Jan. 30, 2016

To members and friends of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org; pcfremail@gmail.com). (We update the Web site frequently with news and commentary.  Information on how to join the PCFR, including dues (which are  very modest) and other organizational stuff may also be found there.)

Here’s our updated schedule for the rest of the year.

Speaking to us next, on  Tuesday, Feb. 16, will be David Alward, the former premier of New Brunswick and now the consul general of Canada to New England.

He’ll talk about the implications of the recent change in Ottawa under Justin Trudeau, international security issues, such big trade  matters as New England’s purchase of hydro-electric power from Canada and the idea of a common market encompassing Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

The international cities expert Greg Lindsay was to have joined us  Feb. 16 but he must go to Scandinavia then. He’ll join us Wednesday, May 11. Some members have asked about when Eric Brenner, the Hapag-Lloyd executive, will reschedule to talk to us about world shipping, including the widening of the Panama Canal and the effects on East Coast ports. The answer: We don’t know yet.

We may also reach out to someone from the Port of Boston and Quonset.

As usual, the Feb. 16 dinner will be at the Hope Club, 6 Benevolent St., Providence. Drinks start at about 6, dinner by 7, then the talk and a Q&A and the evening ends by 9.

Please let us know whether you will join us Feb. 16 by replying to pcfremail@gmail.com or, in a crunch, calling (401) 523-3957. Thanks very much to those who have already let us know. The Hope Club needs good estimates no later than the day before a PCFR dinner.

Dues and dinner cost information may be found at: thepcfr.org. Other membership information may be found there, too.

On Tuesday, March 22, comes the very distinguished Andrew A. Michta, professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and an adjunct fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (Europe Program).

He’ll talk about European politics and security, including NATO, and has a special focus on Central Europe and the Baltic States.

In 2013–2014, he was a senior fellow focusing on defense programming at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. In 2011–2013, he was a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS) and the founding director of the GMFUS Warsaw office.

He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. 

Columbia Prof. Morris Rossabi, who had been skedded for March and is one of the world’s greatest experts on Central Asia,  is  being rescheduled to September or October.

We have asked him to focus on Mongolia, whose ability to become a real democracy stuck between the great expansionist police states of China and Russia, has long fascinated us.

On Tuesday, April 12, celebrated author, TV documentary maker and former foreign correspondent Hedrick Smith is scheduled to join us; he’ll talk about Russia, and the current state of America, too.

On Wednesday May 11, comes the aforementioned internationally known expert on cities around the world, Greg Lindsay.

Look at:

http://www.amazon.com/Aerotropolis-Way-Well-Live-Next/dp/0374100195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279805811&sr=8-1

He is a contributing writer for Fast Company, author of the forthcoming book Engineering Serendipity, and co-author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next. He is also a senior fellow of the New Cities Foundation — where he leads the Connected Mobility Initiative — a non-resident senior fellow of The Atlantic Council’s Strategic Foresight Initiative, a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, and a senior fellow of the World Policy Institute

Theodore Sedgwick, former U.S. ambassador to Slovakia,  who had been skedded for May, is rescheduling to September. (We take July and August off.)

On Tuesday, June 7, Michael Soussan, former UN whistleblower; acclaimed author; widely published journalist; NYU writing professor, and women's rights advocate, will speak. His satirical memoir about global corruption,  Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course In International Diplomacy (Nation Books / Perseus) is being adapted  for a feature film, starring Ben Kingsley and Josh Hutcherson.

He will speak about the subject of his next book TRUTH TO POWER: how great minds changed the world. A brief history of thought leadership.Ca

Suggestions are appreciated.

We look forward to seeing you.