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WMU offers timely talks on foreign policy issues

Jan. 26, 2010

KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University is again partnering with the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan in Grand Rapids to present timely talks on international issues in conjunction with the council's 2010 "Great Decisions Foreign Policy Lecture Series."

Locally, WMU will be offering two live lectures and one webcast on its campus in the Fetzer Center while Kalamazoo College will be offering a third program on its campus in the Light Fine Arts Center. All four events are free and open to the public.

Tuesday, Feb. 2, noon
WMU, Fetzer Center's Kirsch Auditorium

WMU will present "The Global Financial Mess--Crisis or Just a Crunch?" The speaker will be Jim Zarroli, a National Public Radio reporter who covers a wide range of economic subjects. Zarroli can be heard regularly on "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," and is a contributor to NPR's "On the Media." He has reported on the accounting scandals at Enron and WorldCom, the trials of Martha Stewart and Bernard Ebbers, and topics ranging from employment and trade to the stock market, Federal Reserve System and deregulation.

Tuesday, Feb. 16, noon
K College, Light Fine Arts Center's Dalton Theatre

Kalamazoo College will present "Using Peacebuilding Tools--Military Might Doesn't Always Do It." The speaker will be Fred Pearson, professor of political science at Wayne State University and director of its Center for Peace and Conflict Studies. The Dalton Theatre is located in the Light Fine Arts Center at the corner of Academy and Thompson streets.

Tuesday, Feb. 23, noon
WMU, Fetzer Center's Kirsch Auditorium

WMU will present an "Update on Persian Gulf Issues." The speaker will be Dr. Eric Larson, a senior policy researcher with RAND, which is a non-profit global policy think tank. Larson specializes in issues such as national security, defense planning, and irregular warfare and counterterrorism.

Monday, March 8, 6 p.m.
WMU, Fetzer Center's Kirsch Auditorium

WMU will present a webcast of "Mandarins Playing Capitalist Games." The speaker will be Dr. Scott Kennedy, director of the Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business at Indiana University. Kennedy is an associate professor of political science as well as of East Asian languages and cultures who researches business lobbying, economic policymaking, Chinese participation in global regimes and U.S.-China relations.

This year, the "Great Decisions Foreign Policy Lecture Series" offered by the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan will feature eight talks in Grand Rapids. "Great Decisions" is one of the largest foreign policy lecture series in the nation and the state's only lecture series devoted to American foreign policy issues.

Great Decisions Foreign Policy Lecture Series

The council's programs, which carry an admission fee, will be held in the Performing Arts Center at Aquinas College, near the corner of Plymouth and Robinson Road. They will take place from 6 to 7:15 p.m. over eight consecutive Mondays from Feb. 1 through March 22.

The cost per lecture at Aquinas is $7 for World Affairs Council members as well as students with IDs, and $15 for others. Package-ticket deals are available for members and nonmembers, and there is free parking close to the Performing Arts Center.

The dates and names of the eight planned talks, along with their presenters, are:

  • Feb. 1, "The Global Financial Mess-- Crisis or Just a Crunch?," NPR's Jim Zarroli.
  • Feb. 8, "Violence in the Congo--Is it Genocide?," Dr. Severine Autesserre, assistant professor of political science at Columbia University's Barnard College.
  • Feb. 15, "Using Peacebuilding Tools--Military Might Doesn't Always Do It," Dr. Fred Pearson director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University.
  • Feb. 22, "Iran, Iraq, Oil, Terrorism: The U.S. and the Persian Gulf," Dr. Eric Larson, senior policy researcher with RAND.
  • March 1, "Special Envoys for Diplomacy: Effective Tool or Stumbling Block?, " Ambassador William Harrop, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and a director of the American Academy of Diplomats.
  • March 8, "Mandarins Playing Capitalist Games," Dr. Scott Kennedy, director of the Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business at Indiana University.
  • March 15, "The New Face of Global Crime and Steps to Prevent It," Andy Arena, special agent in charge of the Detroit Office of the FBI.
  • March 22, "Russia and the 'Near Abroad': Relations with Former Soviet Republics," Ambassador Roman Popadiuk, former U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine and executive director of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Foundation.

For more information about WMU's "Great Decisions" lectures, contact Margaret von Steinen in the Haenicke Institute for Global Education at margaret.vonsteinen@wmich.edu or (269) 387-3993.

For more about the World Affairs Council or its lectures, contact Dixie Anderson, executive director, at (616) 776-1721.

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Media contact: Jeanne Baron, (269) 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu

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