Meet our Next Speaker
Kenneth Frankel
June 23, 2025
Topic: How Current US Policies Create Uncertainty in Western Hemisphere Relations
Kenneth Frankel has been president of the Canadian Council for the Americas (CCA) since 2014 and was previously Chairman from 2007 to 2014. He was awarded The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal by the Governor General of Canada in 2013 for his work on behalf of the CCA and for leadership on other hemispheric public policy initiatives.
Frankel is also a Board Director of Global Americans, a think tank based in Washington D.C., and has been a Visiting Professor of Law at Ghent University (Belgium) since 2014 where he teaches international commercial negotiation. He is also an Adjunct at University of Bologna and has held Adjunct/Visiting Professorships at American University (Washington, D.C.), Western University (Canada), University of Pretoria (South Africa) and University College Cork (Ireland).
Frankel was the Legal Advisor to the Secretary General at the Organization of American States from 2008-2013. He was co-host of the podcast, “Two Gringos with Questions”, with Chris Sabatini (Chatham House / London) and a frequent commentator in media in Canada and elsewhere in the hemisphere. He was Chair of the Latin American Practice Group at Torys and held General Counsel and/or International Council positions for Alcatel in Canada, Spain, Poland and Germany.
Frankel started his career as a Law Clerk to U.S. Federal District Court Judge Eugene P. Spellman in Miami during the “Miami Vice” era. Previously, he was a research associate with Professor John Womack, Jr. (Harvard University) as a Reynolds Fellow in Mexico, and a political writer in Mexico and Central America as a Dartmouth College Public Affairs Fellow.
Frankel holds a A.B. cum laude, High Distinction from Dartmouth College in Latin American Studies and a J.D. from Northeastern University.
Meetings open to members and members’ guests only. Unless otherwise noted, all meetings take place at Elk Hall, 210 Rankin Street in Rockland. The speaker begins promptly at noon and lunch is served from 1 PM.
Audios of Past Presentations
Listed below are links to recent presentations. Click to listen:
- Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman: Adrift: The UN, Multilateralism, and US Disengagement
- Joshua Landis: Syria and the Middle East
- Martin Mühleisen on The IMF and World Bank in the New Geopolitical Environment
- Admiral Michael Rogers on Current Hot Spots of the World
- Henry Haggard on The US-Korea Relationship in Transition
- Ambassador Douglas Lute on The Future of NATO
- James Bosworth on Mapping Latin America’s Current Politics
- Clark Adams on Defense Diplomacy in Central Asia and Clark’s slides: Defense Diplomacy
- John Lee on China and Indo-Pacific Security
- Dr. Steven Koonin on The Realities of Climate and Energy. and Steve’s slides: Realities slides
- Dr. Elizabeth Cameron on National Security in an Age of Pandemic Threats
- Ambassador Lawrence Butler: NATO at 75—Relevant, Obsolete, or Dangerous?
- Jack Goldsmith on The Decline of Congress in the Conduct of Foreign Affairs, and accompanying slides
- Robert Einhorn on Nuclear Non-proliferation
- Matthew Goodwin on Brexit, Trump, Le Pen, and National Populism
- Ambassador Anne Hall: The Baltic Nations — Profiles in Courage
- Ambassador Jake Walles: The Israel-Gaza Conflict
- Heather Cox Richardson: Democracy Awakening
- John Deutch: Challenges to Future Climate Policy
- Thomas Blanton: The Downsides of Government Secrecy
- Shanthi Kalathil: Challenges to Democracy in the Age of Misinformation
- Ambassador Charles Ray: Why Africa Matters
- Tom Ricks: First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country
- Amna Nawaz: On the Frontlines: Reporting Overseas and Here at Home
- Christopher Costa: Counterterrorism and the Future Terrorism Threat
- Susan Landau: The Reality of Cyberwar — In Ukraine and Elsewhere
- Jon Wolfsthal: Is a New Era of Nuclear Danger Upon Us?
- Amb. Derek Mitchell: Democracy and International Security
- Admiral Michael Rogers: Russia and Ukraine
- Daniel Golden: Ransomware, a Global Challenge
- Ambassador Steven Pifer: Putin’s War: Ramifications and Response
- Christopher Miller: Warnings about America’s most important enemies
- John Sopko: Afghanistan, Lessons Unlearned
- Paul Bodnar: Financing the Low-Carbon Future
- Stacia George: Winning Without Weapons
- Amb. Laura Kennedy: Central Asia (unedited audio)
- David Cooper: Between Disarmament and Armageddon
- Steven Simon: The US and the Middle East: What Went Wrong?
- Jok Madut-Jok: US Military Miltary in Africa: A Source of Influence or a National Security Risk? Download Slides
- Gordon Adams: A new approach to formulating foreign policy
- Richard Kessler: The Effect of Congressional Polarization on Foreign Affairs
- Mitchell Zuckoff: 9/11 and its Aftermath
- Sean McFate: The Future of War
For Would-be New Members:
It’s pretty simple: just click here to fill out a membership form.
How to Contact Us
We can be contacted by email, mail, or phone:
The Mid-Coast Forum on Foreign Relations
PO Box 41
Rockport, ME 04856
207-332-6567