2024 marks the 53rd anniversary of Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning’s (SILL) “Global Issues” series. This hard-hitting series, which runs January 9-March 29 at locations in Sarasota, Venice and Lakewood Ranch, features 24 internationally renowned experts discussing a vast range of domestic and global issues. This month’s lectures feature front-page issues examined by leading speakers, including Amb. Daniel Speckhard, who will speak to the transformational change needed to confront the existential challenges created by war, natural disaster and political instability; former U.S. Air Force special operations pilot and a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Nolan Peterson, who will discuss lessons on modern warfare learned in Ukraine; Dr. Peter W. Singer, known as the “premier futurist in the national-security environment,” will address artificial reality; and Shelley Rigger, a leading expert on Taiwan who will be just back from helping to monitor the elections in Taiwan and provide a most current update on that key global flashpoint.