Join WorldBoston for their signature Diplomacy Now program, an opportunity to consider American diplomacy within the context of U.S. national interests. This year’s program will focus on “The U.S., China, and the Great Powers.”
For this discussion, we are honored to host Nicholas Burns (ret.) Ambassador to China, and the Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Analysts of American policy in 2025 have the unusual advantage of being able to assess the new president’s likely policies regarding the Middle East against the backdrop of what he did in his first term, four years earlier.

Join WorldBoston for a timely Great Decisions discussion of this topic with Mona Yacoubian, senior adviser and director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

This program will feature an expert presentation, live audience Q&A, and time for networking and discussion with other globally-oriented participants.

Mona Yacoubian is senior adviser and director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She has more than thirty years of experience working on the Middle East and North Africa, with a focus on conflict analysis, governance and stabilization challenges, and conflict prevention. She was previously vice president of the Middle East and North Africa Center at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), where she managed field programming in Iraq, Libya, and Tunisia as well as Washington, D.C.–based staff.

Two of Revere’s biographers will speak with the Executive Director of the Paul Revere House on Paul Revere, the man and the myth. While today he is most famous for his Midnight Ride, this talk will cover his life before and after the Revolution as well.

With:
Dr. Robert Martello, Professor of the History of Science & Technology, Olin College of Engineering
Dr. Jayne Triber, Independent Scholar
Nina Zannieri, Executive Director, Paul Revere Memorial Association

Since 1986, Nina Zannieri has been the Executive Director of the Paul Revere Memorial Association in Boston, MA, which owns and operates a now fully accessible complex of three historic buildings that includes the Paul Revere House. Ms. Zannieri has held leadership positions in several national and regional professional museum organizations including American Alliance of Museum, New England Museum Association, and the American Association for State and Local History.

What does the Midnight Ride mean today, and who does it matter to? In this panel a university professor, a high school teacher and administrator, and a public history content creator will discuss how the Midnight Ride resonates (or doesn’t) with the groups they talk about history with. They will compare perspectives on societal trends that influence whether a historical event like this feels relevant today.

Moderated by Dr. Noelle Trent, Museum of African American History, Boston, with Ahsante Bean, Creator and Storytelling Strategist, Dr. Eileen Ka-May Cheng, History Faculty, Sarah Lawrence College, Kerry Dunne, History & Social Studies department head, Lexington High School,

Eileen Ka-May Cheng received her PhD from Yale University and is an associate professor of history at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of The Plain and Noble Garb of Truth: Nationalism and Impartiality in American Historical Writing, 1784-1860 (2008) and Historiography: An Introductory Guide (2012). She is currently working on a book project on loyalist historians of the American Revolution and their legacy, entitled “The Loyalist Historians and Their Legacy: Plagiarizing the Nation,” and a book entitled “American Losers: How Defeat Made Our Democracy” (under contract to Yale University Press).

Ahsante Bean is a video storyteller and creator of Bean Thinking, a YouTube channel exploring American politics through history, psychology, and ideology. With a background in explanatory journalism, she challenges cultural myths and invites viewers to imagine a more just, inclusive democracy. A recent Us@250 Fellow with the New America Foundation, Ahsante is passionate about connecting the present to the past—including moments like Paul Revere’s ride that continue to echo in our national character.

With William Dawes Schulz, journalist

While Longfellow cast Paul Revere as a lone hero in his 1860 poem “Paul Revere’s Ride,” history lovers have stood up for the other rider who carried news from Boston that night, William Dawes, since at least the 1890s. This talk will explore the life and the Midnight Ride of William Dawes.

Bill Schulz is a former cable news correspondent/co-host, a totally licensed NYC Tour Guide, and longtime contributor for publications including the New York Times, New York magazine, The Daily Beast, Maxim, New York Daily News, and Reader’s Digest. Schulz is also the 7th great-grandson of the Patriot William Dawes. In his words, “Truly, generating publicity for his long-forgotten ancestor/midnight-rider is the ONLY hobby this bitter journalist has.”