In partnership with the UN Committee of New Canaan, we are delighted to welcome Sarah Chayes, Senior Fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy and Rule of Law Program and author of Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security (W.W.Norton, 2015).
Her work explores how severe corruption can help prompt such crises as terrorism, revolutions and their violent aftermaths, and environmental degradation.
Before joining Carnegie, Ms. Chayes served as special assistant to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. She participated in cabinet-level decision-making on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Arab Spring.
After covering the fall of the Taliban for National Public Radio, Chayes left journalism in 2002 to settle in Kandahar, Afghanistan until she took a post advising commanders of the international military force in Kabul in 2009.
For over 50 years, until her death in March, 2007, Anita Houston was so prominent an advocate for the United Nations and international cooperation among nations that she was designated by official Town Proclamation on her 90th birthday as “New Canaan’s Ambassador for World Affairs.”
In tribute to Anita for her long service as chairperson and member of the UN Committee of New Canaan and head of her UN Study Group, friends and family started a fund for an annual lecture series on topics related to international affairs and the United Nations.
The United Nations Committee of New Canaan believes our country and the world are best served by a vital and credible UN, the continuing effectiveness and evolution of which are supported and led by the U.S. To that end, the Committee endeavors to broaden the community’s awareness of U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and calls attention to the need for U.S. leadership in the various peacekeeping and humanitarian activities of the UN. Please visit uncommitteeofnc.org.
— an announcement from New Canaan Library