September 6, 2017
Matthew Dziennik, Assistant Professor of British and British Imperial History at the United States Naval Academy
Professor Dziennik was born and raised in the Scottish Highlands and completed his PhD in History at the University of Edinburgh. He research at the USNA focuses on military recruitment in the early British Empire. He is the author of The Fatal Land: War, Empire, and the Highland Soldier in British America (Yale University Press, 2015). The subject of his presentation will be Brexit.
October 4, 2017
His Excellency, Dr. Wolfgang A. Waldner
Prior to becoming Ambassador on January 11, 2016, Dr. Waldner served as Director General, for Cultural Policy at the Federal Ministry in Vienna. Ambassador Waldner holds a Doctorate in Law and Languages from the University of Vienna and Post Graduate Diplomas from the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies and the Universitė des Sciences Sociales in Grenoble, France.
Prior to the dinner, Annapolis Opera soprano, Courtney Kalbacker will sing Austrian songs and an opera aria.
November 1, 2017
His Excellency, Rolandas Kriščiŭnas
His Excellency, Rolandas Kriščiŭnas, Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania, will address the International Club of Annapolis on Wednesday November 1st. Mr. Kriščiŭnas holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Informatics from Vytautas Didysis University and a Master’s Degree in Economic Sciences from Ohio University. His governmental career began in the Economic Analysis Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after which he was appointed First Secretary of the Lithuanian Embassy in the USA. He returned to Lithuania as the Director of the EU Programme Management Department and rose to the position of Vice-Minister of Finance and later Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, prior to his being appointed Ambassador on August 3rd 2015. Mr. Kriščiūnas and his wife Živilė Kriščiūnienė have a son, Julius Herkus. Kriščiūnas speaks Lithuanian, Russian, English and French.
December 6, 2017
Ambassador David Gross
Our December speaker will be Ambassador David Gross, who since 2001 has served as the US Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy; he was nominated to this role by President George W Bush and unanimously confirmed by the senate. As the US Coordinator, Ambassador Gross has overall responsibility for the formulation and advocacy of international communications policy in the United States. Ambassador Gross obtained a BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and received his law degree from Columbia University. After early years specializing in telecommunications issues in the private sector, he joined the Department of State and has led more US delegations to major telecommunications conferences than anyone in modern history. He has been a member of the UN Information and Communications Technologies Task Force and has conducted bilateral discussions at senior levels with representatives from more than 70 countries. This promises to be a most interesting subject particularly in the current international climate.
January 3, 2018
Ambassador Mninwa Johannes Mahlangu, Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa
His Excellency Mninwa Johannes Mahlangu, Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa will address the International Club of Annapolis on Wednesday January 3rd. Mr. Mahlangu started his public life in the late 1960’s when he was elected President of the Student Christian Movement in the then Eastern Transvaal. From 1973 to 1976 he served as Assistant Secretary of the Transvaal United African Teachers Association. He played a critical role in the formation of the first democratic South Africa as Co-Chairperson of the Congress for Democratic South Africa and the Multiparty Negotiation Forum and in 1994 joined the National Assembly as a representative of the African National Congress. In 2002 he was elected Permanent Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces and elected Chairperson in 2005, serving in that role until 2014. He has represented South Africa in many international platforms, including the UN and G20 and as leader of South Africa’s delegation to the Pan-African Parliament.
February 7, 2018
Our planned speaker for February had been His Excellency Kåre Aas, Ambassador of Norway to the United States; unfortunately he has developed a conflict and will now address the International Club of Annapolis later in the year.
Our speaker on Wednesday February 7th will be Ernest Tucker, who will address the subject of “Qatar and the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries”. Dr. Ernest Tucker has taught in the history department at the US Naval Academy since 1990, receiving the rank of full professor there in 2006. In December 2017, he became the Faculty Director of the Naval Academy’s Center for Regional Studies. Dr. Tucker received his Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History at the University of Chicago, and has spent time living and doing research in the Middle east. He has published three books and his articles and chapters have appears in a wide variety of scholarly journals, collections, and encyclopedias. Dr. Tucker has also traveled extensively in the region and led several student groups there.
March 7, 2018
His Excellency Kåre Aas, Ambassador of Norway to the United States will address the International Club of Annapolis on Wednesday March 7th.
Mr. Aas joined the foreign ministry in 1983 and his early years there included postings to Santiago, Chile, and Geneva, Switzerland. In 1995, Aas was made Deputy Director of the foreign affairs ministry, and the following year he was sent to Brussels as a minister in Norway’s delegation to NATO. In 2003 he was chosen to head the ministry’s security department, managing bilateral relationships with the United States, Russia, and Central Asian Republics. From 2005 to 2007, Aas was Norway’s representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency. In 2008 he was appointed Ambassador to Afghanistan, returning to Oslo in 2010 to become political director for the foreign ministry. He was appointed to his current role in September 2013.
April 4, 2018
His Excellency Serge Mombouli, Ambassador of the Republic of Congo to the United States will address the International Club of Annapolis on Wednesday April 4th.
An expert in corporate law and business negotiations, Ambassador Mombouli previously served as Congo’s Chargé d’Affaires to the United Sates from 1997 to 2001. For over a decade he has worked extensively with the private sector and US Government to strengthen US-Congo diplomatic relations in areas of governance, international development and foreign investment. Before holding this position, Ambassador Mombouli had long been active in the private sector. He began his career at Air Afrique in the corporate sales department in Paris. For many years he served as Vice President of A.W.E Group and from 1995 to 1997 he was Vice President for International Operations and Project Development at Transworld Consortium Corporation in Houston. Ambassador Mombouli obtained his degree in Corporate Law from the National Conservatory of Arts and Professions in Paris and later took an executive education course in Innovation for Economic Development at Harvard.
May 2, 2018
Dr. Alan Stolberg is the Coordinator of Defense Education Enhancement Rand Corporation and Academic Advisor/Senior Mentor for the State Department African Military Education Program, helping to coordinate and orchestrate US Government assistance to other nations’ professional military education around the globe. Prior to this position, Dr. Stolberg served as Professor of National Security Studies and Director of the National Security Policy Program at the US Army War College, Carlisle Pennsylvania. Dr. Stolberg was a career Army officer and served for over 30 years as an infantry officer, intelligence officer, and foreign area specialist for both Eastern and Western Europe. He earned a BA in Political Science from St John’s University, an MA in International Relations from the University of Southern California, an MA in National Security and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College, and a PHD. in Political Science from Temple University. Dr. Stolberg is also a graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College, Defense Intelligence College, and the Army’s three-year Russia/East Europe Foreign Area Officer Program.
June 6, 2018
Phil Reynolds, former Director of the U. N. Development Program’s Global Water Program
Phil Reynolds spent 35 years in the United Nations System with his last position as Director of the U.N. Development Program’s Global Water Program. Mr. Reynolds spent 2 years as English Teacher in Thailand with the Peace Corps and obtained a Master of Public Administration Degree from Indiana University. He spent 1 year in the U.N. HQ, 5 years establishing the U.N. Industrial Development Organization in Vienna and 11 years with the U.N. Development Program in Iraq, Pakistan and Tanzania. During his next 18 years at UNDP HQ in New York, he ran global programs in environment, democracy, poverty alleviation and other fields. Since retirement he has been a U.N. consultant, a Pace University Adjunct Professor, a Facilitator for the UNDP’s Virtual Development Academy, a Faculty Advisor at Columbia University’s School of international and Public Affairs and president of several NGO’s.
