Our Global Engagement programs bring together community members, business leaders, young professionals, scholars, and more to engage with expert speakers and network with like-minded global citizens. We offer many ways to learn about emerging trends in global affairs and important geopolitical developments.
Our regular speaker series include Chat & Chowder at the offices of Foley & Lardner LLP, and Great Decisions and Diplomacy Now. Thanks to the generous support of The Lowell Institute, our regular programming is now free of charge. We frequently present additional distinguished speakers and special events, as well.
Disclaimer: WorldBoston is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, non-advocacy, educational organization dedicated to fostering civil discourse on international affairs. Our speakers' opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WorldBoston, our affiliates, or our community.
Programs are hosted in-person at the downtown offices of Foley & Lardner LLP, and are also live-streamed to Zoom. Each event includes an author presentation, audience Q&A, and ample time for networking and discussion among community members. True to their name, Chat & Chowder events feature a selection of fine soups and chowders (of course!), as well as a variety of refreshing beverages.
Thank to The Lowell Institute our Chat & Chowder series is free of charge, but advanced registration is required.
As all of our Global Engagement events are free to attend, we’ll now routinely ask you to consider a tax-deductible contribution of any size, whether to defray costs or to make a larger commitment to support our mission. All contributions, individual or corporate, are tax-deductible. Learn more about supporting WorldBoston here.
See recent Chat & Chowder events below, and be sure to join us at our next installment!
Below, you can watch a video of a recent Chat & Chowder with Karen Elliott House.
Created in the 1950s by the Foreign Policy Association, a sister World Affairs Council, Great Decisions engages citizens in learning about critical global issues and U.S. foreign policy.
WorldBoston’s Great Decisions series presents analysis by leading experts in eight sessions throughout the year that are based on the eight critical foreign policy topics in the Foreign Policy Association’s annual Great Decisions briefing book. The series is free and open to the public thanks to the generous support of the Lowell Institute.
Every Great Decisions event is filmed and can be viewed on the GBH Forum Network website or on our YouTube channel.
Learn more about the Great Decisions annual briefing book and DVD resources here, and take a look at recent Great Decisions events below.
Thank you to our sponsors, Boston Public Library and the Lowell Institute, who make this special program possible.
Thanks to GBH Forum Network, you can watch a video of our recent Great Decisions on "American Foreign Policy in the Middle East: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead" with Mona Yacoubian.
WorldBoston's Diplomacy Now is a high-level annual event, designed as an occasion to consider within a policy context America's place on the global stage.
Diplomacy Now was initiated in 2018, inspired in part by distinguished current and former diplomats, including retired Amb. Nicholas Burns and then President of the American Foreign Service Association Amb. Barbara Stephenson. They and others had written impassioned and widely-read articles calling for renewed attention to diplomacy to protect and advance the U.S. national interest. In February 2018, we held our first Diplomacy Now event with Ambassadors Nicholas Burns and Barbara Stephenson. Since then, we have made it into an annual event, with Amb. Linda Thomas-Greenfield joining us in 2019, Amb. Stavros Lambrinidis in 2020, Amb. Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley in 2021, and Stacy White and Farah Pandith in 2022. In April 2023, we hosted Ambassador Audra Plepyte of Lithuania, Ambassador Kristjan Prikk of Estonia, Ambassador Maris Selga of Latvia, and Ambassador Paula Dobriansky. In 2024 we hosted Deputy Secretary of State, Amb. Richard Verma, and in 2025 we once again hosted Amb. Nicholas Burns as our expert speaker.
Thank you to our sponsors, the Boston Public Library and the Lowell Institute, who make this special program possible. Every Diplomacy Now event is filmed and can be viewed at the GBH Forum Network or on our YouTube channel.
Ambassador (ret.) Nicholas Burns
Join us for WorldBoston’s signature Diplomacy Now program, a high-level opportunity to consider American diplomacy in our current global context. This year’s program will focus on “The U.S., China, and the Great Powers.”
We are honored to welcome back Nicholas Burns (ret.) Ambassador to China, and the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Ambassador Burns offers a unique perspective on this topic, as the most recent U.S. Ambassador to China and as a lifelong diplomat who served under six U.S. Presidents and nine Secretaries of State.
Ambassador Burns helped establish this now-annual signature WorldBoston program in 2018, and featured in it 2018-2021.
The program will be live-streamed to Zoom from 6:00-7:00 PM. To attend virtually, please register here.
Join us at the Boston Public Library for this timely discussion on Thursday, September 11th. Doors will open at 5:45 PM ET, and the program will begin promptly at 6:00 PM ET.
April 2023
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June 2021
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March 2019
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