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Join the Boise Committee on Foreign Relations (BCFR) Today and be Part of Boise's Global Dialogue

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BOISE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

Promoting Foreign Relations Dialogue in Boise since 1945
  • When you register for an event, you will be asked to pay with a credit card - online. This is our preferred method of payment. If you cancel before the meeting cancellation date, then you will be reimbursed.
  • The second option is to be invoiced by selecting the "Offline" option instead of a credit card type. You can then pay at the meeting. However, if you do not cancel by the meeting cancellation date, then you will be expected to pay the invoice.
  • Event caterers require us to pay for orders even if you do not show up. Thus, not paying for a registered event comes out of all members' dues payments.
CANCELLATIONS
  • The cancellation deadline is four days before the scheduled event, when event registration closes.
    • Email us if you are unable to attend and have questions about how to handle your payment.
      • With a cancellation before event registration closes, credit card payments can be credited to a member's account for a future event. If you would like a refund, please email us and we will provide a credit card refund. After event registration closes, your food has been ordered and we are obligated to pay our venue. Thus, after event registration closes, we do not offer a refund or credit.
      • Rather than ask for a refund or credit, many members prefer to donate their canceled event payment to a student member to attend in their place. In this case, the earlier you let us know about a cancellation the better. 
  • Please contact us with event registration payment issues.

Upcoming events

  • September 2026 Meeting

    • 23 Sep 2026
    • 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    • The Riverside Hotel
    Register

    Speaker: Mark Listes, CEO, Pendulum

    Topic: TBC, related to mis/disinformation, foreign influence, and AI

    Bio: Mark Listes is the CEO of Pendulum Intelligence (pendulumintel.com), the AI-native intelligence layer that powers the world’s biggest communications agencies, brands, and government agencies.

     Prior to Pendulum, Listes served within the US Department of Defense as the Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff of the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), an organization with the mission of connecting bleeding edge technology with warfighter missions, and as the Director of Policy at the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) during the 2016-18 Foreign Interference in US Elections Crisis. At the EAC, he was the agency’s staff lead for all national security issues – including critical infrastructure defense policy design and implementation during those pivotal years.

     Under his leadership, Pendulum has been named one of Bloomberg's "Most Innovative Startups in America," with Listes and Pendulum being cited in The Washington Post, The New York Times, TechCrunch, GeekWire, VICE, and PRWeek. Listes also co-architected SONAR, which is the artificial intelligence backbone for how the world's most ambitious brands now see and steer the narratives shaping their reputation, and he is one of the company’s leads for interfacing with the US and allied governments’ intelligence and defense communities.

     A frequent voice in the conversation about the AI revolution, Listes has a love for teaching the next generation of leaders, having often guest-lectured for the Arthur W. Page Society's Future Leaders program, the U.S. State Department, and US Military training programs. 

     Mark Listes has a JD from William & Mary Law School and a BA from the University of Tennessee. He is a published author on the topics of critical infrastructure, election law, and government policymaking.


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  • October 2026 Meeting

    • 20 Oct 2026
    • 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
    • Barber Park Education and Event Center, 4049 S. Eckert Road
    Register

    Speaker: Ambassador Michelle Gavin


    Topic: TBA

    Bio: Michelle D. Gavin is the Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She has over 25 years of experience in international affairs in government and non-profit roles. She was formerly the managing director of The Africa Center, a multidisciplinary institution dedicated to increasing understanding of contemporary Africa. From 2011 to 2014 she was the U.S. ambassador to Botswana and served concurrently as the U.S. representative to the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

    During Ambassador Gavin’s tenure, the U.S. and Botswana launched the most ambitious HIV prevention study in the world; Botswana hosted Southern Accord, the 1,400-strong joint SADC-U.S. military exercise; and the U.S. embassy helped to found Botswana’s first American Chamber of Commerce. Prior to that, she was a special assistant to President Obama and the senior director for Africa at the National Security Council, where she helped to originate the Young African Leaders Initiative and led major policy reviews of Sudan and Somalia.

    Before joining the Obama administration, Gavin was an international affairs fellow and adjunct fellow for Africa at CFR. Earlier in her career she worked in the U.S. Senate, where she was the staff director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on African affairs, director of international policy issues for Senator Russ Feingold, and legislative director for Senator Ken Salazar.

    Gavin received an MPhil in international relations from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes scholar, and earned her BA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where she was a Truman scholar. She serves on the board of directors of Points of Light.

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  • May 2027 Meeting

    • 26 May 2027
    • 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
    • The Riverside Hotel
    Register

    Speaker: Dr. Michael Mandelbaum


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