Event

DHS Sec. Janet Napolitano, Judith McHale, Bill Richardson, Arturo Sarukhan At Upcoming NDN Events

It is with great pleasure that we invite you to participate in three events in the next few weeks looking at the challenges and opportunities for the United States in a changing Latin America and along our border with Mexico. Capping these events will be a major speech on Friday April 1st here in Washington by the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano. Secretary Napolitano will discuss the Administration's vision for a "21st Century Border" with our Mexican neighbor, the progress being made nationwide in effectively enforcing U.S. immigration law, and the steps taken to ensure the strength and integrity of the entire immigration system. 

Our event on March 29th with Under Secretary of State Judith McHale and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and our conference "Forward Together/Avanzando Juntos/Avançando Juntos" on April 11th are open to the public. Due to space limitations, our event with Secretary Napolitano on April 1st will be available to the public by live webcast only. Information on each of these events is below. We hope you will join us.  


A 21st Century Border - A Speech by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano
Friday, April 1, 9:30 am
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We are proud to announce that the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, will be giving a major policy address to NDN/NPI on Friday, April 1st.  The Secretary will review the Administration's vision for a "21st Century Border" with our Mexican neighbor, the progress being made nationwide in effectively enforcing U.S. immigration law, and the steps taken to ensure the strength and integrity of the entire immigration system. 

Following her speech there will be a special roundtable discussion with:

John Morton, Director, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Alejandro Mayorkas, Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
David V. Aguilar, Deputy Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Alan Krieger, Mayor, Yuma, AZ
Al Zapanta, President, U.S. Mexico Chamber of Commerce 

The speech will begin at 9:30am.  Due to space limitations, at this time only a live web-cast of the event will be open to the public.  Information about the webcast will be forthcoming.  


Public Diplomacy & Social Media in Latin America
Tuesday, March 29, 12:00pm - 2:00pm
SAIS Rome Building, Room 203, 1619 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC
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As mobile phones and social media networks tie together more and more people across the Americas, these new technologies are enabling individuals to connect and communicate within countries and across borders. On March 29, NDN and the New Policy Institute will co-host a forum with the Latin America Studies Program of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) to discuss how these technologies are affecting diplomacy, politics and governance in Latin America.

A keynote speech by Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Judith McHale will address how the State Department is advancing U.S. foreign policy in Latin America through increased engagement, including constructive and meaningful people-to-people exchanges, local and regional media outreach and the use of multiple social platforms to establish direct relationships across the region.  

Following Under Secretary McHale's speech, a panel discussion will explore the impact of social media and other network technologies on governance and civil society in certain Latin American countries, including Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico. Panelists will include:

  • Christopher Sabatini - Senior Director of Policy, Americas Society & Council of the Americas
  • Carlos Ponce - Reagan Fascell Democracy Fellow, National Endowment for Democracy
  • Oscar Salazar - Founder & CEO, Citivox; Co-Founder, Cuidemos el Voto
  • Ricardo Amado Castillo - Consultant & Researcher, Social Media in Latin-American Politics
  • Sam duPont - Policy Analyst, NDN & New Policy Institute (moderator)

Forward Together/Avanzando Juntos/Avançando Juntos- A Conference Looking at the Changing Politics of the Americas
April 11, 8:45am
Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC

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NDN and the New Policy Institute will conduct a major day-long conference looking at how this fast-changing region might be able to do more to move forward together, in the years ahead.   The day will feature major addresses by influential thought leaders well experienced in the region, including Governor Bill Richardson, the Senior Director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council Dan Restrepo, and the Ambassador from Mexico to the United States Arturo Sarukhan and a panel discussion with Latin American Ambassadors to the United States.

Additionally there will be a very special conversation about the state of our common border with Mexico with mayors from sister citiies on both sides of the border - Mayor Arturo Garino of Nogales, Arizona and Mayor Jose Angel Hernandez Barajas of Nogales, in the state of Sonora in northern MexicoThis important discussion will be moderated by Chappell Lawson, former Executive Director and Senior Policy Advisor to the Commissioner U.S. Customs and Border Patrol at the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Lawson is the  co-author of one of the seminal pieces of academic work on the future of the U.S - Mexico border region, Managing the United States-Mexico Border: Cooperative Solutions to Common Challenges. He is currently an Associate Professor at MIT with a concentration in Latin America.

Rounding out the day will be an in depth conversation about the economic ties that bind the United States and Mexico together. This panel will feature representatives from both U.S. and Mexican businesses and governments.

Upcoming Event: Social Media's Impact in Latin America

In a couple weeks, Global Mobile and NDN/NPI's Latin America Policy Initiative will be co-hosting an event with SAIS looking at the impact of social media, mobile phones, and other new network technologies in Latin America. Back in January, I published a report looking specifically at Mexican civil society, how those groups and individuals had adopted new technologies into their work, and how they could do better. This event will be an expansion on that, and you'll get to hear from people much wiser and more knowledgable than I.

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Judith McHale will give a keynote on how State's public diplomacy efforts in Latin America have evolved with changing tools.  Her speech...

[W]ill address how the State Department is advancing U.S. foreign policy in Latin America through increased engagement, including constructive and meaningful people-to-people exchanges, local and regional media outreach and the use of multiple social platforms to establish direct relationships across the region.

And she'll be doing a long Q&A, taking questions both from the audience and online.  Following her talk I'll be moderating what I expect to be a really interesting discussion with a few people working at the intersection of new technology, politics and civil society in different Latin American countries.  Panelists will include...

Chris Sabatini is senior director of policy at the Americas Society and Council of the Americas (AS/COA) and founder/editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly. In a recent column at the Huffington Post, Sabatini explained how the U.S. embargo on export of ICTs to Cuba has, if anything, prevented any chance of an Egypt-style uprising there. He'll be elaborating on this issue and speaking about the potential impact of internet access in Cuba.

Carlos Ponce is a Reagan Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy and the general coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy, a network of over 210 leading civil society organizations across the Americas. In his native Venezuela, Dr. Ponce successfully founded and led the Justice and Development Consortium—an NGO that develops justice-reform and conflict-resolution programs at the local level—and worked as executive secretary of Venezuela’s National Human Rights Commission.

Oscar Salazar is a social entrepreneur in the technology space and a political activist. He is currently the CEO of Citivox, a platform to enhance citizen-government communication and improve quality of life in communities in his native Mexico. Salazar is also co-founder of Cuidemos el Voto, a web- and mobile-based tool to improve election monitoring and protect voters’ rights.

It promises to be a fascinating discussion, and I hope you'll be able to come.  Space is very limited, though, so please RSVP soon.  If you can't make it, we'll be webcasting the whole event live.  Here are the details:

Tuesday, March 29, 12 pm - 2 pm 
SAIS Rome Auditorium, 1619 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC
RSVP  |  Watch Webcast

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