News and updates

In honor of our Keynote speaker, Ambassador Doug Lute, former United States Permanent Representative to NATO, we have some NATO and other current event trivia to keep you busy on this rainy Monday afternoon. See how smart you and your friends are!  Answers are at the bottom, but no peeking!

1) Who is the current US Representative to NATO?

 A) Victoria Nuland    B) Kelly Craft    C) Kay Bailey Hutchison    D) Bruce Heyman                       

2) Who is the Secretary General of NATO?

   A) Jens Stoltenberg        B) David Maria Sassoli      C) Ursula von der Leyen   D) Rishi Sunak

3) What country is NOT a member of NATO?

  A) Albania      B) Portugal     C) Turkey       D) Sweden

4) The Chinese owner of TikTok chose_________ to be the app’s technical partner for US operations.

A)   Google B) IBM C) Microsoft  D) Oracle

5) What Kremlin backed group has started a new disinformation campaign, just as it did in 2016?       

A) Anonymous B) Fifty Cent Party C) Internet Research Agency               D) Internet Information, Inc.      

6) The normalization agreements recently signed by Bahrain, Israel and United Arab Emirates at the White House are officially known as the __________?   

A) Solomon Accords C) Ishmael Accords   D) Moses Accords   4) Abraham Accords               

7) Which world leader issued a pardon for Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, a US Marine convicted of the 2014 killing of a transgender woman?

A) Nicolas Maduro   B) Imran Khan C) Rodrigo Duterte D) Recep Tayyip Erdogan                       

8) China’s leader, Xi Jinping, surprised many by pledging that China would meet which environmental goal by 2060?

A) achieve carbon neutrality B) improve air quality by 75%  C) eliminate the manufacture of plastics  D) reduce coal mining by 75%

Answers: 1)     C  2) A  3) D  4) D  5) C  6) D  7) C  8)A

Sources:  1.  nato.int, 2.  nytimes.com, 3. slate.com

 The new Eisenhower Memorial set to open this week in Washington, D.C.  If you are going to Washington in the future (or want to visit virtually), you may want to see the new Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, honoring the 34th President of the United States. Dedication Ceremonies start this Thursday. Click here to see the website.

You might enjoy viewing a recent Sister Cities International video which includes remarks by President Eisenhower on the importance of citizen diplomacy. 

Dear WACHH Members and Friends,

These past months have been a time of change with many challenges.  We started the 2019-2020 Program year with record membership and high attendance at our first ten Friday Speaker events.  We also successfully completed Fall Forum, the Model United Nations (MUN) conferences and Academic WorldQuest (AWQ) competition, three Evening Speaker Series events, and most of the Great Decisions discussions. Then, Island life came to an almost full stop. 

As we look to the 2020-2021 Program Year, we will begin our Friday Speaker presentations using high-quality webinars until First Presbyterian Church can once again welcome us in-person. Our new lineup of 14 outstanding speakers will provide valuable insights for a new or continuing administration, unique views on global issues, and expertise on technology and cyberspace.

We know you value the experience of being part of a large, local audience interacting with fellow Council members and asking thoughtful questions. We recognize that remote technology is not a complete substitute, but we are committed to offering the best available webinar format with an interactive Q&A for members to participate in real time.  So, keep your enthusiasm as we bring you excellent speakers addressing critical topics of our times.

Currently, we are proceeding with Fall Forum and Great Decisions with the hope that these small groups will be able to meet in safe surroundings.  The Evening Speaker Series is in the planning stages and Model UN and Academic WorldQuest await school decisions as to their start dates. Thank you, loyal and understanding Council members. 

We appreciate your patience and flexibility as we begin an exciting new program year. Stay safe and healthy!

John Gilbert
Board President

In lieu of our Annual Meeting this year given COVID-19 restrictions, we have decided to publish an Annual Report.  We hope members will enjoy reading this summary of Council programs. Download a PDF of the report.

Looking for some interesting books to get you through this pandemic? Here are a few new books about world affairs to consider reading in your spare time this summer.                            

Spoiler alert: Richard Stengel and Matthew Kroenig are two of the 14 speakers that are coming to speak at WACHH’s Friday Speaker Series this year.

Information Wars: How We Lost the Global Battle Against Disinformation and What We Can Do About It
by Richard Stengel
Disinformation is as old as humanity. When Satan told Eve nothing would happen if she bit the apple, that was disinformation. But the rise of social media has made disinformation even more pervasive and pernicious in our current era. In a disturbing turn of events, governments are increasingly using disinformation to create their own false narratives, and democracies are proving not to be particularly good at fighting it. 

The Return of Great Power Rivalry: Democracy versus Autocracy from the Ancient World to the U.S. and China
by Matthew Kroenig
The United States of America has been the most powerful country in the world for over seventy years, but recently the U.S. National Security Strategy declared that the return of great power competition with Russia and China is the greatest threat to U.S. national security. 

Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
by Anne Applebaum
A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian explains, with electrifying clarity, why elites in democracies around the world are turning toward nationalism and authoritarianism. 

The World: A Brief Introduction
by Richard Haas
An invaluable primer from Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, that will help anyone, expert and non-expert alike, navigate a time in which many of our biggest challenges come from the world beyond our borders. 

Exercise of Power : American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World
by Robert Gates
From the former secretary of defense and author of the acclaimed #1 best-selling memoir, Duty, a candid, sweeping examination of power in all its manifestations, and how it has been exercised, for good and bad, by American presidents in the post-Cold War world.

Jonatan Vseviov, our Global Speaker on May 1, 2020, wrote on the "Challenges of Real National Defense" for International Centre for Defense and Security (November 2018):

National defense is a whole. In the course of its development, a number of decisions may be taken which are right when taken separately but, as far as the big picture is concerned, lead to a dead end. The result is hollow national defense that exhibits grand words and structures, while either partially or completely lacking in real combat power. An ineffective paper army is also useless for deterrence.

Estonian national defense is focused on the deterrence of potential threats, but first and foremost on their prevention through the use of a convincing deterrent posture. Deterrence is a process in which one side tries to convince the other that taking a certain step is inadvisable, as it would be detrimental to it. If one country wishes to prevent an armed conflict with another, deterrence does not need to convince a potential attacker that the attack would fail – it is sufficient for the attacker to believe that the cost of even a successful attack would in the end prove higher than the value of the desired goal.

Read the full article (Download PDF)

In an Opinion/Commentary piece for the Wall Street Journal (April 28, 2020), Scott W. Atlas and H.R. McMaster wrote that "Health security is critical to national security. The Covid-19 pandemic is a moment to re- evaluate U.S. dependence on China for pharmaceutical ingredients and to solidify the pharmaceutical supply chain in advance of proliferating threats ... America needs to understand and diversify sources of supply, as well as maintain a strategic reserve of antibiotics and the key drugs for the most prevalent serious diseases."

Download and read the full article (PDF)

Concern has grown over the spread of the novel coronavirus and a number of actions have been directed or recommended by the CDC and state governments to reduce the chance of exposure, particularly among vulnerable populations.  We are exploring options such as recording the speaker presentations and posting to the WACHH web site. Once we have evaluated technology approaches and coordinated with our speakers, we will provide more information on what options exist and how you can access them. In addition, the remaining Evening Speaker Series session scheduled for April 21 and all remaining Great Decisions sessions are cancelled.  In this time of national concern, we have taken these steps for the protection of our members, facilitators, and speakers.  We are sure that you understand the importance of these actions. Best regards John Gilbert, President, World Affairs Council of Hilton Head

Six high schools competed in AWQ on Saturday, March 7: Hilton Head HS, Bluffton HS, May River HS, HH Christian Academy, Whale Branch Early College HS, and Beaufort HS. And here are the rankings!

• First place - Bluffton High School (Bailey Yang, Kate Anderson, Jordan Wilhelm, Nathan Lessard) along with Ivan Bennet, program chair, Pam Wolsky, coach, Yang, Anderson, Wilhelm,Lessard, Peter Cooper, moderator

• Second Place - May River High School Team #1 (Ceclan Carter, Alice Hotimski, Jackson Buick, Alexandra Horn, Jade Ward)
• Third Place - Hilton Head High School- Raul Leyva, Scarlett Metts, Tess Sandford, Anna Gray Ashton, Joseph Hutchinson, Walker Newman, Laney Hawkins

The winners will be going to Washington, DC to compete in the WACA national AWQ competition on April 25th. WACHH picks up the tab. The second and third place teams win gift cards ($100 & $50 respectively).

Event considered the Super Bowl of global issues and foreign policy with winner going to Washington D.C.

The Academic WorldQuest (AWQ) is the World Affairs Councils of America’s (WACA) flagship education program which engages more than 3,000 high school students annually across the US, testing their knowledge of global issues and foreign policy.  The program offers young people a fun and interactive way to learn about critical challenges facing the US and the world.

Since 2003, the AWQ has been a team game testing high school students’ knowledge of international affairs. “We are thrilled to be part of this great program working in cooperation with the Beaufort County School District, bringing Academic WorldQuest to our county high schools,” says Ivan Bennett, member of the Board of Directors of the World Affairs Council of Hilton Head (WACHH). “Since we began our participation seven years ago, Hilton Head High School won once, Beaufort High School three times, May River High School twice, and Bluffton High School most recently in 2019. We invite the public to come out and test your knowledge of global issues. Are you as smart as an AWQ Scholar?”

This year's competition takes place on Saturday, March 7, 2020, 9:00 am at Hilton Head Island High School. 

Beaufort County high school students join approximately 3,000 other students in the US, hosted by about 40 other World Affairs Councils in 26 states. The students’ knowledge of international affairs, geography, history, and culture is tested throughout the school year, though competitors work beyond their regular curriculum to prepare for this quest. Winning teams (about 225 students total) are invited to Washington, D.C. to represent their high schools, cities, and local councils. WACHH pays all expenses for the trip for these students, parents, teachers, and chaperones, which includes visits to historic sites in addition to the competition. 

If you would like to volunteer, coach, mentor, or get involved with this program, please contact Ivan Bennett at (843) 816-1498, IBennett@aol.com, or the World Affairs Council of Hilton Head’s office at wachhi@gmail.com.