Farah Pandith addresses the Palm Beach Center for Democracy and Policy Research

April 16, 2019

Former U.S Special Representative to World Muslim Communities Farah Pandith address to Palm Beach Center for Democracy and Policy Research , April 1st, 2019

Biography

Farah Pandith is a social entrepreneur, foreign policy strategist, and former diplomat. She is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Strategic Advisor to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Ms. Pandith has served as a political appointee in the George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack H. Obama administrations. Most recently she was appointed the first-ever Special Representative to Muslim Communities by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She traveled to more than 80 countries in this role and launched global youth-focused initiatives and networks to counter violent extremism (CVE). Prior to this appointment, she was responsible for pioneering CVE initiatives in Europe. She served on the National Security Council and at the U.S. Agency for International Development. She left the government in January 2014. She wrote the book “How We Win”: How Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurs, Political Visionaries, Enlightened Business Leaders, and Social Media Mavens Can Defeat the Extremist Threat.

EVENTS

On the morning of January 3, U.S. special operations forces arrested Venezuelan leader Nicolás
Maduro in a highly coordinated operation that immediately drew global attention. U.S.
authorities allege that Maduro oversaw an extensive drug-trafficking network that harmed
American interests. Critics, some quoted by The New York Times, questioned whether the scale
of narcotics flows from other regions poses a more immediate threat, raising broader questions
about the operation’s justification.

Conquering Venezuela

by Joel Levin | January 6, 2026

After weeks of attacking Venezuelan boats that may or may not have been carrying drugs—drugs
that may or may not have been fentanyl—on vessels that may or may not have been bound for
the United States, and where the attacks may or may not have involved the killing of
shipwrecked crew members

The Venezuelan Regime’s Criminal Architecture: Drug Trafficking, Foreign Alliances, and Institutional Collapse — Part II

by Luis Fleischman | December 14, 2025

In the first part of this interview, Luis Fleischman, an expert in international relations, sociology professor at Palm Beach State College, and founding co-chair of the Palm Beach Center for Democracy, revealed the criminal roots that sustain the Nicolás Maduro regime and its close collaboration with armed groups and illicit structures operating inside and outside Venezuela.

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