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John Dower – “The Donald W. Flaherty Lecturer”

Dower final posterEmeritus Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cultures of War

Thursday, March 29, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Historian John W. Dower draws on Cultures of War, his most recent book, to place 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq in a broader historical and comparative context that challenges the familiar canards of clash-of-civilizations thinking, and treats war-making as a congeries of cultures in and of itself. Drawing on his expertise in modern Japanese history and World War II in Asia, Professor Dower’s lecture will
focus on wars of choice, failures of intelligence and imagination, groupthink and wishful thinking, strategic imbecilities, and the deliberate targeting of civilians to destroy enemy morale that became standard operating procedure in the U.S. air war against Japan in 1945, culminating in the first “Ground Zeros” of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This event is co-sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Department of East Asian Studies, Penn State Dickinson School of Law and the School of International Affairs.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
IMGJohn W. Dower is an emeritus professor of history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-director of MIT’s innovative online “Visualizing Cultures” Read more

Michael B. Oren

oren posterIsraeli Ambassador to the United States

Foreign Policy: Israel the Ultimate Ally

Thursday, March 29, 2012 – Noon
Rubendall Recital Hall, Weiss Center for the Arts *College or Valid ID Required*

Event will be simulcast to overflow seating in Althouse 106 & Weiss 235 and on Channel 17

No backpacks or large bags will be allowed into Rubendall Recital Hall (RRH) and all small bags will be subject to search.  No cameras, video equipment, or signs will be permitted inside RRH.

This event is co-sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues at Dickinson College, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) – Central Pennsylvania Chapter, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg-Pennsylvania.

Ambassador Oren’s Biography
A graduate of Princeton and Columbia, Dr. Oren has received fellowships from the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, and from the British and Canadian governments. Formerly, he was the Lady Davis Fellow of Hebrew University, a Moshe Dayan Fellow at Tel-Aviv University, and the Distinguished Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown.

Ambassador Oren has written extensively for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The New Republic, where Read more

Doug Guthrie

Final Guthrie PosterDean of the School of Business, George Washington University

China’s Capitalism: A Model For U.S.?

Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

One of the great ironies of our time is this: today, the largest Communist society in the world is also the world’s most dynamic and business-friendly capitalist economy. To examine this seemingly paradoxical circumstance, this lecture will analyze the economic reforms that have been sweeping across China for over three decades. As we view the changes in China through the prism of media representations, political rhetoric, and the many other distortions that have shaped perceptions of the reform process in China, the picture is murky at best. We will examine the changes that have actually occurred in China and the forces that have brought about this process of change. As it turns out, China’s course of building a market economy can teach the world’s capitalist powers a great deal about healthy market economies.

This event was initiated by The Clarke Forum Student Project Managers and is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, the Department of Political Science and Department of International Business and Management. It is also part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership Read more

Eisenhower National Security Series

Eisenhower Final PosterA Visit by U.S. Army War College Eisenhower Fellows

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Eisenhower program is an academic outreach designed to encourage dialogue on national security and other public policy issues between students at the U.S. Army War College and students/faculty at academic institutions. The fellows will be visiting classes and participating in events throughout the day.

Each year a few students at the U.S. Army War College participate in the Eisenhower National Security Series and travel outside Carlisle Barracks to engage in discussions with other students, academics, and the public about national security issues and the employment of military assets.

* This program is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series and is co-sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State University Dickinson School of Law, School of International Affairs and the Churchill Fund.

Schedule of Programs:

9 – 10:30 a.m. – Open Class Visit

Ethics and International Security
Captain Stephen C. Krotow, U.S. Navy and Lt. Col. Curtis Mason, U.S. Marine Corps to visit Professor Bova’s class.
Denny Hall, Room 211

Noon – 1:30 p.m. – Lunch Panel Discussion

The Arab Spring
Panelists: Eisenhower National Security Series Fellows, with Prof. Read more

Daniel Drezner

Drezner Final Poster

Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

International Politics and Zombies

Thursday, March 22, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Addressing timely issues with analytical bite, Drezner looks at how well-known theories from international relations might be applied to a war with zombies. He boldly lurches into the breach and “stress tests” the ways that different approaches to world politics would explain policy responses to the living dead. Drezner examines the most prominent international relations theories–including realism, liberalism, constructivism, and neoconservatism –and decomposes their predictions. Exploring the plots of popular zombie films, songs, and books, Theories of International Politics and Zombies predicts realistic scenarios for the political stage in the face of a zombie threat and considers how valid–or how rotten–such scenarios might be.

This event is jointly sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State Dickinson School of Law and the School of International Affairs.

DreznerFPBiography (provided by the speaker)
Daniel W. Drezner is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a senior editor at The National Interest, and a contributing editor at Foreign Policy. Prior to Fletcher, he Read more

Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt

Counterstrike PosterPentagon Correspondents, The New York Times and Co-authors of Counterstrike

Counterstrike

Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.
A book signing will follow.

Schmitt and Shanker explore the Pentagon’s secretive and revolutionary new strategy to fight the war on terrorism. This new strategy will have game-changing effects in the Middle East and in the United States.

This event is jointly sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, Penn State Dickinson School of Law, the School of International Affairs and Betty R. ’58 and Dan Churchill.

Biographies (provided by the speakers)
Eric SchmittEric Schmitt is a senior writer for The New York Times who covers domestic and internationalism terrorism issues. For nearly 20 years, he has covered military and national security affairs for the newspaper. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, he has made ten reporting trips to Iraq and five trips to Afghanistan to cover American military operations there. In the past year, he has also reported on counter-terrorism operations in Pakistan, Mali and Southeast Asia.

Previously, Mr. Schmitt reported on demographic and national immigration issues for The Times and covered Congress for five years. During that time, he one of newspaper’s main reporters assigned to the 2000 Read more

Michael Granoff

Granoff Final PosterHead of Oil Independence Policies, Better Place

The End of the Oil Monopoly

Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 6:30 p.m.

For 100 years, virtually all of global transport has been the domain of a single, depleting, polluting commodity to the detriment of the global economy, security and environment. But the trend is beginning to change in 2012 as the convergence of technology and creative business modeling has led to the creation of a less expensive and more convenient alternative to gasoline-driven automobiles. Pioneered in Israel, Denmark and Australia, this radical new approach has the potential to turn two giant industries upside down.

This event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and The Milton B. Asbell Center for Jewish Life and is part of The Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Mike Granoff lower resBiography (provided by the speaker)
Michael Granoff has been head of oil independence policies for Better Place since its founding in 2007. In that capacity, he helps stakeholders of all types calibrate policies consistent with the Better Place approach to ending the corrosive effect of oil dependence on economy, environment and security. Stakeholders with which Granoff works include governments on every Read more

Heidi Hartmann

hartman posterPresident, Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Lifting the Floor and Achieving Gender Equality

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 *
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m

Trends in women’s labor force participation, the gender wage gap, and job segregation by sex indicate that women’s progress has hit a plateau after improvement for several decades. Hartmann will discuss the policies that are needed to lift the floor of the labor market of women, resolve troubling work/family issues, and achieve gender equality between women and men.

The event is co-sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues, the Churchill Fund, the Departments of Economics, Sociology, International Business and Management and the Women’s Center.

* This program is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

HHBiography (provided by the speaker)
Heidi Hartmann is the president of the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), a scientific research organization that she formed in 1987 to meet the need for women-centered, policy-oriented research. She is an economist with a B.A. from Swarthmore College and M. Phil and Ph.D. degrees from Yale University, all in economics. Dr. Hartmann is also a research professor at The George Washington University.

Dr. Hartmann has published numerous Read more

Charles W. Cole Jr. – “Benjamin Rush Award Lecturer”

cole finalFormer President and CEO, First Maryland Bankcorp and The National Bank of Maryland

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Tuesday, February 21, 2012  **
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Cole will analyze and discuss the state of the U.S. economy from a global perspective, with a special focus on both the strengths and weaknesses of current financial markets, including how they might affect future job opportunities of college graduates. Cole will also have some suggestions regarding the shaping of an investment portfolio.

This program is part of the The Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

Cole PicBiography (provided by the speaker)
Charles W. Cole Jr., is a retired Baltimore Banker and Community leader. He was born in Baltimore, son of a lawyer.  Cole is a graduate of Gilman School and Washington and Lee University with a degree in economics and earned his LL.B. from the University of Maryland School of Law.

Mr. Cole spent 34 years with First Maryland Bankcorp and the First National Bank of Maryland. He served as President (1977-1994) and Chief Executive Officer (1984-1994). He was also Chief Administrative Officer and a Director of First Maryland Bankcorp. During the 10 years after Mr. Read more

Elyse Fenton – “Belfer Creative Writing Lectureship”

Fenton Poster IDAward-Winning Author

Clamor: The Poetics of Wartime

Thursday, February 16, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.
A book signing will follow.

Fenton will read from her poetry collection, Clamor, which focuses on love, loneliness and grief in the context of the Iraq War, and discuss how her investigation of the language of wartime found its poetic form.

The event is co-sponsored by the Belfer Creative Writing Lectureship, The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Department of English.

elyse fenton author photoBiography (provided by speaker)
Elyse Fenton is the author of the poetry collection, Clamor, which won the 2010 University of Wales Dylan Thomas Prize and Cleveland State University Press’s First Book Award. She has published poetry and nonfiction in The New York Times, Best New Poets, The Massachusetts Review and Pleiades, and has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. She received a BA from Reed College and an MFA from the University of Oregon and has worked in the woods, on farms and in schools in the Pacific Northwest, New Hampshire, Mongolia and Texas.

Related Links
Poetry Society of America

The Belfer Creative Writing Lectureship
The Belfer Creative Writing Lectureship was established in 2001 Read more

Panel Discussion: Bird Flu Dilemmas: Balancing Science, Security, & Free Speech

Avian Flu PosterWednesday, February 15, 2012
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

Panelists

Andrew Pekosz, associate professor, W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Thomas Place, professor of law, Penn State Dickinson School of Law
Anthony Williams, visiting professor of political science and security studies, Dickinson College
David Kushner, associate professor of biology, Dickinson College, moderator

In December 2011 the US government asked scientists who had recently created a possibly dangerous airborne strain of H5N1 (avian influenza) not to publish all the genetic details of their research. The government’s request highlights the tensions that can arise between scientific inquiry, security, and freedom of speech.

Event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum Contemporary Issues.

Click here for campus-only video Read more

Garret Kramer

Author and Founder of Inner Sports, LLC.

CreatedbyJessicaKarlberg'Stillpower: The Inner Source of Excellence

Thursday, February 9, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m
A book signing will follow.

Garret Kramer, the founder of Inner Sports and the author of Stillpower: The Inner Source of Athletic Excellence, will talk about the states of mind that lead to success—on and off the playing field.  The quality of our thoughts and moods determine our experience; our experience does not determine our moods. He will describe his revolutionarily simple approach to performance through examples and antidotes from his work with professional athletes. Listeners are sure to gain a heightened level of awareness and understanding. They will learn that stillpower, not willpower, is the true source of achievement.

This event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

gkramer IMG hi resBiography (provided by the speaker)
Garret Kramer is the founder and managing partner of Inner Sports, LLC. He has provided consulting and/or crisis management services to hundreds of athletes and coaches; from well known professionals, Olympians, and teams, to high school and collegiate players across a multitude of sports. A former collegiate ice hockey player, Kramer is credited with bringing the principles of Mind, Consciousness, Read more

Ronald Deibert

Professor of Political Science and Director of the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies and the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of TorontoDeibert Poster

A Perfect Storm in Cyberspace

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

What was once a domain characterized by openness and the free exchange of ideas, cyberspace is being re-shaped by technological changes, a growing underworld of cyber crime, a burgeoning cyber security industrial complex that feeds a cyber arms race, and an increasingly intense geopolitical contest over the domain itself.

Together, these driving forces are creating a kind of “perfect storm” in cyberspace that threats to subvert it entirely either through over-reaction, the imposition of heavy-handed controls and through partition or cantoning.

To restore cyberspace as an open global commons will require a multi-layered strategy, from the local to the global.

Drawing from the research and other activities of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto — including the OpenNet Initiative and the Information Warfare Monitor — Ron Deibert discusses the “Coming Perfect Storm in Cyberspace” and what is to be done to prepare for it.

The event is jointly sponsored by Read more

Harold Koh

Chief Legal Counsel for the U.S. Department of State

A Smart Power Approach to International Law and National Security

Thursday, January 26, 2012
Apfelbaum Auditorium, Lewis Katz Hall, Penn State Law, Carlisle, 5:00 p.m.

Koh, a leading expert on public and private international law, national security and human rights, will discuss the threats, responses and accountability mechanisms that will define the future national security configuration.

The event is jointly sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues at Dickinson College and the Penn State Dickinson School of Law. Link to Penn State Dickinson School of Law for additional information. This program is also supported by Betty R. ’58 and Dan Churchill.

Harold Koh WEBBiography (from Yale Law School)
Harold Hongju Koh is the Martin R. Flug ’55 Professor of International Law (on leave, 2011-2012). On June 25, 2009, the U.S. Senate confirmed Professor Koh as Legal Adviser to the United States Department of State.

He began teaching at Yale Law School in 1985 and served from 2004 until 2009 as its fifteenth Dean. From 1998 to 2001, he served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and previously had served on the Secretary of State’s Read more

Being a Good Samaritan: Lessons of Penn State

Penn State PosterPanel Discussion

Thursday, December 1, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Panelists

David Freed, Cumberland County district attorney (replacing Frank Fina)
Thomas Nadelhoffer, assistant professor of philosophy, Dickinson
Regina Sweeney, associate professor of history, Dickinson
Andrew Guy ’12, student supervisor, The Clarke Forum, Dickinson

This panel discussion will address the moral and legal obligations we have to stop wrongful conduct when we encounter it and/or to report it to public authorities. The panel will focus in part on how these obligations should be applied to college and university campuses.

Sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues. Read more