By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 9, 2021 – Philip “Brave” Davis, leader of the opposition Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) in The Bahamas, who is currently in Washington, D.C. for “a series of wide-ranging economic policy discussions,” met today with Mr. Daniel Runde, the Director of the Project on Prosperity and Development at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Describing the meeting as a “very productive session,” the PLP leader said, “We discussed the urgency of increasing investment and development in The Bahamas, public-private opportunities, and the doors that could be opened by a new Caribbean Basin Initiative.”
Additionally, Mr. Davis said, they discussed “urgency of establishing high-level dialogue and working groups on key issues like energy and economic diversification.”
According to Wikipedia, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank based in Washington, D.C., “was founded as the ‘Center for Strategic and International Studies’ of Georgetown University in 1962 and “conducts policy studies and strategic analyses of political, economic and security issues throughout the world, with a specific focus on issues concerning international relations, trade, technology, finance, energy and geostrategy.”
“In the University of Pennsylvania’s 2019 Global Go To Think Tanks Report, CSIS is ranked the number one think tank in the United States across all fields, the Top Defense and National Security Think Tank in the world, and the 4th best think tank in the world overall,” Wikipedia notes.
Wikipedia adds: “The center hosts the Statesmen’s Forum, a bipartisan venue for international leaders to present their views. Past speakers have included UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and National Security Advisor Tom Donilon. The center also conducts the CSIS-Schieffer School Dialogues, a series of discussions hosted by Bob Schieffer, of CBS News, in addition to the Global Security Forum, with keynote addresses by Defense Department officials including former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.”
According to information gleaned from his LinkedIn page on the Internet, as Senior Vice President at CSIS, Mr. Runde holds the William A. Schreyer Chair in Global Analysis, where he focuses on the role of using soft power to shape the future.
Linked-In adds: “A global-thought leader, Mr. Runde has advised a number of governments, including the United States, Japan, Denmark, Korea as well as the World Bank and the United Nations. He has testified before the U.S. Congress, and the Australian and Canadian parliaments.
“In April 2018, Mr. Runde was named the Chair of the Advisory Committee for Voluntary Foreign Assistance, the Federal Advisory Committee that advises the Administrator of the US Agency for International Development and the broader federal government on international development issues.
“Prior to coming to CSIS, Mr. Runde held senior roles and led organization change initiatives and built strategic partnerships at the World Bank Group and the US Agency for International Development. Mr. Runde is an Opinions Contributor at Thehill.com. He blogs occasionally at “Elephants in the Room” at ForeignPolicy.com. He writes and speaks extensively on global development issues. He was a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council for the United States. He currently serves on the board of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the Ashesi University Foundation board, a Ghanaian university.”
