**  Breaking Issue **

Thursday, March 6, 2014
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium – 7 p.m.

As the Sochi Olympics were drawing to a close, the long simmering tug-of-war between the EU and Russia over the future of Ukraine boiled over into street violence and political chaos in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. This panel will examine the origins of this crisis, the interests at stake for Russia, the EU, and the US, and the possible outcomes and consequences for international relations and for Ukraine itself.

Panelists

R. Craig Nation – Visiting Professor of Political Science & Security Studies, Dickinson College;  and Professor of Eurasian Studies at the U.S. Army War College
Karl Qualls – Associate Professor of History, Dickinson College
Marybeth Ulrich – Professor of Government, Department of National Security and Strategy, U.S. Army War College
Russell Bova (moderator) – Professor of Political Science, Dickinson College

Biographies (provided by the panelists)

R. Craig Nation has been professor of strategy and director of Eurasian studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania since 1996. He also serves as a visiting professor of security studies at Dickinson College. Professor Nation specializes in the foreign policy and security affairs of the Europan Read more

Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Participants

Michael Allison, professor, University of Scranton
Christine Wade, professor, Washington College

The two panelists will discuss current developments in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador as well as the general impact of Central America’s role as the key transshipment point for cocaine headed to the United States.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Constance and Rose Ganoe Memorial Fund for Inspirational Teaching, courtesy of Professor J. Mark Ruhl, and also the Department of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Michael Allison is an associate professor of political science at the University of Scranton. He also directs the University’s Education for Justice program and is a faculty member in the Latin American Studies program. He graduated with a BA (1996) in politics and minors in Latin American and Caribbean studies and peace justice studies from Fairfield University in Connecticut. He received his master’s (2001) and Ph.D. (2006) in political science from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

His teaching and research interests concern the comparative study of civil war and civil war resolution, particularly Read more

Professor, Bentley University

Market Monetarism and the Crash of 2008

Thursday, February 20, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

By focusing on nominal GDP as an indicator of both economic conditions and a target of policy, the real problem with the financial crisis of 2008 was that policymakers misdiagnosed what was occurring.  Market monetarism can help us better understand the underlying nature of the 2008 crisis, along with current issues in monetary policy.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Department of International Business & Management.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Scott Sumner is a professor of economics at Bentley University and has taught there for the past 31 years. He earned a B.A. in economics at the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago. Sumner’s research has been in the field of monetary economics, particularly the role of the gold standard in the Great Depression.  His other research includes liquidity traps, and how monetary policy can be effective at the zero interest rate bound.  Sumner’s policy work has focused on the importance of expectations, particularly policies aimed at targeting expectations in futures markets.  In Read more

Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Kim Colby, senior counsel, Christian Legal Society
Heather Weaver ’99, senior staff attorney, American Civil Liberties Union
David O’Connell, moderator, professor, Dickinson College

Colby and Weaver will debate the issues of two freedom-of-religion cases that are currently before the Supreme Court: Greece v. Galloway, which concerns the constitutionality of starting a town council meeting with a prayer; and Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby, which addresses whether the Affordable Care Act can require a family-owned business to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives despite the religious objections of the owners.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Religion and Political Science. This is a Clarke Forum Student Project Manager initiated event.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

Kim Colby has worked for Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom since graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981. She has represented religious groups in several appellate cases, including two cases heard by the United States Supreme Court. She assisted in congressional passage of the Equal Access Act, 20 U.S.C. § 4071, et seq., which protects the right of Read more

Thursday, January 30, 2014
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Panelists

George Pomeroy, professor, Shippensburg University
Kirk Stoner, director of planning, Cumberland County
Nathan Wolf, attorney, Wolf & Wolf
John Henson, moderator, professor, Dickinson College

A panel of experts will discuss the complex array of environmental and economic-development issues surrounding the evolution of the Carlisle area as a major logistics center with the associated construction of mega-warehouses and the concentration of truck traffic.  The panel will be composed of representatives of academia, non-profit environmental groups, developers, the public sector, and the local community.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters and the Carlisle YWCA.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)

George Pomeroy is a professor of geography – earth science and director of the Center for Land Use at Shippensburg University.  His teaching and research interests speak to community, land use, and environmental planning.  His degrees are in geography (B.A. Ed., M.S., Western Washington University) and in urban studies and public administration (Ph.D., The University of Akron).  For his research, Dr. Pomeroy has received the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Regional Development Read more

Former U.S. Senator, Arkansas (D)

Washington Gridlock

Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:30 p.m.

Many public commentators are of the opinion that the election of President Obama in 2008 ushered in a new era of extreme partisanship. Senator Pryor will discuss and evaluate the state of politics in our nation’s capital.

The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues sponsored and planned this event in partnership with the Student Senate Public Affairs Committee.

Biography

David H. Pryor was born in Camden, Arkansas.  He received his B.A. from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and his LL.B. from the University of Arkansas School of Law.
In 1960 he was elected to the Arkansas State House of Representatives where he served three terms.  In November of 1966 he was elected to fill the unexpired term of Congressman Oren Harris and served three full terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.  In 1974 he was elected Governor of Arkansas, a position he held for four years.  In 1979 Governor Pryor was elected to the United States Senate and served until he retired from the Senate in 1996.

Since retiring from the Senate, he became a Fulbright Distinguished Fellow of Law and Public Read more

Professor, New School for Social Research

China-India Future Relations

Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Stern Center, Great Room, 7 p.m.

Will India and China cooperate or compete?  Officials and experts have asked this question for over a century, and more often than not were wrong in their predictions.  This lecture explores why the predictions were wrong and suggests new ways of thinking about Sino-Indian relations.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Donald W. Flaherty Fund, and the Departments of International Studies and Political Science.

Biography (provided by the speaker)

Mark W. Frazier is a professor of politics, and co-academic director of the India China Institute at The New School, a university in New York City. His research engages comparisons of China and India in terms of how each has coped with development challenges related to inequality and urbanization, historically and in the present. He is the author of Socialist Insecurity: Pensions and the Politics of Uneven Development in China (Cornell University Press 2010) and The Making of the Chinese Industrial Workplace (Cambridge University Press 2002). He has contributed op-eds to The New York Times and The Diplomat. Before assuming his current Read more