Join Deseret News reporter Samuel Benson as he follows the candidates ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Be the first to know what's happening behind the scenes.

Utah’s rising prominence as a player in the global business landscape was the focus of a Thursday conference in Salt Lake City that included an impressive roster of domestic and international leaders including former President George W. Bush, former Mexican President Vicente Fox and past Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Natalie Gochnour, associate dean for the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business and director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, told attendees of the Crossroads of the World Summit at downtown’s Grand America hotel that Utah had already established itself as the crossroads of the West and was building an argument for a more ascendant position.

“What I do know is we’re the undisputed crossroads of the West and that’s the seed corn for being the crossroads of the world,” Gochnour said.

Read more about the conference and what it signifies for Utah.

Amb. Jeff Flake: America ‘needs friendships,’ and so do our allies

The Daily Beast’s 2022 headline — “Jeff Flake Got More Than He Bargained For” — becomes more accurate by the day. The ex-senator from Arizona assumed the U.S. ambassadorship to Turkey a month before Russia invaded Ukraine, just across the Black Sea from Turkey. Then, a year and a half later, war broke out to the south, when Hamas attacked Israel.

When reminded of the headline during an interview Thursday, Flake smiled. “Napoleon said, ‘If the world was a country, Istanbul would be its capital,’” he said. That’s especially true when “the world is in upheaval.”

Turkey borders Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia and Georgia. It shares the Black Sea with Ukraine and Russia. As a Muslim-majority country, its population is sympathetic to Palestine. “There’s a lot going on,” Flake said.

Flake visited Salt Lake City on Thursday to speak at the Crossroads of the World International Trade Summit, hosted by Zions Bank and World Trade Center Utah. During his remarks, he discussed Turkey’s efforts to bolster Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

Read more about Flake’s comments during the conference.

More in Politics

Health

Faith

Utah

Sports

The U.S.

The World