McCain Institute Announces Lineup for Annual Forum Advancing Globalism

With less than a month to go, the McCain Institute has announced its lineup for its annual forum in Sedona advancing globalism.

The “Securing Our Insecure World” forum, scheduled for May 3-4, will convene international leaders to discuss the institute’s declared greatest threats to global stability: climate change, economic uncertainty, and the ongoing threat of nuclear war.

Key speakers from Arizona already announced include Governor Katie Hobbs, Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly. Others slated to speak include Roger Carstens, State Department Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs; Sheryl Sandberg, advocate against conflict-related sexual violence; Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

However, the full agenda and speaker list for the forum have yet to be announced.

Evelyn Farkas, McCain Institute executive director, said in a press release that the world has reached an unprecedented level of insecurity due to autocrats and authoritarians. In a promotional video for the forum, Farkas claimed that solutions could be brought about in a bipartisan manner.

The institute publishes and maintains a full list of all participants since 2019. Last year’s forum saw a VIP gathering of representatives spanning public and private sectors in national defense, media, technology, entertainment, and more including National Intelligence; the Congress and Senate; the Army; the DOJ; CBS; Fox News; Politico; GFEMS and Fortescue Future Industries; Akima; Northrop Grumman; Palantir Technologies; TSMC; SpaceX; Amazon; Arizona State University; University of Arizona; and Arizona Public Service (APS).

The 2023 forum focused on “Indispensable Power”: the diplomatic, military, and economic means to protect democracy, human rights, and global competitive edge. The forum emphasized greater involvement in edging out China’s influence on South America, opposing China and Russia, encouraging greater financial support for Ukraine, giving up partisanship, and controlling artificial intelligence.

The closing remarks of the 2023 forum highlights video was former President Barack Obama’s longtime political director for the White House, David Simas, praising McCain’s 2008 presidential concession speech as the epitome of democracy.

“That concession speech is one of the finest pieces of American oratory, not necessarily because of the eloquence of the words that were put together, but because of the example of democracy that he showed,”

This year’s forum is sponsored by APS, Amazon, the Cardinals, the Burton Family Foundation, Carlisle, Freeport-McMoran, Insight, Khodorkovsky Foundation, Pivotal Foundation, Player 15 Group, SRP, FedEx, Govini, Lockheed Martin, Meta (Facebook), Northrop Grumman, Palantir, Quarles, Southwest Gas, SpaceX, Greater Phoenix Economic Council, and Greater Phoenix Leadership.

Every year, the forum has awarded the McCain Institute Courage & Leadership Award. Past winners were:

• The women of the Islamic Republic of Iran for rebelling against Iranian morality laws, accepted by Iranian refugee and activist Lily Pourzand (2023);
• President Volodymyr Zelensky, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Kllitchsko, and Russian journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, for symbolizing democracy despite Russian aggression (2022);
• Chhaya Sharma, an Indian Police Service officer serving as India’s National Human Rights Commission deputy inspector general (2019);
• The White Helmets, the Syrian Civil Defense humanitarian relief volunteer force (2018);
• Kayla Mueller, a Prescott humanitarian worker captured and killed by ISIS in 2015, accepted on behalf of her parents (2017);
• Dikembe Mutombo, a Congolese American humanitarian with an 18-year NBA career (2016);
• Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate (2015).

No awards for courage were given in 2020 or 2021, due to the pandemic.

Those interested in observing the forum may register for the livestream here.