Issue Forums, Invited Speakers, and other Related Events
September 25: Wendy Sherman
Topic: The Costs of War
12:30pm-1:45pm, Bulldog Theater, Olmsted Center
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Wendy R. Sherman brings extensive public and private sector executive-level management experience to her role as a Principal of The Albright Group LLC, a global strategy firm, and of Albright Capital Management LLC, an investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets. Ambassador Sherman served as Counselor and chief troubleshooter for the State Department, as well as Special Advisor to President Clinton and Policy Coordinator on North Korea. She is a recognized expert on national security issues and serves as a frequent analyst in major news outlets. She serves on the Board of Directors of Oxfam America and the Board of Advisors for the Center for a New American Security and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group. She is also a member of the US-India Strategic Dialogue and a regular participant of the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue.
September 25: Nicholas Kristof
Topic: Why Trouble in Darfur and Other Parts of the World Matter To Us
7:30 pm, Knapp Center
Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lecture
This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30pm. Reception and book signing to follow.
Nicholas Kristof is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. He joined the paper in 1984, initially covering economics and serving as a correspondent in Los Angeles and as bureau chief in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo. Kristof has lived on four continents, reported on six, and has traveled to 120 countries, all 50 states, every Chinese province and every main Japanese island. He is one of few Americans to be at least a two-time visitor to every member of the Axis of Evil.
In 1990, Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, also a Times journalist, became the first married couple to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, winning for their coverage of China's Tiananmen Square democracy movement. Kristof won a second Pulitzer in 2006 for commentary.
October 2: Greg Thielmann and Lawrence J. Korb
Topic: Defense, Intelligence and Terrorism
12:30pm-1:45pm, Bulldog Theater, Olmsted Center
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Before his resignation shortly before the start of the Iraq war, Greg Thielmann was the acting director of the Strategic, Proliferation, and Military Affairs Office in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department. One of his assigned tasks was to deliver an intelligence briefing to the then acting Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, John R. Bolton. Before his appointment with the State Department, Greg Thielmann served in the U.S. Foreign Service for some 25 years, worked for Congressman John Culver, and was a graduate of the prestigious Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs at Princeton.
Lawrence J. Korb served as Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1981 to 1985. Prior to his appointment to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Korb was an advisor to the Reagan-Bush committee in 1980, following a stint as a professor of management at the US Naval War College and serving as an administrator for the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Lawrence Korb has earned an MA from St. John's University and a PhD from SUNY Albany and served in the US Navy from 1962 to 1966.
October 9: Thomas Lairson
Topic: Considering the Endgame in Iraq
12:30pm-1:45pm, Bulldog Theater, Olmsted Center
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Thomas Lairson a Professor of Political Science, the Gelhman Professor of International Business, and Director of International Studies Center at Rollins College. He teaches courses in Asian Business, Global E-Business, and Asian political economy. Dr. Lairson received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Kentucky. He also holds a Bachelor in Science (BS) in Economics from the University of Kentucky. He is particularly interested in technology and Asian business environments. In addition, Dr. Lairson was the first Ford Foundation Professor of International Relations at the Institute for International Relations in Hanoi, Vietnam.
October 16: Former U.S. Congressional Representative James A. Leach (R, IA
Topic: U.S. Relations with China
12:30pm-1:45pm, Meredith Hall, Room 101
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Former Congressman Leach served in Congress from 1977 to 2007, representing Iowa’s 1st and 2nd congressional districts. Congressman Leach received his B.A. from Princeton University before studying at John Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies and the London School of Economics. He is currently the John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs and Co. Visiting Professor of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.
October 17: Dr. Natalie Hahn
Topic: Addressing Hunger, Poverty and Nutrition Through Global Agriculture
3:30pm-4:30pm, Bulldog Theater, Olmsted Center
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Dr. Natalie D. Hahn has 33 years of experience in international development, primarily with the United Nations System. She designed non-formal educational programs for rural youth, particularly young women, with the Food and Agricultural Organization and introduced women and banking initiatives for the International Fund for Agricultural Development. At the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), she introduced 11 improved food crops and new processing techniques to rural women in Nigeria.
She served as the UNICEF Representative to Malawi during the transition to democracy where the priority was on HIV/AIDS, water/sanitation and free primary education. At the UNICEF Headquarters in New York, she was the Deputy Director of the UNICEF Programme Funding Office and assisted with World Bank collaboration.
Most recently, she was the Senior Private Sector Advisor at the UN Fund for International Partnerships. She was the key organizer for UN conferences with the private sector on remittances, water/sanitation and tapping talents of nationals living abroad for Information Communication Technologies initiatives in the Caribbean.
October 23: Samuel W. Lewis
Topic: America’ Role in the Middle East
12:30pm-1:45pm, Bulldog Theater, Olmsted Center
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Samuel W. Lewis, a graduate of Yale and Johns Hopkins Universities, spent 31 years as a career diplomat prior to his most recent government service as Director of the Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff in 1993 and 1994. For the five years which preceded his return to the State Department, he had been the first President and CEO of the newly created United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C.
Lewis’ Foreign Service career included tours of duty in Italy, Brazil, Afghanistan, Israel and Washington - where he held such senior posts as Ambassador to Israel for eight tumultuous years under Presidents Carter and Reagan from 1977 to 1985, a period which spanned negotiation of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and the 1982 Lebanon War, and as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, Senior Staff Member for Latin America at the National Security Council, Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State, Deputy Director of the Policy Planning Staff under Secretary Kissenger, and Charge d’affaires in Afghanistan.
Since retiring from the Foreign Service in 1985, Lewis has been closely affiliated with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as Counselor and now as a senior advisor; with the Brookings Institution, the Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute, and with research centers at Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Visiting Professor of International Relations at Hamilton College during the 1995 and 1997 academic years, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in 1996, and Professorial Lecturer at Johns Hopkins(SAIS) in 2005. He currently serves as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Israel Policy Forum; as Board member of the American Academy of Diplomacy, Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Partners for Democratic Change and Search for Common Ground in the Middle East; and has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Middle East Institute, the United Nations Association, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, the Institute of World Affairs, and many other public service and environmental organizations.
October 30: Craig Cohen
Topic: Smart Power and Stability in Pakistan
12:30pm-1:45pm, Bulldog Theater, Olmsted Center
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Craig Cohen is deputy chief of staff at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a fellow in its Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project of the International Security Program. He is also an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School and a co-director of the CSIS Commission on Smart Power—an initiative intended to help rebuild the civilian instruments of national power and develop an integrated strategy for balancing these “soft” tools with the use of “hard” military force. At the same time, he is directing research on U.S. policy toward Pakistan, with a focus on the role aid plays in addressing conflict, instability, and growing extremism. He is author of the forthcoming CSIS report When $10 Billion Is Not Enough: Rethinking U.S. Strategy toward Pakistan.
Previously, he managed a working group on monitoring and evaluation in post-conflict settings and authored the report Measuring Progress in Reconstruction and Stabilization Operations (U.S. Institute of Peace, April 2006). Prior to joining CSIS, he worked with the United Nations and nongovernmental organizations in Rwanda, Azerbaijan, Malawi, and the former Yugoslavia. Cohen received a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and an undergraduate degree from Duke University.
November 5: Rhoda Howard-Hassmann
Topic: Reparations to Africa for the Slave Trade
7:30pm-9:00pm, Sheslow Auditorium
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Rhoda Howard-Hassmann is a Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights at Wilfrid Laurier University, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from McGill University (1976). Dr. Howard-Hassmann's most recent volume, Compassionate Canadians: Civic Leaders Discuss Human Rights (2003) was named 2004 Outstanding Book by the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association. In 2006, she was named the first Distinguished Professor of Human Rights by the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association.
November 6: Arvind Dandekar and Carl Czarnik
Topic: The U.S. in the Global Economy
12:30pm-1:45pm, Bulldog Theater, Olmsted Center
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Arvind Dandekar is the CEO/President of Fastek International located in Hiawatha, Iowa. Fastek specializes in software engineering and automated testing systems. He previously worked for Rockwell International and serves on the Iowa Department of Economic Development Board.
Carl Czarnik is the Vice President of Gerdau Ameristeel, Central Region. Gerdau Ameristeel is the fourth largest overall steel company in North America and own operations in Wilton, Iowa.
November 13: Peter W. Soverel
Topic: Energy and Climate Change
12:30pm-1:45pm, Olin Hall, Room 101
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Peter Soverel is the CEO and President of The Wild Salmon Center based in Washington state. A retired U.S. Navy captain, Mr. Soverel also served on NATO and White House staff.
November 27: Mary J.R. Gilchrist and Michael Schoenbaum
Topic: Plagues and Pandemics: From the Black Death in the Middle Ages to Bird Flu in the Age of Science
12:30pm-1:45pm, Bulldog Theater, Olmsted Center
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Mary J. Gilchrist earned her Ph.D. at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Following years of teaching and directing an array of health laboratories, Dr. Gilchrist currently is Director of the Massachusetts State Laboratory Institute. Her areas of expertise lie in Zoonotic Infections, Pandemic Influenza, and Bioterrorism Response. She has testified four times before committees of the U.S. Congress concerning bioterrorism response, antibiotic resistance and emerging infections. She has provided guidance to the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine numerous times, most recently serving on a committee to evaluate laboratory preparedness for pandemic influenza around the world.
Michael Schoenbaum has served as a Senior Economist at the RAND Corporation in Washington since 1997. Prior to this position Dr. Schoenbaum spent two years at California- Berkley as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in health policy. He studied at the University of Michigan and earned his PhD in Economics in 1995.
December 11: Dennis Ross
Topic: Statecraft: How to Restore America’s Standing in the World
7:00pm-9:00pm, Bulldog Auditorium, Olmsted Center
Speaker Series: Debating America’s Role in the World
Sponsors: Drake University Center for Global Citizenship and the Iowa National Security Network
This series is free and open to the public. See schedule for specific times and dates. The events listed are subject to change. For up-to-date information, visit: http://www.drake.edu/international/cgc/eventsf07.php
Ambassador Dennis Ross is The Washington Institute's counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow. For more than twelve years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process and dealing directly with the parties in negotiations. A highly skilled diplomat, Ambassador Ross was U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He was instrumental in assisting Israelis and Palestinians to reach the 1995 Interim Agreement; he also successfully brokered the 1997 Hebron Accord, facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, and intensively worked to bring Israel and Syria together.