The future of ocean fishing
Fisherman's Memorial in Gloucester, Mass.
To members and friends of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (pcfremail@gmail.com; thepcfr.org).
Our next meeting comes Wednesday, May 17, with James E. Griffin, an expert on the global food sector. He's a professor of culinary studies at Johnson & Wales University and an international business consultant. He's particularly well known for his knowledge of international food sourcing and sustainability.
Professor Griffin will focus in his talk on seafood sustainability, looking at it with New England, national and international perspectives. It will be based on international research he and his colleagues have conducted in recent years.
You might to look at this New York Times story about rapacious Chinese fishing:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/30/world/asia/chinas-appetite-pushes-fisheries-to-the-brink.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Let us know whether you're coming by sending a note to:
pcfremail@gmail.com
Fishing out all the seas' fish? North Korean conflict; happy Silk Road
To members and friends of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (pcfremail@gmail.com; thepcfr.org).
Our next meeting comes Wednesday, May 17, with James E. Griffin, an expert on the global food sector. He's a professor of culinary studies at Johnson & Wales University and an international business consultant. He's particularly well known for his knowledge of global food sourcing and sustainability.
Professor Griffin will focus in his talk on seafood sustainability, looking at it with New England, national and international perspectives. It will be based on international research he and his colleagues have conducted in recent years.
You might to look at this New York Times story about rapacious Chinese overfishing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/30/world/asia/chinas-appetite-pushes-fisheries-to-the-brink.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
On Thursday, June 1, comes Terence Roehrig, of the U.S. Naval War College, where he is a professor of National Security Affairs, the Director of the Asia-Pacific Studies Group, and teaches in the Security Strategies sub-course. He has been a Research Fellow at the Kennedy School at Harvard University in the International Security Program and the Project on Managing the Atom and a past President of the Association of Korean Political Studies.
Joining us on Wednesday, June 14, will be Laura Freid, who has been serving as CEO of the Silk Road Project, founded and chaired by famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, promoting collaboration among artists and institutions and studying the ebb and flow of ideas across nations and time. The project was first inspired by the cultural traditions of the historical Silk Road. Ms. Freid was recently named president of the Maine College of Art. There will be visuals and perhaps music.
We are already working on the fall season. There may be an expert on Mexico (perhaps Jorge Castenada) or Putin’s foreign policy (perhaps Dmitri Trenin) coming to speak early in September. Will advise.
Already scheduled is French Consul General Valery Freland, who will talk about how the French presidential-election outcome might change that nation’s foreign policy and the Western Alliance. He’ll speak on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
Then on Wednesday, Oct. 11, Graham Allison, who has been running Harvard’s Belfer Institute, will talk about, among other things, Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea. He'll talk about his new book Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?
On Wednesday, Nov. 1, comes Michael Soussan, the writer and skeptic about the United Nations. He’s the author of, among other things, Backstabbing for Beginners, about his experiences in Iraq, which is being made into a movie starring Ben Kingsley.
Meanwhile, we’re trying to keep some flexibility to respond to events. Please send along ideas.
How sustainable are our seafood supplies?
Irish fishing trawler.
To members and friends of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (pcfremail@gmail.com; thepcfr.org).
Our next meeting comes Wednesday, May 17, with James E. Griffin, an expert on the global food sector. He's a professor of culinary studies at Johnson & Wales University and an international business consultant. He's particularly well known for his knowledge of global food sourcing and sustainability.
Professor Griffin will focus in his talk on seafood sustainability, looking at it with New England, national and international perspectives. It will be based on international research he and his colleagues have conducted in recent years.
Brexit expert to lead off Providence Committee on Foreign Relations season
To members and friends of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org; pcfremail@gmail.com):
Herewith is part of the PCFR’s annual Summer Letter. Please note that there are a few updates below.
We are heading into our 89th season, which is a pretty impressive number.
One of our members says that the PCFR dinner meetings are “the best party in town.’’ That’s a competitive field, of course, but we think that we can accurately say that attendees have a very good time, while learning a bit more about the world.
Our 2015-2016 season speakers included:
Evan Matthews, director of the Port of Davisville, on international shipping changes, particularly in the context of the expansion of the Panama Canal.
Greg Lindsay, writer, futurist and expert on cities around the world and their relationship to airports.
Hedrick Smith, PBS documentary maker, former star foreign correspondent.
David Alward, Canadian general consul.
Allan Cytryn, international cybersecurity expert.
Andrew Michta, U.S, Naval War College expert on Russia and NATO.
Rima Salah, High U.N. humanitarian-relief official.
Eduardo Mestre, Cuban-American civic leader and international banker.
Paul Glader, author, former Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent and expert on Germany.
Scott Shane, New York Times correspondent, book author and expert on terrorism.
Mark Blyth, our first speaker, whom some of you have heard on NPR commenting on Brexit, will talk on Wednesday, Sept. 14, about Europe after Brexit.
Mark Blyth is Eastman Professor of Political Economy andProfessor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs at Brown.
He is an internationally celebrated political economist whose research focuses upon how uncertainty and randomness affect complex systems, particularly economic systems, and why people continue to believe stupid economic ideas despite buckets of evidence to the contrary. He is the author of several books, including Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Oxford University Press 2013, and The Future of the Euro (with Matthias Matthijs) (Oxford University Press 2015).
Coming fast after that will be:
Prof. Morris Rossabi, probably the world’s greatest expert on Central Asia and particularly Mongolia: a democracy stuck between the police states of Russia and China, Sept. 21. How does this faraway country do it? He’ll be speaking to us soon after returning from Mongolia and other points in Asia.
Then:
Former U.S. Ambassador to Slovakia Tod Sedgwick, on thetense situation in Central Europe, Oct. 5.
Meanwhile, the World Affairs Council of Rhode Island and the PCFR are preparing a forum for Oct. 20 at the Hope Club on the foreign-policy visions and challenges of the U.S. presidential candidates. Stay tuned.
Naval War College Prof. James Holmes on the geopolitics of global warming, Nov. 15.
German General Consul Ralf Horlemann on the role of Germany in an E.U. without the U.K and with an aggressive Russia pressing in from the east, Dec. 14.
International epidemiologist Rand Stoneburner, M.D., on Zika and other burgeoning threats to world health, Jan. 18.
Indian Admiral Nirmal Verma, on military and geopolitical issues in South and Southeast Asia, Feb. 15.
Dr. Stephen Coen, director of the Mystic Aquarium, on the condition of the oceans, March 8.
Brazilian political economist and commentator Evodio Kaltenecker on April 5 to talk about the crises facing that huge nation.
James E. Griffin, an expert on ocean fishing and other aspects of the global food sector, will speak to us on Wednesday, May 17.
Joining us on Wednesday, June 14, will be Laura Freid, CEO of the Silk Road Project, founded and chaired by famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma in 1998, promoting collaboration among artists and institutions and studying the ebb and flow of ideas across nations and time. The project was first inspired by the cultural traditions of the historical Silk Road.
Meanwhile, we’re trying to keep some flexibility to respond to events. Everything in human affairs is tentative. ”We make plans and God laughs….’’
We are talking with our friend Michael Soussan to come to speak about the U.N., diplomacy, Iraq and his book Backstabbing for Beginners, now being made into a major movie and with an international travel expert (to give us business- and pleasure-travel advice) in world that sometimes seems to be imploding.
Suggestions and contacts are always appreciated!