You are invited to attend the 2016 Sam Nunn Bank of America Policy Forum on Thursday, September 22nd. The Policy Forum program will be held at the Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center located at 250 14th Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30318, and will begin at 8:00 a.m. and conclude at 1:00 p.m.

The School and Senator Nunn are proud to host Gen. John R. Allen, USMC (ret), Co-Director, Center for the 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institute and former Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL as the keynote speaker for this year’s Forum.

This year’s Forum topic is: How Does it End and What Can We Do? Addressing the Underlying Causes of Ideological Extremism.  This Forum will examine two major issues: What are some of the underlying causes of this radicalism? What, if anything, can the United States and our friends and allies around the world do about it? For the last two decades, United States security policy has been dominated by a series of crises within and emanating from the Middle East.  Nearly any conflict within this region affects at least four specific U.S. national security interests in one way or another, including: prevention of terrorist attacks on the homeland, protection of American citizens abroad, security for allies and partners, and protection of universal values. 

The rise of ISIL has impacted every one of these security interests to some degree, and has thus elevated it within the “urgent” space of the “urgent versus important” terrain in policy circles.  Moreover, ISIL’s activities have catalyzed nearly every source of conflict juxtaposed within the Middle East, including inter- and intra-sectarian strife, tension between rulers and ruled, violent conflict between multiple state and non-state adversaries, and clashes between tribes, ethnicities, and nations. 

A Forum program listing all the participants and a registration form, should you decide to attend, will be updated and available for you at our website (http://nunnforum.inta.gatech.edu/) in the coming weeks. Please direct inquiries to: snforum16@inta.gatech.edu.