2023 Lectures
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
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
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
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
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
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
Title: "The fight for media freedom in Georgia (the case of Mtavari Channel)"
Speaker: Ms. Tamta Muradashvili
Location: The Palmetto Club, 1231 Sumter Street
Title: "Understanding the Russian-Ukrainian Crisis"
Event 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
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
Title: "Understanding the Conflict in the Eastern Mediterranean"
Speaker: Dr. Ali Demiridas, Contributor to National Interest and other news media
Location: Virtual event
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Title: "What Makes Vladimir Putin Tick?"
Speaker: Dr. Gordon B. Smith, Emeritus Faculty - Department of Political Science at USC
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