Week Seven: August 8–15, 2026
Every summer Chautauqua Institution welcomes over 100,000 visitors, to celebrate community and prioritize personal growth. Many travel here to relax, renew and recharge on the shores of Chautauqua Lake. Join us and see for yourself why Chautauqua was, and continues to be, a cherished destination. Keep scrolling to explore Week Seven’s Theme: Global Power and Our Evolving International Order.
Featured Entertainment and Events
Chautauqua Lecture Series
Global Power and Our Evolving International Order
For decades, the United States has been the anchor of a liberal world order shaped by shared institutions, military alliances and economic leadership. As the Trump administration’s “America First” agenda takes root, new powers continue to rise — and the rules of global engagement are shifting. In this week we examine the impact of America’s evolving posture toward its international allies and adversaries, examining how the international order is likewise evolving in real time, from security alliances and trade blocs to diplomatic norms and great-power competition. What are the ripple effects of these major global shifts, from regional conflicts and migration to climate diplomacy and human rights?
Confirmed Lectures
Nancy Youssef
Nancy Youssef is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Before that, she was a longtime national security correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and also worked at BuzzFeed News and The Daily Beast. Youssef spent much of her career at McClatchy Newspapers where she served as national security correspondent and Middle East bureau chief based in Cairo covering the Middle East and the Islamic world. Prior to that she was McClatchy’s chief Pentagon correspondent, focusing on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She traveled frequently to those two nations to see how the policies crafted in Washington reached Afghans, Iraqis and the troops alike. She is also the founder of the Pentagon Press Association.
Before covering the Pentagon, Youssef spent four years covering the Iraq war, including a stint as Baghdad bureau chief. Her pieces focused on the everyday Iraqi experience, civilian casualties and how U.S. military strategy was reshaping Iraq’s social and political dynamics. She began her career at the Detroit Free Press, covering legal issues. While at the Free Press, she traveled throughout Jordan and Iraq for Knight Ridder, covering the Iraq war from the time leading up to it through the post-war period. Her journalism career started at The Baltimore Sun.
A Washington, D.C.-area native, Youssef earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of Virginia and master’s degree in security studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Youssef’s parents are from Egypt, and she speaks Arabic. Throughout her life, she has been a frequent visitor to the region. She is currently based in Washington, D.C. and is an advocate for supporting neurodiverse children.
Miles Yu
Miles Yu is a senior fellow and director of the China Center at Hudson Institute. He is also a professor of East Asia and military and naval history at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Yu specializes in Chinese military and strategic culture, U.S. and Chinese military and diplomatic history, and U.S. policy toward China. He joins Chautauqua’s weeklong exploration of “Global Power and Our Evolving International Order” to offer an up-to-the-minute assessment of the global ambitions and actions of China and other East Asian countries, and how the U.S. and the West are responding.
Previously, Yu served in the first Trump administration as the China policy adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. In that capacity, he advised the secretary on all China-related issues, helped overhaul U.S. policy toward China, and participated in key U.S. government interagency deliberations on major policy and government actions with regard to China and other East Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
From 2011 to 2016, Yu wrote the weekly column “Inside China” for The Washington Times; since 1996, he has been an editorial consultant to Radio Free Asia, and a contributor to various media outlets including The Wall Street Journal and “PBS News Hour.” His books include OSS in China: Prelude to Cold War and The Dragon’s War: Allied Operations and the Fate of China, 1937–1947. Yu’s numerous awards include the U.S. Naval Academy’s top researcher award, U.S. Navy Special Action Awards, and U.S. Navy Meritorious Service Award. He received a doctorate in history from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s degree from Swarthmore College, and a bachelor’s degree from Nankai University.
Interfaith Lecture Series
Religion, Power and the Moral Stakes of a Changing Global Order
As global power shifts and international norms evolve, religious communities play complex roles in diplomacy, conflict, humanitarian response and cultural identity. This week examines how faith traditions shape global ethics. What responsibilities do nations and religious actors share in promoting peace? How do spiritual worldviews influence responses to migration, climate change and human rights? And how can interfaith cooperation strengthen a fragile international order?
Confirmed Lectures
Jeremy Ben-Ami
Jeremy Ben-Ami is the president of J Street, bringing to the role both deep experience in American politics and government and a passionate commitment to the state of Israel. Ben-Ami’s family connection to Israel goes back 140 years to the first aliyah when his great-grandparents were among the first settlers in Petah Tikva. His grandparents were one of the founding families of Tel Aviv, and his father was an activist and leader in the Irgun, working for Israel’s independence and on the rescue of European Jews before and during World War II.
Ben-Ami’s political resume includes serving in the mid-1990s as the deputy domestic policy advisor in the White House to President Bill Clinton and working on seven presidential and numerous state and local campaigns, including helping to manage a mayoral campaign in New York City in 2001. For nearly three years in the late ’90s, he lived in Israel, where he started a consulting firm working with Israeli nonprofit organizations and politicians. Ben-Ami received a law degree from New York University and is a graduate of the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Weekly Chaplain

The Rev. Frank A. Thomas
The Rev. Frank A. Thomas currently serves as the Director of the Compelling Preaching Initiative and the Nettie Sweeney and Hugh Th. Miller Professor of Homiletics at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana. For many years, Thomas has also taught preaching to doctoral and master’s level students at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee, and United Theological Seminary of Dayton, Ohio. With a long history of excellence in preaching and preaching method, Thomas was inducted into the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers of Morehouse College in 2003. Thomas also serves as a member of the International Board of Societas Homiletica, an international society of teachers of preaching.

Explore Performing and Visual Arts
The arts can sometimes bridge differences and illuminate perspectives as no other method can. Artistic expressions at Chautauqua — including professional and pre-professional offerings in classical and contemporary music, theater, opera, dance, visual arts and literary arts — aim to inspire, educate, entertain and engage a diverse and growing audience.

Places to Stay
If you love the events you see in Week Seven, ensure you have accommodations. Space on the ground is limited, and accommodations go fast find reservations at the Hotel or Private Accommodations.

Dining & Shopping
Make your Chautauqua experience memorable! Share a delicious meal at one of our many restaurants. Or take piece of Chautauqua home with you from our unique shops.



