The World Affairs Council of Greater Reading

Dr. Shreeyash Palshikar
2018-01-09 19:00 (America/New_York) | PA
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Dangerous Neighborhood: A Historical Background of the India-Pakistan Tensions
Sponsored by Weik Capital Management
Dr. Shreeyash Palshikar is an Assistant Professor of History at Albright College. He received his Ph.D. from The University of Chicago, where he received a Fulbright fellowship to research in India. He also holds a B.A. from Amherst College, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University. Before coming to Albright two years ago, he served in the intelligence community as a South Asia political analyst.
Dr. Palshikar works on language politics and democracy in South Asia, with a focus on modern India. He is currently completing a manuscript analyzing how formation of linguistic states relates to the development of India’s democracy with a special focus on the area around Bombay/Mumbai city. He has previously analyzed how vernacular propaganda helped create emotional appeal for an opposition political coalition, and revealed how a contemporary political party appropriated rhetoric of a 1950s regional-linguistic movement. He teaches courses on World History, South and East Asian History and the global history of magic

Dr. Paul Esqueda
2017-12-12 19:00 | PA
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Venezuela – Derailed Democracy?
Also reference the December 18, 2017 New York Times article, “Venezuela – Overwhelmed by malenution, mortality of children.”
Dr. Paul D. Esqueda is the Sr. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Penn State Berks and a Professor of Engineering. His areas of interest are project management, negotiations, and operations management. He has a particular interest in developing negotiation case studies. For the last 30 years, Esqueda has been primarily dedicated to administration in academic institutions. Past positions include Division Head of Engineering, Business, and Computing at Penn State Berks; Dean of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Administration (IESA) in Caracas, Venezuela and President of the Engineering Research Institute also in Caracas. Esqueda served as a consultant for the European Union to review the European Union Latin American Scholarship Program from 2003-2008. He was part of a 20 expert panel (10 from Europe and 10 from Latin America) that met every year in Brussels to audit the program and advise the EU on the development of the program.

Philip J. (P.J.) Crowley
2017-11-07 19:00 | PA
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Red Line: Foreign Policy in a Time of Fractured Politics and Failing States
Sponsored by Mountain Springs Restaurant and Captains Cove Bar and Lounge
In this book, RedLine -Foreign Policy in a Time of Fractured Politics and Failing States, former Deputy Secretary of State P. J. Crowley, one of America’s most insightful national security commentators, unpacks the legacy of American triumphs and failures in Iraq . He argues that presidents have fallen victim to the Iraq Syndrome—the disconnect between politics, policy, strategy, and narrative—that has hampered America’s foreign policy in the Middle East and hotspots throughout the world. In order to maintain America’s global leadership role, Crowley argues that the next president must realign American’s national security politics, policies, strategies, and narrative for the long term.
Philip J. (P.J.) Crowley is a Professor of Practice and Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication at The George Washington University, where he currently teaches courses on public diplomacy and crisis communications. P.J. appears frequently as a national security commentator on national and global television networks. His opinion pieces have been published in a wide range of print and on-line outlets, including The Washington Post, The Guardian and the BBC.
He served as the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Spokesman for the U.S. Department of State between 2009 and 2011 under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was the primary U.S. government interlocutor with major media regarding the impact of the release of classified diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks. He resigned from that position after making public comments critical of the government’s pre-trial treatment of Private First Class Bradley/Chelsea Manning. Atlantic Magazine named him as one of 21 Brave Thinkers in 2011.
After leaving the State Department, P.J. held the 2011-2012 Omar Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law and School of Public Affairs, Dickinson College and the Army War College. While there, he authored The Rise of Transparency and Decline of Secrecy in the Age of Global and Social Media for the Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs.
Before joining the Obama administration, P.J. was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, with a particular focus on homeland security in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. He authored a number of detailed analyses on security issues, including Safe at Home, a national security strategy to protect the American homeland, improve national preparedness and rebuild the U.S. standing in the world. He remains engaged on these issues as a member of the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Group. His most recent analysis in this area is Homeland Security and the Post-9/11 Era, published by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.
P.J. is a retired Air Force colonel and is a veteran of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1991. He served on the National Security Council staff at the White House as a special assistant to President Clinton and deputy press secretary. He deployed to NATO Headquarters in Brussels during the 1999 Kosovo crisis to support then NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, helping to develop a strategic communication capability in support of the NATO campaign.

Dr. Bonnie Rohde
2017-10-17 20:00 | PA
NAFTA and Asia Trade
Dr. Bonnie Rohde is a business instructor at Albright College. She is a Business Educator & Data Scientist in business intelligence, operations management, entrepreneurship and globalization. Rohde has more than 20 years experience in business planning, information systems and telecommunications prior to joining Albright in 2006.

Ron Granieri
2017-10-10 20:00 | PA, United States
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For Video playback, Part 2, click
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Europe: Old Continent, New Challenges-Post Election EU
Sponsored by Sam and Rosie DeWald
Ron Granieri is the Executive Director of Foreign Policy Research Institute’s (FPRI) Center for the Study of America and the West, Editor of the Center’s E-publication The American Review of Books, Blogs, and Bull, and Host of Geopolitics with Granieri, a monthly series of events for FPRI Members. He is a specialist in Contemporary German and International History with degrees from both Harvard and the University of Chicago. He is the recipient of a Federal Chancellor Scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and is a member in the American Council on Germany’s Young Leader Program. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Syracuse University, Furman University, and the University of Tubingen. He is the author of The Ambivalent Alliance: Konrad Adenauer, the CDU/CSU, and the West, 1949-1966 (Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books, 2003), and is currently completing a book entitled: The Fall and Rise of German Christian Democracy, From Detente to Reunification, for Oxford University Press.

Dr. Randall Newnham
2017-09-19 20:00 | PA
Brexit Questions
Dr.Randall Newnham is an Associate Professor of Political Science atPenn State Berks. His research focuses on the role of the economic aid and sanctions as foreign policy tools. Recent articles include Coalition of the Bribed and Bullied? US Economic Linkage and the Iraq War Coalition and Nukes for Sale Cheap? Purchasing Peace with North Korea (both in International Studies Perspectives, 2004 and 2008). He has a special interest in Germany, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. This is seen in his book, Deutsche Mark Diplomacy: Positive Economic Sanctions in German-Russian Relations (PSU Press, 2002), and several recent articles on German, Polish, and Russian foreign policy. Dr. Newnham teaches introductory courses in International Relations, Comparative Politics, and American Government. He also teaches advanced courses on “The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union” and International Political Economy as part of PSU Berks’ four-year Global Studies degree.

Dr. David Titley, Rear Admiral (Ret.)
2017-09-12 20:00 | PA, United States
Climate Change Erodes National Security
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Dr. David Titley currently is Professor of Practice in the Department of Meteorology at the Pennsylvania State University, and founding Director of Penn State’s Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk. The Center helps organizations and citizens prosper and succeed in today’s and tomorrow’s weather and climate environment by taking advantage of all the skill in weather and climate forecasts.
Dr. David Titley served as a naval officer for 32 years and rose to the rank of Rear Admiral. Dr. Titley’s career included duties as commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command; oceanographer and navigator of the Navy; and deputy assistant chief of naval operations for information dominance. He also served as senior military assistant for the director, Office of Net Assessment in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
While serving in the Pentagon, Dr. Titley initiated and led the U.S. Navy’s Task Force on Climate Change. After retiring from the Navy, Dr. Titley served as the Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for Operations, the chief operating officer position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Dr. Titley serves on numerous advisory boards and National Academies of Science committees, including the CNA Military Advisory Board, the Center for Climate and Security and the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Dr. Titley is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Ambassador Charles Ray
2017-06-13 20:00 | PA
The Need for a Stronger Diplomatic Force – American Diplomacy at Risk
Charles A. Ray is a retired Foreign Service Officer who served 30 years in the US Foreign Service, and before that, 20 years in the US Army. During his army service, including two tours in Vietnam, he served in Military Intelligence, Special Operations, and Public Affairs, with tours of duty in Germany, Korea, Vietnam, and Panama, as well as posts throughout the U.S., and retired in 1982 with the rank of Major.
During 30 years in the Foreign Service, he was posted to China, Thailand, Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Zimbabwe. His overseas assignments included service as Deputy Chief of Mission in Sierra Leone during that country’s transition to democratic rule, he was the first US Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and was ambassador to Cambodia and Zimbabwe. From 2006 to 2009, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs and Director of the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office.
Since retirement from public service, he has been a full time freelance writer and consultant, and is the author of more than 60 books of fiction and non-fiction, including three books on leadership. He is a frequent blogger and contributor to several Internet news and content sites. Ray is also a photographer and artist, and has worked as a journalist and artist for a number of publications in the US and abroad. During the late 70s he was editorial cartoonist for the Spring Lake (NC) News, a weekly newspaper near Fort Bragg, NC. He was the first chairman of the American Foreign Service Association’s Professionalism and Ethics Committee. He runs a workshop on professional writing for Rangel Scholars at Howard University each summer, and has lectured at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of Johns Hopkins University, speaking on global hotspots and the History of American Diplomacy. He has also done consulting work for the Department of Defense on personnel recovery (working with the Angel Thunder PR exercise) and as an interagency subject matter expert during army unit pre-deployment training.
Ray is a member of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), the Association of Black American Ambassadors, and the American Academy of Diplomacy.
A native of Texas, Ray now makes his home in North Potomac, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC.

Dr. Jose Esparza
2017-05-09 20:00 | PA
The Global Challenge of Confronting Emerging Epidemics: From AIDS to Zika, and Beyond

José Esparza is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is also the current President of the Global Virus Network (2016). From 2004 to 2014 he was Senior Advisor on HIV Vaccines and Vaccines at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, WA. From 1986 to 2004 he was with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva, Switzerland, were he coordinated an international effort to develop HIV vaccines. From 1974 to 1985 he worked at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC), becoming Professor of Virology and Chairman of Microbiology and Cell Biology. Esparza received his MD degree in Venezuela in 1968 and a PhD in Virology and Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, in 1974. He has published over 185 scientific articles in medical virology, vaccinology and HIV/AIDS. He is a member of the Venezuelan Academy of Medicine and serves in several international scientific advisory boards. He is also a vaccine consultant for several companies.

David Satter
2017-04-06 20:00 | PA
Putin and Russian Corruption
Satter was born in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Chicago and from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. From 1976 to 1982, he was the Moscow correspondent of the Financial Times of London. He then became a special correspondent on Soviet affairs of The Wall Street Journal. He is currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a fellow of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He has been a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a visiting professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In the 1990s, Satter wrote extensively about post-Soviet Russia. In an article in The Wall Street Journal Europe, April 2, 1997, he wrote: “When the Soviet Union fell… the moral impulse motivating the democratic movement had to become the basis of Russia’s political practices. The tragedy of the present situation is that Russian gangsters are cutting off this development before it has a chance to take root.”
David Satter is the author of four non-fiction books about Russia, It Was a Long Time Ago and It Never Happened Anyway: Russia and the Communist Past (2011), Age of Delirium: the Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union (1996), Darkness at Dawn: the Rise of the Russian Criminal State (2003), and The Less You Know,The Better You Sleep (2016).

Dr. Eric Trager
2017-03-21 20:00 | PA
Arab Fall: Why Egypt’s Tahrir Square Revolution Failed
Eric Trager, the Esther K. Wagner Fellow at The Washington Institute, is an expert on Egyptian politics and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He was in Egypt during the 2011 anti-Mubarak revolts and returns frequently to conduct firsthand interviews with leaders in Egypt’s government, military, political parties, media, and civil society. His writings have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, the Atlantic, and the New Republic.
Trager is the author of Arab Fall: How the Muslim Brotherhood Won and Lost Egypt in 891 Days (Georgetown University Press, 2016) which chronicles the precipitous rise to power of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, culminating in the election of President Mohamed Morsi in 2012, and its sudden demise just a year later. The book also assesses the current state of Egyptian politics and the prospects for a reemergence of the Brotherhood.
Dr. Trager has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where his doctoral research focused on Egyptian opposition parties. From 2006-2007, he lived in Egypt as an Islamic Civilizations Fulbright fellow, where he studied at the American University in Cairo and received his M.A. in Arabic studies with a concentration in Islamic studies. He served as a research assistant at The Washington Institute from 2005 to 2006 upon graduation from Harvard University with a degree in government and language citations in Arabic and Hebrew.

Colonel Scott Sanborn, USAWC
2017-02-08 03:00 - 12:00 | PA
Drones – Past, Present and Future
COL Sanborn is qualified as both an Aviation and a Military Intelligence officer serving in a variety of assignments over the past 28 years. He has commanded at the company, battalion and brigade level and held multiple staff positions including Chief of Staff of US Army Cyber Command. His Pentagon assignments include HQ, Department of the Army G2, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, and the Secretary of Defense’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Task Force. Mostly recently, COL Sanborn served as the Chief of Staff of the Army Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security a national defense policy oriented think tank located in Washington, DC. COL Sanborn’s deployment experience includes: operation DESERT SHIELD/STORM as an attack helicopter pilot with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment; deployments to Albania and Hungary during the mid-1990s as the commander of a provisional/experimental Predator unmanned aerial system company in support of operations PROVIDE PROMISE, DENY FLIGHT, DELIBERATE FORCE, and JOINT ENDEAVOR; and, multiple deployments to South America in support of airborne ISR operations. COL Sanborn also commanded the 224th Military Intelligence Battalion (Aerial Exploitation) during a deployment to Iraq from 06-07 where his unit conducted manned and unmanned airborne ISR operations in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. From 2010-2012, COL Sanborn commanded the US Army Air Operations Group, where his unit was responsible for the global transport of the Army’s most senior leaders, rotary wing transport of senior Defense Department leaders in the National Capital Region, technical rescue engineer operations, as well as the operation of Davison Army Airfield at Ft Belvoir, VA and the Pentagon Heliport. From 2012-2014, he served as the second Chief of Staff of US Army Cyber Command/Second Army as the command continued to evolve as the Army Service Component of US Cyber Command and the newly established Second Army.
COL Sanborn’s education includes a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics from the University of Iowa, a Master of Science in Computer Resources and Information Management from Webster University (with honors), and a Master of Science in National Security Strategy from the National War College. He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College, the US Army Military Intelligence Officer Adv Course, and the US Army Avn Officer Basic Course.

Dr. Randall Fegley
2017-01-11 03:00 - 12:00 | PA
Rwanda Rebuilding After Trauma
A political historian at Pennsylvania State University’s Berks College, Randall Fegley specializes in the study of mass trauma, especially long-term conflicts, gross human rights violations and prolonged disasters in Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda, South Sudan and Sudan. He lived, taught and completed Ph.D. research in Sudan from 1980 to 1984 and has returned to work there and in other African countries numerous times. In November 2003, he received Penn State Berks’ Beaver Community Service Award for restoring schools in war-torn Kajo Keji County, South Sudan as part of a program of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem. He has been particularly active in the Sudan Studies Association, the leading scholarly organization on Sudan. Host of the SSA’s 22nd annual conference in May 2002 and a member of the association’s board from 2003 to 2007, he has also served as the organization’s president and executive director. As the coordinator of Penn State’s four-year degree program in Global Studies, he set up an internship program in Rwanda. His latest book is A History of Rwandan Identity and Trauma: The Mythmakers’ Victims. His other published works have examined Rwandan, Sudanese, Belgian and Equatorial Guinean political history, the mythologies that perpetuate conflict; elections and governance in post-trauma societies; and the rehabilitation of former slaves and child soldiers. He and his wife Connie live in Berks County.

Captain Paul Tortora, USN
2016-12-13 19:00 | PA
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Cyber Security
CAPTAIN Paul Tortora, USN (ret), is currently the Director of the Center for Cyber Security Studies and the first Chair of the new Cyber Science Department at the United States Naval Academy. Paul recently retired from the Navy following a 26-year active duty career originally as a Nuclear Submarine Officer and then as a Naval Intelligence Officer. During his active service he served and deployed on two nuclear fast attack submarines, two amphibious assault ships, and a nuclear aircraft carrier, conducting various operations across the globe. His ashore assignments included Director of Training at the Navy and Marine Corps Intelligence Training Command, on the staff of the Director of Naval Intelligence, as Naval Aide and Intelligence Officer to the Secretary of the Navy, and with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Paul is a 1989 graduate of the Naval Academy, where he majored in Mathematics, minoring in Spanish. He holds a Masters of Science in Management from the University of Maryland, and a Masters of Arts in National Security Strategy from the Naval War College. His personal awards include the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and the Meritorious Service Medal. He is a recipient of both the National Military Intelligence Association’s Vice Admiral Rufus Taylor Award for Intelligence Leadership and the Rear Admiral Edwin T. Layton Award for outstanding leadership in Naval Intelligence.

Dr. Katy Oh Hassig
2016-11-08 19:00 | PA, United States
Kim Jong-un’s North Korea: Old Politics, New Economy, and Porcupine Policy
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Dr. Kongdan (Katy) Oh Hassig is a Senior Asian Scholar at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). She was formerly a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Bookings Institution and a member of the political science department of the RAND Corporation and has taught courses at a number of universities. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Board of Directors of the United States Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, and she is the co-founder and former co-director of The Korea Club of Washington, D.C. She is co-chair of the Board of Directors of the Sejong Society in Washington, DC.
She received her B.A. at Sogang University and an M.A. at Seoul National University. She subsequently earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the co-author of North Korea through the Looking Glass (2000) and The Hidden People of North Korea (2009).
Her recent articles include “The United States between Japan and Korea,” The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, June 2010, “Kim Jong-un Inherits the Bomb,” International Journal of Korean Unification Studies, 2011, “Military Confrontation,” Joint Force Quarterly, February 2012, “The ROK President of 2013-2018: Who Should Lead the Nation at This Critical Time?” The Journal of East Asian Affairs, Spring/ Summer 2012, “The Costs of Korean Division and the Benefits of Korean Unification of US National Security,” and “The Costs and Benefits of Korean Unification for the United States,” in edited books by Korea Institute for National Unification, respectively December 2012 and December 2013. She served as the task leader for the US Government & Japanese Government to revise the US-Japan defense cooperation guidelines from 2013-14. The second edition of her book, The Hidden People of North Korea was published in April 2015.

Dr. Oya Dursun-Ozkanca
2016-10-04 20:00 | PA
Turkey’s Challenges
Dr. Oya Dursun-Ozkanca is an Associate Professor at the Department of Politics, Philosophy, and Legal Studies, and the Director of the International Studies Minor at Elizabethtown College. A native of Turkey, she received her BA in Political Science and International Relations at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, and MA and PhD in Government at the Univesity of Texas in Austin. Her research interests include Turkish foreign policy, tranatlantic security, European politics, the Balkans, and peacebuilding missions.
Dr. Dursun-Ozkanca is the author of a number of scholarly articles in leading peer -reviewed journals. In Summer 2013, she served as a LSEE Research on South Eastern Europe Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, and conducted fieldwork in Serbia and Bosnia on Turkish foreign policy in the Balkans. Her first co-authored book, External Interventions in Civil Wars: The Role of Impact on Regional and International Organizations, was published by Routledge in July 2013.

Terry Cooke
2016-09-13 20:00 | PA
China Comprehensively: Culturally, Politically, Economically, Environmentally, Militarily
Terry Cooke is the Founding Director of the China Partnership of Greater Philadelphia since July 2011.The China Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (CPGP) is a non-profit organization that promotes collaboration – primarily on public/private clean technology initiatives – between Philadelphia and the People’s Republic of China. Its mission is to accelerate job creation, attract investment, and support clean technology business flows through strategic linkages between Greater Philadelphia and China. CPGP harnesses the Greater Philadelphia region’s exceptional academic, government, cultural and business resources to leverage regional and national initiatives in both countries. In July 2014, CPGP’s work was awarded bi-national U.S. -China EcoPartnership recognition by U.S. Secretary of State Kerry and PRC State Councilor Yang at the annual high-level U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue talks.
Terry Cooke was a 2010 Public Policy Scholar with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C., researching the U.S.-China clean energy relationship, particularly the interface of technology, policy and investment. His book Sustaining U.S.-China Cooperation in Clean Energy was launched via webcast by the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute in September 2012.
From 2006 to 2008, Terry was Director for Asia Corporate Partnership for the World Economic Forum. Based with the Forum’s Centre for Global Industries in New York, Terry worked on three continents and across the Forum’s 18 industry groups to design and implement closer engagement with Asian Global 500-level firms (having annual revenues of US $16 billion and above). Building on this strategic foundation, Forum founder Klaus Schwab presented Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda a set of “CEO Climate Policy Recommendations to G8 Leaders” (signed by 100 Chairmen and CEOs) on June 20, 2008 while Japan hosted the annual G8 Summit Meeting.
The GC3 Strategy model is to build value by bringing together specialty teams and innovative technology resources, combined with insight into the commercial dynamics that are driving investment opportunity in the changing global marketplace.
During a fifteen-year career with the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service (1988-2003), Terry held progressively more responsible positions at U.S. Missions in Asia (Taipei, Tokyo, Shanghai) and Europe (Berlin), including being the senior commercial representative of the United States in Taiwan and Berlin and the deputy senior commercial representative in Tokyo. His work involved consensus building with the ministerial-level in host countries; with the CEO-level in industry; and with top-levels of the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government. This work required skills in complex, cross-cultural decision-making: transactional skills in major projects and in bilateral negotiations; policy and fund-raising skills in organizing international conferences/events; and administrative skills in managing substantial budgets and staffs. Terry was nominated by the U.S Department of Commerce and the White House to the Senior Foreign Service in March 2002 and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June 2002.

Dr. Paul Esqueda
2016-06-08 04:00 - 13:00 | PA
What Next Venezuela? Oil Prices Down/Opposition to President Up
Dr. Paul D. Esqueda is the Sr. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Penn State Berks and a Professor of Engineering. His areas of interest are project management, negotiations, and operations management. He has a particular interest in developing negotiation case studies. For the last 30 years, Esqueda has been primarily dedicated to administration in academic institutions. Past positions include Division Head of Engineering, Business, and Computing at Penn State Berks; Dean of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Administration (IESA) in Caracas, Venezuela and President of the Engineering Research Institute also in Caracas. Esqueda served as a consultant for the European Union to review the European Union Latin American Scholarship Program from 2003-2008. He was part of a 20 expert panel (10 from Europe and 10 from Latin America) that met every year in Brussels to audit the program and advise the EU on the development of the program.

Molly Williamson
2016-05-03 20:00 | PA
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At the Intersection of the 3Es: Energy, Environment and Economy
Molly Williamson speaks extensively on US foreign policy. She is a scholar with the Middle East Institute, a consultant, frequent lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, and a member of the Boards of the American Foreign Service Association and the American Academy of Diplomacy. She is a former Foreign Service Officer, having served six U.S. Presidents, achieving the rank of Career Minister.
Williamson has had a unique combination of senior executive policy positions in four Cabinet Departments of the government. Her postings include: senior foreign policy advisor to the US Secretary of Energy, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Departments of State, Defense, Commerce, US interim ambassador to Bahrain, and Chief of Mission and Consul General in Jerusalem during the Madrid Peace process which culminated in the Oslo Accords.
Williamson, a native of California, has been trained in both Arabic and Hebrew. She has won numerous awards for her many diplomatic accomplishments, including two Presidential Service Awards, as well as awards from the Secretaries of State, Commerce, Defense, and Energy.

Barbara Crossette
2016-04-13 04:00 - 13:00 | PA, United States
India Changes Course-Right Or Far Right
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Barbara Crossette (born 12 July 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American journalist and author. In a long career at The New York Times she served as an editor and as the paper’s chief correspondent in Southeast Asia and South Asia. She was the Times’ United Nations bureau chief from 1994 to 2001.
Crossette, now United Nations correspondent for The Nation, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a trustee of the Carnegie Council on Ethics in International Affairs and a member of the editorial advisory board of the Foreign Policy Association.

Jamal Abodalo
2016-02-10 03:00 - 12:00 | PA
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The Syrian Situation: ISIS, Refugees, Assad and Iran
Jamal Abodalo was born and raised in Damascus, Syria. He received a Masters degree in both engineering and business in England. As an oil engineer, Jamal traveled all over the world being exposed to different cultures and frequent conflict situations. He has engineered all over Europe and the Middle East. He has lectured on the Middle East at Alvernia University Senior’s College. Along with Steve Elmarzouky, Jamal lectured on ISIS at a WAC breakfast in February 2015, which set a WAC Reading breakfast attendance record. He is currently employed as Muhlenberg Township Manager.

Dr. Spencer Stober
2016-01-13 03:00 - 12:00 | PA
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Climate Change
Dr. Spencer Stober is a Probessor of Biology and Educational Leadership at Alvernia University. He taught biology for 30 years including undergraduate courses in Genetics, Botany, and Environmental Sciences. Since earning his doctorate at Temple University, with a specialization in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, he teaches graduate courses in education and leadership. In 2005 he received Alvenia’s Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching. He also served in a number of administrative positions at Alvernia College, including Department Chairperson, Dean of Arts and Sciences, and Dean of Graduate and Continuing Studies. His research interests include environmental sustainability, and intersection between religion and science. He publishes regularly in the International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability. He co-authored a book with Dr. Donna Yarri entitled, God, Science, and Designer Genes: An Exploration of Emerging Issues in Genetic Technologies.

Archive 2014-2015
2015-12-31 03:00 - 12:00 | PA
1/8/14 Dr. Solmon Lausch – Education: Keeping Things in Perspective
2/12/14 Wilfred Muskens – NAFTA – 20 Years Later
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3/13/14 Molly Williamson – The Geopolitics of Petroleum-US Shale and Foreign Policy Implications
4/9/14 Eva Horelova – Emergence of the E.U. Role in the World: It’s Economic, Poitical, and Foreign Policy Implications
5/14/14 Edward J. Hartung – Cybersecurity
6/11/14 Robert Musil, Ph.D. – Women and the Global Environment: From Rachel Carson to Today
9/10/14 Randell Newnham, Ph.D. – Crisis in the Ukraine
10/8/14 Peter D. Barbey – The Impact of Global Unrest on Media Reporting
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11/12/14 Frank Farrokh Sabouri – Iran
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12/10/14 Ben Dalton – Covering Global Conflict from the Ground
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1/14/15 Dr. Kerwin Shaffer U.S. Cuba Ties
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2/11/15 Dr. Oya Dursun-Ozkanca Turkey Today
3/11/15 Linda Maizels, Ph.D. Israel:Prospects for Peace in the Middle East
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4/10/15 Dr. Susan Martin U.S. Immigration Policy
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5/13/15 Dr. Michael Barry Afghanistan
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6/3/15 Molly Williamson Global Energy Security
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9/9/15 Robert L. Grenier Counterinsurgency Issues
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10/14/15 Metodija Koloski The American Case for Macedonia
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11/11/15 Dr. Donald Lee Update on U.N. Millennium Goals
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12/9/15 Carol Jenkins The Power of Education to Change Lives Globally
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SPEAKERS 2012-2013
2015-12-30 19:00 | PA
1/11/12 Michael Miller – Inside Japanese Schools
2/8/12 Leon Shahabian – Arab Media
3/15/12 John Seager – Managing Popluation Growth
4/11/12 Mary Jean Eisenhower – Peace through Understanding
5/9/12 Dr. Michael Scheuer – One Year After Bin Laden
6/13/12 Michael Klugman – Pakistan
9/12/12 Dr. Amany Jamal – Understanding Muslim Societies
10/10/12 S. Eugene Poteal – CIA Covert Operations
11/14/12 Hon. Yaron Sideman – Update on Israel & MIddle East
12/12/12 Ambassador Linda Jewel – Equador an South America
1/9/13 E.J. Hogendoorn – Africe: Region in Crisis
2/13/13 Dr. Valerie Rouxel-Laxon – Financial Turmoil in Europe
3/13/13 Dr. Stephen Hood – Korea
4/10/13 Michael Slackman – Foreign Policy of 2nd Obama Admin.
5/8/13 Dr. Paul Esqueda – Venezuela After Chavez
6/12/13 Molly Williamson – Israel-Palestine
9/11/13 Shihoko Goto – Economic Relations between US and East Asia
10/9/13 Christine Gilfillan – Combat Human Trafficking US & Worldwide
11/13/13 Kani Xulam – Kurds Within the Middle East
Click HERE to see this presentation on line.
12/11/13 Haleh Esfandiari – Iran’s New President: Reformer/Old Guard
