This program has been cancelled.

The Red Sea has remained vital for global trade since the time of ancient Egypt. Once home to the spice trade, the Red Sea now sees millions of barrels of oil a day transported across its waters. With major nations like China, France, Italy, and the U.S. building large ports and bases in the region, what does the future of the region look like? How important is Red Sea security for global security? Can the region be a place of global cooperation?

Speaker: Molly Hayes Baril

Molly Hayes Baril served as a foreign policy adviser at the U.S. Department of State from 2008-2014, where she was the Department’s desk officer for Kenya, Morocco, Libya, and Tunisia; regional adviser for East Africa; and assistant to the Coordinator for Counterterrorism. She also served as a deputy coordinator of the Department’s Egypt Task Force during the 2011 Arab Spring. Hayes previously served as program director for the International Institute of Minnesota, where she oversaw workforce development and education programs for newly-arrived refugees and immigrants in the Twin Cities. She recently served as deputy chief of staff and speechwriter to the President of the University of Minnesota, where her portfolio included international policies and programs. Since 2009, Hayes has guest lectured at the University of Minnesota, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Maynooth University in Ireland, and the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute. Hayes holds an MPA from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, a graduate certificate in international relations from Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, and a BA in English & Arabic from the University of Notre Dame. She is an advanced speaker of Arabic and lived in Egypt from 2006 to 2007.