Smart Women, Smart Power

CSIS non-resident Senior Associate Monica Medina joined Beverly Kirk to discuss progress being made regarding women in military combat roles. She also talked about a court ruling from earlier this year that said excluding women from Selective Service registration is unconstitutional. That court decision is being appealed.

Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins joined host Beverly Kirk to discuss how she navigated her career in the State Department and how her organization, Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security, is helping to increase the number of young women in the field.

Liz Smith, Executive Chairman of the Board and former CEO of Bloomin’ Brands and deputy chair of the Atlanta Fed, joined Beverly Kirk to talk about the importance of embracing your failures in the workplace, learning the lessons, and moving on quickly. They also discussed her mission of creating gender parity on corporate boards.

Cyber & Tech Attorney Camille Stewart talks with host Beverly Kirk about how U.S. adversaries access sensitive national security technologies and intellectual property through bankruptcy proceedings. They also discuss what’s being done to better protect information when companies fail.

The Smart Women, Smart Power Speaker Series hosted three Washington-based journalists for a conversation on how security and foreign policy issues will influence the upcoming campaign cycle. Moderated by Beverly Kirk, the panelists were Susan Glasser of The New Yorker, Jennifer Griffin of FOX News, and Lara Seligman of Foreign Policy.

A panel discussion of benefits and challenges in using international institutions as a tool of statecraft. The conversation features Dr. Esther Brimmer, Heather Conley, Naima Green, Dr. Kristina Spohr, and Dr. Mischa Thompson and was held at the Future Strategy Forum in April 2019.

After an earthquake devastated Barpak, Nepal in 2015, Maya Pandey, a Virginia high school student born in Nepal, raised money to build a learning center to give Barpak students a place to study while their schools were rebuilt. Maya talks with Beverly Kirk about the process of building and sustaining the learning center and about how she’s also giving back to her community in Virginia. This episode is part of our Smart Girls, Smart Power series.

Beverly Kirk talks with Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya about starting a school to educate young girls in her Kenyan hometown and keeping them out of forced early marriages. Two of her students also join the conversation to talk about their aspirations and goals.

Katie Kaufman, Managing Director for Global Women’s Issues at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), spoke with SWSP host Beverly Kirk about the 2X Women’s Initiative and why investing in women entrepreneurs is profitable.

Dame Barbara Woodward, the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to China discusses the current Washington-Beijing trade spat and its implications for the U.K. and the rest of the world. She also talks about 21st century diplomatic challenges and how most are related to China.

The first panel from this year’s Future Strategy Forum started with a conversation on great power cooperation and its impacts in the 21st century. The panelists were Meg Guliford, Lindsey Ford, Dr. Angela Stent, Amb. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and Dr. Irene Wu.

RAND’s Radha Iyengar Plumb, CNAS’s Loren DeJonge Schulman (two of the Bombshell podcast hosts), and CSIS’s Alice Hunt Friend discuss mentoring young women (and men) and what it’s like to be leading women in international affairs and national security.

New York Times Foreign Correspondent Rukmini Callimachi discusses her career covering terrorists and war zones and explains why ISIS remains a threat despite its loss of territory.

Ambassador Susan Rice joined the CSIS Smart Women, Smart Power program and the Kissinger Center for Global Affairs for a keynote discussion at the Future Strategy Forum conference on April 2, 2019. She sat down with Dr. Kath Hicks for a conversation on her career path and her insights on the current and future use of statecraft in the world.

Dr. Jody Olsen, Peace Corps Director, joined us here at CSIS for a conversation in celebration of International Women’s Day. She spoke with series moderator Nina Easton about the importance of the Peace Corps as a development agency and its work on women’s economic empowerment.

Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation, discusses her new book “Be Fearless” and shares stories of ordinary people around the globe doing extraordinary things to change the world.

Dr. Maria Melendez, Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, discusses post-Hurricane Maria rebuilding efforts on the island and how federal funding has been slow to arrive.

Former Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga joined us at CSIS for a Smart Women, Smart Power conversation with moderator Nina Easton to discuss her efforts to bring justice to women and men victims of sexual violence during the Kosovo War.

Muriel Domenach, Secretary General of the French government’s Inter-ministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization sat down with host Beverly Kirk to discuss how France is implementing radicalization prevention programs that target vulnerable young people.

Kim McHugh, Chevron Vice President of Drilling and Completions chats with Beverly Kirk about being the first woman in the energy industry to hold her job, how she encourages young women to pursue STEM careers, and why she strives for “work-life integration,” not “work-life balance.”