PCFR and Putin; Macron update; U.S. & China to war? Backstabbers
Russia troops march in 2015 military parade in Moscow.
To members and friends of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org; pcfremail@gmail.com).
For news about non-PCFR local events and an article or two that caught our eyes, please go to the bottom of this memo.
Meanwhile, with Russian intrusion into American politics and government such an issue, we thought it would a good idea to recruit a Russia expert to start off our season. Thus we have the distinguished Prof. David R. Stone of the U.S. Naval War College lined up for Wednesday, Sept. 13.
He'll explain Putin and the new Russian nationalism and how it affects us.
Professor Stone received his B.A. in history and mathematics from Wabash College and his Ph.D in history from Yale University. He has taught at Hamilton College and at Kansas State University, where he served as director of the Institute for Military History. He has also been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. His first book Hammer and Rifle: The Militarization of the Soviet Union, 1926-1933 (2000) won the Shulman Prize of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies and the Best First Book Prize of the Historical Society. He has also published A Military History of Russia: From Ivan the Terrible to the War in Chechnya (2006), and The Russian Army in the Great War: The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 (2015). He also edited The Soviet Union at War, 1941-1945 (2010). He is the author of several dozen articles and book chapters on Russian / Soviet military history and foreign policy.
The next dinner after that will be with 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, on Wednesday, Sept. 27. By the way, he went to school with French President Macron.
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.
In January, at a date to be announced, we’ll have Victoria Bruce, author of Sellout: How Washington Gave Away America's Technological Soul, and One Man's Fight to Bring It Home. This is about, among other things, China’s monopolization of rare earths, which are essential in electronics.
On Wednesday, Feb. 21, we'll have Dan Strechay, the U.S. representative for outreach and engagement at the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), who talk about the massive deforestation and socio-economic effects associated with producing palm oil in the Developing World and what to do about them.
Prior to joining the RSPO, he was the senior manager for Sustainability Communications for PepsiCo.
The dates of the dinners for the rest of the season to be announced.
Suggestions for speakers and topics are always much appreciated. We’re all in this together.
In other news:
For movies and other upcoming events about Brazil at Brown’s Watson Institute, see:
http://watson.brown.edu/events/series/brazil-initiative
Hear Edward Luce talk about the decline of Western liberalism:
http://watson.brown.edu/events/2017/edward-luce-retreat-western-liberalism
Former Timor Leste President Xanana Gusmao will speak on Monday, Sept. 18 at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University, Newport. The event will begin at 11 A. M.
Timor Leste itself is at a crossroads. The clock is winding down on a novel test of dispute resolution, a first-time effort under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to settle a maritime boundary dispute not through arbitration, but through mediation. The principals in this dispute are the young democracy of Timor-Leste and its neighbor, Australia.
Meanwhile, scary North Korean news. See:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2017/sep/03/north-korea-nuclear-test-south-korea-yohap-kim-jong-un-live
President Macron may actually succeed in fixing French labor law. See:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/emmanuel-macron-scores-a-win-where-presidents-failed-to-overhaul-frances-labor-laws/2017/09/01/049c9222-8f14-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html?utm_term=.40828bb11738
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!
Expert on international corruption speaks June 7 at PCFR; expert on world shipping June 22
June 5, 2016
To members and friends of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org; pcfremail@gmail.com).
Please see query about June 22 dinner below.
Our next meeting comes on Tuesday, June 7, with Michael Soussan, author and former U.N. whistleblower.
He will talk about global corruption as the driving force behind the rise in extremism and instability in the world today.
Mr. Soussan, formerly at CNN and the UN and the NYU Center for Global Affairs, has commented on international Affairs for CNN, The BBC, NPR, The New York Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, among others. He is the author of Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course In International Affairs, soon to be a movie starring Ben Kingsley, Theo James and Catherine Bisset.
As usual, the 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. We will make all possible efforts short of physical violence (psychic violence is allowed) to ensure that the talk ends with plenty of time left for questions and get people out by 9.
Please let us know whether you will join us June 7 by replying to pcfremail@gmail.com.
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. (A member asked if (the modest) dues and dinner fees for this nonprofit educational and civic membership organization are deductible for business purposes. In some cases. Ask your tax adviser.)
Our last speaker of the season will be Evan Matthews, a key thought leader at the North Atlantic Ports Association and director of the Port of Davisville. He will talk to us on Wednesday, June 22, on changes in world shipping, including the widening of the Panama Canal and other changes of huge interest to New England ports, especially Quonset/Davisville. Since this will be in some part about Narragansett Bay, it’s a good summery topic to end the season with.
We’d greatly appreciate knowing soon about how many people will come to the June 22 dinner.
We’ll be sending a list of some new-season speakers in the next few weeks. Topics will probably includethe role of Germany in the E.U.; the mess in Brazil; Central Europe facing right-wing populism and an aggressive Russia; Mongolia; the Zika virus; ocean fishing, the Silk Road Project; Japan and God knows what other topics current history might throw at us.
Suggestions are appreciated.
We look forward to seeing you.
At PCFR: Cities, "backstabbers'' and world shipping/ports
April 12, 2016
This evening we hear Hedrick Smith at the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org) dinner.
The next speaker for the PCFR comes Wednesday, May 11, with Greg Lindsay, a famed writer on cities and transportation around the world.
Look at:
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.
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.
Evan Matthews, a key thought leader at the North Atlantic Ports Association and director of the Port of Davisville, has very kindly offered to talk to us on Wednesday, June 22, on changes in world shipping, including the widening of the Panama Canal and other changes of huge interest to New England ports.
We plan to get experts on the Zika virus, ocean fishing and the geopolitical effects of global warming in the next season. Expert on Central Asia Morris Rossabi and former Ambassador to Slovakia Tod Sedgwick will be among those speaking in that season, which starts after Labor Day.
@ThePCFR