CELEBRATING ENGAGEMENT, INSIGHT, AND INTERNATIONAL ACTION
The Global Impact Award of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs recognizes distinguished individuals whose leadership has led to greater understanding and cooperation among communities and countries around the world. Each year the council will select a Brooks Emeny Distinguished Speaker who will deliver keynote address and receive the Global Impact Award. The speech highlights a night of fine dining and policy dialogue. Global Impact Award is the Council’s signature event. Proceeds from this event support the programs of the Council.
For more information about this year’s event, sponsorship opportunities and to buy tickets, contact Jenni Carney at (216) 255-9005 or jcarney@ccwa.org.
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Global Impact Award Event Over the Years:
2019 Brooks Emeny Distinguished Speaker: Richard N. Haass
President, Council on Foreign Relations
Richard N. Haass is a veteran diplomat, a prominent voice on American foreign policy, and an established leader of nonprofit institutions. He is president of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, publisher, and educational institution dedicated to being a resource to help people better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.
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2018 Brooks Emeny Distinguished Speaker: Senator George Mitchell
SENATOR and PEACEMAKER
Senator George Mitchell has had a long and distinguished career. He served for several years as Chairman of DLA Piper, now Chairman Emeritus. Before that he served as a federal judge; as Majority Leader of the United States Senate; as Chairman of peace negotiations in Northern Ireland which resulted in an agreement that ended an historic conflict; and most recently as U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East. In 2008 Time Magazine described him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Senator Mitchell is the author of five books.
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2017 Brooks Emeny Distinguished Speaker: Condoleezza Rice
FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE
Dr. Rice served as the United States Secretary of State from 2005-2009, and was the second woman and first African American woman to hold the post. From 2001 to 2005 Dr. Rice was President George W. Bush’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Dr. Rice is currently the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution; and a professor of Political Science at Stanford University.
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2016 Brooks Emeny Distinguished Speaker: James A. Baker, III
FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE
James A. Baker, III served as the Secretary of State from January 1989 through August 1992 during President George H. W. Bush’s administration, a period when the U.S. confronted the unprecedented challenges and opportunities of the post–Cold War era. Mr. Baker served as Secretary of the Treasury from 1985 to 1988 under President Ronald Reagan. He served twice as White House Chief of Staff — from 1981 to 1985 under President Reagan and from 1992-1993 under President Bush.
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2015 Brooks Emeny Distinguished Speaker: Senator Richard Lugar
FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE U.S. SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
Richard Lugar served in the Senate for 36 years where much of his foreign policy work was directed toward the dismantling of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons around the world, including deactivating more than 7,600 nuclear weapons. Senator Lugar was the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1985-1987 and from 2003-2007 and he was also the ranking member from 2007 until his retirement in 2013. Senator Lugar is now the president of The Lugar Center, a non-profit organization focusing on global food security, WMD nonproliferation, aid effectiveness, and bipartisan governance.
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2014 Brooks Emeny Distinguished Speaker: Strobe Talbott
PRESIDENT OF BROOKINGS INSTITUTION and FORMER DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE
Strobe Talbott’s career spans the highest levels of journalism, government service, and academia. President of the Brookings Institution since 2002, Talbott is an authority on global governance, nuclear arms control, and U.S. foreign policy, with particular expertise in Russia, Europe, and South Asia. For 21 years before joining the State Department, Talbott worked at an array of posts at TIME magazine, where he was twice awarded the Edward Weintal Prize for distinguished diplomatic reporting. Formerly the director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Talbott is currently chair of the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. He is the author of twelve books, including most recently, Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics In The Age Of Global Warming, co-authored with William Antholis. Strobe Talbott was educated at Yale (B.A. ‘68, M.A.Hon., ‘76) and Oxford (M.Litt., ‘71)
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2013 Brooks Emeny Distinguished Speaker: Richard Celeste
FORMER AMBASSADOR TO INDIA and GOVERNOR OF OHIO
About Brooks Emeny
Brooks Emeny was a prominent international relations scholar specializing in American foreign policy during the Second World War. In 1935, after a decade of diplomatic training and education in international affairs, he left a position at Yale University to become the director of the Cleveland branch of the Foreign Affairs Council. During his 12 years as director and later president, he transformed the organization from a circle of 300 members to a nearly 5,000-member interest group. In 1947, he brought international attention to Cleveland, for a three-day World Affairs Institute titled “A Report to the World.” He left Cleveland in 1947 to become president of the Foreign Policy Association in New York.
CCWA will always be indebted to Brooks Emeny — for his vision and passion to make us realize that “foreign affairs are your affairs” and for his generosity in establishing the Brooks Emeny Trust through which the Council, as beneficiary, receives one dollar for every three dollars of revenue.