Thanks to demand from big emerging economies, most South American governments have become increasingly “resource nationalistic” and have ramped up social spending to meet the needs of the poor and the indigenous, causing poverty levels to drop – at the same time as poverty has been on the increase in the United States. Will the U.S. continue losing influence in Latin America? Will China soon dominate the area both commercially and strategically? Can the U.S. do business with countries from...

A talk by David Scheffer, Director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University. As senior adviser to Madeleine Albright and then as President Clinton’s ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, David Scheffer was at the forefront of the efforts that led to criminal tribunals for the Balkans, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia, and that resulted in the creation of the permanent International Criminal Court. All the Missing Souls: A Personal History of the War...

For the last decade, Venezuela’s “Bolivarian Revolution” has captured international attention. Poverty, inequality, and unemployment have all dropped, while health, education, and living standards have seen a commensurate rise. Venezuela Speaks! is the real, bottom-up account of the country's bloodless uprising and reorganization. Co-editor Carlos Martinez will explain how the stories in Venezuela Speaks! offer a different perspective than that of the international mainstream media, which...

In this talk, Robert Pape presents findings from the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism demonstrating that, contrary to popular belief, religion alone motivates only a tiny minority of suicide attacks. Instead, the root cause is foreign military occupation, which triggers secular and religious people to carry out suicide attacks. From The World Beyond the Headlines series.

A speech by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of NATO. In his first visit to Chicago as Secretary General, Anders Rasmussen discusses Afghanistan, the lessons learned after eight years, and implications for future operations.

A multi-disciplinary panel, held at the Shedd Aquarium, provided a public examination and discussion of the threat of Asian carp to Chicago and the Great Lakes. Experts in biology, economics and policy shared the most up to date information about how these species threaten the ecology of the Great Lakes, how closing Chicago waterways would affect the regional economy, and the broader implications for the Great Lakes region and environmental management. Cosponsored by the Program on the Global...

A talk by political scientist Gilles Dorronsoro, visiting scholar in the Carnegie Endowment's South Asia Program. His research focuses on security and political development in Afghanistan, particularly the role of the International Security Assistance Force, the steps required to achieve a viable government in Kabul, and the conditions necessary for withdrawal scenarios. From the World Beyond the Headlines lecture series. Cosponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the South Asian...

A talk by journalist and author Roger Thurow. For more than thirty years, humankind has known how to grow enough food to end chronic hunger worldwide. Yet while the "Green Revolution" succeeded in South America and Asia, it never got to Africa. Now, an impending global food crisis threatens to make things worse. In the west we think of famine as a natural disaster, brought about by drought; or as the legacy of brutal dictators. But in this powerful investigative narrative, Roger Thurow and...

A talk by Columbia University professor Joseph Stiglitz. The current global financial crisis carries a "made in America" label. In "Freefall", Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz explains how America exported bad economics, bad policies, and bad behavior to the rest of the world, only to cobble together a haphazard and ineffective response when the markets finally seized up. Drawing on his academic expertise, his years spent shaping policy in the Clinton administration and at the World Bank, and...

A talk by American University professor Deborah Brautigam. Is China a rogue donor, as some media pundits suggest? Or is China helping the developing world pave a pathway out of poverty, as the Chinese claim? This well-timed book provides the first comprehensive account of China's aid and economic cooperation overseas. Deborah Brautigam tackles the myths and realities, explaining what the Chinese are doing, how they do it, how much aid they give, and how it all fits into their "going global"...

A talk by author and Earth Policy Institute founder Lester Brown. As fossil fuel prices rise, oil insecurity deepens, and concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging. Wind, solar, and geothermal energy are replacing oil, coal, and natural gas, at a pace and on a scale we could not have imagined even a year ago. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, we have begun investing in energy sources that can last forever. Plan B...

20th Anniversary Roundtable with the Consuls General of Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Poland. A discussion concerning the historic events of two decades ago in Central and Eastern Europe, and the paths taken since then - through personal reflections and recollections of how the process developed, the spirit of the movements, the leaders, the political atmosphere, and the ways in which the transition has resonated through the past twenty years. Cosponsored by the Center for...

A talk by New York Times journalist Neil MacFarquhar. His book, "The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday" reveals a cross-section of unsung, dynamic men and women pioneering political and social change. There is the Kuwaiti sex therapist in a leather suit with matching red headscarf, and the Syrian engineer advocating a less political interpretation of the Koran. MacFarquhar interacts with Arabs and Iranians in their every day lives, removed from the violence...

A talk by professor and author David Bosco. From the Berlin Airlift to the Iraq War, the UN Security Council has stood at the heart of global politics. Part public theater, part smoke-filled backroom, the Council has enjoyed notable successes and suffered ignominious failures, but it has always provided a space for the five great powers to sit down together. Five to Rule Them All tells the inside story of this remarkable diplomatic creation. Drawing on extensive research, including dozens of...

A talk by South African author and journalist Mark Gevisser. Mark Gevisser is currently The Nation's Southern African correspondent. In South Africa, his work has appeared in the Mail & Guardian, the Sunday Independent, the Sunday Times and many magazines and periodicals. Internationally, he has written widely on South African politics, culture and society, in publications ranging from Vogue and the New York Times to Foreign Affairs and Art in America. Read Mark Gevisser's featured CIS...

A talk by Rashid Khalidi. Rashid Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies and Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, and is among the foremost U.S. historians of the modern Middle East. He is the author of numerous books on the region--several written during his many years on the faculty at the University of Chicago--including Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness; Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's...

A talk by authors Jim Shultz & Melissa Crane Draper. (Moderated by Jerome McDonnell, host of Chicago Public Radio's Worldview.) Author Jim Shultz is founder and Executive Director of the San Francisco based Democracy Center and has lived and worked in Bolivia for much of the past decade, chronicling grassroots movements to control exploitation of Bolivia's natural resources, from water resources to oil and natural gas. With Melissa Crane Draper and other Democracy Center affiliates,...

A talk by Antonia Juhasz, author, policy expert, and activist. Antonia Juhasz is an associate fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies, a fellow with Oil Change International, and a senior analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus. The author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time (2006), Juhasz has also written extensively on various aspects of globalization. Her articles and commentary on politics and policy have appeared in New York Times, International Herald Tribune,...

Writer, film-maker, and leading figure of the international left Tariq Ali speaks about Pakistan, Afghanistan and the future of U.S. involvement in the region. Ali's new book, "The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power", weighs the prospects of those contending for power in the aftermath of Benazir Bhutto's assassination, and demonstrates Pakistan's unique influence on the emergence of a secure world or global conflagration.

A talk by Juan Cole. Juan Cole will discuss the future of U.S. foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan beyond the November presidential elections. Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. He studies and writes about contemporary Islamic movements, whether mainstream or radical, whether Sunni and Salafi or Shi`ite. His media and press interviews since...

A talk by Arvind Panagariya. Arvind Panagariya discusses his new book, "India: The Emerging Giant", a history of the economic development of India since independence and the "definitive book on the Indian economy" according to Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria. Panagariya is Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy, International and Public Affairs, and Economics at Columbia University. He is also a former chief economist at the Asian Development Bank and an adviser to several...

A talk by Bernard Lown, MD. Physician, author, and Nobel Prize-winning peace activist Bernard Lown discusses his new memoir, "Prescription for Survival: A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness". The inventor of the defibrillator, Dr. Lown was also a peace and anti-nuclear activist, participating in the founding of Physicians for Social Responsibility in 1960 and of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in 1981. In 1985, IPPNW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Lown...

A talk by Steve LeVine. Russia is once again front and center in the wake it's invasion of Georgia and effective re-assertion of dominance in the Caucasus region. What levers can the U.S. and Europe assert against Putin's aggression? What is Russia's political calculus and how can we change the inputs into their equation? Are there key insights into the Chechen wars and Putin's post-presidency plans that can help us visualize the future? BusinessWeek foreign affairs correspondent and author...

A talk by Jonathan Mahler and Neal Katyal. In his latest book, The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight over Presidential Power, Jonathan Mahler chronicles the challenge to the assertion of presidential power in the designation of enemy combatants. Written with the cooperation of the attorneys who represented Hamdan, Lt. Commander Charles Swift and Georgetown constitutional law scholar Neal Katyal, Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld is the inside story of the historic Supreme Court case and its...

The growing instability and resurgence of Islamic extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan pose a great threat to U.S. interests and global security. In his new book, "Descent into Chaos", Ahmed Rashid examines the rising insurgency, booming opium trade, and weak governance in Afghanistan, concluding that U.S. strategy in the region has been a complete failure. Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist based in Lahore. He was the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia correspondent for the Far...