Boise Committee on Foreign Relations upcoming events

November 2026 Meeting (19 Nov 2026)

Thu, 19 Nov 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Speaker: Dr. Ross Burkhart, BCFR Vice President and Professor of Political Science, Boise State University

Topic: U.S.-Canada Relations: At the Brink?

Bio: Dr. Ross Burkhart has taught courses on international relations, comparative politics, and research methods at Boise State since 1997. He has taught a Canadian Politics course at Boise State regularly since 2004, and has given talks on Canadian politics at the University of Alberta, University of Arkansas, Gonzaga University, and the Council of State Governments West conferences in Big Sky, Montana, and Boise. His scholarship includes articles and book chapters on Canadian politics and policy in a half-dozen academic journals and edited volumes.

Dr. Burkhart was also the long-time executive director of the Pacific Northwest Canadian Studies Consortium, consisting of two dozen regional academic institutions, governments, IGOs, and the Consul General of Canada in Seattle, all working together to promote the study of Canada.

He has been interviewed by media outlets on Canadian politics and economics, including Boise State Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, HuffPost, the Idaho Statesman, KTVB, and PolitiFact.

Dr. Burkhart has traveled numerous times to Canada and has visited among other places the Icefields Parkway in the Canadian Rockies and the Fort McMurray Oil Sands operation. He has experienced a minus 20-degree American Thanksgiving cold snap in Edmonton and a five-inch summer rainstorm on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Dr. Burkhart’s earliest memories of Canadians involved growing up along the New York State Thruway and watching many cars with Québec license plates whizzing past his.

December 2026 Meeting (3 Dec 2026)

Fri, 04 Dec 2026 00:30:00 GMT

Speaker: Mara Rudman, Executive Director of the Vital Center Network

Topic: From the Middle East to the Mountain West: Tracking Electoral, Economic, and Security Impacts of the Iran War

Bio: Mara Rudman leads Vital Center Network, a cross-partisan non-profit focusing on growing America’s shared prosperity, security, and civic trust at home and around the world. Mara comes to this mission experienced in how and where sensible voices and community advance American economic and national security interests. She is joined in the work by partners from across the country and the political spectrum.

Mara ran The Ripples of Hope project at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center as a pilot for Vital Center Network. Through that and other roles she has brought together pragmatic business leaders, public officials, and social impact investors focused on implementing approaches that create or sustain good jobs, building economic security locally, nationally, and internationally.

Her prior government roles have included serving on the 2022-24 U.S. Commission on the National Defense Strategy, as deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs in the Obama and Clinton administrations; deputy envoy for the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace at the U.S. Department of State; assistant administrator for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development; and chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In the private sector, Mara previously was executive vice president for policy at Center for American Progress, senior vice president for policy/projects at Business Executives for National Security, and general counsel to The Cohen Group. She serves on the board of Howard University College of Arts and Sciences, is an Aspen Institute Crown Fellow, and a practitioner senior fellow with the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and the Center for Asian and Pacific Resilience and Innovation (CAPRI).

Mara frequently appears on Bloomberg, CNNi, and BBC, among other media platforms, has written for and been quoted in various publications. She received a BA from Dartmouth College and a JD from Harvard Law School.

March 2027 Meeting in Partnership with Frank Church Institute (24 Mar 2027)

Wed, 24 Mar 2027 23:30:00 GMT

Speaker: Steve Feldstein, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Topic: TBA, related to his new book, Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalry, Private Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare

Bio: