Join us for an exclusive dinner and an in-depth discussion on foreign policy with renowned Russian and European experts, as we kick off our first in-person event of the year.
- What do we make of what is unfolding with Russia, Ukraine, the USA, and Europe?
- What about NATO?
- Are 80-year alliances collapsing, evolving?
- What does history provide as a guide?
Thursday, April 10 from 6PM-8PM
The event will be held at The Literary Club, 500 East Fourth Street (across from Lytle Park), America’s oldest continuously operating literary club. Doors open at 5:30PM, dinner at 6PM, event program from 7-8PM.
Our Presenting Guest Speakers

University of Cincinnati Professors
Willard Sunderland (left) and
Ivan Ivanov (right) will be our guest speakers, as the Foreign Policy Leadership Council meets again in person over dinner. Professor Sunderland teaches Russian History at UC. Professor Ivanov conducts courses on European and Russian politics.
Our Board member, Mr. Joe Dehner, who drove a Volkswagen through the Soviet Union in 1969, will lead a threaded conversation about the long-term meaning of what is unfolding in Russia, Ukraine, and Europe, and the USA’s role. We will dig beneath the news and noise to consider the meaning of these developments and its impact on us all.

Patrick Loch Otieno (PLO) Lumumba is a Kenyan born, renowned international public speaker, a high-profile civil servant, an eloquent lawyer and a staunch Pan-Africanist. PLO has delivered several powerful speeches alluding to or about African solutions to African problems.
Wendy Cutler is Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) and the managing director of the Washington, D.C. office. In these roles, she focuses on building ASPI’s presence in the nation’s capital and on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade, investment and innovation, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia.
Mr. Hirte will be joining us from his office in Belgium for sharing with our members a dynamic and timely presentation on the “The Current Economic and Political Challenges of the European Union”, a very important topic part of today’s global socio-economic and political context, especially following the many changes the past year of 2020 brought to the world landscape and to the European Union in particular.