Thank you to our friends of the McCain Institute for a successful first-ever virtual Sedona Forum. With the theme of “Defending Democracy,” top experts, policymakers, humanitarians and business leaders from around the globe and on both sides of the aisle engaged in civil and thoughtful discussions about the issues facing the world today. This year’s conference featured the speaker of the House of Representatives, the Senate minority leader, 43 former and current elected officials, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the UN secretary general, two former heads of government, two former secretaries of state, two former secretaries of defense, two Academy Award winners, an NBA hall of famer, a future first-ballot NFL hall of famer, and many more experts, policymakers, humanitarians and defenders of democracy.
from around the world
represented among speakers
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In October 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concluded that racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists, particularly white supremacist extremists, are “the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland.” The UN also identified violent extremism as the “number one internal security threat in several countries.” In response to this threat, the McCain Institute established the Preventing Targeted Violence program, which facilitated student innovation contests on 46 campuses, developed a Prevention Practitioners Network, and crafted a comprehensive Policy Blueprint to End White Supremacist Violence. In its first year, the PTV program has grown into one of the Institute’s most notable programs.
Across all Invent2Prevent projects
To inform Policy Blueprint to End White Supremacist Violence.
In the first seven Prevention Practitioners’ Network virtual workshops.
Preventing and reducing the impact of domestic terrorism and hate-based violence requires actions from character-driven leaders, no matter their role. To empower changemakers to disrupt extremism, our work builds broad, bipartisan support among policymakers, centralizes resources for practitioners and nurtures innovation among college students.
From raising awareness through the R.E.A.L. Friends Don’t campaign to training law enforcement, service providers and school personnel in Arizona, our team takes a dynamic and innovative approach to building capacity and support for vulnerable populations locally, nationally and globally. The fight against modern slavery continues to be a significant priority of the Institute.
With a team of experienced farmworker outreach advocates, the McCain Institute has provided farmworkers safe, confidential methods to reach beyond the control of labor traffickers to access social services, legal aid, and support from the criminal justice system. Guided by geospatial analysis tools, deep community networks and data, the Institute’s field team has reached over 11,000 farmworkers in the last four years.
One of the many consequences of COVID-19 has been the sharp increase in the number of hours that school-age children are spending online and, concurrently, an increase in reports of online child sexual exploitation. In response, the McCain Institute was proud to launch R.E.A.L. Friends Don’t, a national safety campaign focused on increasing awareness and empowering parents, caregivers and young people to protect themselves and their loved ones from harmful content, grooming or online exploitation.
It’s time to get R.E.A.L. about online child exploitation:
Raise the topic of online safety with your kids.
Educate yourself on the technology your kids are using.
Act if something makes you or your child uncomfortable.
Learn more about how you can help your kids navigate their digital lives.
There has never been a more important time to advocate for human rights and democracy, in the United States and around the world. Our program continues to bring human rights to the forefront of conversations in Washington, D.C., and protect human rights activists around the world.
Hosted by 4 working groups to discuss problems and solutions that affect today’s foreign policy.
Hosted by the Women, Peace and Security Initiative to advance the WPS agenda across governments.
By the We Hold These Truths campaign to promote activism among American youths.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Human Rights Defenders faced unprecedented challenges in both operations and magnifications of injustices. While our authoritarian regimes imposed restrictions limiting travel and safety, the Human Rights Defenders Program still succeeded in supporting brilliant and resilient activists around the world.
We’ve been working with an award-winning, investigative journalist from Nicaragua, whose report had an enormous impact in Nicaragua and internationally. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights took up the findings of his investigation in their respective reports on Nicaragua, and used it to determine the government's crimes against humanity.
The Human Rights and Democracy Program regularly hosts a series of working groups focused on several topical areas. These meetings, held monthly, are used to convene high level groups of experts on a certain topic to hold closed-door discussions about problems and solutions that affect foreign policy today. This year the HR&D program added two new working groups to make a total of four standing working groups: The Democracy and Human Rights Working Group; the Russia Working Group; America’s Alliances Working Group; and the Working Group on Great Power Competition.
Committed to continuing Senator McCain’s legacy of character-driven leadership, the McCain Institute empowers individuals around the world to educate others in the Institute’s leadership curriculum.
working across the globe
in leadership programs
Through our Next Generation Leaders (NGL) programming, the Institute has continued to develop character-driven leaders across the globe. With over 65 program graduates working across 50 countries, we’re proud of the high-level success and accomplishments each is bringing to their area of expertise.
NGLs were “In the Arena” in the global fight against COVID-19. Many courageously answered the call to “start where you are, use what you have and do what you can” to make a difference in their communities. Nine NGLs received COVID-19 microgrants from the Institute to bolster their grassroots relief efforts, enabling them to provide medical supplies and mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic in their communities.
Despite the pandemic’s disruption on all educational activities, the NGLs’ Train the Trainer work continues. Since the inception of the Train the Trainer initiative in 2018, NGLs have used the Institute’s toolkit to train 6,807 people across the globe in the principles of character-driven leadership. Many NGLs successfully pivoted to online training in 2020 or found creative ways to deliver safe, socially distant in-person trainings.
The National Security & Counterterrorism Fellowship program brings together the bright and brightest emerging leaders from the Five Eyes nations to build an enduring community of young national security professionals. The fellowship program is preparing to welcome its second cohort of leaders.
The 12 inaugural fellows hailed from four of the Five Eyes countries – the USA, the UK, Australia, and Canada – and brought with them a wealth of experience in national security, intelligence, and counterterrorism. Throughout the fellowship, in-person modules were held in D.C. and the UK, with virtual programming in the interim. In Fall 2020, the inaugural cohort of fellows concluded its year-long programming with a virtual Australia module, spread out over the course of several months. In Spring 2021, the McCain Institute opened applications for the second cohort of fellows. The 14 selected fellows will be announced in Fall 2021.
The fellows began their program in 2019 with two week-long modules in Washington, DC / New York and London / Belfast. Fellows were set to convene for the third and final time in Canberra and Sydney in spring 2020; however, COVID-19 disrupted this plan. Instead of meeting in person, fellows convened on Zoom across various time zones in Washington D.C., Ottawa, London, Brussels and Canberra to engage with top national security experts from Australia and the United States.
During one Zoom session, Australian Diplomat and first director-general of the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) Nick Warner encouraged fellows to gain a variety of experiences across various national security and intelligence agencies and reminded them that laughter is an important part of effective leadership. In another session, Admiral William H. McRaven drew upon his 37 years of experience in the U.S. military to offer a range of lessons about leadership under crisis conditions and personal resilience during times of adversity. Finally, during the culminating session of their fellowship, the Institute’s 2021 Kissinger Fellow, the Honorable Julie Bishop, spoke with the fellows about the challenges of the U.S.-China competition, the importance of diversity of voices around the decision-making table and the need for leaders to be both resilient and adaptable.
Our most academic program, the International Rule of Law & Security program, continues to provide resources and learning opportunities to future lawyers interested in supporting the stability and development of growing democracies around the world.
The McCain Institute launched the America’s Alliances Working Group (AAWG) in October of 2020 to focus on reinvigorating the United States’ transatlantic partnerships. The group hosted several high-level speakers including former heads of state, Members of the U.S Congress, leaders of international organizations, members of the European Parliament, U.S.-based NGOs and academia.
In an effort to reaffirm America’s commitment to the transatlantic alliance, as well as other global partnerships that have waned, the McCain Institute convenes the action-oriented and forward-looking America’s Alliances Working Group. It includes high-level American, Canadian, and European political and thought leaders that will assert long standing alliances and create fresh partnerships to ensure that the close transatlantic relationship endures for future generations.
In partnership with Bakamo Social, the McCain Institute has created an interactive dashboard displaying unique data on public perception of NATO and mis- and disinformation. This dashboard presents analysis of disinformation based on explicit discussions on disinformation to shed light on the level of awareness of the threat, not the presence of adversarial narratives. The analysis discriminates between discussion in the media and peoples’ organic discourse and also displays the evolution of the conversation over time.
The dashboard analyzes millions of sources (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, news sites and other social media) to measure the volume and trend of the conversations around NATO. The tool also measures when NATO is mentioned together with Russia, China, or the topic of disinformation; essentially determining the level of association of the aforementioned threats with NATO.
The Institute was privileged to welcome Secretary Mark T. Esper, former Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Army, as the inaugural John S. McCain Distinguished Fellow. We are equally honored to announce the Honorable Julie Bishop, former Foreign Minister of Australia as the 2021 Kissinger Fellow.
At the core of our strategy is constructive engagement and convening experts. By hosting forums and events that assemble subject-matter experts, we can better promote our values through solution-oriented and substantive conversations. 2020 and the Coronavirus Pandemic provided us the opportunity to pivot and create virtual content that helped make these in-depth conversations more accessible.
This year, we launched its successful virtual book talk series where Institute leaders interview authors of important newly released books on American politics, policy and leadership with the intention to engage the American people in a dialogue that affirms the importance of character-driven leadership and America’s leadership in the international community.
President Joe Biden made his first overseas trip to Europe to attend the G7, NATO and EU Summits, as well as met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The world’s eyes looked to Europe as the trip represented the United States’ potential return to a more traditional approach to its transatlantic alliances. To continue the critical work of Senator John McCain on this issue, the McCain Institute hosts a new public conversation series between Dr. Mark T. Esper, the John McCain Distinguished Fellow and former U.S. Secretary of Defense, and experts on various issues related to challenges and threats to U.S. national security – a rising China, increasing international authoritarianism, the global plague of disinformation, etc.
In the spirit of debate and open forums, Straight Talk Live convened a panel of experts to discuss current issues in American politics. Featuring prominent experts ranging from campaign managers to pollsters to a former FEC Chairman, we hosted two Straight Talk Live forums in 2020 to discuss the historic election and implications.
