The Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference is an undergraduate foreign-affairs conference in the United States. NAFAC seeks to explore current, demanding issues from both a civilian and military perspective and thus to provide a forum for addressing pressing international concerns. Held at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland since 1961, NAFAC brings together Naval Academy students and their civilian and military counterparts from around the world to share ideas and concerns relating to international affairs. Past speakers include: George H.W. Bush, Joseph Biden, Stephen Hadley, Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, Wesley Clark, Charles Krauthammer, Sheryl Sandberg and Hillary Clinton. The 2020 NAFAC Conference will take place April 7th-9th at the United States Naval Academy. The theme will be War, Peace, and the Gray Zone and can be described by the following: Between war and peace lies a gray zone. Competition has become covert and continuous and rests on deception, disinformation and deniability. Rogue and revisionist powers challenge the U.S. in ways that aren’t quite provocative enough to merit a conventional response. Adversaries craft false narratives that supplant the truth, send “little green men” across borders, brazenly steal intellectual property, interfere in elections, and weaponize social media. While none of these are traditional elements of warfare, they are certainly not elements of peace. Actors such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea appear to operate comfortably in this gray zone, while the US and its allies may be a step behind. This conference aims to cast light on these shadowy practices and to assess the prospects for a more tangible peace.
Structure
Each year a unique theme is chosen for NAFAC; noteworthy individuals with expertise in relevant fields are invited to address the conference delegates who represent colleges and universities from across the United States and around the globe. Conference attendees bring with them unique attitudes and approaches that, through discussion and interaction, are intended to enlighten the thinking of their peers. The entire conference is organized and run by United States Naval Academy Midshipmen. These future officers of the Navy and the Marine Corps also serve as moderators, presenters, and as a minority percentage of delegates. Harvard University and the United States Senior Military Colleges are examples of schools with annual partnerships to sponsor delegates to NAFAC. NAFAC is proud to have a reciprocal exchange partnership with the MSC Student Conference on National Affairs at Texas A&M University, which was founded in 1955. A Naval Academy Professor, United States Army COL Rocco Paone, served as a facilitator in 1962 for MSC SCONA 8 immediately after founding NAFAC and thereby a partnership lasting into the present day.
2015 - Sustainability and Sovereignty: Global Security in a Resource-Strained World
2016 - Women and Security : The Implications of Promoting Global Gender Equality 2017- A New Era of Great Power Competition? 2018 - Guarding Liberty in a World of Democratic Undoing 2019 - Coming Apart: The Fate of the Rules-based Order 2020 - War, Peace, and the Gray Zone
