The Boat House at Confluence Park
679 W. Spring Street | Columbus, OH 43215
Speaker: Lori Esposito Murray, PhD (Council on Foreign Relations)
Signature Luncheon | North Korea, Russia, and the Future of U.S. National Security from CCWA on Vimeo.
In June 2017, Secretary of Defense Mattis in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, identified five top threats to peace and security and the international order: a North Korea aggressively improving its nuclear and missile capabilities, a resurgent and more aggressive Russia, a rising, more confident and assertive China, the rise of terrorist groups and a revolutionary Iranian regime. The growing chorus of policymakers, military and intelligence officials, and analysts calling for a cohesive response has elevated public awareness of these critical issues.
The Columbus Council on World Affairs and the Columbus Metropolitan Club invite you to join a dialogue about the most pressing threats to U.S. national security, as well as possible scenarios for a changed world order. What do we know about North Korea’s nuclear capabilities and intentions? Are we on the brink of war on the Korean peninsula? What are the key factors influencing the United States’ relationship with Russia and China right now? Will the nuclear agreement with Iran hold? What are the implications for the region and for the global community?
To help us put these critical topics into context, we welcome our distinguished guest, Lori Esposito Murray, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Council on Foreign Relations
Lori Esposito Murray is an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to joining CFR, she held the distinguished national security chair at the U.S. Naval Academy sponsored by the Class of 1960. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut and president emeritus of the World Affairs Councils of America (WACA), the largest nonpartisan, nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to educating and engaging the American public on global issues.
Murray was special advisor to the president on the Chemical Weapons Convention during the Clinton Administration, where she helped oversee the bipartisan approval of the convention. She is also the former assistant director for multilateral affairs of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency at the U.S. State Department, responsible for multilateral negotiations on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons issues.
She also served as executive director of the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military and Related Issues, established by Secretary of Defense William Cohen.
Murray’s congressional experience includes having worked for almost a decade as a senior legislative assistant on national security policy for Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-KS), a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Her responsibilities included the full spectrum of foreign policy, defense, intelligence, and trade issues.
Subsequent to this position, Murray headed the U.S.-China Security and Economic Review Commission, a congressionally mandated commission that reports yearly to Congress on the economic and security issues regarding China. She also served as a consultant to the President’s Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction and U.S. Intelligence Capabilities, established by President George W. Bush and as a consultant to ABC News.
Dr. Murray received her BA from Yale University and her PhD from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.