Chat & Chowder | Window Seat on the World

This Chat & Chowder program will focus on the professional and personal realities of diplomatic life — navigating unfamiliar environments, building trust across cultures, and doing the day-to-day work of diplomacy that often goes unseen.

Chat & Chowder programs are an excellent opportunity to engage with expert speakers and to network with other globally-oriented participants in an informal environment. Each event features a presentation, audience Q&A, dedicated time for networking, and (of course!) a selection of chowders and beverages.

Thanks to the generous support of The Lowell Institute, Chat & Chowder is now free of charge for all participants (Zoom live-streams remain free as well). We sincerely appreciate The Lowell Institute’s commitment to our mission, as well as the support of our venue, Foley & Lardner LLP.

Please consider helping sustain this work by making a contribution here.

This program will be streamed to Zoom from 6:15 to 7:15. To attend the program virtually, please register for the Zoom webinar here.

Advance registration is required. We cannot accommodate walk-ins for the in-person program.

Disclaimer: WorldBoston is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, non-advocacy, educational organization dedicated to fostering civil discourse on international affairs. Our speakers' opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WorldBoston, our affiliates, or our community.

Glen Johnson is a longtime Massachusetts resident who spent most of his career as a reporter.

Over a span of 30 years, he worked for the Salem Evening News, Lowell Sun, Associated Press Boston and Washington bureaus, as well as for The Boston Globe in both Washington and Boston. He also edited for Axios and set up the communications shop for the Essex County District Attorney.

In 2013, he was offered a job as strategic communications adviser for Secretary of State John Kerry. He ended up traveling with the secretary across a record-setting 1.5 million miles, visiting 93 countries and all seven continents, including Antarctica.

“Window Seat on the World” grew out of that experience. It answers all the details about what it’s like to be a government official and represent the United States abroad, while also providing case studies about issues that are current today: Iran and its nuclear program; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Russia’s assault on Ukraine; the steady rise of China as a military and economic challenger; climate change; and the emerging power of Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors.

The book debuted on “Face the Nation,” was the top-performer in its category on Amazon and won a silver medal from the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Glen lives north of Boston and currently is focused on a photography business that developed from the pictures he took at the State Department, and which fill the pages of “Window Seat on the World.”

Reporter Glen Johnson was covering politics for the Boston Globe when he received a job offer that would embed him in the world of protocols, planes, and global peacekeeping. For the next four years, he accompanied John Kerry as he became the most-traveled Secretary of State in history.
The former journalist kept notes while Kerry worked out a power-sharing agreement in Afghanistan, negotiated with the Israelis, convinced Iran to get rid of its nuclear weapons program, developed a counter-ISIS coalition, and brokered climate change agreements, including the 2015 Paris Agreement. Kerry also confronted two lingering challenges: how to cooperate with an assertive China and a Russia that sidestepped its own wrongdoing but felt aggrieved and justified to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
"Window Seat on the World" is an all-access look at life inside the nation's first cabinet agency: the complexity of State Department protocols, the grueling schedules, the delicacy of engagement with world leaders and foreign cultures, and the dedication of a longtime public servant and his team to the practice of diplomacy.

WorldBoston's Chat & Chowder series features key authors on international affairs in an engaging setting. In addition to discussion of a featured book (usually sold at a significant discount), the program offers the opportunity for discussion among members and guests - and of course a selection of chowders and beverages. This Chat & Chowder will be hosted in-person (from 6:00 to 7:30PM ET) and live-streamed to Zoom (from 6:15 to 7:15 PM ET only).

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