Standing room only at first brown-bag lecture of AY2018

On Tuesday, Aug. 22, more than 100 students, staff, and faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC), as well other individuals from the surrounding area, packed into the Arnold Conference Room at CGSC’s Lewis and Clark Center to attend the inaugural lecture in CGSC’s Academic Year 2018 Interagency Brown-Bag Lecture Series. This is the second year for the lecture series, which is co-hosted by the U.S. Army Command and General Staff School (CGSS) and the Arthur D. Simons Center for Interagency Cooperation.

Mr. Patrick J. Wesner, the Command and General Staff College Distinguished Chair for Development Studies, provided an overview on the history and purpose of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), discussing USAID’s changing functions over time and its current role in U.S. national security. After his presentation, Wesner opened the floor for questions from the audience. During the Q&A, Wesner discussed how USAID prioritizes missions, chooses partner non-governmental organizations, and deals with governments who may be resistant to their mission, particularly missions involving human rights.

The next lecture in the series will be conducted on Sept. 18, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Arnold Conference Room at the Lewis and Clark Center. The subject of the lecture will be the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). A schedule for future InterAgency Brown-Bag Lectures can be found here.

The InterAgency Brown-Bag Lecture Series is an extracurricular, interagency topic-focused series that is designed to enhance and enrich the CGSS curriculum. All lectures in the series are open to the public. Attendees are welcome to bring their own lunches into the conference room for the presentation.

Mr. Patrick J. Wesner, the Command and General Staff College Distinguished Chair for
Development Studies, presents on the U.S. Agency for International Development
at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College on Aug. 22.

For more photos from the lecture, please follow the links below.
U.S. Agency for International Development, InterAgency Brown-Bag Lecture, Facebook
InterAgency Brown-Bag Lunch Lunch, CGSC Foundation, Flickr