Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Global Engagement Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law
Manuel A. Gómez is Associate Dean of International and Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Law at Florida International University College of Law where he regularly teaches courses on Complex Litigation, International Arbitration, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Law and Society, and Introduction to International and Comparative Law, with emphasis on Latin America. Professor Gómez also has law teaching experience at other US universities such as Stanford and Iowa, and has been at numerous Latin American, European, and Asian universities, either as guest lecturer, speaker or visiting professor. Professor Gómez’s research and academic writing focuses on dispute resolution and governance, legal and institutional reform in Latin America, the globalization of the legal profession, and innovations in legal education. More specifically, professor Gómez studies the use of different dispute resolution mechanisms and fora in an array of contexts, ranging from transnational litigation and international arbitration, to domestic litigation and other non-institutionalized mechanisms. He is also an expert on institutional and legal reform in Latin America, and is also interested in the globalization of lawyers, the role of Judges, and innovations in legal education. Professor Gómez has also served as legal expert in the context of domestic and transnational litigation, and International Arbitration proceedings in the US and Latin America. He is a founding member of the Miami International Arbitration Society (MIAS), member of the Faculty Council of the International Law Section of the Florida Bar, member of the Academic Council at the Institute of Transnational Arbitration (ITA), and member of the Academic Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU, among others.
Professor Gómez’s research has earned important awards such as the Law and Society Association’s Dissertation Prize, the Richard S. Goldsmith Award in Dispute Resolution at Stanford University, and the prize awarded by the Venezuelan Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). At FIU, Professor Gómez received the Inaugural Bhagwan Mahavir Junior Faculty Summer Fellowship in 2011, a CIBER Faculty Research Award in 2013, and was recently nominated to FIU President’s Council Worlds Ahead Faculty Award. Professor Gómez has also been appointed as a Research Fellow at the Universidad Metropolitana Law School, Faculty Fellow at FIU CIBER, and a Fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for the Legal Profession. Leading academic publishers such as Stanford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, and Hart Publishing, have disseminated Professor Gomez’s work. Professor Gómez’s articles have appeared in leading academic journals such as the Missouri Dispute Resolution Journal, the Stanford Journal of Complex Litigation, the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review, the ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law, the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, the University of San Francisco Law Review, the FIU Law Review, and the Revista del Instituto Mexicano de Derecho Comparado, among others.
Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Ambassador Roger F. Noriega has more than two decades of public policy experience focusing on U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere. Twice appointed by President George W. Bush (and confirmed by the U.S. Senate) and with 10-year career on Capitol Hill, Ambassador Noriega's breadth of experience and contacts offer strategic vision and practical insight on U.S. foreign policy and aid programs. Noriega is the founder and managing director of VisiónAméricas LLC, which advises U.S. and foreign clients on international business issues, and also is a visiting fellow at the prestigious American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Award Foundation and as a member of the advisory boards of the Canadian American Border Trade Partnership and The Americano, an online forum reaching out to Latino voters.
As Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs (July 2003 to October 2005), Ambassador Noriega managed a 3,000-person team of professionals in Washington and 50 diplomatic posts to design and implement political and economic strategies in Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He was a leader in an inter-agency team that actively expanded trade and investment opportunities to spur economic growth and to create opportunities for U.S. companies and consumers. He also helped design and execute an annual plan for the effective use of $1.7 billion in U.S. economic assistance in two dozen countries.
As U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) (August 2001 to July 2003), Noriega coordinated complex and sensitive multilateral diplomacy in a 34-member international organization to bolster OAS efforts to promote trade, fight illicit drugs, and defend democracy.
On Capitol Hill, Noriega counseled powerful Congressional leaders on all aspects of U.S. interests in the Americas, drafted historic legislation, and oversaw U.S. aid programs, the Peace Corps, and international narcotics affairs. From July 1997 to August 2001, he was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff of Chairman Jesse A. Helms (R-NC), and from July 1994 to July 1997, he served on the House International Relations Committee staff of Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman (R-NY).
Other experiences include: senior advisor, OAS (July 1993 to July 1994); senior policy advisor, U.S. Mission to the OAS (August 1990 to January 1993); various program management and public affairs positions, U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Department of State (November 1986 to July 1990); press secretary and foreign policy advisor, U.S. Representative Robert Whittaker (R-KS) (May 1983 to October 1986); and research assistant, Kansas Secretary of State (December 1981 to April 1983). He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas. Ambassador Noriega has been decorated by Governments of Nicaragua and of Peru and has received numerous awards for public service from organizations committed to the promotion of democracy in the Americas. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Award Foundation and as a member of the advisory boards of the Hispanic Community for Policy, the Canadian American Border Trade Partnership, and the Hispanic American Civics Foundation.
Of Counsel, DLA Piper LLP (US)
Harout J. Samra – a Board Certified Specialist in International Law – focuses his practice on international dispute resolution and arbitration matters, including international civil litigation in US courts.
Harout has represented clients from both the public and private sectors, including foreign governments, public officials and clients from a variety of industries. He has experience in international arbitrations administered under the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR), United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), Bogota Chamber of Commerce, Madrid Court of Arbitration and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitration rules.
Harout currently serves as a member of the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, by appointment of Governor Ron DeSantis. He previously served, by appointment of Governor Rick Scott, as a member of the Florida Third District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, and was elected as Chair of the Commission from 2018-2019.
Director, Americas Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Ryan C. Berg is director of the Americas Program and head of the Future of Venezuela Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is also an adjunct professor at the Catholic University of America and a course coordinator at the United States Foreign Service Institute. His research focuses on U.S.-Latin America relations, strategic competition and defense policy, authoritarian regimes, armed conflict and transnational organized crime, and trade and development issues. Previously, Dr. Berg was a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he helped lead its Latin America Studies Program, as well as visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Changing Character of War Programme. Dr. Berg was a Fulbright scholar in Brazil and is a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member. He has been published in a variety of peer-reviewed academic and policy-oriented journals, including The Lancet, Migration and Development, the SAIS Review of International Affairs, and the Georgetown Security Studies Review. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, CNN.com, Los Angeles Times, and World Politics Review, among other outlets. He routinely testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Dr. Berg obtained a PhD and an MPhil in political science and an MSc in global governance and diplomacy from the University of Oxford, where he was a Senior Hulme Fellow. Earlier, he obtained a BA in government and theology from Georgetown University. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and is conversational in Slovenian.
Senior Attorney, Sensient Technologies Corporation
Editor-in-Chief, Americas Quarterly
Brian Winter is editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly and the vice president for policy at Americas Society/Council of the Americas. A best-selling author, analyst and speaker, Brian has been living and breathing Latin American politics for the past 20 years.
Brian spent a decade living in Latin America as a journalist for Reuters, based in São Paulo, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. Since 2015 he has been based in New York City, overseeing Americas Quarterly’s growth into a must-read for Latin America's most influential investors and opinion leaders, while more than tripling its readership online. Brian is also the author or co-author of four books including Why Soccer Matters, a New York Times bestseller he wrote with Brazilian soccer legend Pelé; The Accidental President of Brazil, co-authored with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso; No Lost Causes, with President Álvaro Uribe; and Long After Midnight, a memoir about his time in Argentina.
Brian is a regular presence in TV, radio and print media, from NPR and CNN en Español to Folha de S.Paulo and The Wall Street Journal. Proficient in Spanish and Portuguese, he speaks frequently about Latin America's past, present and future to investors and general-interest audiences.
President and General Counsel, Public Interest Legal Foundation
J. Christian Adams is the President and General Counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation. He served from 2005 to 2010 in the Voting Section at the United States Department of Justice Voting Section. President Trump appointed Adams to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. President Trump also appointed Adams as a Commissioner to the United States Commission on Civil Rights where he also now serves with a term through 2025. He has been involved in election law lawsuits in 33 states and the territory of Guam. He has represented multiple presidential campaigns in election litigation. He has a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law. He is a member of the South Carolina and Virginia Bars.
Attorney, Law Offices of Linda A. Kerns, LLC
Lieutenant Colonel (Retired), Venezuelan Army
José Gustavo Arocha is a retired lieutenant colonel from the Venezuelan army and a former political prisoner. Following his resignation from the army in 2009, Arocha founded a political consultancy company, GeoFenix, to provide advice and logistical services to high-profile Venezuelan dissidents and regime critics. In 2014, he was detained by government security services on treason charges and imprisoned for a period of eight months, during which time he was physically and mentally abused in an underground prison where he was kept in solitary confinement and tortured. A confession coerced from Arocha during this detainment was subsequently submitted as evidence against leading opposition figures. Since escaping captivity in March 2015, Arocha has resided in the US where he is an incoming Kennedy School Mason Fellow at Harvard University. His current research focuses on developing a systematic process for tracking the actions of individual judges, prosecutors, and security officials in authoritarian regimes who subvert local laws to persecute political enemies or dissidents.
President, Un Mundo Sin Mordaza (A World Without Censorship)
Rodrigo Diamanti founded international NGO Un Mundo Sin Mordaza (A World Without Censorship) with activists in 200 cities around the globe and presence in 52 countries. Rodrigo has created powerful and meaningful campaigns like #SOSVenezuela and #TuVozEstuPoder (Your Voice is Your Power). He received the recognition of the World Economic Forum as a Global Shaper in 2012 and by the City Council of Rome in 2013 with the "Medal of Rome" for his actions to improve human rights. Rodrigo graduated from Harvard Kennedy School’s MPA program in 2017. He also holds a master's degree in international diplomacy at Universidad Ortega y Gasset in Madrid and a bachelor's degree in economics from the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello in Venezuela.
Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Ambassador Roger F. Noriega has more than two decades of public policy experience focusing on U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere. Twice appointed by President George W. Bush (and confirmed by the U.S. Senate) and with 10-year career on Capitol Hill, Ambassador Noriega's breadth of experience and contacts offer strategic vision and practical insight on U.S. foreign policy and aid programs. Noriega is the founder and managing director of VisiónAméricas LLC, which advises U.S. and foreign clients on international business issues, and also is a visiting fellow at the prestigious American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Award Foundation and as a member of the advisory boards of the Canadian American Border Trade Partnership and The Americano, an online forum reaching out to Latino voters.
As Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs (July 2003 to October 2005), Ambassador Noriega managed a 3,000-person team of professionals in Washington and 50 diplomatic posts to design and implement political and economic strategies in Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. He was a leader in an inter-agency team that actively expanded trade and investment opportunities to spur economic growth and to create opportunities for U.S. companies and consumers. He also helped design and execute an annual plan for the effective use of $1.7 billion in U.S. economic assistance in two dozen countries.
As U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) (August 2001 to July 2003), Noriega coordinated complex and sensitive multilateral diplomacy in a 34-member international organization to bolster OAS efforts to promote trade, fight illicit drugs, and defend democracy.
On Capitol Hill, Noriega counseled powerful Congressional leaders on all aspects of U.S. interests in the Americas, drafted historic legislation, and oversaw U.S. aid programs, the Peace Corps, and international narcotics affairs. From July 1997 to August 2001, he was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff of Chairman Jesse A. Helms (R-NC), and from July 1994 to July 1997, he served on the House International Relations Committee staff of Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman (R-NY).
Other experiences include: senior advisor, OAS (July 1993 to July 1994); senior policy advisor, U.S. Mission to the OAS (August 1990 to January 1993); various program management and public affairs positions, U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Department of State (November 1986 to July 1990); press secretary and foreign policy advisor, U.S. Representative Robert Whittaker (R-KS) (May 1983 to October 1986); and research assistant, Kansas Secretary of State (December 1981 to April 1983). He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas. Ambassador Noriega has been decorated by Governments of Nicaragua and of Peru and has received numerous awards for public service from organizations committed to the promotion of democracy in the Americas. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Award Foundation and as a member of the advisory boards of the Hispanic Community for Policy, the Canadian American Border Trade Partnership, and the Hispanic American Civics Foundation.
Former General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization, Former United States Ambassador to East Timor
Grover Joseph Rees is a Louisiana native whose family has lived in the Breaux Bridge/Lafayette area since the 1700s.
His first job after college was as an assistant to Congressman Dave Treen (R-LA3), who had just been elected as the first Republican Congressman from Louisiana since Reconstruction.
Rees graduated with honors from LSU Law School, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Louisiana Law Review. While in law school he worked on Ronald Reagan’s 1976 presidential campaign and was a Reagan delegate from Louisiana to the Republican National Convention. He also served as a member of the Lafayette Parish Republican Executive Committee and as a board member of Acadiana Right to Life.
In 1979, when Congressman Treen ran successfully for Governor, he asked Rees to write his authorized biography. The book, Dave Treen of Louisiana, was read and discussed widely during the campaign and after Treen’s election.
In 1985-86 Rees served as Special Counsel for Judicial Selection in President Reagan’s Justice Department, working closely with Attorney General Ed Meese to reorganize the judicial selection process to make it more philosophically oriented. These efforts resulted in the appointment of over 100 federal judges and were widely credited with transforming the federal judiciary.
From 1986 through 1991 Rees served as Chief Justice of the High Court of American Samoa, an Article I federal judicial position.
From 1991 through 1993 he was General Counsel of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
In 1995 Rees went to work for the new Republican Congress as staff director and chief counsel of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. He worked with subcommittee chairman Chris Smith (R.-N.J.) to cut U.S. funding for the International Planned Parenthood Federation and other organizations that perform and promote abortions overseas. Rees also worked on the drafting and enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and other legislation that has helped to bring U.S. foreign policy into closer alignment not only with our national interests but also with our values.
In 2001-2002 Rees worked for Congressman Henry Hyde (R.-Ill.), who was then serving as Chairman of the House International Relations Committee.
From 2002 until 2006 Rees served as the first United States Ambassador to newly independent East Timor.
From 2006 until 2009 Ambassador Rees was the United States Special Representative for Social Issues, responsible for representing the United States on issues relating to vulnerable persons and the family within the United Nations system.
Ambassador Rees retired from government service in January 2009 and returned to Lafayette. He is married to Lan Dai Nguyen Rees and is a member of St. Genevieve’s Catholic parish in Lafayette. He was recently elected to serve as a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee.
Partner, Wiley Rein LLP
Paul Khoury counsels and represents government contractors in solicitation review, multiple award schedule contracting, state and local procurements, subcontracting, teaming agreements, corporate transactions, bid protests, terminations, contract disputes litigation, compliance reviews, mandatory disclosures, inspector general investigations, and False Claims Act actions. Paul is regularly rated as one of the country’s “Leading Lawyers” in his field by Chambers USA, which commends him as “a fantastic bid protest attorney”. Paul was also chair of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee from 1998 to 2014.
Assistant Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University
Prof. Dakota Rudesill is a scholar, practitioner, and teacher of legislation and national security law and policy. At Moritz, he teaches National Security Law & Process, Legislation and Regulation, and the Legislation Clinic.
His scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Georgetown Law Journal, Stanford Journal of International Law, Yale Journal of International Law, Harvard National Security Journal, Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Washington University Law Review, among others. Professor Rudesill is a member of the editorial board of the peer-review Journal of National Security Law and Policy. He is Chair of the National Security Section of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS).
Particular areas of emphasis in Professor Rudesill’s work are intelligence and secrecy (including secret law), arms control and nuclear weapons, legislation, and the experiential “learning-by-doing” training of professionals. Professor Rudesill leads a coalition pushing for a congressional clerkship program analogous to the judiciary’s law clerk program, and is the creator and director of The Ohio State National Security Simulation. This immersive annual exercise places over 130 OSU students from law, policy, intelligence, military, communications, and business management backgrounds in their respective roles as they grapple with current national security challenges and advise top practitioners in real time over two days.
Professor Rudesill has advised senior leaders in all three branches of the federal government. He served the U.S. Congress for nine years, doing national security legislative work for the Senate Budget Committee and Sen. Kent Conrad. In the Executive Branch, as a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, Professor Rudesill advised the President-Elect’s nominees for Director of National Intelligence and CIA Director. He served in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and on the President’s Detention Policy Task Force at the U.S. Department of Justice. In the Judicial Branch, Professor Rudesill was a law clerk to James B. Loken, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Prior to coming to Ohio State, from 2010 to 2013, Professor Rudesill was Visiting Associate Professor at Georgetown Law Center, and directed the Federal Legislation & Administrative Clinic. Earlier in his career he was a law firm associate, a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and was selected for the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship.
Professor Rudesill received his B.A. from St. Olaf College and J.D. from Yale Law School.
Senior Fellow, National Security Institute, Antonin Scalia School of Law, George Mason University; Retired Professor, Distinguished Fellow and Co-Founder, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia School of Law (1987-2020)
Robert F. Turner holds both professional and academic doctorates from the University of Virginia School of Law. He co-founded the Center for National Security Law with Professor John Norton Moore in April 1981 and served as its associate director for 39 years, except for two periods of government service in the 1980s and during 1994-95, when he occupied the Charles H. Stockton Chair of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He retired from UVA in January 2020 and currently serves as a non-resident senior fellow at the GMU National Security Institute. He also served briefly in 2020 as President of the Crime Prevention Research Center—one of the most respected pro-Second Amendment groups in the country—while its founder, Dr. John Lott, was on leave of absence.
A former Army captain and veteran of two tours in Vietnam, Turner served as a research associate and public affairs fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace before spending five years in the mid-1970s as national security adviser to U.S. Senator Robert P. Griffin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (where Turner anticipated by seven years the Supreme Court’s landmark INS v. Chadha decision, striking down legislative vetoes). He also served in the executive branch during the Reagan administration as a member of the Senior Executive Service, first in the Pentagon as special assistant to the undersecretary of defense for policy, then in the White House as counsel to the President's Intelligence Oversight Board, and at the State Department as principal deputy and then acting assistant secretary for legislative affairs. In 1986, he became the first president of the congressionally established United States Institute of Peace.
A former three-term chairman of the ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security (and for many years editor of the ABA National Security Law Report), Turner also chaired the Executive-Congressional Relations Subcommittee of the ABA Section on International Law and Practice and chaired or co-chaired the National Security Law Subcommittee of the Federalist Society’s International and National Security Law Practice Group for several years.
Turner taught undergraduate courses at Virginia on international law, U.S. foreign policy, the Vietnam War and foreign policy and the law in what is now the Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics. In addition, he co-taught National Security Law and advanced national security law seminars on the Indochina War and on war and peace with Moore at the Law School.
The author or editor of 18 books and monographs (including co-editor of the Center's 1,600-page National Security Law & Policy casebook, National Security Law Documents, and Legal Issues in the Struggle Against Terror) and numerous articles in law reviews and other professional journals, Turner has also contributed articles to most of the major U.S. newspapers, including The New York Times and USA Today. In an op-ed published in The International Herald Tribune in September 1990, he and Moore were the first to call for a war-crimes trial for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and for international controls over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and the following month he wrote the lead story in The Washington Post Sunday Outlook Section, “Killing Saddam: Would It Be a Crime?,” arguing that Hussein would be a lawful target during Operation Desert Storm. (His reasoning contributed to the modern legal justification for drone strikes targeting specific terrorist leaders.) Three years before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Turner published an op-ed in USA Today entitled: “In Self-defense, U.S. Has Right to Kill bin Laden.”
In July 2007, he co-authored an article in The Washington Post with former U.S. Marine Corps Commandant General P.X. Kelley, “War Crimes and the White House,” criticizing the use of unlawful “enhanced interrogation techniques” by the Central Intelligence Agency. On the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon he authored an article in The Wall Street Journal, “Saigon’s Fall Still Echoes Today,” noting that after the war ended, Hanoi admitted it had made a decision in 1959 to open the Ho Chi Minh Trail and start sending troops, weapons and supplies into South Vietnam to overthrow its government — just as the United States had charged. In 2010 Turner received the first “person of the year” award from SACEI, a major Vietnamese-American human rights organization.
A frequent lecturer and debater, Turner has spoken at more than 100 law schools around the nation and in other fora — taking on as many as four opponents at a time. His debate opponents have included former or future deans of Yale, Stanford, the University of Chicago and Berkeley law schools. Following a 1987 debate against Dean Harlan Cleveland (Rhodes Scholar, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient) in which Turner defended the legality of U.S. support for the Nicaraguan contras during the Reagan Administration, the host student debating societies awarded Turner the victory by an 85-to-15 percent margin.
Turner has also written and lectured widely on University of Virginia founder and America’s third president Thomas Jefferson. In 2000-2001 he chaired the Jefferson-Hemings Scholars Commission. In his 2012 book Master of the Mountain, Jefferson critic Henry Wiencek described Turner as “Jefferson’s chief scholarly defender."
A former distinguished lecturer at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Turner is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Academy of Political Science, the Committee on the Present Danger, The Heterodox Academy, and other professional organizations. He maintained a 4.0 gpa as a graduate student at Stanford in History and Political Science and in the UVA Department of Government and Foreign Affairs and was the first person admitted directly to the UVA academic law doctorate (SJD) program without first being required to earn an LL.M. master’s degree. He was selected for inclusion in Who’s Who in American Law less than two years after graduating from law school and Who’s Who in the World before he reached the age of 40. Turner has testified before more than a dozen different congressional committees on issues of international or constitutional law and other topics.
Counsel, White & Case
Antonio Garza served as the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from 2002 through 2009 and is now Counsel to White & Case in Mexico City. Garza is currently a Director to both Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU), where he is member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the company's subsidiary, Kansas City Southern de Mexico, and MoneyGram (NYSE:MGI) where he serves as Chairman of the company's Committee on Compliance and Ethics. Additionally, Garza is a Trustee at Southern Methodist University (J.D.,1983) and acts as Chairman of the university's Committee on Legal and Governmental Affairs and is a past-Chairman and President of the TexasExes, the alumni association of the University of Texas at Austin (B.B.A.,1980). Mr. Garza served as Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission from 1998-2002, and prior to that as Texas 99th Secretary of State and Cameron County Judge , 1988-1994.
Principal, Navigators Global
Andy Keiser served 14 years on Capitol Hill for former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers - as Senior Advisor to the Committee, Chief of Staff, and Legislative Director handling all national security policy issues.
As Deputy National Security Senior Advisor to the pre-election phase of the Trump for America transition team, Mr. Keiser prepared and advised the transition's policy, personnel and agency action teams on all aspects of the national security portfolio. This included work in the Departments of Defense, State, Justice, Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, and the National Security Council.
He was also the head writer for a nationally-syndicated radio program and assisted in the production of the CNN series “Declassified.”
Mr. Keiser has written extensively on intelligence, space and cyber policy, missile defense, Afghanistan, China, Iran, ISIS, North Korea, and Russia. He also helped shepherd six Intelligence Authorization Acts into law and managed Chairman Rogers’ cyber threat sharing legislation, which passed the House twice and the core of which was later signed into law by President Obama.
He has a Bachelor of Arts from Michigan State University and a Master of Arts from the United States Naval War College. He is active on various national security-focused policy projects at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, where he serves as a Senior Advisor, and at the National Security Institute at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, where he serves as a Fellow. He also is a member of the OSS Society and serves on the Meridian International Center’s Global Leadership Council.
Mr. Keiser is currently a Principal at Navigators Global, where he focuses on cybersecurity and other national security priorities. Dubbed a “national security expert” by the Washington Post, Andy is a regular media commentator on national security issues.
Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School
Professor Emeritus of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Jeremy A. Rabkin is a Professor Emeritus of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. Before joining the faculty in June 2007, he was for over two decades a professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Professor Rabkin serves on the board of directors of the Center for Individual Rights, a public interest law firm based in Washington, D.C. Previously he was a board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace and the board of academic advisors of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Rabkin’s books include Law Without Nations? (Princeton University Press, 2005). He authored “If You Need a Friend, Don’t Call a Cosmopolitan,” a chapter in Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship (Sigal R. Ben-Porath & Rogers M. Smith eds., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). His articles have appeared in major law reviews and political science journals and his journalistic contributions in a range of magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
Warren Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
Michael D. Ramsey is Warren Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he teaches and writes in the areas of Constitutional Law, Foreign Relations Law and International Law. He is the author of The Constitution’s Text in Foreign Affairs (Harvard University Press), co-editor of International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court: Continuity and Change (Cambridge University Press), and co-author of two casebooks, Transnational Law and Practice (2d ed., Aspen) and International Business Transactions: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook (14th ed., West). His scholarly articles have appeared in publications such as the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal and the American Journal of International Law. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Dartmouth College and his J.D. summa cum laude from Stanford Law School. Prior to teaching, he served as a judicial clerk for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court, and practiced law with the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he specialized in international finance and investment. He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of California, San Diego, in the Department of Political Science and at the University of Paris – Sorbonne, in the Department of Comparative Law.
General Counsel, House Committee on Homeland Security
Steven Giaier is General Counsel for the Committee on Homeland Security in the U.S. House of Representative. In this role, he serves as the lead staff member on the Committee for all legal issues and legislation action. Over the past several years, he has written several of the most substantial pieces of legislation to move through the Committee and be enacted into law, including the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act. Mr. Giaier formerly served as parliamentary advisor to Congressman Peter King during King’s tenure as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee from 2011-2013. He recently coauthored “Turf Wars: How a Jurisdictional Quagmire in Congress Compromises Homeland Security,” published by the New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy in the summer of 2015.
General Counsel, House Committee on Homeland Security
Steven Giaier is General Counsel for the Committee on Homeland Security in the U.S. House of Representative. In this role, he serves as the lead staff member on the Committee for all legal issues and legislation action. Over the past several years, he has written several of the most substantial pieces of legislation to move through the Committee and be enacted into law, including the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Authorization Act. Mr. Giaier formerly served as parliamentary advisor to Congressman Peter King during King’s tenure as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee from 2011-2013. He recently coauthored “Turf Wars: How a Jurisdictional Quagmire in Congress Compromises Homeland Security,” published by the New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy in the summer of 2015.
Prosecuting Dictators: The Indictment of Nicolas Maduro
Manuel A. Gomez, Roger F. Noriega, Harout J. Samra
The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced indictments of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro and several...
Latin America: Restive Trends and Great Power Encroachment - Developments that Matter for U.S. Policy
Ryan C. Berg, James C. Dunlop, Brian Winter
Recent elections in Latin America have brought about abrupt shifts in government in Argentina, Brazil,...
Litigation Update: Non-citizen Voting
J. Christian Adams, Linda A. Kerns
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (“PILF”) filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department...
Venezuela: The Road Forward
José Gustavo Arocha, Rodrigo Diamanti, Roger F. Noriega, Grover Joseph Rees
Although the de facto government of Venezuela headed by Nicolas Maduro regime is no longer...
William J. Colwell, Jr. Memorial Teleforum: Security Clearances - Executive Discretion or Executive Overreach?
Paul Khoury, Dakota Rudesill, Robert F. Turner
We are honoring William “Bill” Colwell with a teleforum on a topic we know he...
New NAFTA or Else ... What?
Antonio Garza, Andy Keiser, Timothy Meyer, Jeremy A. Rabkin
Last month, the Trump administration announced completion of a U.S.-Canada-Mexico-Agreement, intended to supersede the 1993...
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Liberty Month Revisited: Immigration and the Separation of Powers
This month we are sharing a selection of paired pieces from The Federalist Society's Liberty...
The Logan Act Today
Michael D. Ramsey
Recent developments have lead to the Logan Act resurfacing in the news. The Act was enacted...
Hernandez v. Mesa - Post-Argument SCOTUScast
Steven S. Giaier
On February 21, 2017, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Hernandez v. Mesa. In...
Courthouse Steps: Hernandez v. Mesa - Podcast
Steven S. Giaier
On February 21, the Supreme Court heard argument in Hernandez v. Mesa. In July of 2010,...