Speaker Series
St. John’s Speaker Series is a popular adult education offering held between services at 10:00 AM on select Sundays from September to May. Nationally noted individuals, from scholars and poets to world leaders and faith leaders, present on pressing issues of the day and impactful historical events to expand our knowledge as individuals and as a community.
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November 10, 2024
Mara Karlin
The Middle East: Old Challenges; New Dilemmas
November 10, 2024
10:00am
Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Mara E. Karlin, PhD will reflect on her years of work for six Secretaries of Defense tackling regional challenges and dilemmas in the Middle East.
Karlin served in national security roles for six U.S. secretaries of defense, advising on policies spanning strategic planning, defense budgeting, the future of conflict, and regional affairs involving the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Most recently, she served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities, leading the development and implementation of the 2022 National Defense Strategy, Nuclear Posture Review, and Missile Defense Review, the first time all major strategies were conducted simultaneously. She advised the Secretary of Defense on the forces, plans, posture, emerging capabilities, and security cooperation activities necessary to implement the defense strategy. She oversaw the formation of a new emerging capabilities policy office; a historic modernization of U.S. force posture in the Indo-Pacific; the implementation of the Australia-United Kingdom-United States partnership (AUKUS); reform of the security cooperation workforce; and the development of numerous national and defense strategic guidance documents.
Karlin currently serves at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies as Professor of Practice, interim director of the Foreign Policy Institute, and faculty co-lead for the Security, Strategy, and Statecraft focus area. Additionally, she is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution.