News

News

The Role of Diplomacy and Development in Reducing Insecurity

The world is experiencing a 25-year peak in violent conflict, trapping millions of innocent families in cycles of poverty and displacement and leading to costly and prolonged U.S. military and humanitarian responses. With over 170,000 Texans currently serving in the armed services around the world, these

04Feb

Brexit in the Bardo

By Raye Elizabeth Ward As I made my way to the Capital Factory, that go-go hive of entrepreneurial-ism in the center of Austin, to hear what the U.K. Dept. of International Trade had to say about Brexit, I thought about a University of London marketing class I took years ago. The professor, a Scot, turned […]

01Jan

What will it take to make us safe?

By Raye Elizabeth Ward We expect our government to keep us safe. The Constitution cites “providing for the common defense” as part of the reason to even have a government. In the best of times, protecting a country as proudly technology-driven as ours is a tough job. And these are not the best of times. […]

09Dec

The Outing of Climate Change: How About a Policy

WAC Austin
Blog, News, Recent

By Raye Elizabeth Ward This week saw the follow-on meeting to the Paris Climate Accord. The news is not good; or, as the Washington Post put it, “We are in trouble.” But at least the facts are clear. Yesterday, the Global Carbon Project reported that carbon emission levels are not only

01Oct

Is Your Company Seeking Ways to Increase Sales and Connections into Japan and SE Asia?

WAC Austin
Blog, CGT, News, Recent

Texas companies that export generate five times higher revenues than their non-exporting peers. For the past several years, Asian nations have represented the top export markets for Central Texas companies. In fact, Japan is regularly ranked among the top five export markets for our region.

05Sep

While We were Tweeting, the Future Happened

WAC Austin
Blog, News, Recent

David Firestein, the executive director of the University of Texas’ new China Public Policy Center headlined a recent session of our speaker series, The World Spins, with some advice about competing with China. By Raye Elizabeth Ward “In the end, we’re going to have to step up and compete. China is not our enemy.

05Jul

The Great Listening

WAC Austin
Blog, News, Recent

The Great Listening, inspired by Sweden’s 50-year-old Almedalen week of discourse, will host its inaugural event this November 16-17 in Austin. Almedalen has welcomed leaders from diverse backgrounds like Karl Rove and Jesse Jackson to business leaders like Adam Kostyál, Nasdaq, Sr. VP and Dr. Catherine Mann,

01May

Policy Weirding: Climate Change and National Security

WAC Austin
Blog, News, Recent

By Raye Elizabeth Ward A military weather tracking station. Photo Courtesy of United Nations Climate Change. Will the military drive our national climate change agenda? Dr. Joshua Busby dropped by a session of the World Spins for an update. Just last week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that new

22Apr

World Spins: Blockchain, Trust and the Global Economy

by Raye E. Ward, WAC Austin board member Pete Harris stopped by a session of the World Spins to share his take on blockchain, the software technology generally overshadowed by its trendier spawn, bitcoin and the Bitcoin network. Harris, who bears a striking resemblance to Bilbo Baggins, has a relationship to hype

30Mar

World Spins: A Raging Climate and No Policy in Sight

Now that the feds have left the table, can Battlestar Galatica save us? We kicked off our new “World Spins” series Dr. Josh Busby pointing out that not only is the weather crazy but we currently have no policy in place to manage its unpredictable impacts. This was the first in a two-part deep-dive into […]