusses the Outsourcing of American Foreign Policy

Last week, the Council was joined by Allison Stanger, author of the newly published One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy. Stanger believes that the United States is addicted to contractors which has dangerous implications for the country and the [...]

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Are Your Grantees Spending Too Little On Overhead?

Are your grantees spending too little on overhead? Or are they under-reporting how much they actually spend on such expenses? Chances are, both, according to the Bridgespan Group. In an article in the Fall Stanford Social Innovation Review, the nonprofit consulting firm’s Ann Goggins Gregory and Don Howard write that nonprofits under-spend [...]

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Tie Funding to Performance, Curb Traditional Fundraising; Book Lays out Plan for an ‘Impact Index’

Some of the best nonprofits have been prevented from growing as large or becoming as capable as they should be. What’s needed, according to Steven Goldberg, a consultant to nonprofits and social entrepreneurs, is a new nonprofit capital market that would take the form of a prediction, or information, market, akin [...]

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Council Speakers on Foreign Policy Top 100 List

Among the 100 Top Global Thinkers of 2009 in Foreign Policy Magazine’s Special End of the Year Issue are several guests of the World Affairs Council this past year, including Hillary Rodham Clinton (6) who addressed the Global Philanthropy Forum in the Spring, General David Petraeus (8) who spoke to the Council [...]

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Ambassador Jones Presents World Energy Outlook 2009

Ambassador Richard Jones, Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, joined the Council last week to present the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2009. Released earlier this month, the report examines two scenarios: the Reference Scenario and the 450 Scenario. The first tracks changes in world energy supply and demand if [...]

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Register Today for World Affairs 2010

Registration is now open for World Affairs 2010, the annual community-based experience presented by the World Affairs Council. The event will be held March 11-12 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco.
To learn more about and register for World Affairs 2010, visit the website here.

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Can We Negotiate with Iran?

In his new book, Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling with the Ghosts of History, Ambassador John Limbert examined four case studies of United States-Iran negotiations to see what can be learned from them. Limbert joined the Council last Monday to present his findings and explained that any negotiations entered into by the United States with Iran [...]

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Danner Discusses “War on Terror”

While his new book, Stripping Bare the Body: Politics, Violence, War discusses three different conflicts, Mark Danner focused his remarks on the “War on Terror” at the Council last Thursday. Danner described the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, specifically that of Abu Zubaydah, the first of the “high-value detainees” to [...]

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Ambassador Jones to Address Energy Supply and Demand

On Monday, November 23, the Council will be joined by Ambassador Richard Jones, Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency. He will discuss the IEA’s current analysis of energy supply and demand and the implications for energy security and the environment. The Economist wrote about current and future demands for oil and included a [...]

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Brown Discusses Plan B 4.0

Lester Brown, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute and author of the recently published Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, spoke at the Council last Monday night about climate change and food insecurity. Brown acknowledges many problems with modern society, but is especially concerned with global food [...]

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Council to Host Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran

This Monday, November 16, Ambassador John Limbert will join the Council to discuss the US approach to negotiating with Iran. Limbert, who has a distinguished history with the US Foreign Service, was just named to the post of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Iran. The announcement came thirty years to the week of his being taken [...]

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Musil Provides Hope For A Heated Planet

Robert Musil, author of Hope for a Heated Planet and Senior Fellow at American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, joined the Council Tuesday night to present strategies for combating climate change. Musil said he prefers to be an optimistic environmentalist, rather than  emphasize  “gloom and doom” like so [...]

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