2024 Lectures
Title: Palmetto Forum: "Geopolitical Disrupton and the U.S. Elections"
Speakers: Dr. Christina Ahmadjian Sonoco Visiting Fellow, Darla Moore School of Business. Dr. Carl Dahlman Director, Walker Institute of International and Area Studies. Dr. Gerry McDermott Chair, Sonoco Department of International Business, Darla Moore School of Business.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Korea Economic Institute of America Presents: 'The Future of Korea 2024'"
Speakers: Scott Snyder, President and CEO at the Korea Economic Institute of America; Wonwoo Chung, First Secretary at the Political Section of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the United States; Evan Fowler, Economic Officer in the Office of Korean and Mongolian Affairs for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs with the State Department; Carl Dahlman, Director of the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "International Opportunity Outlook for Columbia”
Speakers: Mayor Daniel Rickenmann, Mayor of Columbia, SC
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Blue Zones: Where Are They and How Do We Get There?”
Speakers: Mayor Daniel Rickenmann, Mayor of Columbia, SC
Margaret Brown, Vice President at Blue Zones
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Revealing the Worldwide Impact of Deep Fakes and AI”
Speakers: Dr. Marcel Schäfer, Senior Research Scientist for the South Carolina Fraunhofer USA Alliance
Raphael Antonius Frick, Research Fellow at Fraunhofer SIT | ATHENE
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "China 2024: The Year of the Dragon”
Speaker: Phillip Chritton, International Attorney and Visiting Fellow at USC Darla Moore School of Business
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Anatomy of a Data Security Incident and Related Legal Aftermath”
Speaker: Jon Olson Senior Vice President & General Counsel, Blackbaud
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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2023 Lectures
Title: “Ukraine’s Reconstruction Has Begun: What it Means for the War"
Speaker: Carl T. Dahlman, Ph.D., director of the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: “Why Diplomacy Matters"
Speaker: Ambassador James Story, American Ambassador for the Venezuela Affairs Unit in Bogota, Colombia
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: “Transforming Tourism: A journey from unplanned, to sustainable, to regenerative development"
Speaker: Dr. David Cárdenas, associate professor, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of South Carolina
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Forecasting Cultural Heritage Protection"
Speaker: Dr. James Bezjian, assistant professor of strategy & entrepreneurship and director of the Business Innovation Lab at The Citadel
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: 'Nexus of Risks - What Binds Ukraine, Afghanistan and China to U.S. and Global Security”
Speaker: Jim McKinney, former US Army Russian/Central Asian/Eastern European Foreign Area and Intelligence Officer
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: “Global Inflation: The End is Nigh(?)”
Speaker: Professor Bill Hauk, associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of South Carolina
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: “Why the walls remain - Northern Ireland from Good Friday to Brexit”
Speaker: Dr. Kara Dempsey, Associate Professor of Geography at Appalachian State University
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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2022 Lectures
Title: “Taiwan amid the U.S. - China Rivalry”
Speaker: Professor John Hsieh, Political Science, Univeristy of South Carolina
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Only Eight Months: Lessons from the SIRIUS-21 Isolation Mission in Moscow"
Speaker: Will Brown, NASA crew member for SIRIUS-21
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "The fight for media freedom in Georgia (the case of Mtavari Channel)"
Speaker: Ms. Tamta Muradashvili
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Understanding the Russian-Ukrainian Crisis"
Event Recording:
Understanding the Russian-Ukrainian Crisis Watch the Palmetto Forum recording:
2021 Lectures
Title: "What is Attractive and What is Not? Countries' Battle for Soft Power in the Cyberspace"
Speaker: Judit Trunkos, Faculty Associate, Walker Institute of International and Area Studies
Date: December 2nd, 2021
Location: Virtual event
Title: "The Making of a Cold War Journalist: Marvin Kalb's Long Letter Home After an Unforgettable Personal Adventure"
Speaker: Marvin Kalb, a non-resident senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings
Location: Virtual event
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Title: "Covid Crisis from an International Perspective: Competing Models, Scars and Silver Linings"
Speaker: Michel Gerebtzoff, Consulate General of Belgium in Atlanta
Location: Virtual event
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Title: "Understanding the Conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean"
Speaker: Dr. Ali Demiridas, Contributor to National Interest and other news media
Location: Virtual event
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Title: "US Intelligence in the Information Age: Are we prepared for the next fight?"
Speaker: Major General Christopher Ballard, U.S. Army Retired, Greenville SC
Location: Virtual event
2020 Lectures
Title: “US-Venezuela relations: How we got here and where we are going”
Speaker: Ambassador Jimmy Story Venezuela Affairs Unit, Bogota, Colombia
View the event flyer for more information.
Title: “The Rise and Challenges of Authoritarian Populism In Europe And The U.S.”
Speaker: Dr. David Sirakov, Director of the Atlantic Academy Rheinland-Pfalz
Sponsored by: This year we are co-sponsoring the virtual session of the Palmetto Forum with the Columbia World Affairs Council
Location: Virtual event
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Title: "Internet voting in national elections: why it is widely used in some European countries and considered an impossibly bad idea in others "
Speaker: Dr. Mihkel Solvak, Professor of electoral behavior, Tartu University, Estonia
Location: Virtual event
Title: "The COVID-19 Pandemic: Separating Fact from Fiction and Certainty from Uncertainty "
Speaker: Dr. Eric Brenner, Medical Epidemiologist, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina
Location: Virtual event
Title: "The COVID-19 Pandemic: Separating Fact from Fiction and Certainty from Uncertainty "
Speaker: Dr. Eric Brenner, Medical Epidemiologist, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina
Location: Virtual event
Title: “Putin’s 2024 Problem”
Speaker: Dr. Gordon Smith, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Political Science, University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: “From Mine to Market: Diamonds and 19th-Century Transatlantic Trade”
Speaker: Dr. Saskia Coenen Snyder, Associate Professor of History, University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
View the event flyer for more information.2019 Lectures
Title: “Breaking Down the Breakdown of Democracy in Venezuela”
Speaker: Dr. Matthew Wilson, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: “Democracy building after authoritarianism - THE CHALLEGES TO LIBERAL DEMOCRACY IN POLAND (and Eastern Europe) 30 years after the 1989 reFolution”
Speaker: Dr. Bohdan Szklarski, Visiting Professor of Political Science, University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: “The Middle East after the Israeli elections”
Speaker: Dr. Josef Olmert, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Crisis in Hong Kong: How Chinese is Hong Kong"
Speaker: Dr. John Hsieh, Professor of Political Science, University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: “The Cosmology of Brexit”
Speaker: Dr. Robert Cox, Director, Walker Institute of International and Area Studies, Professor of Political Science, University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: “Avoiding Day Zero – Perspectives on Financing the Global Water and Sanitation Water Infrastructure Transition”
Speaker: Dr. David Fuente, Assistant Professor, School of Earth, Ocean & Environment, University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
Attire: Business/Professional
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Title: "A Local Battle with Global Implications: The Dispute Over the South China Sea"
Speaker: Professor Joel Samuels, School of Law, University of South Carolina.
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
Title: “A global energy transition? The increasing role of renewable energy in the global energy mix”
Speaker: Dr. Connor Harrison, Assistant professor of Department of Geography at the University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
View the event flyer for more information.
2018 Lectures
Title: "Fascism and the Demise of Democracy"
Speaker: Dr. Donald Puchala, the James F. and Maude B. Byrnes Professor of International Studies Emeritus at the University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: “Genocide: The Law and Its Ambiguities”
Speaker: Dr. Anu Chakravarty, Associate professor of political science, USC
Sponsored by: The Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Engage America Series: Oman 2018"
Speaker: Ms. Haura Al Wahaibi- Commercial Attaché of the Sultanate of Oman
Sponsored by: This event is jointly-sponsored by the Columbia World Affairs Council and The Walker Institute .The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth.
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
Title: “Assessing the Future of the Divided Korea”
Speaker: Dr. Gerald McDermott, Professor of Darla Moore School of Business, USC
Sponsored by: Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "If you thought nukes were scary, try bioterrorism"
Speaker: Dr. Helmut Albrecht, Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Bollywood to Beijing: Film Exchange in the Asian Century"
Speaker: Dr. Krista Van Fleit- Director, Center for Asian Studies and Islamic World Studies, USC
Sponsored by: Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "State and Federal Funding of Public Higher Education: Has Public Higher Education become a Private Good?"
Speaker: Dr. Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, Vice President for System Planning, Univeristy of South Carolina
Sponsored by: Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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2017 Lectures
Title: "The Mighty Shall Hear Their Voices: The Southern Negro Youth Congress & the Making of the Modern Civil Rights Movement"
Speaker: Dr. Bobby J. Donaldson, USC Associate Professor, Department of History
Sponsored by: Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Trump’s Economic Nationalism & South Carolina’s Economic Globalism"
Speaker: Dr. James Kuhlman, University of South Carolina
Sponsored by: Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: " The New Populism in Europe"
Speaker: Dr. Christoffer Green-Pedersen, Professor in the Department of Political Science-School of Business and Social Sciences-AARHUS University, Denmark
Sponsored by: Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Social Media and International Relations"
Speaker: Dr. Augie Grant, Professor-School of Journalism and Mass Communication at USC
Sponsored by: Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
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Title: "Putin's Russia Inside Out"
Speaker: Dr. Stanislav Markus Associate Professor of International Business and Business Partnership Foundation Fellow – Darla Moore School of Business at USC
Sponsored by: Walker Institute and The Palmetto Forum is made possible in part by generous support from South State Wealth
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
View the event flyer for more information.
2016 Lectures
Title:"MERS, Ebola and Zika, Oh My!"
Speaker: Dr. Helmut Albrecht, Professor and Chair of Clinical Internal Medicine at USC
Title: "Who will win in this WEIRDEST election ever? Guesses and maybe reasons."
Speaker: Donald Fowler, Adjunct Faculty - Department of Political Science at USC
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Title: "What Makes Vladimir Putin Tick?"
Speaker: Dr. Gordon B. Smith, Emeritus Faculty - Department of Political Science at USC
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Title: "Brexit: The Future of the European Union"
Speaker: Dr. Robert Cox, Director at Walker Institute and Professor with Department of Political Science at USC