CPP Summer 2016: Summer Retreat
On July 30th and 31st, participants in the Summer 2016 class of the Congressional Partnership Program joined foreign policy and national security experts for a weekend of thought provoking discussions about issues in the world today and bipartisan team-building.
On July 30th, participants heard from Ed Levine (former Senate Foreign Relations Committee minority staff) and Tom Moore (former Senate Foreign Relations Committee majority staff) on the mechanics of bipartisan consensus on the ratification of the New START Treaty.
General John Allen (ret.), former Special Presidential Envoy for the Coalition to Counter ISIL and former Commander of U.S. and NATO Forces in Afghanistan, gave the keynote speech on “Global Challenges for Today and Tomorrow.”
On July 31st, Dr. Patrick Cronin discussed the future of U.S.-China challenges, and Geoff Thale discussed challenges facing Latin America.
Dr. Cronin is a Senior Advisor and Senior Director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Previously, he was the Senior Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at the National Defense University, where he simultaneously oversaw the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs.
Mr. Thale is the Program Director at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a leading research and advocacy organization advancing human rights in the Americas. He follows hemispheric trends as well as U.S. policy toward the region, and works with senior staff across WOLA’s multiple program areas. Thale oversees WOLA’s work on Central America, which follows issues of human rights, citizen security, and economic opportunity in the region, with a particular emphasis on El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Participants also took part in a National Security Council simulation.
