Diplomacy in a New Transatlantic Era

Free and open to the public. Reception to follow.

About the event:

Please join us to celebrate the launch of the Weiser Diplomacy Center with a conversation on U.S. foreign policy and the evolving Transatlantic relationship. Former National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried, and President & CEO of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition Liz Schrayer will analyze key challenges facing the United States and its partners in Europe and beyond. They will discuss how effective diplomacy can advance American values and interests in an era when nationalist and authoritarian currents are strong. They will also share insights on the implications for students pursuing careers in international affairs.

From the speakers' bios:

Stephen Hadley served for four years as the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from 2005 to 2009. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Hadley was the Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor, serving under then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Mr. Hadley had previously served on the National Security Council staff and in the Defense Department including as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy from 1989 to 1993.

During his professional career, Mr. Hadley has served on a number of advisory boards, including: the National Security Advisory Panel to the Director of Central Intelligence, the Department ofDefense Policy Board, and the State Department’s Foreign Affairs policy Board. He is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group.
Mr. Hadley is a principal of RiceHadleyGates LLC, an international strategic consulting firm founded with Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Anja Manuel. Mr. Hadley is also Board Chair of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and an Executive Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council.

In his forty-year Foreign Service career, Ambassador Daniel Fried played a key role in designing and implementing American policy in Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union. As Special Assistant and NSC Senior Director for Presidents Clinton and Bush, Ambassador to Poland, and Assistant Secretary of State for Europe (2005-09), Ambassador Fried crafted the policy of NATO enlargement to Central European nations and, in parallel, NATO-Russia relations, thus advancing the goal of Europe whole, free, and at peace. During those years, the West’s community of democracy and security grew in Europe.  Ambassador Fried helped lead the West’s response to Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine starting in 2014: as State Department Coordinator for Sanctions Policy, he crafted U.S. sanctions against Russia, the largest U.S. sanctions program to date, and negotiated the imposition of similar sanctions by Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia. Having retired from the Foreign Service in April 2017, Ambassador Fried is currently a Distinguished Fellow with the Atlantic Council and a Visiting Professor at Warsaw University.  

Ambassador Fried became one of the U.S. government’s foremost experts on Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. He joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1977, serving overseas in Leningrad (Human Rights, Baltic affairs, and Consular Officer), and Belgrade (Political Officer); and in the Office of Soviet Affairs in the State Department. As Polish Desk Officer in the late 1980s, Fried was one of the first in Washington to recognize the impending collapse of Communism in Poland, and helped develop the immediate response of the George H.W. Bush Administration to these developments. As Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw (1990-93), Fried witnessed Poland’s difficult but ultimately successful free market, democratic transformation, working with successive Polish governments. Ambassador Fried also served as the State Department’s first Special Envoy for the Closure of the Guantanamo (GTMO) Detainee Facility.  He established procedures for the transfer of individual detainees and negotiated the transfers of 70 detainees to 20 countries, with improved security outcomes.  

Liz Schrayer, a respected political strategist, founded Schrayer & Associates, Inc. in 1995 with an eye toward enhancing the political effectiveness of non-profits and businesses to impact policy in our nation’s capital and around the country. Through hands-on strategic planning, crafting of advocacy campaigns and as one of the premier meeting facilitators in Washington, she has helped engage and mobilize tens of thousands of citizen advocates to impact a range of domestic & foreign policy issues.

Schrayer also serves as the President & CEO of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, an influential broad based coalition of over 500 businesses and NGOs, whose Advisory Committee includes every former Secretary of State that advocates for America’s global leadership. She serves on USAID’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid (ACVFA) and the State Department’s Committee on Public-Private Partnership and on USAID’s. She has been published in in TIME, Newsweek, USA Today, and The Hill, among other outlets. In addition, Schrayer serves on several advisory boards for the University of Michigan, including the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy. Schrayer holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan (Political Science and America Studies). She resides in Maryland with her husband Jeff Schwaber, the Managing Partner of Stein, Sperling law firm and the founder of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

About the lecture series:

This event forms part of the series in celebration of the launch of the Weiser Diplomacy Center (WDC), housed in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. WDC is a hub for practical training and policy dialogue on diplomacy and foreign affairs. WDC trains students for careers in international service, provides a meeting point for academics and practitioners, and serves as a bridge between U-M and the foreign policy community. WDC engages Professors of Practice and regular visiting practitioners and aims to be one of the country’s leading loci for the study of foreign affairs.

Hosted as part of the Ford School's Conversations Across Difference Initiative.

• diplomacy
• Ron Weiser
• Conversations Across Difference
• Daniel Fried
• Stephen Hadley
• Liz Schrayer
• Weiser Diplomacy Center Launch Series
• Democracy and Debate
• Michael Barr