Distinguished Voices Lecture Series

General Vincent Brooks - Retired Four-Star General & Former Commander, United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command/ United States Forces Korea 

General Vincent K. Brooks is a career Army officer who recently retired from active duty as the four-star general in command of all U.S. Forces in Korea. He concurrently commanded United Nations Command as well as the Republic of Korea. In 2003, while serving in the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, General Brooks was chosen to serve as the deputy director of operations and primary spokesperson for the America's fighting force in the Middle East and Central Asia. He served as the commander for the U.S. Third Army, the U.S. Army portion of Central Command from 2011 to 2013. This was a critical time in the reduction of forces in Iraq, the increase of forces in Afghanistan, the "Arab Spring," and the standoff against Iran.

His forty-two years of service were spent mostly in leadership roles. In his final assignment, he served both the President of the United States and the President of the Republic of Korea. He also served at the Pentagon with both the Army headquarters as well as with the Joint Staff overseeing all the U.S. military operations around the world. General Brooks is a 1980 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. This was the first class to include women. He led 4,000 cadets as the cadet brigade commander or “First Captain.” A history-maker, General Brooks is the first African American to have been chosen for this paramount position as well as the first cadet to lead the student body when women were in all four classes. He is also the eighth African American in history to attain the military’s top rank—four-star general in the United States Army.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a Master of Military Art and Science from the prestigious U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He was a National Security Fellow at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government and holds an honorary Doctor of Laws from the New England School of Law.

 Henry Curr - Economic Editor, The Economist

 

Henry Curr is The Economist’s principal leader writer on economics and oversees economics coverage throughout the newspaper. He has written cover stories on fiscal and monetary policy, labour markets, trade, central banks, competition policy, the future of the business cycle, globalisation, taxation, trade, housing markets, inequality and “millennial socialism”. His work has been cited by monetary policymakers in Europe and America, including his October 2019 special report on inflation, which ran as the cover story “The world economy’s strange new rules” Henry joined the newspaper in 2014 as Britain economics correspondent before moving to Washington, DC in 2015 to cover America. In 2018 at the age of 28 he became the youngest economics editor in the history of The Economist. He regularly appears on television and radio and is an experienced speaker and panel moderator. Before joining the newspaper Henry worked as a professional economist for a consulting firm. He has an M.Phil with Distinction in economics from Nuffield College, Oxford and a B.A in PPE from Magdalen College, Oxford. As an undergraduate at Oxford he was the John Hicks Foundation prize winner.

Brett McGurk - Top National Security Advisor, Serving Under Three Consecutive Presidents

One of the longest-serving and most effective national security experts of his generation, Brett McGurk served as a top advisor on critical diplomatic and military strategies under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. Deeply involved in Middle East strategy and diplomacy, McGurk helped design and then led the successful campaign to defeat ISIS together with a coalition of 75 countries. McGurk has led negotiations with hostile states, including Iran and Russia, as well as allies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Serving as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan under President Bush, McGurk helped develop “The Surge,” a fundamental and successful shift in Iraq war strategy. Under President Obama, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran and spearheaded 14 months of secret talks with Iran that led to a prisoner swap and release of six Americans—prompting the New York Times to cite him as “a doer” in high-stakes negotiations. He also helped build the largest international coalition in history to confront ISIS and led the campaign under both Obama and Trump before resigning his position in December 2018 following Trump’s order to withdraw all U.S. forces from Syria. While lauded throughout his distinguished career, awards of note include the Distinguished Honor Award (2009) and the Distinguished Service Award (2016), the highest any Secretary of State can bestow someone in McGurk’s diplomatic capacity.

Jon Huntsman - Former Governor of Utah and Ambassador of the United States to Russia, China and Singapore

 

Ambassador Huntsman began his career in public service as a staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He has served each of the five U.S. presidents since then in critical roles around the world, including as the Ambassador to Singapore, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Asia, U.S. Trade Ambassador, U.S. Ambassador to China, and most recently, U.S. Ambassador to Russia. In all Senate confirmations, he received unanimous votes.Twice elected governor of Utah, Governor Huntsman brought about strong economic and tax reforms, tripled the state’s rainy-day fund, and helped bring unemployment rates to historic lows.

 

Historically Huntsman was one of Utah’s most popular governors, reaching approval ratings as high as 90 percent. During his tenure, Utah was named the best managed state in America and ranked number one in the nation in job growth. Recognized by others for his service, Governor Huntsman was elected as Chairman of the Western Governors Association, serving nineteen states throughout the region. Ambassador Huntsman was a candidate for the Presidency in 2012 where he ultimately placed third in the New Hampshire primary before bowing out. Previously he served as Chairman of the Atlantic Council and on the boards of Ford Motor Company, Caterpillar Corporation, Chevron Corporation, Hilton, the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, and the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, he served as a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institute, a trustee of the Reagan Presidential Foundation, and Chairman of the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. 

 

Ambassador Huntsman has served as a visiting fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, as well as a distinguished lecturer at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. He was recently inducted into the American Academy of Diplomacy. Huntsman is a seventh generation Utah and has been married for 36 years to Mary Kaye Huntsman. Together they are the parents of seven children, including two adopted daughters from China and India. His two sons, both graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy, are active duty naval officers. Huntsman is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and has ten honorary doctoral degrees.

Brett McGurk - Top National Security Advisor, Serving Under Three Consecutive Presidents

One of the longest-serving and most effective national security experts of his generation, Brett McGurk served as a top advisor on critical diplomatic and military strategies under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. Deeply involved in Middle East strategy and diplomacy, McGurk helped design and then led the successful campaign to defeat ISIS together with a coalition of 75 countries. McGurk has led negotiations with hostile states, including Iran and Russia, as well as allies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Serving as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan under President Bush, McGurk helped develop “The Surge,” a fundamental and successful shift in Iraq war strategy. Under President Obama, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq and Iran and spearheaded 14 months of secret talks with Iran that led to a prisoner swap and release of six Americans—prompting the New York Times to cite him as “a doer” in high-stakes negotiations. He also helped build the largest international coalition in history to confront ISIS and led the campaign under both Obama and Trump before resigning his position in December 2018 following Trump’s order to withdraw all U.S. forces from Syria. While lauded throughout his distinguished career, awards of note include the Distinguished Honor Award (2009) and the Distinguished Service Award (2016), the highest any Secretary of State can bestow someone in McGurk’s diplomatic capacity.

Amy Chua - Best Selling Author and John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School

Amy Chua is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where she was Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review. After practicing on Wall Street for a few years, she joined the Yale Law School faculty in 2001 and is a noted expert in the areas of foreign policy, globalization, and ethnic conflict. Amy is the bestselling author of numerous books, including World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (2002), which was selected by both The Economist and the U.K.’s Guardian as a Best Book of 2003, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance – and Why They Fall (2007); and The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America (2013). Her 2011 memoir Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother was a runaway international bestseller that has been translated into 30 languages. Her latest book is Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations. Professor Chua has lectured widely around the world, including at the World Bank, the CIA, Aspen Ideas Festival, the Brookings Institution, the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, and the World Economic Forum in Davos. In 2011, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, one of the Atlantic Monthly’s Brave Thinkers, and one of Foreign Policy’s Global Thinkers. She also received the Yale Law School’s “Best Teaching” award.