Dear Colleagues,

It was called the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” an international Bill of Rights. The former First Lady and widow of President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the driving force behind the document. Charles Habib Malìk was Eleanor Roosevelt’s indispensable partner. The Lebanese philosopher and diplomat played a crucial role as drafter of the text.

The Declaration came from the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A), making the argument for fundamental, universal human rights. The document has been translated into more than 500 languages.

I’ve just read an advance copy of Josh Muravchik’s essay for the Malik Institute on the competing visions of Charles Malik and Edward Said. We’ve invited Josh to come to MBN for a visit and talk on October 23. We’ll have Harvard Law scholar Mary Ann Glendon with Peter Skerry of Boston College on Malik soon, too. Professor Glendon deals extensively with Charles Malik in her book on Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Our bread and butter is journalism. Yet great journalism profits from the ideas space and serious public intellectual work. In an age of instant opinion, there’s still plenty of considered opinion that can meaningfully inform our work.

In this vein, it’s useful that we have Henry Sokolski this month — on Tuesday October 29 at 10 am. Henry has worked in the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s Office of Net Assessment and as an adviser to the Senate Armed Services Committee. He’s founder and executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, a DC-based think tank focused on strategic weapons proliferation.

Here’s Henry and his deputy director Andrea Stricker in The Hill on why the U.S. must slow Saudi Arabia’s path to a bomb. Helping Riyadh to build a nuclear program for energy production is one thing, they argue. An option to enrich uranium is another matter. Uranium enrichment is not necessary, write Henry and Andrea, to support the Kingdom’s objective to produce nuclear electricity. Some in Congress argue for America to sell the Saudis enrichment plants — before China and Russia do so.

Here’s Henry in a recent Washington Post column on why nuclear proliferation will dominate the next U.S. president’s agenda. Turkey, the UAE, South Korea, and Poland are getting restless.

Here’s Henry last week in Foreign Policy on Iran. It’s conceivable, Henry and co-author Gregory S. Jones argue, that Tehran could complete and deploy a missile-deliverable warhead in a matter of months.

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War in our region rages on. Hezbollah launched more than 300 rockets and drones at Israel during Yom Kippur. The Biden administration is sending Israel THAAD missile defense. This while the U.S. is pushing Israel to pivot toward diplomacy.

I’m inviting M.J. Crawford and Shawanesh Underwood to MBN. They’re both young, African American women working in foreign policy. They’re both rising stars. M.J. has been posted in Russia and Pakistan. Shawanesh has worked in State Policy Planning and at the Pentagon for Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. M.J. and Shawanesh both serve currently in the State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability.  They can be helpful conversation partners for us.

The same applies to Eyal Hulata. Eyal served as Israeli national security adviser until last year, under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Prime Minister Yair Lapid, and for a brief period under Bibi Netanyahu. Eyal coordinated policy on Iran, as well as the maritime border agreement with Lebanon. He also co-led the Strategic Consultation Group with his American counterpart, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Eyal will be with us at MBN in Springfield this Thursday. Look for details from Deirdre Kline and join the discussion, in-person or virtually. Our colleagues across the region are warmly encouraged to join.

Next Thursday, October 24, leading publisher, book agent, and ideas entrepreneur Toby Mundy joins us virtually from London. Toby has made a brilliant career by identifying great stories and developing world class story tellers. I put Toby on my advisory council when I was president/CEO of the Legatum Institute in London. He can help MBN in countless ways. His network is vast. His range is wide.

Since 2014, Toby has served as director of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, Britain’s pre-eminent literary prize for non-fiction writing. He led Prospect Publishing Limited for 10 years. He’s served as chair of trustees of Wimbledon Arts, the educational charity that oversees London’s leading literary festival, Wimbledon Bookfest. Toby represents an array of interesting authors, including Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

We’ll keep growing our network. I’m co-hosting a foreign policy dinner this evening, the second in a series, with USAGM CEO Amanda Bennett. Our issues will be part of the discussion. Attending will be key Hill staff, State Department officials, Washington media, and leading think tank figures. I’m asking adviser Matt Kaminski and colleague Blset Ibrahim to help shape the conversation tonight.

We’ve asked Fletcher Schoen and his State Department colleagues to visit MBN. Fletcher is a senior negotiator in the Office of Hostage Affairs. I got to know him and his colleagues through work on the case of RFE/RL reporter Alsu Kurmasheva.

Alsu came out as part on August 1 as part of the most elaborate prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States since the Cold War — the swap involving the release of twenty-six people. The deal followed months of secret multilateral negotiations that included Turkey, Belarus, Poland, Slovenia, and Germany.

Here’s my piece on a linchpin of the agreement. To make the deal work, the Germans had to be convinced to release a notorious assassin, Kremlin contract killer Vadim Krasikov.

Fletcher’s Middle East team is just back from the region. They’ll join us in Springfield in the next couple of weeks. Look for details and please join, if free.

There’s much more to come. Let’s expand the MBN network. Let’s develop key relationships. Let’s discover stories that are unique to us and of greatest value to our mission and audience.

My best, Jeff