Al Maerifa Public Seminar Series

Presented Digitally by Texas A&M University at Qatar

The New Cold War with China

Thursday, 25 March 2021 • 4–5 p.m. GMT +3

China’s emergence as a global military, economic and cultural superpower is one of the most important geopolitical developments in the twenty-first century, creating complex, high-stakes challenges for the United States and its allies. How can the U.S. best support the independence and territorial integrity of China’s neighbors? What can the U.S. do to promote human rights within China? And can the U.S. preserve its extensive economic partnerships with China while constraining Beijing’s ambitions for global influence and internal control? Former U.S. Congressman Will Hurd joins the Al Maerifa Seminar Series at Texas A&M University at Qatar for a fireside chat on the United States’s contentious relationship with China.

Mr. Will Hurd

Will Hurd is a former member of Congress, cybersecurity executive, and undercover officer in the CIA. For almost two decades, he has been involved in the most pressing national security issues challenging the country, whether it was in the back alleys of dangerous places, boardrooms of top international businesses or halls of Congress.

After stopping terrorists, preventing Russian spies from stealing our secrets, and putting nuclear weapons proliferators out of business, Will helped build a cybersecurity company that prepared businesses for the next domain of conflict — cyberspace.

While in Congress, Texas Monthly and Politico Magazine called Will “The Future of the GOP,” because he put good policy over good politics at a time when America was often consumed with what divides us rather than what unites us. He was able to get more legislation signed into law in three terms than most congressmen do in three decades — substantive legislation like a national strategy for Artificial Intelligence.

Will is a native of San Antonio. Texas, and earned a computer science degree from Texas A&M University. He is growing the US transatlantic partnership with Europe as a trustee of the German Marshall Fund and is serving as a fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.