Expanding Creativity in America's Foreign Policy with Ambassador Rick Barton - SOLD OUT

"Immersed in more than 40 global conflicts over the past 25 years, Ambassador Rick Barton is among the world's most skilled and experienced diplomats and peace-builders. His honest reflections and deep understanding of the lessons he learned challenges traditional approaches and defines smart new global options." - Senator George J. Mitchell

Join us for a conversation with Rick Barton, co-founder of the World Affairs Council of Maine and global conflict leader, whose recent book, "Peace Works: America's Unifying Role in a Turbulent World," uses a mix of stories, history, and analysis for a transformative approach to foreign affairs. Drawing on his lifetime of experience as a diplomat, foreign policy expert, and State Department advisor, Barton grapples with the fact that the U.S. is strategically positioned and morally obligated to defuse international conflicts, but often inadvertently escalates conflicts instead. Guided by the need to find solutions that will yield tangible results, Barton does a deep analysis of our last several interventions and discusses why they failed and how they could have succeeded. He outlines a few key directives in his foreign policy strategy: remain transparent with the American public, act as a catalyzing (not colonizing!) force, and engage local partners. But above all else, he insists that the U.S. must maintain a focus on people.

4:00pm: Reception including beer, wine, and light hors d'oeuvres

4:45pm: Program

5:30pm: Q + A

Copies of Ambassador Barton's book will be available for purchase by cash or credit card ($35 USD).

About the speaker

Ambassador Rick Barton teaches at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, where he serves as a co-director of Princeton's Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative and Ullman Fellowships. Barton started USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives, and was America's ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in New York, the UN's Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva and the first Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations. He led conflict management initiatives in over 40 crisis zones across the globe, from Haiti, Iraq, Nigeria, Burma, Pakistan to Turkey. Published in The New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, The Boston Globe, and numerous other international outlets, Barton is a guest on news shows ranging from NPR to all of the major networks. He resides in Washington, D.C. with his wife of 43 years, Kit Lunney.