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Join the Pacific Council for an evening of cocktails, mingling and discussion featuring Ambassador Nina Hachigian (ret), the first U.S. Special Representative for City and State Diplomacy. Ambassador Hachigian will offer insights into her work and her diplomatic approach, emphasizing the significance of collaboration at the local level in addressing global challenges. 

The conversation will examine the role of subnational diplomacy within the U.S. Department of State, exploring challenges uniquely suited to subnational diplomacy. Speakers will also discuss which cities and states are actively engaged in successful diplomacy and how others can become involved more effectively. 

The event will include a cocktail reception from 5-6pm and fireside chat/audience Q&A session from 6-7pm.

Guest Speaker

Ambassador Nina Hachigian (ret) is the first U.S. Special Representative for City and State Diplomacy. In this role she seeks to bring benefits to, and learn from, local leaders in the United States, and connect them to counterparts around the world.

Before rejoining the Department, Ambassador Hachigian served as the first Deputy Mayor for International Affairs for the City of Los Angeles. In that role, she oversaw efforts that sent underserved community college students on free, educational international trips; created a new public-private partnership to attract international business and non-profits, especially to underserved communities; prepared the City for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games and their legacy; hosted the Summit of the Americas; founded the first global gender equity city network; planned trade missions, and worked with international city networks to advance cutting-edge climate change programs, migrant integration, healthy cities and more.

From 2014 to 2017, Ambassador Hachigian served as the second U.S. Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During her tenure, the United States established a strategic partnership with ASEAN, held the first Leaders’ Summit in the United States, launched a Presidential initiative on economic cooperation, established the U.S.-ASEAN Women’s Leadership Academy and grew the youth program to over 100,000 members. She was awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for her service. She is also a founder of WASA, Women Ambassadors Serving America and of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LC-WINS).

Earlier, Ambassador Hachigian was a Senior Fellow and a Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress focused on Asia policy and U.S.-China relations. Prior to that, Ambassador Hachigian was the director of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy for four years. Ambassador Hachigian served on the staff of the National Security Council in the Clinton White House from 1998-1999. She is the editor of Debating China: The U.S. – China Relationship in Ten Conversations (Oxford University Press, 2014) and co-author of The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise (Simon & Schuster, 2008). She writes frequently about city and state diplomacy.

Ambassador Hachigian lives in Los Angeles with her husband and children.

Presider

Dr. Jerrold D. Green is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles. He is concurrently a Research Professor of Communication, Business, and International Relations at the University of Southern California. Green was previously a Partner at Best Associates in Dallas, Texas, a privately held merchant banking firm with global operations. He also occupied senior management positions at the RAND Corporation where he was awarded the RAND Medal for Excellence. Dr. Green has a B.A. (summa cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts/Boston, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. His academic career began at the University of Michigan and he subsequently joined the University of Arizona where he became a Professor of Political Science and Sociology as well as Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Green has lived and worked in Egypt, where he was a Fulbright Fellow, Iran, and Israel. He has lectured on six continents and been a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Science's West Asian Studies Center in Beijing; a visiting lecturer at the Havana based Center for African and Middle East Studies (CEAMO), a fellow at the Australian Defense College, and delivered papers at conferences sponsored by the Iranian Institute of International Affairs in Tehran. Dr. Green led three U.S. Department of Defense sponsored Pacific Council delegations to Afghanistan, one to Iraq, and has represented the Pacific Council as an observer at the legal proceedings being conducted at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Green is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the London based International Institute for Strategic Studies, The California Club, the Lincoln Club, the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California, and the Bill Richardson Center for Diplomacy/FBI Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell Influencers Group. He has served on the Selection Committee for the U.S. Department of State Herbert Salzman Award for Excellence in International Economic Performance by a Foreign Service Officer. Green serves as a member of the Agenda Committee for the annual Halifax International Security Forum where he is an HFX Fellow. Dr. Green is a Reserve Deputy Sheriff with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and was accorded the department’s Meritorious Service Award. He previously served as a Specialist Reserve Officer with the Los Angeles Police Department where he advised on terrorism and intelligence issues.

Green was honored in 2019 by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce with its World Trade Week Stanley T. Olafson Bronze Plaque Award that honors “a member of the international trade community whose outstanding dedication, efforts and achievements have advanced trade in the Southern California region.”

Dr. Green currently serves as a Director of the Whittier Trust Company, a member of the Global Taiwan Institute Bipartisan Task Force on US-Taiwan Relation in the 21^st Century, the Los Angeles Steering Committee of the USA Eisenhower Fellowships, the Honorary Advisory Council of the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS), and for over a decade served on the selection committee for the Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowships conferred by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. He served for 8 years as a member of the United States Secretary of the Navy Advisory Panel where he was awarded the Department of the Navy, Distinguished Civilian Service Award for his service. Green also served multiple terms on the U.S. Department of State Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP), the Board of Directors of the California Club, the Advisory Committee of The Asia Society of Southern California, the Advisory Board of Whitney International University, the Board of Falcon Waterfree Technologies, the Board of Columbia University’s Middle East Institute, and as an International Medical Corps Ambassador. Dr. Green has been a technical advisor to Activision Publishing in Santa Monica, California, where he consulted on the highly successful Call of Duty series.