Director, Asia & Latin American Program, Inter-American Dialogue
Margaret Myers is director of the Asia & Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, adjunct researcher with the Núcleo Milenio sobre los Impactos de China en América Latina (ICLAC), and a senior advisor to the United States Institute of Peace. She established the Dialogue’s China and Latin America Working Group in 2011 to examine China’s growing presence in Latin America and the Caribbean. Myers also developed the China-Latin America Finance Database, the first publicly available source of empirical data on Chinese state lending in Latin America, in cooperation with Global China Initiative at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.
In addition to maintaining the Dialogue’s China and Latin America and 美洲对话 blogs, Myers has published numerous articles on Chinese leadership dynamics, international capital flows, Chinese agricultural policy, and Asia-Latin America relations, among other topics. The Political Economy of China-Latin America Relations and The Changing Currents of Trans-Pacific Integration: China, the TPP, and Beyond, her co-edited volumes with Dr. Carol Wise and Dr. Adrian Hearn, respectively, were published in 2016. Myers has testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Senate Finance and Foreign Relations Committees, and the US-China Security and Economic Commission on the China-Latin America relationship. She is also regularly featured in major domestic and international media, including the Economist, Financial Times, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, El Comercio, El País, Folha de São Paulo, CNN en Español, and BBC. In 2018, she was identified by Global Americans as part of the “new generation of public intellectuals.”
Before arriving at the Dialogue, Myers worked as a Latin America analyst and China analyst for the US Department of Defense, during which time she was deployed with the US Navy in support of Partnership of the Americas. Myers has also worked as a senior China analyst for Science Applications International Corporation; a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank; a faculty member at Georgetown University, the George Washington University, and Johns Hopkins SAIS; a mentor for the Indian Foreign Policy Research Institute’s School of Foreign Policy; and for Fauquier County Schools, where she developed the county’s first Mandarin language program. Myers received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and conducted her graduate work at The George Washington University, Zhejiang University of Technology, and the Johns Hopkins University/Nanjing University Center for Chinese-American Studies. Myers was a Council on Foreign Relations term member. She was also the recipient of a Freeman fellowship for China studies, a Fulbright Specialist grant to research China-Colombia relations in Bogotá, and a Woodrow Wilson Center fellowship to write a forthcoming book on China-Latin America relations.
Judicial Law Clerk, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Nitin is a recent graduate of Cornell Law School. Before his time in Ithaca, he majored in International Studies and Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and focused on power competition in South Asia during his graduate studies at the University of Oxford.
Senior Fellow, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Mihaela Papa is a Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School, where she has co-founded and led the Rising Power Alliances project and served as faculty in sustainable development and global governance.
Papa is an expert in negotiation strategy and coalition building, with a focus on BRICS and the transition to sustainability. She started her BRICS research as postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Law School and a visiting scholar at Fudan University's Center for BRICS Studies. Her recent publications analyze BRICS convergence and BRICS-US relations (EJIR, 2023), whether BRICS can de-dollarize global finance (CUP 2022 and ISA-West award), and BRICS resilience (Global Policy 2021). Her publications on environmental foreign policy, climate diplomacy, and global governance appeared in Global Environmental Politics, Global Environmental Change, Climate Policy, and other journals. Her commentary was featured in Foreign Affairs and The Conversation, as well as on CNN, Bloomberg, BBC, AP, News24, the South China Morning Post, and other media outlets.
Papa is also an active practitioner with a proven track record advising institutions on global strategies and leading international collaborations and programs, including at MIT and the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She served as a consultant for the U.S. government, the European Commission, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Originally a trade economist with a BA from Croatia, she completed her MA in Law and Diplomacy and PhD in International Relations at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.
U.S. Representative, Wyoming
Congresswoman Harriet Hageman represents the state of Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives. She grew up on a ranch, attended Casper College on a livestock judging scholarship and earned both her bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Wyoming. A litigator for 34 years, Harriet is nationally known for challenging federal overreach, for protecting water and property rights, for exposing federal land and wildlife mismanagement, and for fighting back against the unconstitutional and unlawful acts of unelected bureaucrats. Harriet has extensive experience engaging in complex trials against federal agencies and has been admitted to practice in several states as well as the United States Supreme Court.
In her freshman term in the 118th Congress, Harriet has been selected to serve on the House Natural Resources committee where she is Chair of the Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs, and also serves on the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries. Representative Hageman also serves on the Judiciary Committee and Subcommittees on the Constitution and Limited Government; the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust; and the Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. She has shown her support for American energy independence by serving as Co-Chair of the Congressional Coal Caucus.
Legislation sponsored by Representative Hageman has been focused on reining in the regulatory state, ending the weaponization of our federal government and its proxies against American citizens, and ending the de facto moratorium on American energy production.
U.S. Representative, 21st District of Texas
Rep. Chip Roy is a devoted husband and father of two currently serving his third term in Congress representing Texas's 21st Congressional District—which includes South Austin, North San Antonio, and the Texas Hill Country.
Previously, Rep. Roy served as First Assistant Attorney General of Texas under Ken Paxton, Chief of Staff to Sen. Ted Cruz, senior advisor to Texas Governor Rick Perry, Senate Judiciary Committee staff director under Sen. John Cornyn, and as a federal prosecutor. Prior to the public sector, he worked for nearly three years as an investment banking analyst.
Rep. Roy holds a B.A. and M.A from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the University of Texas. He serves on the House Judiciary, Rules, and Budget Committees and is the Policy Chair of the House Freedom Caucus.
President, Hoppe Strategies
After serving 29 years on Capitol Hill, Dave Hoppe returned to the private sector as president of Hoppe Strategies, a strategic planning, lobbying and political consulting firm.
Hoppe brings a wealth of experience to this job, having dealt with legislative development and strategy at the highest levels on Capitol Hill. He directed Whip offices in both the House and Senate, and led the Senate Majority Leader’s office during the Clinton and Bush 43 administrations. Both positions oversaw and coordinated the flow of legislation through Congress, and both required working with political personalities on both sides of the aisle as well as the White House, to achieve passage for each bill. Hoppe recently reprised this role for Sen. Jon Kyl in the Senate Whip Office.
Additionally, Hoppe was the lead staff member on such historic Constitutional and structural events as the power shift in the Senate (when one Senator changed his party affiliation, throwing into chaos the entire Senate committee structure and requiring extensive negotiations between both parties), and the Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton. These events give him a unique perspective on the interaction of political agendas with legislative outcomes.
Other Hill positions held by Hoppe include Chief of Staff to Rep. Jack Kemp during his presidential bid, and Chief of Staff to Sen. Dan Coats who was appointed to replace former Senator Dan Quayle. Sen. Coats was required to conduct two statewide campaigns in a 4-year period in order to confirm his Senate appointment and then to retain the seat, unusual demands which impacted the work of his Senate office. Early in his Hill career, Hoppe served as energy and environmental policy analyst for the Republican Study Committee.
Among the highlights of Hoppe’s years on House leadership staff were the passage of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, both key elements of the first Reagan administration. During his tenure with Rep. Jack Kemp, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 was passed and signed into law. He was also involved with the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997, and numerous other issues including welfare reform, tax policies and education reform.
In 2003, Hoppe left the Hill to work for the public affairs firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates, serving as President of QGA 2007-2011, when he returned briefly to the Senate to direct the Whip office for Sen. Kyl. Currently Hoppe is a Senior Policy Advisor at Squire Patton Boggs, he also serves as a Senior Advisor to the Bipartisan Policy Center, and is an advisor to the Jack Kemp Foundation. He is an emeritus member of the Board for Easter Seals of DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia, was Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee for the National Down Syndrome Society, and serves on the national board of SourceAmerica and of the Coalition to Promote Self Determination, a group of organizations working to empower disabled individuals to achieve greater independence.
He holds a B.A. in Government from the University of Notre Dame, and an M.A. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is married and has three children.
Global Technology Counsel, Sony Corporation of America
Christopher Ekren is Global Technology Counsel for Sony. Based out of Silicon Valley, he is currently the lead US in house counsel for key Sony advanced technology initiatives in the areas of Artificial Intelligence (Sony AI, Inc.) , Gene Therapy (Sony Biotechnology Inc.), Satellite Communications (Sony Space Communications Inc.), Semiconductor and Component Technologies (Sony Semiconductor Solutions of America), Sony’s Research Labs US operations, as well as engineering and product development activities part of Sony’s North American core electronics business. He has concurrent global roles supporting Sony’s technology standards, open source software and special technology projects.
Executive Vice President and Senior Policy Advisor, Stephens, Inc.
Mary Kissel is Executive Vice President and Senior Policy Advisor at Stephens Inc., where she provides advice on geopolitical risk and macroeconomic trends to Stephens clients and the Stephens management team. Previously, she served as Senior Advisor to Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo from October 2018 to January 2021. Prior to joining the State Department, she had a long and distinguished career on The Wall Street Journal editorial board, including stints as chief foreign policy commentator in New York City and Asia-Pacific editorial page editor, based in Hong Kong. Ms. Kissel hosts the Nixon Seminar on Conservative Realism and National Security, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the boards of the American Australian Council, The Marathon Initiative, and RXO, Inc. She is a graduate of Harvard University and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Member of Parliament for Chingford & Woodford Green, House of Commons
The Rt Hon Sir Iain Duncan Smith is the Conservative MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, and has been an MP continuously since 1992.
Between 1997 and 2001, he was Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security and then Shadow Secretary of State for Defence. From 2001 to 2003, he was leader of the Conservative Party.
He took a lead role in the Vote Leave campaign ahead of the EU referendum on 23 June 2016, appearing many times in the media and public debates, and is now working alongside colleagues to ensure the Government achieves a smooth and rapid exit from the EU and forms a new relationship based on trade, continuing friendship and cooperation.
Before entering politics, he served in the Scots Guards from 1975 to 1982. During this time, he saw service in Northern Ireland and Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe. After leaving the army, he worked in industry, first with the GUC, then as a Director of a property company and subsequently as a Director at the publishing company Jane’s Information Group.
Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Reuel Marc Gerecht is a senior fellow at Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) where he focuses on Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, terrorism, and intelligence. He was previously a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the director of the Middle East Initiative at the Project for the New American Century. Earlier, he served as a Middle Eastern specialist at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations.
He is the author of The Wave: Man, God, and the Ballot Box in the Middle East (Hoover Institution Press, 2011), Know Thine Enemy: A Spy’s Journey into Revolutionary Iran (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997) and The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy (AEI Press, 2004). He is a contributing editor for The Weekly Standard and has been a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, as well as a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and other publications.
Executive Director, McCain Institute
Ambassador Kurt Volker is a leading expert in U.S. foreign and national security policy with some 30 years of experience in a variety of government, academic, and private sector capacities. Ambassador Volker serves as executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University based in Washington, D.C. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, a senior advisor at the Atlantic Council, and a Trustee of IAU College in Aix-en-Provence, France. He is a consultant to international business, a member of the Board of Directors of Capital Guardian Funds Trust, and had previously served as managing director—International for BGR Group. He has taught Transatlantic Relations at The George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs. In July, 2017, Ambassador Volker was also appointed U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations.
Managing Director, SCF Partners
Daniel G. West invests in energy services, equipment, and technology companies at SCF Partners in Houston, Texas. He provides equity capital and strategic growth assistance to entrepreneurs and leaders of both start-up ventures and established, growing businesses.
Prior to joining the private sector, Mr. West served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. As a platoon commander with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Mesa Verde, he led the Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel force in support of the NATO aerial campaign over Libya. He then served as executive officer of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines as it mentored Afghan forces to assume lead security responsibility and executed counter-narcotics missions in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He also served as a clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. West holds degrees in law, business administration, and economics from Harvard University, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and taught undergraduate courses in economics and government. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International & National Security Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Principal, BGR Government Affairs
Lester Munson joined BGR’s International practice after a 26-year career on Capitol Hill and in the Executive Branch. He most recently served as the Staff Director for Chairman Bob Corker of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he led policy, oversight, legislative and communications efforts for a staff of 25 and negotiated committee priorities with the White House, the State Department and Congressional leadership.
In the past two and a half years, the committee has passed into law several bills regarding U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Russia, including major sanctions legislation, has engaged in efforts to fundamentally reform, reauthorize, or modify key foreign assistance programs, including food aid, PEPFAR, arms transfers, and has taken up legislation on the most important foreign policy and national security issues of the day, including the negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program, authorizations for the use of military force, and various international treaties and agreements.
Previously, Mr. Munson was Chief of Staff in Senator Mark Kirk’s (R-Ill.), Washington, DC office. During Lester’s tenure, Senator Kirk became the leading Republican voice in the Senate on Iran and other national security issues.
During the Bush Administration, Mr. Munson was a Deputy Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he focused on legislative affairs as well as global health issues. He led legislative efforts to develop and implement the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and won an award for his contribution to the creation of the President’s Malaria Initiative.
Prior to serving in the Bush Administration, at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Munson was the Republican Communications Director and oversaw foreign assistance oversight and legislation. At the House International Relations Committee, he was the Communications Director and Professional Staff Member for Asia-Pacific issues as well as African affairs.
Mr. Munson is a 1989 graduate of the University of Chicago and holds a Master’s degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis. He is married with two children.
Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor, Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Director, Center for Transnational Business and the Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Professor Carter has an extensive background in international trade and business, U.S. and international law, and foreign policy. In 2006 he received Georgetown Law's excellence in teaching award. Mr. Carter also teaches frequently in other countries.
He returned to Georgetown in 1996 after over three years as the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration. He implemented and enforced a variety of trade and nonproliferation laws, and he also helped reorganize his 370-person Bureau. Mr. Carter also served during that time as the U.S. vice chair to Secretary of Defense William Perry on bilateral defense conversion committees with Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and other countries to help eliminate the nuclear weapons in Kazakhstan and Ukraine and to secure nuclear and other dangerous materials in several countries. He also served on committees with China.
Before entering the government, Mr. Carter had been a Georgetown professor since 1979 and was Executive Director of the American Society of International Law during 1992-93. He was a visiting law professor at Stanford in 1990. He served as a senior counsel on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities in 1975. He was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in 1972. A member of Dr. Henry Kissinger's National Security Council staff from 1970?72, he worked on nuclear arms negotiations and other foreign policy matters. While an Army officer, he was a program analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He has also been a trial and appellate lawyer in private practice in California and Washington, D.C.
Mr. Carter, a native Californian, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University, received a master's degree in economics and public policy from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and graduated from Yale Law School, where he was the Projects Editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Prof. Carter's book on International Economic Sanctions: Improving the Haphazard U.S. Legal Regime (Cambridge Univ. Press: 1988) received the 1989 annual award from the American Society of International Law (ASIL) for the outstanding new book on international law subjects. He is the co-author of the widely-used casebook on International Law (Aspen: 5th ed. 2007) and the editor of the accompanying Selected Documents (Aspen: 9th ed. 2009). He has also written chapters in books as well as publishing articles in the California Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Scientific American, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other periodicals.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association, and ASIL. He is on the U.S. Department of State's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, the advisory council of a major insurance company, and was on the board of directors of a U.S. international trading company. He has served on two binational arbitration panels that reviewed Chapter 19 trade matters under the North American Free Trade Agreement. He has also been the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Defense Budget Project and the Vice President of the Arms Control Association.
Senior Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP and Executive Chairma, The Chertoff Group
Michael Chertoff concentrates in the area of White Collar Defense and Investigations. In recent years, he has handled a series of federal investigations, including complex criminal and civil regulatory matters. He has advised major clients on SEC and Justice Department investigations and successfully served as the independent monitor of a major national healthcare company under criminal and civil investigation.
In addition to his legal work, Mr. Chertoff is Founder and Chairman of The Chertoff Group, a security and risk management firm, where he provides high-level strategic counsel to corporate and government leaders on a broad range of security issues, from risk identification and prevention to preparedness, response and recovery.
In April of 2012, Mr. Chertoff was elected as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of BAE Systems, Inc. He also sits on the board of directors or board of advisors of a number of companies and nonprofits.
Previously, Mr. Chertoff served as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. As Secretary, he led a 218,000 person department with a budget of $50 billion. Mr. Chertoff developed and implemented border security and immigration policy; promulgated homeland security regulations; and spearheaded a national cyber security strategy. He also served periodically on the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, and on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Prior to his appointment to the Cabinet, Mr. Chertoff served from 2003 to 2005 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before becoming a federal judge, Mr. Chertoff was the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In that position, he oversaw the investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and formed the Enron Task Force, which produced more than 20 convictions, including those of CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay.
Mr. Chertoff’s career includes more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, including service as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Chertoff investigated and personally prosecuted significant cases of political corruption, organized crime, and corporate fraud.
From 1994-2001, Mr. Chertoff represented major corporations and individuals in numerous white collar investigations and trials. Among other matters, he successfully represented the nation’s largest hospital company in a four year, multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil investigation, represented major corporations in corruption scandals, and obtained acquittals at trial for individual criminal defendants.
Mr. Chertoff has received numerous awards including the Department of Justice Henry E. Petersen Memorial Award (2006); the Department of Justice John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation (1987); NAACP Benjamin L. Hooks Award for Distinguished Service (2007); European Institute Transatlantic Leadership Award (2008); and two honorary doctorates. His trial experiences have been featured in over half a dozen books and many news articles.
George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
John O. McGinnis is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He also has an MA degree from Balliol College, Oxford, in philosophy and theology. Professor McGinnis clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. From 1987 to 1991, he was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. He is the author of Accelerating Democracy: Transforming Government Through Technology (Princeton 2013) and Originalism and the Good Constitution (Harvard 2013) (with M. Rappaport). He is a past winner of the Paul Bator award given by the Federalist Society to an outstanding academic under 40. He has been listed by the United States on the roster of panelists who may be called upon to decide World Trade Organization Disputes.
Associate Director, St. John
Peggy McGuinness joined the St. John's faculty in 2010. Her course offerings include international human rights, international business transactions, conflicts of law and international dispute resolution.
Professor McGuinness graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School, where she was an articles editor for the Stanford Law Review and a graduate fellow at the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. Afterwards, she clerked for Judge Colleen McMahon in the Southern District of New York and worked as a litigator for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Her career in the law follows an early career as a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department, which included service in Germany, Pakistan and Canada, and as a Special Assistant to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
With scholarly interests and expertise in international law and international human rights law, Professor McGuinness has published on the subjects of international human rights law, international security and the resolution of armed conflict, and the role and influence of international law in U.S. courts. She is a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. She co-founded -and regularly contributes to- Opinio Juris, the leading international law blog..
Professor McGuinness previously taught at the University of Missouri School of Law. She has also been a visiting professor at the University of Georgia and Temple University, and a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
Member of the World Bank International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes; served on the U.S. Secretary of State’s advisory committees on private and public international law and on the CIA historical review panel; U.S. delegate to the U.N. Human Rights Committee (Geneva and New York, 2003–11); member of U.S. delegations to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Wehrkunde security conference; member of the Pentagon Defense Policy Advisory Board (2003–09) and the Hart-Rudman Commission on National Security in the 21st Century; was independent expert for U.N. criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; formerly director of studies at Hague Academy for International Law, tenured professor at Yale Law School, visiting professor at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and Charles H. Stockton professor at the U.S. Naval War College; named Berlin Prize Fellow of the American Academy; was vice president of the American Society of International Law, serves as president of the American branch of the International Law Association and vice chair of Freedom House and is on the board of editors for American Journal of International Law, Journal of Strategic Studies, American Interest, World Policy Journal, National Defense University Prism and National Interest; was law clerk to Judge Henry Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals (Second Circuit) and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun; commentator for BBC, NPR and PBS; J.D., Yale University.
Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley; Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, The Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin
John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also the Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, Civitas Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
His most recent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, co-authored with Robert Delahunty, was published in 2023. Professor Yoo’s other books include Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power; Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War; Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare; and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.
He is a co-author of volumes 1 and 2 of R. Rossum, G. Tarr, V. Munoz & J. Yoo American Constitution Law (Routledge, 2026), and a co-editor of the eight-volume series on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, We Hold These Truths, with Yuval Levin and Adam White of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court. He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.
Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government. He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Civic Leadership, Seoul National University, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Keio University, Trento University, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.
Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program and the California Constitution Center. He also serves on the boards of Founding Forward, the Washington Legal Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Ulysses Grant Institute, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award and the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Originalism Lectureship.
Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College.
Director, Center for Transnational Business and the Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Professor Carter has an extensive background in international trade and business, U.S. and international law, and foreign policy. In 2006 he received Georgetown Law's excellence in teaching award. Mr. Carter also teaches frequently in other countries.
He returned to Georgetown in 1996 after over three years as the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration. He implemented and enforced a variety of trade and nonproliferation laws, and he also helped reorganize his 370-person Bureau. Mr. Carter also served during that time as the U.S. vice chair to Secretary of Defense William Perry on bilateral defense conversion committees with Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and other countries to help eliminate the nuclear weapons in Kazakhstan and Ukraine and to secure nuclear and other dangerous materials in several countries. He also served on committees with China.
Before entering the government, Mr. Carter had been a Georgetown professor since 1979 and was Executive Director of the American Society of International Law during 1992-93. He was a visiting law professor at Stanford in 1990. He served as a senior counsel on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities in 1975. He was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in 1972. A member of Dr. Henry Kissinger's National Security Council staff from 1970?72, he worked on nuclear arms negotiations and other foreign policy matters. While an Army officer, he was a program analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He has also been a trial and appellate lawyer in private practice in California and Washington, D.C.
Mr. Carter, a native Californian, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University, received a master's degree in economics and public policy from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and graduated from Yale Law School, where he was the Projects Editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Prof. Carter's book on International Economic Sanctions: Improving the Haphazard U.S. Legal Regime (Cambridge Univ. Press: 1988) received the 1989 annual award from the American Society of International Law (ASIL) for the outstanding new book on international law subjects. He is the co-author of the widely-used casebook on International Law (Aspen: 5th ed. 2007) and the editor of the accompanying Selected Documents (Aspen: 9th ed. 2009). He has also written chapters in books as well as publishing articles in the California Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Scientific American, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other periodicals.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association, and ASIL. He is on the U.S. Department of State's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy, the advisory council of a major insurance company, and was on the board of directors of a U.S. international trading company. He has served on two binational arbitration panels that reviewed Chapter 19 trade matters under the North American Free Trade Agreement. He has also been the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Defense Budget Project and the Vice President of the Arms Control Association.
Senior Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP and Executive Chairma, The Chertoff Group
Michael Chertoff concentrates in the area of White Collar Defense and Investigations. In recent years, he has handled a series of federal investigations, including complex criminal and civil regulatory matters. He has advised major clients on SEC and Justice Department investigations and successfully served as the independent monitor of a major national healthcare company under criminal and civil investigation.
In addition to his legal work, Mr. Chertoff is Founder and Chairman of The Chertoff Group, a security and risk management firm, where he provides high-level strategic counsel to corporate and government leaders on a broad range of security issues, from risk identification and prevention to preparedness, response and recovery.
In April of 2012, Mr. Chertoff was elected as the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of BAE Systems, Inc. He also sits on the board of directors or board of advisors of a number of companies and nonprofits.
Previously, Mr. Chertoff served as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. As Secretary, he led a 218,000 person department with a budget of $50 billion. Mr. Chertoff developed and implemented border security and immigration policy; promulgated homeland security regulations; and spearheaded a national cyber security strategy. He also served periodically on the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, and on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Prior to his appointment to the Cabinet, Mr. Chertoff served from 2003 to 2005 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before becoming a federal judge, Mr. Chertoff was the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In that position, he oversaw the investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and formed the Enron Task Force, which produced more than 20 convictions, including those of CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay.
Mr. Chertoff’s career includes more than a decade as a federal prosecutor, including service as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Chertoff investigated and personally prosecuted significant cases of political corruption, organized crime, and corporate fraud.
From 1994-2001, Mr. Chertoff represented major corporations and individuals in numerous white collar investigations and trials. Among other matters, he successfully represented the nation’s largest hospital company in a four year, multi-jurisdictional criminal and civil investigation, represented major corporations in corruption scandals, and obtained acquittals at trial for individual criminal defendants.
Mr. Chertoff has received numerous awards including the Department of Justice Henry E. Petersen Memorial Award (2006); the Department of Justice John Marshall Award for Trial of Litigation (1987); NAACP Benjamin L. Hooks Award for Distinguished Service (2007); European Institute Transatlantic Leadership Award (2008); and two honorary doctorates. His trial experiences have been featured in over half a dozen books and many news articles.
George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
John O. McGinnis is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He also has an MA degree from Balliol College, Oxford, in philosophy and theology. Professor McGinnis clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. From 1987 to 1991, he was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice. He is the author of Accelerating Democracy: Transforming Government Through Technology (Princeton 2013) and Originalism and the Good Constitution (Harvard 2013) (with M. Rappaport). He is a past winner of the Paul Bator award given by the Federalist Society to an outstanding academic under 40. He has been listed by the United States on the roster of panelists who may be called upon to decide World Trade Organization Disputes.
Associate Director, St. John
Peggy McGuinness joined the St. John's faculty in 2010. Her course offerings include international human rights, international business transactions, conflicts of law and international dispute resolution.
Professor McGuinness graduated with distinction from Stanford Law School, where she was an articles editor for the Stanford Law Review and a graduate fellow at the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation. Afterwards, she clerked for Judge Colleen McMahon in the Southern District of New York and worked as a litigator for Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Her career in the law follows an early career as a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department, which included service in Germany, Pakistan and Canada, and as a Special Assistant to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
With scholarly interests and expertise in international law and international human rights law, Professor McGuinness has published on the subjects of international human rights law, international security and the resolution of armed conflict, and the role and influence of international law in U.S. courts. She is a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. She co-founded -and regularly contributes to- Opinio Juris, the leading international law blog..
Professor McGuinness previously taught at the University of Missouri School of Law. She has also been a visiting professor at the University of Georgia and Temple University, and a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
Member of the World Bank International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes; served on the U.S. Secretary of State’s advisory committees on private and public international law and on the CIA historical review panel; U.S. delegate to the U.N. Human Rights Committee (Geneva and New York, 2003–11); member of U.S. delegations to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Wehrkunde security conference; member of the Pentagon Defense Policy Advisory Board (2003–09) and the Hart-Rudman Commission on National Security in the 21st Century; was independent expert for U.N. criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; formerly director of studies at Hague Academy for International Law, tenured professor at Yale Law School, visiting professor at the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and Charles H. Stockton professor at the U.S. Naval War College; named Berlin Prize Fellow of the American Academy; was vice president of the American Society of International Law, serves as president of the American branch of the International Law Association and vice chair of Freedom House and is on the board of editors for American Journal of International Law, Journal of Strategic Studies, American Interest, World Policy Journal, National Defense University Prism and National Interest; was law clerk to Judge Henry Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals (Second Circuit) and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun; commentator for BBC, NPR and PBS; J.D., Yale University.
Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley; Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, The Civitas Institute, University of Texas at Austin
John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also the Thomas Smith Senior Research Fellow, Civitas Institute, at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
His most recent book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Supreme Court, co-authored with Robert Delahunty, was published in 2023. Professor Yoo’s other books include Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power; Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War; Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare; and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.
He is a co-author of volumes 1 and 2 of R. Rossum, G. Tarr, V. Munoz & J. Yoo American Constitution Law (Routledge, 2026), and a co-editor of the eight-volume series on the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, We Hold These Truths, with Yuval Levin and Adam White of the American Enterprise Institute.
Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court. He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.
Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government. He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Civic Leadership, Seoul National University, the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Keio University, Trento University, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.
Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program and the California Constitution Center. He also serves on the boards of Founding Forward, the Washington Legal Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Ulysses Grant Institute, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award and the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Originalism Lectureship.
Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College.
Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor, Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Principal, BGR Government Affairs
Lester Munson joined BGR’s International practice after a 26-year career on Capitol Hill and in the Executive Branch. He most recently served as the Staff Director for Chairman Bob Corker of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he led policy, oversight, legislative and communications efforts for a staff of 25 and negotiated committee priorities with the White House, the State Department and Congressional leadership.
In the past two and a half years, the committee has passed into law several bills regarding U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Russia, including major sanctions legislation, has engaged in efforts to fundamentally reform, reauthorize, or modify key foreign assistance programs, including food aid, PEPFAR, arms transfers, and has taken up legislation on the most important foreign policy and national security issues of the day, including the negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program, authorizations for the use of military force, and various international treaties and agreements.
Previously, Mr. Munson was Chief of Staff in Senator Mark Kirk’s (R-Ill.), Washington, DC office. During Lester’s tenure, Senator Kirk became the leading Republican voice in the Senate on Iran and other national security issues.
During the Bush Administration, Mr. Munson was a Deputy Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he focused on legislative affairs as well as global health issues. He led legislative efforts to develop and implement the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and won an award for his contribution to the creation of the President’s Malaria Initiative.
Prior to serving in the Bush Administration, at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Munson was the Republican Communications Director and oversaw foreign assistance oversight and legislation. At the House International Relations Committee, he was the Communications Director and Professional Staff Member for Asia-Pacific issues as well as African affairs.
Mr. Munson is a 1989 graduate of the University of Chicago and holds a Master’s degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis. He is married with two children.
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