Weiser Diplomacy Center Series

David I. Steinberg and Moe Thuzar will discuss the coup in Myanmar and provide the essential context of the crisis. 

In Why Nations Rise, Manjari Miller argues that elites in some states actively reframe their image when their economic and military power increases, applies lessons from historical cases, and reshapes our understanding of rising power.

Eric Beinhart of the U.S. Department of Justice will discuss approaches to police reform in societies affected by conflict and ways to bridge the divide between formal law enforcement and traditional community governance structures in areas where state institutions have lacked capacity and/or legitimacy.

We invite Ford School students to join us for a conversation with Ambassador Joseph Yun on Biden administration's policy options with respect to North Korea. Yun is a senior advisor to the Asia Program at USIP and one of the nation’s leading experts on relations with North Korea.    

This event will feature Dr. Vivian S. Walker, Executive Director of the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, in conversation with Professor John Ciorciari, Director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center at the University of Michigan, with a welcome address by Rejaul Karim Laskar, representing the Global Forum for Scholars & Practitioners of Diplomacy. 

The Weiser Diplomacy Center is partnering with the American Academy of Diplomacy to bring seasoned U.S. diplomats to Ford School and discuss the future of U.S. foreign policy after presidential election 2020.

Join us for a virtual conversation co-hosted by the Gulf International Forum featuring Dr. Dania Thafer, Executive Director of the Gulf International Forum (GIF), Abbas Khadim, Director of Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic Council and General Anthony C. Zinni, former United States Marine Corps general in conversation with Ambassador Patrick Theros. 

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Bui Hai Thiem, a research manager at the Institute for Legislative Studies, National Assembly Standing Committee of Vietnam, Pavin Chachavalpongpun, an associate professor at Kyoto University's Center for Southeast Asian Studies and Wai Wai Nu, a former political prisoner and the founder and Executive Director of the Women Peace Network in Myanmar.

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Kinga Brudzinska, Program Director of Future of Europe for GLOBSEC Policy Institute in conversation with John Ciorciari, director of Weiser Diplomacy Center. They will discuss major trends, challenges and opportunities for supporting democracy in central and eastern Europe—particularly the “V4” countries of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. This event is open to all University of Michigan students.    

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Dr. Babajide Ololajulo, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Dr. Patrick Cobbinah, Urban Planning Academic in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, in conversation with Justine M. Davis, LSA Collegiate Fellow in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) at the University of Michigan.

Join us for a conversation on current relations between the United States and China and possible paths forward given COVID and the upcoming U.S. elections. Panelists will include Kenneth Lieberthal, senior fellow emeritus at Brookings, Mary Gallagher, professor of political science, and Ann Lin, associate professor of public policy. Ford School Dean Michael Barr will moderate the discussion. 

Join the Weiser Diplomacy Center and the Ford School for a discussion with David Miliband, President of the International Rescue Committee and former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom. 

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Jason Carter, Chairman of the Carter Center Board of Trustees, Ms. Narcis Scope, Chief Elections Officer, Elections and Boundaries Commission of Trinidad and Tobago representing CARICOM, and Ms. Pauline Chase from Guyana Bar Association in conversation with Ambassador Susan Page, Professor of Practice in International Diplomacy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy discussing about the Guyana Electoral Observation Mission (EOM).

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Amy Studdart, senior advisor at the International Republican Institute, where she leads the organization's digital democracy programming, in conversation with Associate Professor John Ciorciari, director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center and International Policy Center about two case examples of combating misinformation while promoting open online spaces, in Taiwan and Venezuela.   

Please join us for a virtual seminar with Matt Dippell, Deputy Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Programs at the National Democratic Institute in conversation with Associate Professor John Ciorciari, director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center and International Policy Center.

WDC Director professor John Ciorciari will lead this virtual session with our Ford School colleagues Mohammad Akbar Zadran and Matt Rigdon in a discussion about the U.S. and Taliban Peace Deal signed after nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan.

Due to COVID-19, this event has been canceled.  We are working to reschedule this event.

Please join us for a talk with Denis McDonough, former White House Chief of Staff for President Barack Obama, in conversation with Associate Professor John Ciorciari, director of the Weiser Diplomacy Center and International Policy Center.

This Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation Lecture will examine the nexus between labor rights and trade—a crucial topic as U.S. and global trade arrangements are being renegotiated. It will feature a conversation between two experts who have long worked to advance worker’s rights in the context of global trade—Dr. Bama Athreya, a visiting policy expert at the Weiser Diplomacy Center, and Ford School Professor of Practice Sander Levin. 

This event will feature a conversation between noted Russian journalist and scholar Yevgenia Albats and Ambassador Susan Elliott, a recently retired U.S. diplomat, on the role of media and information in the evolving relationship between Russia and the United States.

The Weiser Diplomacy Center is partnering with the American Academy of Diplomacy to bring seasoned U.S. diplomats to Ford School and discuss the U.S., Iran and Security in Persian Gulf.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Inaugural Weiser Diplomacy Center lecture.

The Ford School's Weiser Diplomacy Center hosts a Master Class with Condoleezza Rice, facilitated by John Ciorciari, discussing “Democracy and America’s Foreign Policy Identity.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power will reflect on her career and on her new memoir, Education of an Idealist (Harper Collins, September 2019): the third annual Vandenberg Lecture.

Former NSA Stephen Hadley, former assistant secretary of state Daniel Fried, and CEO of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition Liz Schrayer will explore evolving Transatantic relationships in an event launching the Weiser Diplomacy Center.

Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun (LSA '86) discusses U.S. policy and strategy for achieving the denuclearization of North Korea and the transformation of U.S.-North Korean relations.