At PCFR, novelist physician, coastal erosion, Antarctica, Iranian quandaries, Italian populism, God and geopolitics
The jumbled downtown of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, where writer/public-health leader Michael Fine, M.D., worked
A Liberian boy cuts sugar cane
The next dinner of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org; pcfremail@gmail.com) comes on Wednesday, Jan. 8, with Michael Fine, M.D., the speaker. He'll talk about his novel Abundance, set in West Africa, and the challenges of providing health care in the developing world. He’s also a short story writer and essayist.
Dr. Fine has been an advocate for communities, health-care reform and the care of under-served populations worldwide for 40 years. He is a former director of the Rhode Island Department of health.
His career as a community organizer and family physician has led him to some of the poorest places in the United States, as well as dangerous, war-ravaged communities in third-world countries. He is a former director of the Rhode Island Department of health.
Please let us know if you're coming to the Jan. 8 event by registering on our Web site, thepcfr.org, or emailing us at pcfremail@gmail.com. You may also call (401) 523-3957.
Please go to thepcfr.org, or email to pcfremail@gmail.com or call (401) 523-3957 for information on how to join the PCFR. (It’s very simple.)
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And for the rest of the PCFR season, subject to the vagaries of weather, flu epidemics and so on:
On Wednesday, Feb. 5, we will welcome Cornelia Dean, book author, science writer and former science editor of The New York and internationally known expert on coastal conditions. She’ll talk how rising seas threaten coastal cities around the world and what they can do about it.
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On March 18 comes Stephen Wellmeier, managing director of Poseidon Expeditions. He’ll talk about the future of adventure travel and especially about Antarctica, and its strange legal status.
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News to come about an early-April speaker
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On Wednesday, April 29, comes Trita Parsi, founder and current president of the National Iranian American Council, author of Treacherous Alliance and A Single Roll of the Dice. He regularly writes articles and appears on TV to comment on foreign policy. He, of course, has a lot to say about U.S. Iranian relations.
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On Wednesday, May 6, we’ll welcome Serenella Sferza, a political scientist and co-director of the program on Italy at MIT’s Center for International Studies, who will talk about the rise of right-wing populism and other developments in her native home of Italy.
She has taught at several U.S. and European universities, and published numerous articles on European politics. Serenella's an affiliate at the Harvard De Gunzburg Center for European Studies and holds the title of Cavaliere of the Ordine della Stella d'Italia conferred by decree of the President of the Republic for the preservation and promotion of national prestige abroad.
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On Wednesday, June 10, the speaker will be Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou, who directs the Initiative on Religion, Law, and Diplomacy, and is visiting associate professor of conflict resolution, at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She titles her talk "God, Soft Power, and Geopolitics: Religion as a Tool for Conflict Prevention/Generation". She was originally scheduled for Dec. 5 but had to postpone because of illness.
PCFR's exciting fall lineup
The Providence Committee on Foreign Relations
The Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org) was established in 1928 as one in a network of committees set up across the nation under the aegis of The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The PCFR is an independent, 501(c)7 non-profit, private membership organization and remains faithful to its original founding mission to inform citizens about their world. Membership information is available at:
thepcfr.org
The speakers’ talks and the question and answer period following are not for attribution, unless the speaker specifically requests otherwise. Thus, we look for, and usually get, vigorous discussion.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Fred Zilian: The Good Citizen and American Civilization
26 Sep 2018 6:00 PM
The Hope Club, 6 Benevolent Street, Providence, RI 02906
Social Entrepreneurship, Dr. Teresa Chahine
3 Oct 2018 6:00 PM
The Hope Club, 6 Benevolent Street, Providence, RI 02906
Michael Goldfarb: Two Paths to Brexit
17 Oct 2018 6:00 PM
The Hope Club, 6 Benevolent Street, Providence, RI 02906
Geopolitics Underlying US Foreign Policy, Sarah C. M. Paine
8 Nov 2018 6:00 PM
Upcoming foreign-relations dinners
To members and friends of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org; pcfremail@gmail.com).
There might be a couple of additions to this list over the next few weeks.
To members and friends of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (pcfremail@gmail.com; thepcfr.org)
Our next speaker comes on Thursday, Feb. 23, with Carl Maccario, an expert on international security issues involving terrorists and other bad actors. He's an internationally known specialist in behavior recognition, evaluating truthfulness and detecting deception, and nonverbal communication.
He has provided behavior recognition training to virtually every part of The Department of Homeland Security and as well as to various branches of the Department of Defense entities and to foreign nations.
He’ll have some exciting visuals to show us.
Dr. Stephen Coen, director of the Mystic Aquarium, will speak on the condition of the oceans, Wednesday, March 8.
Brazilian political economistand commentator Evodio Kaltenecker willspeak on Thursday, March 16, about the crises facing that huge nation.
On Wednesday, April 5, famed French journalist, novelist and broadcaster Jean Lesieur will speak on the global order being turned upside down by the advances of dictators, the retreat of democracies and the presidency of Donald Trump, not tomention the existential crisis of the European Union.
Dr. Rand Stoneburner, M.D., the international epidemiologist, willspeak on Wednesday April 19, about world public health challenges, including Zika.
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.
Canadian general consul to speak at PCFR on Feb. 16 on hydropower for N.E., etc.
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.