Twenty-Ninth Term Member Conference

FROMAN: Well, good evening, everybody. It’s great to see you all here, and welcome to those who are on Zoom as well. I’m Mike Froman, president of the Council, and this is one of my favorite events of the year, having been a term member myself just a few years ago. So thank you all for taking the time to be there.

Before I introduce our speaker and engage in conversation, let me just say a word about the Term Member Program. This is the Stephen M. Kellen Term Member Program. Stephen Kellen was a longtime member of the Council who was really focused on building relationships with the next generation. And we’re incredibly grateful to the Kellen family and the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation for their support of the program; also to current CFR member Andrew Gundlach, who’s Mr. Kellen’s grandson and who has continued to support the Council and be very much involved in all of our activities.

We expect about 400 term members over the course of the next twenty-four hours sort of streaming in and out of the—of the building, which is great. We’re going to be covering a lot of different issues...

BODURTHA: Well, good morning and welcome back to the twenty-ninth Conference of the Stephen M. Kellen Term Member Program. I’m Nancy Bodurtha. I’m the vice president of meetings and membership here at the Council. If we didn’t have a chance to meet or to catch up last night, I hope to see you around the conference today and I look forward to speaking with you. As Mike Froman mentioned last night, we couldn’t be happier to welcome you to Washington for this annual conference. This is our largest term member conference to date, with over 450 people coming and going throughout the day. And many of you have traveled quite a distance to be here with us.

A little known and fun fact about the Council is that the plurality of our members hail from outside the greater New York and Washington, D.C. areas. And the national representation here today is impressive. We have geographic diversity in the house, coming from Arkansas, Indiana, Hawaii, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, and Washington state to name a few, as well as term members who’ve traveled from Japan, India, Mexico, and the U.K. In the program book, that I see some of you are...

TOGUN: (In progress)—is a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and he’s also an associate professor of political science at Skidmore College.

One thing to note, this is an all-Nigerian conversation. This is the first time I’ve been at a CFR panel—(laughter)—where everyone on the panel is from Nigeria. It’s pretty amazing. I think it’s kind of cool. So we’re going to spend the first thirty minutes with me in conversation with these three folks, and then we’re going to open up to questions from you all afterwards. So just as a lay of the—to get the lay of the land.

And, Zainab, let me begin with you to give us that lay of the land. How would you describe the economic and development opportunities as well as the challenges that’s facing the African continent on a macro level?

USMAN: Great. Thank you very much. Very nice to connect with everyone. This is my first time attending a CFR conference. I’ve been here for a number of roundtables, so.

I think I want to start by talking about where the continent is right now, and then I’ll discuss opportunities and maybe some challenges. As we know, the...

IYER: Awesome. Well, welcome, everyone. Thanks for coming to one of two panels here this afternoon. I know we’re a post-lunch panel, so we’ll try and do our best to keep it as lively as possible.

My name is Akhil. I’m a CFR term member and a member of the Shield Capital team. I’m really excited to be here on stage with some incredible professionals, both from the national security, private, public side, as well as some friends as well. What we’ll plan on doing for the next fifty-five minutes or so is have a little bit of a discussion.

The general theme that I like to go with on this topic of emerging technology and national security is, first, where we have come from. You know, what has been the evolution or recent history in the last twenty years at this relationship between emerging or not-so-emerging technologies and the national security enterprise, both the implications and how they were developed. Second, I’d like to talk about where we are today. Not just the United States and its likeminded allies, but how are we thinking about technology and competitive advantage in the national security domain when it comes to our...

SUBRAMANIAN: Thank you, everyone, for coming. I’m sure we’re going to have a very comprehensive discussion today.

We have three brilliant guests who can give us their vantage point on the 2024 election. We have Michael Dimock, the president of Pew Research Center; Frank Luntz, veteran pollster and communication strategist; and Ashley Parker, the senior national correspondent for the Washington Post.

So, guys, I just want to start with where we’re at. You know, we have a little under two weeks until election day. Both candidates have been hitting the trail. We have a couple unconventional stops this weekend.

So I just want to talk about their closing strategy and, Ashley, I thought we could start with you on Kamala Harris. She’s had a very condensed campaign. Her time is precious. Messaging has to be very deliberate. How has her team decided to close their message to voters in the final days of the campaign as some people are already casting their ballots?

PARKER: So they have a couple messages they want to get out to voters. They probably have five, which you could do in an eighteen-month campaign in a, you know, post bad debate campaign...