At the halfway mark of his presidency, Colombian President Gustavo Petro faces resistance in implementing his populist vision for the country. The erosion of the coalition that brought him to office in 2022 has led him to consider implementing “people’s assemblies” to advance constitutional reforms, which would risk further exacerbating tensions in the country.

Petro’s efforts to negotiate a “total peace” agreement have not brought more security to Colombia, and criminal groups have exploited the talks to expand their territory. More recently, Petro has faced criticism domestically and internationally for his response to Venezuela’s corrupt July 28 presidential elections.

Join Hudson for an event with former Vice President Francisco Santos to assesses Petro’s record, identify potential scenarios for the second half of Petro’s presidency, and discuss the implications for the United States and the region with Hudson’s Daniel Batlle.

In April 2024, the governments of the AUKUS (Australia–United Kingdom–United States) security partnership announced their willingness to cooperate with Japan on advanced capabilities projects as part of AUKUS Pillar 2. To date, the group has set up eight such working groups in areas including artificial intelligence, information sharing, and hypersonic missile technology. Given Japan’s technological capabilities and close cooperation with each of the AUKUS partners, Tokyo would bring considerable value to AUKUS Pillar 2.

Hudson Japan Chair Kenneth R. Weinstein will host a panel with Chris Brose of Anduril, Phoebe Greentree of the Australian Embassy, and Hudson’s David Byrd and Masashi Murano to discuss the challenges and opportunities for Japan’s potential participation in AUKUS Pillar 2, how the program may need to evolve, and the wider security and technological implications of Japanese involvement in the program.

The United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) develops and operates global space, missile defense, and high-altitude systems. Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have underscored the importance of space and missile defense capabilities, but questions remain regarding the Army’s role and preparedness in performing these missions.

Please join US Army SMDC commander Lieutenant General Sean A. Gainey and Hudson Senior Fellow Timothy A. Walton for a discussion with participants on what role Army forces should play in space operations, how Army air and missile defense forces should modernize, and how SMDC can deepen its engagement in the Pacific.

Hudson Senior Fellow Mario Mancuso sits down with Ambassador John Sullivan, who served as United States ambassador to Russia immediately before, during, and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

One of America’s most distinguished public servants, Ambassador Sullivan has served under five US presidents, in leadership roles at four cabinet departments, and as deputy secretary of the Departments of State and Commerce. Amid the ongoing debate about additional US funding for Ukraine, Ambassador Sullivan gives a bird’s eye view of some of the most consequential geopolitical events in recent times, including the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the regime dynamics in the Kremlin and what they mean for Vladimir Putin’s future, Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel, and Iran’s proxy war in a changing Middle East.

The conversation will continue in a second part coming soon.

Hamas terrorists’ October 7 invasion of southern Israel included the wide-scale rape of Israeli women as a weapon of war, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken said was “beyond anything that I've seen.” However, it has largely been met with silence from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) to numerous other global women’s rights groups. Meanwhile, Israeli officials believe about 18 women remain in Hamas custody. And United States officials have publicly said that Hamas is not releasing the remaining women because it does not want them to speak publicly about the sexual violence they have endured.

Please join Senators Joni Ernst and Marsha Blackburn and Representatives Beth Van Duyne and Julia Letlow for an event at Hudson with Senior Fellow Rebeccah L. Heinrichs, moderated by former State Department Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. The women will address Hamas’s use of sexual violence, the silence of global women’s rights groups, and the need for unequivocal moral and intellectual clarity in condemning rape as a weapon of war.

Additional panelists will be announced as they are confirmed.

The Quad members (the United States, Japan, Australia, and India) have committed to uphold peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, and Taiwan is at the heart of this goal for the US and Japan. But Taiwan’s global partnerships extend beyond defense to technology cooperation, trade, investment, and more. 

What are the Quad members’ respective interests in Taiwan? How can cooperation through the Quad expand these relationships? And how can the Quad support Taiwan as it seeks to increase its collaboration throughout the region on trade, infrastructure building, and other areas?

Join Hudson Senior Fellows Riley Walters and James J. Przystup for a conversation with Yuko Mukai of the Project 2049 Institute Dhruva Jaishankar of Observer Research Foundation, and Adam Leslie of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute on these questions and more.

Representative Mike Waltz (FL-6), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), will moderate a panel on China’s influence operations in the United States with Hudson Senior Fellows John Lee and Miles Yu and Foundation for Defense of Democracies Senior Fellow Craig Singleton as part of the committee’s Beyond the SCIF series. Hudson President and CEO John Walters will deliver opening remarks. 

The panelists will discuss the scope of the Chinese Communist Party’s influence campaign and examine opportunities for the US and its allies to counter Beijing’s espionage and malign influence.

How should Washington respond to Chinese influencers seeking to shape public opinion and manipulate American officials and business leaders into enacting Beijing’s policy preferences? How do the influence operations that China aims at the US differ from those it directs at our allies? Should Washington retaliate by amplifying the voices of Chinese dissidents as it did with dissidents in the Soviet Union?

Join Hudson for a discussion on these and other questions about national security and the CCP.

Several Latin American nations are experiencing an erosion of democratic governance and a rise in populism. A combination of internal and external factors has caused this democratic recession, raising important questions for the region’s future and the United States’ interests.

Join Hudson Institute and leading Latin America experts for a discussion of the causes of the current democratic recession, the role of citizens’ attitudes, and approaches to renewing the region’s democracies. The speakers will also consider implications for US policy in the region.

President Joe Biden has stated that Ukraine’s success in defending itself against Russian aggression is “vital for America’s national security.” Seventieth Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has argued that “the outcome of this war will have a direct impact on US national security.” Yet despite significant bipartisan support for Kyiv, the prospect of continued United States aid to Ukraine remains uncertain.

What is the path forward for Ukraine aid in Congress? Can a bipartisan coalition hold in the face of a determined effort to cut off US aid? What would happen if the US ended military support for Ukraine? What policy changes are needed to help Ukrainian forces prevail, and what would success look like?

Please join Hudson Institute and the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) for a discussion with Representatives Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and Don Bacon (R-NE) on these critical questions. The event will be moderated by Hudson Senior Fellow Luke Coffey and Tamar Jacoby, who directs PPI’s New Ukraine Project, with brief opening remarks from Hudson President John Walters.

External actors have accelerated their efforts to shape public opinion in Latin America in order to sow distrust in democracy and undermine the United States’ interests in the region. Russia has waged a particularly effective campaign. According to the new US Institute for Peace report Russian Influence Campaigns in Latin America, Moscow has succeeded at amplifying anti-US narratives and neutralizing opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Join Hudson Institute for a discussion with the authors of the report; Douglas Farah, the founder and president of IBI Consultants; and Román Ortiz, senior consultant with IBI Consultants. The speakers will discuss the strategy behind Russia’s disinformation efforts, the tools and tactics that have been most effective, and how the US and its allies can counter disinformation campaigns.

Alsu Kurmasheva is the most recent American journalist Russia has wrongfully arrested because of his or her profession and citizenship. On October 18, Russia accused Kurmasheva, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist based in Prague, of failing to self-register as a “foreign agent”—even though she was in Russia to visit her ailing mother. This is the first known instance of such a charge in Russia. The US government has not yet received official notification of Kurmasheva’s detention from Moscow, has not been granted consular access to Alsu, and has not yet declared Kurmasheva’s case a wrongful detention.

Hudson Institute and RFE/RL invite you to join Pavel Butorin, Alsu Kurmasheva’s husband and the director of Current Time, RFE/RL’s Russian-language digital platform; RFE/RL Acting President Dr. Jeffrey Gedmin; and Wall Street Journal Assistant Editor Paul Beckett for a conversation about Russia’s escalating attacks on American journalists. The event will be moderated by Hudson Institute Media Fellow Jeremy Hunt, with comments from Senior Fellow Olivia Enos.

Last December, the United States Department of Defense unveiled the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, the newest American strategic bomber capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear munitions. Current planning has the US Air Force set to acquire at least 100 B-21s, with a few dozen of the bombers to be operational by the end of the decade.

Hudson Institute Senior Fellow and Director of the Keystone Defense Initiative Rebeccah Heinrichs led an assessment of the crucial role the B-21 bomber will play in simultaneously deterring the two near-peer nuclear adversaries the United States now faces—the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation.

The forthcoming report explores the B-21’s procurement process and lessons the DoD has learned for producing big-ticket items, the B‑21’s role in extended nuclear and conventional deterrence, the Raider’s role in facing the two-pronged threat, the number of B-21s the US should procure in an unprecedented threat environment, and more.

Contributors Mackenzie Eaglen, Jennifer Bradley, Rebecca Grant, Christopher Bowie, and Kari Bingen will join Ms. Heinrichs to give a preview of the findings of the report.

Under the direction of Xi Jinping, China has embarked on an effort to undermine American global economic and political leadership. Hudson Senior Fellow Thomas J. Duesterberg’s new study, China’s Economic Weakness and Challenge to the Bretton Woods System: How Should the US Respond?, lays out how the faltering Chinese economy provides the United States with leverage to push back on Xi’s aggressive and insidious program.

Hudson Institute will host a panel of leading China experts to discuss the findings of this study.

Join Hudson for an event to launch Beneath the Harbor: Hong Kong’s Leading Role in Sanctions Evasion, a new report by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation.

Hong Kong was once the freest economy in the world. But it is now experiencing a rapid erosion in the rule of law, which affects how businesses operate on the island. In recent years, the city has emerged as a top sanctions violator, a money laundering hub, and a transshipment center that plays a key role in providing Russia dual-use technology for its war effort.

Experts will discuss new evidence of how the Chinese Communist Party is using Hong Kong to sow instability and conflict around the world and how the United States can better counter these illicit activities.

The revelation that Russia has recruited hundreds of Cubans to fight in Ukraine underscores the desperation of Cuban citizens and the expansion of cooperation between Cuba and Russia. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel declared that Russia has Cuba’s “unconditional support.”

Hudson Adjunct Fellow Daniel Batlle will moderate a panel examining the ramifications of the Cuba-Russia alliance and Havana’s decision to prevent more Cuban citizens from joining Russia’s war in Ukraine with Senior Fellow Can Kasapoğlu, Coordinator of the Assembly of Cuban Resistance Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, and Florida International University Adjunct Professor of International Relations Erich de la Fuente.

Pakistan is mired in a multidimensional crisis with political, social, economic, and security implications. General elections are scheduled for late January 2024, extending the caretaker government’s term by three months. The influential Pakistani security establishment appears more in control today than it has been in recent years.

Inflation remains at an all-time high, and Pakistan’s economic growth has slowed as the agricultural and manufacturing sectors contract. The country’s domestic weakness is reflected in its foreign relations. Terrorist attacks by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from safe havens in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan remain a challenge for Pakistan. 

Join Ambassador Husain Haqqani, senior fellow and director of Hudson’s South and Central Asia Program, for a conversation on this and more with Amber Rahim Shamsi, Asfandiyar Mir, Aqil Shah, and Uzair Younus.

The world continues to feel the impact of President Joe Biden’s precipitous withdrawal of United States forces from Afghanistan. During the evacuation, 13 American service members perished in the Kabul airport bombing, and afterward Afghanistan fell into chaos once again. The US left behind billions of dollars of military equipment and other antiterrorism tools. And the withdrawal may have contributed to Russia’s calculation that its full-scale invasion of Ukraine would be worth the cost. 

More than two years later, the US government has yet to conduct a fair accounting of the decision-making and intelligence failures that led to the disastrous withdrawal. Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson accessed key government documents and conducted eyewitness interviews to answer these questions in Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden's Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End. 

Join Hudson Senior Fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs as she sits down with the authors for a book talk.

As the global economy shifts toward Asia, India will play an increasingly prominent role in global affairs. India’s large population and high-tech industry, among other assets, make it a vital counterweight against China’s rise. The United States recently became India’s largest trading partner, but there is still much to be sorted out in this growing partnership. Policymakers in New Delhi and Washington will need to collaborate more closely than in the past to sustain India’s economic development and strengthen international partnerships like the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). Moreover, both countries have important elections next year, which will affect both the nature and timing of shared initiatives.

Join Hudson Institute and the India Foundation for an invitation-only event focused on the role Washington and the American business community can play in strengthening bilateral economic and strategic relationships between the US and India. American and Indian experts will discuss some of the most urgent issues facing the relationship. Then Hudson Distinguished Fellow Walter Russell Mead will interview Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar about India's role in the world and the future of the relationship.

The United States and its allies have frozen more than $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets as part of their response to the Kremlin’s illegal war against Ukraine.

Ukraine’s reconstruction costs are estimated to be around $400 billion and counting. But there is no need for Ukrainians, let alone US taxpayers, to foot the bill for Russia’s unprovoked aggression.

The bipartisan Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act would authorize the US to seize and repurpose of frozen Russian funds to provide additional assistance to Ukraine. It would also bar the US from lifting sanctions unless Russian forces withdraw from Ukrainian territory and encourage the US administration to work closely with allies to develop robust international asset seizure and transfer mechanisms.

Please join Hudson Institute for a foreign policy address by Senator Jim Risch, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and leading cosponsor of the REPO for Ukrainians Act. Following the address, Hudson Kleptocracy Initiative Research Fellow Nate Sibley and a panel of experts will discuss the act and its implications for the future of Ukraine.

Canada and the United States are quietly diverging on many important geopolitical issues. Yet any reasoned survey of the two neighbors’ interests would quickly conclude that Washington and Ottawa should be closely aligned on matters including national security, the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, opposition to authoritarian regimes, the Arctic, energy, critical minerals, and more. To put the US-Canada relationship back on sound footing, the nations should start by telling each other the truth and seeing the relationship as it really is. 

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute (MLI), Canada’s leading think tank, is launching a new project in Washington to take on this truth-telling task. This project—the Center for North American Prosperity and Security (CNAPS, pronounced “synapse”)—will go beyond clichés to drive an honest dialogue on the issues that matter most for the security and prosperity of citizens on both sides of the border.

Hudson Institute, in partnership with MLI, is proud to host the launch of CNAPS. The event will highlight two urgent matters facing policymakers on both sides of the border: the lessons from Canada’s extensive experience with institutional capture by the Chinese Communist Party, and the potential for a continental energy policy that would keep prices low, ensure energy security for the liberal-democratic world, and reduce the flow of money to some of the world’s nastiest regimes.

Governor Chris Christie, presidential candidate and former governor of New Jersey, will give a foreign policy address at Hudson Institute. Following his remarks, he will sit down for a fireside chat with Hudson Senior Fellow Michael Doran. Hudson President and CEO John P. Walters will deliver opening remarks.

About the Presidential Speech Series:

The 2024 presidential election will coincide with a time of fundamental global transition. From the ongoing war in Europe to the Chinese Communist Party’s increasingly aggressive challenge to the US, the next president will need to demonstrate strong leadership, strategic thought, and the ability to craft clear policy and shape the national consensus. 

For more than 60 years, Hudson Institute has challenged conventional thinking and helped manage strategic transitions to the future through interdisciplinary studies in defense, international relations, economics, energy, and technology. Hudson is guided by the understanding that American leadership is vital to security, freedom, and prosperity.

In that spirit, Hudson has invited leading presidential candidates to share their views on America’s role in the world and the principles that would guide their foreign and defense policies in the inaugural Presidential Speech Series.

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine for the second time in eight years. Despite the odds, Ukrainians gallantly defended Kyiv in the war’s early days and conducted a successful counteroffensive around Kharkiv and Kherson last year. However, as Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its second winter, the stakes are high.

Hudson’s Center on Europe and Eurasia will host Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak to discuss the state of the 2023 counteroffensive, the future of United States–Ukraine relations, and the status of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s peace formula.

The war in Gaza is much more than a conflict between Israelis and Palestinians; it is part of a broader Iranian plan to undermine the American-led order in the Middle East. As 3,000 Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists stormed over the border from Gaza and murdered 1,400 Israelis, Lebanese Hezbollah—another Iranian proxy—increased its pressure on Israel’s northern border. As Israel began its ground incursion, the Iranian-sponsored Houthis fired drones and missiles toward Israeli cities. Meanwhile, Iranian cutouts in Iraq and Syria have attacked American bases no fewer than 24 times since October 17.

Join Hudson’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East for a discussion between Distinguished Fellow Michael R. Pompeo, the seventieth US secretary of state, and Senior Fellow Michael Doran on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war’s place in the Iranian strategy to undermine the United States.

Whether Russian President Vladimir Putin dies in office, is ousted in a palace coup, or relinquishes power for some unforeseen reason, the United States and its allies would face a radically different Russia with the Kremlin under new management. The geopolitical stakes mean that policymakers would be negligent not to plan for the consequences of a post-Putin Russia. 

Join Hudson Institute’s Center on Europe and Eurasia for a discussion on how US and allied policymakers can prepare for a Russia after Putin.

China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are forming a new axis of aggressors to oppose the United States and its interests. With chaos unfolding around the globe, how should the US and its allies restore deterrence, maintain global leadership, and protect the prosperity of its people?

Join Chair of the Hudson Institute Japan Chair Advisory Board and former National Security Advisor LTG (Ret.) H.R. McMaster and Media Fellow Jeremy Hunt for a discussion on this topic.

Patrick M. Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair at Hudson Institute, will moderate a discussion with Ambassador Shin-wha Lee, South Korean ambassador for international cooperation on North Korean human rights. 

As North Korea’s nuclear buildup, political repression, and strengthening ties with Russia and China undermine peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in northeast Asia, Ambassador Lee will explore these issues and identify the most important avenues for bilateral cooperation in the United States–South Korea relationship as well as opportunities for multilateral cooperation throughout the region.

Over the past 22 years, the United States Department of Defense has optimized the American Special Operations Forces (SOF) for the Global War on Terror. While terrorist threats remain—especially from Iranian proxies—the DoD is now calling upon SOF to return to its irregular warfare roots to counter nation-states. Civilian control and leadership of special operations is key to expediting this transformation, and Congress has elevated the role of assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict (ASD SO/LIC) to include acting as the service secretary for special operations.

Hudson Adjunct Fellow Ezra Cohen, who served as ASD SO/LIC, will be joined by two other previous ASD SO/LICs, Mark Mitchell and former Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, to discuss civil-military relations within the special operations community, the transition from counterterrorism to irregular warfare, and how to optimize intelligence forces and SOF for the next generation of challenges.

Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel caused the Jewish State to reevaluate the strength of its capabilities and its capacity to maintain border control. Israel has mobilized over 300,000 reservists to fight on the ground against Hamas. Although the Israel Defense Forces’ yearly budget of around $23.6 billion is more than the combined military spending of Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, and Jordan, Israel’s operation against Hamas may strain its finances. Since the beginning of the conflict, Israel has spent almost $246 million per day, according to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. 

Join Hudson Senior Fellow Michael Doran for a discussion on Israel’s budget during the Israel-Hamas war with Noach Hacker, the minister of economic affairs representing Israel’s Ministry of Finance.

With the eruption of war in the Middle East and Europe and tensions flaring in the Taiwan Strait, the American-led international system seems to be at an inflection point. The number of geopolitical flashpoints from the Sahel to the South China Sea is increasing at an alarming rate, and many are beginning to doubt the United States’ ability to deter hostile, revisionist powers across the globe.

Join Hudson Distinguished Fellow Walter Russell Mead for a discussion with critically acclaimed historian Andrew Roberts and General David Petraeus on their new book Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine, which provides a penetrating analysis of the last 70 years of military history, highlighting many of the critical lessons that we should draw from past wars. This insightful text helps explain how the US military can anticipate the rapidly evolving threat environment in an increasingly dangerous world to best prepare for the wars of the future.

With Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States in June and President Joe Biden’s September visit to India, 2023 has been a landmark year for the India-US strategic partnership. But the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s most populous democracy have not always been such close friends. Through most of the Cold War, relations between the two countries were beset with challenges. Only within the last two decades have New Delhi and Washington become natural allies.

Economic Times columnist Seema Sirohi’s new book Friends with Benefits: The India-US Story explores the slow development of the US-India relationship. Join Hudson Institute for a book talk with Sirohi and Ashley Tellis, the Tata Chair for strategic affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, moderated by Hudson Research Fellow Aparna Pande.

Join Hudson Senior Fellow Jonathan Schachter for a discussion with Israel-based journalist Yonah Jeremy Bob on his new book, coauthored with Ilan Evyatar, Target Tehran. 

About the Book

Target Tehran describes how Israel was able to promote the normalization with Arab states like Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates by using its military might to thwart Iran’s nuclear weapons program. 

The writers recount the shadow between Iran and Israel—which sometimes operated in conjunction with the United States—by drawing on interviews with confidential Israeli and US sources, including from the Mossad and the Central Intelligence Agency.

About the Author

Yonah Jeremy Bob is the senior military and intelligence analyst as well as the book review editor for the Jerusalem Post. Hailing originally from Baltimore, Maryland, Yonah has close connections with many Israeli intelligence figures and previously worked in the Israeli military international law division, at the Israeli Embassy to the United Nations, and in the Israeli Justice Ministry. He is the author of Justice in the West Bank? And the editor and translator of A Raid on the Red Sea, an intelligence thriller whose principal author is Amos Gilboa, a former Israel Defense Forces deputy chief of intelligence.

The fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act established the bipartisan Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States to review US nuclear weapons policy, strategy, and force structure and to conduct an assessment of America’s near-peer competitors. Earlier this month, the commission released its final report on America’s strategic posture, the first such report since 2009. 

Join commission members and Hudson Senior Fellows Rebeccah L. Heinrichs and Marshall S. Billingslea as they host commission Chair Madeline R. Creedon and commission members Rose E. Gottemoeller and Robert M. Scher for a discussion on the report’s findings and its implications for the future of America’s strategic posture.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is undergoing a profound change. At the Madrid summit in July 2022, the alliance ratified a new strategic concept that returned NATO to its roots: deterring Russian aggression. At that same meeting, NATO began the process of welcoming Sweden and Finland into the alliance, leading to Finland’s full accession in April 2023. 

At the Vilnius summit this past summer, NATO continued to adapt in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The alliance updated its military plans and established the NATO-Ukraine Council. It also eased Ukraine’s path to accession by announcing that it could join the alliance without completing a membership action plan (MAP).

One hundred days after Vilnius, as the alliance begins its preparations for its seventy-fifth summit next year in Washington, join Hudson’s Peter Rough and Luke Coffey as they welcome two Lithuanian national security experts for a retrospective analysis of the Vilnius summit: Žygimantas Pavilionis, a member of the Seimas (Lithuania’s parliament), where he serves on the Committee of Foreign Affairs, and Tomas Janeliūnas, the chief research officer at the Eastern Europe Studies Centre and a professor at Vilnius University. 

Increasingly contested international waters threaten the security and prosperity of the United States and its Indo-Pacific allies and partners. The Coast Guard deploys a fleet that is equivalent to the world’s 15 largest navies combined, with some 38,000 active-duty forces and more than 240 cutters. Responsible for law enforcement, marine safety, and environmental protection, the Coast Guard patrols America’s 3.4 million miles of exclusive economic zone. But the Coast Guard is also working to strengthen its presence in the Indo-Pacific, training and conducting exercises with allies and partners throughout the region.

Hudson Asia-Pacific Security Chair Patrick M. Cronin will sit down with Admiral Linda L. Fagan, commandant of the United States Coast Guard, to discuss the Coast Guard’s growing role in combatting China’s peacetime confrontation operations and protecting the marine environment and vital fisheries. Hudson President and CEO John P. Walters will deliver opening remarks.

Entrepreneur and presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will discuss his vision for the defense of the American homeland, including how that vision applies in the Middle East in an address at Hudson Institute. Following his remarks, he will sit down for a fireside chat with Hudson Senior Fellow Michael Doran.

About the Presidential Speech Series:

The 2024 presidential election will coincide with a time of fundamental global transition. From the ongoing war in Europe to the Chinese Communist Party’s increasingly aggressive challenge to the US, the next president will need to demonstrate strong leadership, strategic thought, and the ability to craft clear policy and shape the national consensus. 

For more than 60 years, Hudson Institute has challenged conventional thinking and helped manage strategic transitions to the future through interdisciplinary studies in defense, international relations, economics, energy, and technology. Hudson is guided by the understanding that American leadership is vital to security, freedom, and prosperity.

In that spirit, Hudson has invited leading presidential candidates to share their views on America’s role in the world and the principles that would guide their foreign and defense policies in the inaugural Presidential Speech Series.

In July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched one of the most severe acts of religious persecution since the Cultural Revolution—a violent campaign to wipe out Falun Gong, an indigenous spiritual group with tens of millions of Chinese practitioners. Twenty-five years later, this CCP campaign continues with large-scale imprisonments inside China as well as systematic propaganda and harassment in the United States.

Beyond the horrific toll on the Falun Gong community, the CCP’s relentless repression campaign has had wide-ranging repercussions for China and the world. Executing the campaign has sharpened the CCP’s security apparatus, served as a blueprint for repressing other designated enemies, and honed the party’s ability to influence Western media.

Join Hudson Institute as expert panels take stock of the Falun Gong crackdown over the past quarter of a century.

The Western-led international system faces a major test. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine 20 months ago harkens back to the major wars on European soil last century, while Hamas’s gruesome attack on Israel is a stark reminder of the threat of state-supported terrorism. From the Balkans to the Caucasus and from the Philippines to Taiwan, the number of real and potential global flashpoints is multiplying at an alarming speed.

In this new geopolitical landscape, maintaining a favorable balance of power across Eurasia requires a strong and determined transatlantic alliance. From emerging technologies, to supply chains, to international trade, the United States and the European Union need to find means of cooperation and a constructive path forward to ensure peace and prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic.

The US-EU summit at the White House is meant to do just that. On the sidelines of that meeting, Hudson Institute is delighted to welcome the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to discuss the conflict in Gaza and the challenge Iran poses, assess the state of the war in Ukraine, and explain Brussels’s view on China’s rise. Following her remarks, she will sit down with Peter Rough, director of Hudson’s Center on Europe and Eurasia, for a fireside chat.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the world’s first oil shock, when the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) declared an embargo on oil shipments to Western countries. Oil prices quadrupled in the next few months, but the embargo’s consequences for energy, domestic politics, and international relations were bigger and longer lasting than the price spike at the pump.

Join Hudson Senior Fellows Brigham McCown and Arthur Herman as they explore the past and present of the 1973 oil embargo with distinguished industry leaders in a two-part panel discussion. The panels will accompany a keynote address from Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.

Read Herman’s recent report on the lessons of the crisis, From Fueling Victory to Running on Empty, here.

The international system is less stable than at any time in recent decades. In the Middle East, Israel is taking the offensive in response to Hamas’s unconscionable terrorist attacks on the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret. In Europe, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine shows no signs of abating after 20 months of grinding conflict. And from the Balkans to the Caucasus, long-festering tensions risk exploding into all-out war. In these trying times, the transatlantic alliance is crucial for maintaining a favorable balance of power in Eurasia and ensuring that the United States–led international system endures. 

Hudson is delighted to host one of the West’s foremost strategists, National Security Advisor of the Czech Republic and former Czech Ambassador to Israel Tomáš Pojar for a fireside chat on the most pressing issues of the day. He’ll be joined in conversation by Peter Rough, senior fellow and director of Hudson’s Center on Europe and Eurasia, to discuss Czech-US relations, the future of the transatlantic alliance, Israel’s war against Hamas’s terror, the war in Ukraine, and the politics of Central and Eastern Europe.

The United States began working to prevent the Chinese Communist Party’s illicit surveillance of Americans through Chinese-made telecom equipment long before the infamous spy balloon traversed the continental US. Yet in the past two decades, thousands of state and local governments in the US have purchased potentially compromised devices. This threat extends beyond America’s borders as countries across the globe—including those that host US military bases—have turned to Chinese companies like Huawei for telecom equipment, services, and infrastructure.

Miles Yu, senior fellow and director of the China Center, will host Federal Communications Commissioner Nathan Simington and a panel of distinguished experts for a virtual discussion of how CCP-controlled telecommunications companies pose a uniquely pervasive threat to American national security.

Governor Doug Burgum will deliver a foreign policy address at Hudson Institute. Following his remarks, the governor will sit down for a “fireside chat” with Hudson President and CEO John P. Walters.

Senator Tim Scott will deliver a speech at the Hudson Institute about standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel, wiping Hamas off the map, and confronting those who are enabling terrorism.

Following the remarks, Senator Scott will sit down for a conversation with Hudson Senior Fellow Michael Doran.

Mobile wireless services have been central to America and its allies’ economic growth and national security over the past three decades. Billions of people, including many of the world’s poorest, use wireless services daily. New services such as 5G depend on spectrum availability, and countries like China are making far more of the spectrum available for new technologies than the United States. America’s economic growth, social welfare, and national security depend on its ability to find more spectrum for new technologies.

Hudson’s Center for the Economics of the Internet welcomes James Andrew Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies to discuss his research in this area. A light lunch will be served.

Under the cover of heavy rocket fire, hundreds of terrorists belonging to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad invaded Israel from Gaza in the early hours of Saturday, October 7. They breached two security fences and stormed in by foot, jeep, motorcycle, and paraglider; yet they encountered virtually no resistance from the Israeli military. The terrorists murdered hundreds of civilians and left close to 2,000 wounded. They took an undisclosed number of soldiers and civilians captive, including women and children, who are being held in the Gaza Strip. The magnitude of the attack makes an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza a virtual certainty.

Join Hudson Senior Fellows Michael Doran, Jonathan Schachter, and Can Kasapoğlu for an analysis of these events.

The United States military faces multiple intensifying challenges. China, a peer adversary, has eroded the US military’s post–Cold War dominance and threatens the sovereignty and economic prosperity of the US and its allies and partners around the globe. Facing flat budgets, the Pentagon is pursuing resilience, flexibility, interoperability, and affordable scale to gain an edge. Far from the exquisite precision strikes of Operation Desert Storm, US forces will need to assemble kill chains in the field from a changing variety of commercial and military systems to undermine enemy decision-making and sustain a potential protracted fight.

In order to implement the interoperability and command and control that the US military needs for a more adaptable and resilient force, leaders from the Department of Defense and its industry partners will have to cooperate. Join Hudson Senior Fellow Bryan Clark and Lockheed Martin Chairman, President, and CEO Jim Taiclet for a conversation about how the Pentagon and its suppliers can work together to overcome these challenges and ensure US forces can continue to dissuade aggression.

On September 19, Azerbaijan launched a rapid military operation to take full control of Karabakh, a region that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but which is home to tens of thousands of Armenians. What led to Azerbaijan’s latest move? What are the move’s implications? Will it bring Armenia and Azerbaijan closer to a lasting peace?

To answer these questions, Hudson Senior Fellows Michael Doran and Luke Coffey host a discussion with Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov, representative of the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan on special assignments.

Cyber and emerging technology play a critical role in the strategic contest between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. The US needs to secure its advantages on computer networks, semiconductors, critical infrastructure, and artificial intelligence to avoid having its competition with the PRC devolve into crisis or conflict.

National Security Council Director for Cyber Policy Israel Soong joins Hudson’s Miles Yu for a conversation on why technology is crucial to Beijing’s plans and how the US can maintain the lead in its cyber and technology competition with China.

Pentagon leaders largely view the Indo-Pacific through an air and maritime lens. But in the region, armies are the dominant military branch in national security priorities and doctrine. This gives the United States Army an opportunity to build relationships with its counterparts across the Indo-Pacific and establish security infrastructure for use in future conflicts. The resilience these “interior lines” provide could be decisive in deterring aggression.

Join Hudson Senior Fellows Bryan Clark and Dan Patt for a discussion with General Charles A. Flynn, commanding general of the US Army, Pacific, about the Army’s changing role in the region and how long-term campaigning can help the US compete with and deter China.

Xi Jinping’s revanchist nationalism has led European officials to rethink their China policies, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has ended any chance of a Russia-Japan entente. Europe, Japan, and Australia increasingly work together to support Ukraine, conduct combined military exercises and development, and enact policies to de-risk their industrial bases from Chinese economic coercion.

Hudson’s Japan Chair will host Eva Maydell, a member of the European Parliament and vice chair of the Delegation on Japan Relations, to speak on recent developments between Europe and the Indo-Pacific as well as the future of the relationship. Following her remarks, Hudson Japan Chair Kenneth R. Weinstein will moderate a question and answer session.

Due to the Biden administration’s failed policies, the Taliban controls control more of Afghanistan today than it did on September 11, 2001. Meanwhile, transnational terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) have increased their scale and activity in the country.

Since the Taliban’s return to power, one credible and non-extremist group has been willing to take up arms in opposition: the National Resistance Front (NRF) of Afghanistan. Based in the Panjshir province and operating in a dozen other provinces, the NRF has continued to fight the Taliban against all odds and without any international support. Hudson Institute will hold an event to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and America’s best options to support the NRF.