The Biden administration will face unprecedented domestic and global challenges when sworn into office January 20. Join us for a virtual discussion on “U.S. Foreign Policy in 2021 and Beyond” with U.S. Consul General to Vancouver Brent Hardt. This talk will focus on an array of major foreign policy issues following the U.S. presidential inauguration.
Thursday, January 28th, 2021
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PST
Reserve your ticket today for this free public event. The webinar link and passcode will be shared with registrants prior to the event.
Speaker: U.S. Consul General Brent Hardt
Welcome Remarks: Dr. Murali Chandrashekaran, Vice-Provost, International, UBC
Moderator: The Honorable Allison Macfarlane, Director and Professor, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, UBC
Speaker’s Bio: Ambassador D. Brent Hardt, Ph.D. is a career Senior Foreign Service Officer with over 30 years’ experience in the Western Hemisphere, Europe, and Political-Military assignments.
He has led U.S. Consulate General Vancouver since August 2020.
Prior to his arrival in Vancouver, he served as the Senior State Department Faculty Advisor at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. From 2017 to 2018 he served as Chargé d’Affaires, a.i. at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, France. From 2014-17, he served as Foreign Policy Advisor (POLAD) to the Commander of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. He was Ambassador to the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and U.S. Representative to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) from 2011-14.
His other assignments include Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean from 2009-2011, and Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at U.S. embassies in The Bahamas (2005-2008) and the Holy See in Rome (2002-2005).
Ambassador Hardt joined the U.S. Foreign Service in 1988, serving in Berlin, The Hague, and the Caribbean. In the Netherlands, he participated as an exchange diplomat within the Dutch Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense. In Washington, he served as Team Leader for NATO Policy in the State Department’s Office of European Political and Security Affairs, responsible for issues of NATO enlargement, NATO-Russia, NATO-Ukraine and European Security and Defense Policy.
Ambassador Hardt has received various Department of State awards, including Senior Performance Awards, the Director General’s Award for Reporting, five Superior Honor Awards, and three Meritorious Honor Awards. He also received the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award and the U.S. Special Operations Command Distinguished Civilian Service Award. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in History from Yale University, and Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He has published numerous articles on U.S. foreign policy, and speaks Italian, Dutch, German and French. Consul General Hardt is married, and he and his wife, Saskia, have three sons.
Moderator Bio: Dr. Allison M. Macfarlane is currently Professor and Director of the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs within the Faculty of Arts at UBC. Dr. Macfarlane has held both academic and government positions in the field of energy and environmental policy, especially nuclear policy. Most recently, she directed the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy at the George Washington University. She recently held a fellowship at the Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC and was Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Applied Public Policy at Flinders University and Carnegie Mellon Adelaide in Australia.
The first geologist (and the third woman) to chair the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2012-2014, Dr. Macfarlane holds a doctorate in earth science from MIT and a bachelor’s of science from the University of Rochester. She has held fellowships at Radcliffe College, MIT, Stanford, and Harvard Universities, and she has been on the faculty at Georgia Tech in Earth Science and International Affairs, at George Mason University in Environmental Science and Policy, and in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.
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