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CONTINUING LIBERTY

One-Year Anniversary Conference, September 20–22, 2021

In partnership with:
Václav Havel Library, Prague
Transatlantic Democracy Working Group
The German Marshall Fund of the United States

We started American Purpose nearly a year ago with three principal aims: to defend classical liberalism, under attack from the left and right; to keep America engaged in the world in sensible and responsible ways; and to advance the idea of culture as an integral part of the American experience. Next week’s virtual conference is a chance for us to take stock and connect with you, our wider community. Please join us and weigh in.

Monday, September 20

9:30 a.m.—11:00 a.m. ET

Welcome Remarks

NORMAN EISEN, Brookings Institution, former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, and co-chair, TDWG

Michael Žantovský, Václav Havel Library and former Czech ambassador to the United States

Jeffrey Gedmin, American Purpose

The Future of Liberalism

Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University and American Purpose

Watch Video

12:00 p.m.—1:00 p.m. ET

Liberal Democracy in Central Europe

Gergely Karácsony, mayor of Budapest

Francis Fukuyama

Moderator: SOPHIA GASTON, British Foreign Policy Group

Watch Video

2:00 p.m.—3:15 p.m. ET

America in the World

Robert B. Zoellick, former World Bank president, U.S. trade representative, and U.S. deputy secretary of state

Watch Video

Tuesday, September 21

8:00 a.m.—9:00 a.m. ET

A Conversation

Thomas Chatterton Williams, contributing writer, The New York Times Magazine, and columnist, Harper’s Magazine

Moderator: Richard Aldous, Bard College and American Purpose

Watch Video

9:00 a.m.—10:15 a.m. ET

Democracy in Europe

Sheri Berman, Barnard College

Sebastian Burduja, member of the Romanian parliament

Jean-Yves Camus, French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs

Dalibor Roháč, American Enterprise Institute and American Purpose

Moderator: Patrick Chamorel, Stanford in Washington and American Purpose

Watch Video

11:00 a.m.—12:15 p.m. ET

Russia and the Frontline Democracies

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, former president of Estonia

Peter Pomerantsev, Johns Hopkins University and American Purpose

Co-moderators: M.J. Crawford, U.S. State Department, and Jonathan Katz, German Marshall Fund of the United States

Respondent: Nino Evgenidze, Economic Policy Research Center, Tbilisi

Watch Video

1:00 p.m.—2:15 p.m. ET

America’s Voice in the World

Martha Bayles, Boston College and American Purpose

David Ensor, former director, Voice of America

Jamie M. Fly, president, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Karen Kornbluh, chair, board of directors, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and former U.S. ambassador to the OECD

Jay Tolson, former news director, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Moderator: Suzanne Garment, American Purpose

Watch Video

4:00 p.m.—5:15 p.m. ET

China and Its Neighbors

Kelly Craft, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

Larry Diamond, Stanford University and American Purpose

Minxin Pei, Claremont McKenna College and American Purpose

Sheila A. Smith, Council on Foreign Relations

Co-moderators: Shirley Martey Hargis, CRDF Global, and Gary J. Schmitt, American Enterprise Institute and American Purpose

Wednesday, September 22

9:00 a.m.—10:15 a.m. ET

Allies

Tom Tugendhat, UK House of Commons

Josef Joffe, Johns Hopkins SAIS and American Purpose

Michael Mandelbaum, Johns Hopkins SAIS and American Purpose

Réka Szemerkényi, former ambassador of Hungary to the United States

Moderator: Carla Anne Robbins, Council on Foreign Relations and American Purpose

Watch Video

12:00 p.m.—1:00 p.m. ET

Britain and America

Philip Stephens, Financial Times

Tod Lindberg, Hudson Institute and American Purpose

Moderator: Craig Kennedy, American Purpose

Watch Video

1:00 p.m.—2:00 p.m. ET

The Arts: Amity and Enmity

Dorothy Kosinski, director, The Phillips Collection

Anne Midgette, author and former classical music critic, The Washington Post

Moderator: Jonathan Rauch, Brookings Institution

Watch Video

2:00 p.m.—3:15 p.m. ET

A House Divided? Polarization Post-Trump
In association with Braver Angels

DANIEL COX, Survey Center on American Life and American Enterprise Institute

William A. Galston, Brookings Institution and American Purpose

William Kristol, The Bulwark

Introduction: Nicole Penn, American Enterprise Institute and American Purpose, and Luke Nathan Phillips, Braver Angels

Moderator: John Wood, Jr., Braver Angels

Watch Video

5:00 p.m.—6:00 p.m. ET

Coda: PostClassical Ensemble, D.C.’s “experimental” orchestra, explores the intersection between music and politics

Angel Gil-Ordóñez, music director/conductor, PostClassical Ensemble

Joseph Horowitz, executive producer, PostClassical Ensemble, and former music critic, The New York Times

Closing Remarks

Michelle High and Jeffrey Gedmin

Watch Video

Warmest thanks to our generous financial supporters. Please consider joining us. American Purpose, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) and donations are tax-deductible.

Steering Committee:
Patrick Chamorel
John Lindburg
Sydnee Lipset
Chels Michta
Nicole Penn

Participants

Richard Aldous is Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature at Bard College and host of the “Bookstack” podcast at American Purpose. He is author and editor of eleven books. He previously taught for fifteen years at University College Dublin, where he was chair of the history department. He writes regularly for a variety of publications, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Martha Bayles, a contributing editor of American Purpose, has taught humanities since 2003 at Boston College. A fellow at the Hudson Institute and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, she writes about the arts, cultural policy, and media, and is author of two books. A former columnist for The American Interest, she is a film and TV critic for the Claremont Review of Books.

Sheri Berman is a professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University, with expertise in European history and politics; the development of democracy; and populism and fascism. She currently serves on the boards of the Journal of Democracy, Dissent, and Political Science Quarterly. Her work has been published in scholarly and non-scholarly outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs.

Sebastian Burduja is a member of the Romanian parliament and vice president of the Romanian National Liberal Party. He is former deputy minister of finance for Romania and founding president of PACT for Romania, a civic and political movement for freedom, citizen engagement, and rule of law. Previously he served as managing partner of RISE Consortium, advisory services for international companies seeking to invest in Romania.

Jean-Yves Camus is director of the Observatoire des Radicalités Politiques at Fondation Jean Jaurès and associate research fellow at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs. His expertise includes contemporary radical right movements in Europe and the history of relations between Russia and radical nationalist movements in Western Europe. Since 2009 he is registered as a global expert for the UN Alliance of Civilizations.

Patrick Chamorel, an editorial board member of American Purpose, is senior resident scholar and lecturer at Stanford in Washington, Stanford University. He also teaches in the Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy program at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. In the 1990s, Chamorel was a senior advisor to the Minister of Industry and in the Policy Planning Office of the French prime minister.

Daniel Cox is a senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute and the director of the Survey Center on American Life. He specializes in survey research, politics, youth culture and identity, and religion. Previously, he was the research director at the Public Religion Research Institute, which he co-founded and where he led the organization’s qualitative and quantitative research program.

Kelly Craft served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2019–21) and as U.S. ambassador to Canada (2017–19). In 2007 she was named an alternate delegate to the United Nations by President George W. Bush. She is a member of the advisory board of the Canadian American Business Council and heads Kelly G. Knight, LLC, a business advisory firm based in Lexington, Kentucky.

M.J. Crawford serves as a foreign service officer at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. She has lived and worked previously in Moldova, Russia, and Uzbekistan. She has also served with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as an election observer in eastern Ukraine.

Larry Diamond, a member of the editorial board of American Purpose, is senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He coordinates the democracy program of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is co-founder of the National Endowment for Democracy’s Journal of Democracy.

Norman Eisen, co-chair of the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group, is a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution. He served as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic (2011–14) and recently served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee (2019–20), including for the impeachment and trial of President Donald Trump. Previously, he worked in the White House as special counsel and special assistant to the president for ethics and government reform (2009–11).

David Ensor is former director of the Voice of America (2011–15). Prior to that, he was director of communications and public diplomacy at the U.S. embassy in Kabul. He covered the White House, foreign policy, and defense issues for National Public Radio (1975–80), was a television correspondent for ABC News (1980–98), and served as CNN’s national security correspondent (1998–2006).

Nino Evgenidze is the executive director at the Economic Policy Research Center in Tbilisi. Additionally, she serves as an anchor of a morning economic show at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and is a member of the Anticorruption Policy Coordination Council of Georgia. Previously, she served in various positions in the government of Georgia, NGOs, and international organizations.

Jamie M. Fly is president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Fly previously served as a senior fellow, co-director of the Alliance for Security Democracy, and director of the future of geopolitics and Asia programs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. A former foreign policy advisor to Senator Marco Rubio, between 2005 and 2009 he served on the National Security Council and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

Francis Fukuyama, chairman of the editorial board of American Purpose, is Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow and director of the Ford Dorsey Master’s in International Policy program at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Previously he served as Mosbacher Director of FSI’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.

William A. Galston, an editorial board member of American Purpose, holds the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s governance studies program, where he serves as a senior fellow. A participant in six presidential campaigns, he served as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy (1993–95). Galston is author of ten books and writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal.

Suzanne Garment, senior editor of American Purpose, is a political scientist, writer, and attorney. She taught politics at Harvard and Yale universities, then became special assistant to the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, Daniel P. Moynihan. She was an associate editor and columnist at the Wall Street Journal editorial page and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Sophia Gaston is director of the British Foreign Policy Group and former director of the Centre for Social and Political Risk. An expert in public opinion, her research explores threats to governance in advanced liberal democracies. She is a research fellow in the Institute for Global Affairs at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an academic fellow at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.

Jeffrey Gedmin, co-chair of the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group, is co-founder and editor-in-chief of American Purpose. He is former president and CEO of the London-based Legatum Institute. He served for four years as president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, prior to which he served as president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in Berlin. Previously, he was executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative at the American Enterprise Institute.

Angel Gil-Ordóñez is music director and conductor of Washington, D.C.’s PostClassical Ensemble, an “experimental” orchestra rethinking the concert experience. He is principal guest conductor of New York’s Perspectives Ensemble and music director of the Georgetown University Orchestra. He is an advisor to the Trinitate Philharmonia in León, Mexico, and former associate conductor of the National Orchestra of Spain.

Shirley Martey Hargis is an affiliated expert at CRDF Global for China programming with the Department of State, a Truman Security Fellow, a non-resident fellow at Taiwan NextGen Foundation, and a contributor to the POLITICO China Watcher newsletter.

Michelle High is managing editor of American Purpose. In 2005 she became the founding executive editor of The American Interest. She served in the George W. Bush Administration’s speechwriting department and previously was managing editor of The National Interest. Her publications have appeared in The American Interest, the Washington Times, the Australian Financial Review, and the edited volume Countering Insurgency and Promoting Democracy (2007).

Joseph Horowitz is co-founder and executive producer of Washington, D.C.’s PostClassical Ensemble, an “experimental” orchestra rethinking the concert experience. He has been a New York Times music critic and executive director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra. He is author of eleven books mainly about the institutional history of classical music in the United States, and has created more than 100 interdisciplinary music festivals.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves, guest professor at Estonia’s Tartu University, served as the fourth president of Estonia (2006–16). He previously served Estonia as a diplomat and journalist, and was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the 1990s. He served as minister of foreign affairs (1996–98 and 1999–2002) and later was a member of the European Parliament (2004–06).

Josef Joffe, an editorial board member of American Purpose, teaches international politics and political theory at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he is a senior fellow at the Kissinger Center. He serves on the editorial council of the German weekly Die Zeit and is a distinguished visiting fellow of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Previously he was a columnist and editorial page editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Gergely Karácsony is mayor of Budapest since 2019 and is running as a candidate for prime minister in the primaries of the opposition in the 2022 Hungarian national election. He served as a member of the Hungarian National Assembly (2010–14) and is co-leader of the Hungarian green political party, Párbeszéd Magyarországért (Dialogue for Hungary). He has been a lecturer at the Institute of Political Science at Corvinus University of Budapest.

Jonathan Katz is senior fellow and director of Democracy Initiatives at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Previously, Katz served as the deputy assistant administrator in the Europe and Eurasia bureau at the U.S. Agency for International Development (2014–17). He has also served as a senior advisor to the assistant secretary in the International Organization Affairs Bureau at the U.S. Department of State (2010–14).

Craig Kennedy is a senior fellow, member of the editorial board, and trustee at American Purpose. From 1995 to 2014 he was president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Earlier in his career, he served as president of the Joyce Foundation for six years. He is currently an advisor to several companies and director of First Solar, a U.S.-based renewable energy firm.

Karen Kornbluh is chair of the board of directors of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; director of the Digital Innovation and Democracy Initiative at the German Marshall Fund of the United States; and chairman of the board of the Open Technology Fund. She served as U.S. ambassador to the OECD (2009–12) and in the Clinton Administration as deputy chief of staff at the Treasury Department and in multiple roles at the Federal Communications Commission.

Dorothy Kosinski has been the Vradenburg Director and CEO of the Phillips Collection since 2008. Previously, she was senior curator of painting and sculpture at the Dallas Museum of Art. Recognized internationally as an accomplished curator and scholar of 19th- and 20th-century art, she was appointed by President Obama to the National Council on the Humanities.

William Kristol is editor-at-large of The Bulwark and founder and director of Defending Democracy Together. He was a founder of The Weekly Standard, and previously led the Project for the Republican Future, which helped shape the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican congressional victory. He served as chief of staff to Education Secretary William Bennett (1985–93) and as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle (1989–93).

Tod Lindberg, a contributing editor of American Purpose, is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute specializing in national security and U.S. leadership. He is an adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previously, he was a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where he established Hoover’s Washington, D.C., office in 2001.

Clare Lockhart, senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, is director and co-founder of the Institute for State Effectiveness. She served in Afghanistan as an adviser to the UN during the Bonn Process and to the Afghan government (2001–05). Lockhart was named by Foreign Policy as one of the “100 Most Influential Global Thinkers” of 2009 and 2010 for her work on fragile states.

Michael Mandelbaum, an editorial board member of American Purpose, is Christian A. Herter Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Author or co-author of 16 books, for 23 years he was associate director of the Aspen Institute Congressional Project on American Relations with the Former Communist World, and is a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Anne Midgette is an author who previously was the classical music critic of the Washington Post (2008–19). Prior to that, she was a regular contributor of classical music and theater reviews to the New York Times. She stepped down from her position at the Washington Post to pursue research related to a future book about Nannette Streicher, the woman who built pianos for Beethoven and whose father built pianos for Mozart.

Minxin Pei, a contributing editor of American Purpose, is Tom and Margot Pritzker ’72 Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. In 2019 he was the Library of Congress Chair on U.S.-China Relations. Previously, Pei was a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served as director of its China program (2003–08).

Nicole Penn, a member of the editorial board of American Purpose, is program manager for social, cultural, and constitutional studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Previously, she supported Lynne Cheney’s research on the Virginia dynasty during the American Revolution and early Republic, and served as an editorial apprentice at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

Luke Nathan Phillips is Publius Fellow for Public Discourse at Braver Angels, an American citizens’ movement bringing liberals, conservatives, and others together at the grassroots level to build civic trust. He is a political writer, policy researcher, and editor whose writings most often bear on American intellectual, political, and institutional history.

Peter Pomerantsev, a contributing editor of American Purpose, is a senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at the Johns Hopkins University, where he co-directs the Arena Initiative on disinformation and polarization. Previously, he was a senior fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (2017–20). He was a member of USC Annenberg’s Transatlantic Working Group on Internet Content Moderation and Freedom of Expression.

Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow in the governance studies program at the Brookings Institution and author of eight books and many articles on public policy, culture, and government. He is a contributing writer of The Atlantic and recipient of the 2005 National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. His multiple-award-winning column, “Social Studies,” appeared from 1998 to 2010 in National Journal.

Carla Anne Robbins, an editorial board member of American Purpose, covered national security and diplomacy for the Wall Street Journal and is a former deputy editorial page editor for the New York Times. She is now Marxe faculty director of the master of international affairs program at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dalibor Roháč, a contributing editor of American Purpose, is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a research associate at the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies in Brussels. He was previously affiliated with the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, the Max Beloff Centre at the University of Buckingham, the London-based Legatum Institute, and the Center for the New Europe in Brussels.

Gary J. Schmitt, a contributing editor of American Purpose, is a resident scholar in strategic studies and American institutions at the American Enterprise Institute. A former minority staff director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (1981-84), he served as executive director of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1984-87). He was previously executive director of the Project for the New American Century.

Sheila A. Smith, an expert on Japanese politics and foreign policy, is John E. Merow Senior Fellow for Asia Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. A former researcher at the East-West Center, she was a visiting scholar at Keio University (2007–08), and has been a visiting researcher at two leading Japanese foreign and security policy think tanks, the Japan Institute of International Affairs and the Research Institute for Peace and Security, and at the University of Tokyo and the University of the Ryukyus.

Philip Stephens is director of the editorial board and associate editor of the Financial Times, where he has a weekly column and has been economics editor, political editor, and editor of the UK edition. Previously, he was a correspondent for Reuters in Brussels. He won the David Watt Prize for Outstanding Political Journalism; Political Journalist of the Year by the UK Political Studies Association; and Political Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards.

Réka Szemerkényi is senior advisor for transatlantic strategy at the International Republican Institute and vice president of the Hungarian Atlantic Council. She served as Hungary’s ambassador to the United States (2015–17) and as chief advisor to the Hungarian prime minister for foreign and security policy (2011–15). She has also served as executive vice president of the Center for European Policy Analysis (2017–20).

Jay Tolson is editor of The Hedgehog Review, the journal of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. Tolson is former literary editor and editor of The Wilson Quarterly and covered religion, culture, and ideas for U. S. News & World Report. He served as news director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and directed the French to Africa service of the Voice of America.

Tom Tugendhat is a British Conservative Party politician serving as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the British House of Commons since 2017. He has been the Member of Parliament for Tonbridge and Malling since 2015. Before entering politics, he served in the British Army, including in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and, among other roles, as a Territorial Army officer.

Thomas Chatterton Williams is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and a columnist at Harper’s Magazine. He is a 2019 New America Fellow and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. At work on his third book, his writings have appeared in The New Yorker, the London Review of Books, Le Monde, and many other places, and have been collected in The Best American Essays and The Best American Travel Writing.

John Wood, Jr., is a national ambassador for Braver Angels, an American citizens’ movement bringing liberals, conservatives, and others together at the grassroots level to build civic trust. He is a former nominee for Congress and former vice-chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. He is a contributing writer for Areo Magazine and Quillette on subjects including racial and political reconciliation.

Michael Žantovský is executive director of the Václav Havel Library in Prague. He was a founding member of the movement that coordinated the overthrow of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia and a spokesman for President Václav Havel. He has served in the Czech Republic’s Senate and as Czech ambassador to the Court of St. James’s (2009–15), the State of Israel (2003–09), and the United States (1992–97). He is former president of the Aspen Institute in Prague.

Robert B. Zoellick is non-executive chairman of AllianceBernstein and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He has served as president of the World Bank (2007–12), U.S. trade representative (2001–05), and deputy secretary of state (2005–06). Between 1985 and 1993 he served as counselor to the secretary of the treasury and under secretary of state, as well as the White House deputy chief of staff.