2024 ACFR Annual Conferences

27th Annual ACFR Conference

Washington, DC

April 18-19, 2024

“Foreign Policy in an Age of Rising Authoritarianism“

The full-day conference on Friday April 19 will be held at the University Club; dinner and the Distinguished Service Award presentation that evening will be at the Army-Navy Club.
Over the past two decades the democratic wave has subsided. Few if any new democracies are being created, and many established democracies—from Poland and Hungary, to Brazil and India, and even the United States—have seen the rise of populist authoritarian movements determined to erode basic democratic principles. China and Russia are taking advantage of democratic decline to promote an alternative vision of governance. What are the implications of rising authoritarianism internationally for U.S. security and foreign policy, and how might the authoritarian populist movement in the United States reshape our relations with the rest of the world?

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Early Arrival Event
at the Federal Bureau of Investigation
The FBI Experience Tour
800 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20535
11:00 am to 1:30 pm

The FBI has provided us more detailed information about this tour.
If interested, please, read this page.

Second Early Arrival Event
at the Holocaust Museum
Introductory discussion and tour, 3:00-4:40 pm
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Washington, D.C. 20024

Reception & Roundtable
with the Lithuanian Ambassador to the United States,
H.E. Audra Plepytė
Thursday evening, April 18, 2024
6pm to 8pm
Lithuanian Embassy, Washington D.C.
2622 16th Street, NW
Washington DC, 20009

Friday, April 19, 2024

Conference, “Foreign Policy in an Age of Rising Authoritarianism”

The second, full-day of the Conference and Banquet includes :
two Keynotes, a Morning Panel, and an Afternoon Panel.
Details below

Conference Program
8:00 am – 3:45 pm

at
The University Club of Washington DC
1135 -16th St. NW
Washington DC 20036

Distinguished Service Award Banquet
7:00 pm – 9:30 pm
at

The Army-Navy Club
901 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington DC, 20006

Program Agenda: Speakers and Times

8:00 – 8:45am Registration and continental breakfast

8:45am Welcoming Remarks – Charles Ziegler, ACFR Board President

9:00 – 9:45am Opening Keynote
Ellen Laipson, Director, International Security Program, and Director, Center for Security Policy Studies, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
“Is the Liberal International Order Defunct?”

10:00 – 11:30 am Panel #1 : Rising Authoritarianism and Foreign Policy Challenges
Chair/Moderator: Joshua Rovner, American University

• Charles Edel, Center for Strategic and International Studies
• Steven Feldstein, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
• Alyssa Ayres, George Washington University

12:00pm Lunch and tributes

1:15 – 2:45pm Panel #2 Dealing with Authoritarian Great Powers
Chair/Moderator:  William Pomeranz, Director, Kennan Institute, Wilson Center

• Deepa Ollapally, George Washington University
• Robert Sutter, George Washington University
• Andrew A. Michta, Atlantic Council

3:00 – 3:45pm Closing Keynote
Bruce Stokes, Visiting Senior Fellow, German Marshall Fund of the U.S.
“Authoritarian-proofing American foreign policy”

3:45pm Closing remarks

Special Note for Friends of ACFR, Past Conference Speakers and experts in the field are encouraged to attend the conference.

2024 Distinguished Service Award

7:00 – 9:00pm Banquet and Designation of Distinguished Service Award
The Army-Navy Club
901 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington DC, 20006
The Honorable Wendy R. Sherman

The ACFR is very pleased to announce that Ms Wendy R. Sherman is 2024’s recipient of the ACFR’s Distinguished Service Award.

Ms Sherman is a former Deputy Secretary of State
Here is her official biography.

Saturday, April 20, 2024

ACFR Board Business Meeting

Time:
9:00am – 11:00am
Location:
The Mayflower Hotel, 1127 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20036