Past Programs

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

Mitchell Sogin

Sogin Poster FinalSenior Scientist and Director, Josephine Bay Paul Center, Marine Biological Laboratory

The Microbial Sea: Single-Cell Organisms Dominate

Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

The Census of Marine Microbes, a collaboration between 50 research laboratories working in study sites distributed throughout the world’s oceans, has revealed spectacular levels of single cell microbial diversity, including some very uncommon groups of microbes that constitute the “rare biosphere”.

The event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Departments of Biology and Chemistry

soginBiography (provided by the speaker)
Dr. Sogin received his B.S. in Chemistry and Microbiology from the University of Illinois in 1967 and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Biology in 1972 with Carl Woese. He joined Norman Pace’s group to work on rRNA processing at the National Jewish Center in Denver, Colorado. In 1976 he joined the faculty of National Jewish Hospital and attained the rank of Associate Professor in the Microbiology Department of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Dr. Sogin was also a Miller Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. He moved to the Marine Biological Laboratory in 1989 after establishing the summer Workshop in Molecular Evolution. His laboratory Read more

Heather Gautney

Occupy PosterAssistant Professor of Sociology, Fordham University, Lincoln Center

**Breaking Issue**

The Occupy Movement

Monday, November 21, 2011
Stern Center Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

The event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Departments of Anthropology, American Studies, Sociology and Economics.

On September 17th of this year, a relatively small group of protesters calling themselves “Occupy Wall Street” squatted a small park in Manhattan’s financial district to protest the role of Wall Street institutions in precipitating economic recession and alarming increases in social inequality. Within weeks, the movement has grown into a national phenomenon, spurring “Occupy” communities in nearly every major U.S. city, and entering issues of corruption and social welfare into mainstream political discourse.

Occupy Wall Street describes itself as a leaderless, post-political movement of the 99 Percent. The movement consists of local Occupys that operate as a kind of network: they organize rallies, demonstrations, and squatter communities in their immediate locales, but remain linked through a common antipathy to corporate power and interest in addressing issues of social inequality in a radically democratic way. Each Occupy employs a local decision-making body, or General Assembly, that operates by way of a unique consensus process, but Read more

Paul B. Olsen

Natural Selection War FinalColonel, U.S. Army

Natural Selection & War

Thursday, November 17, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Today’s advances in evolutionary biology are unifying competing theories of natural selection and serve as a timely call for a similar unification of competing theories of war. This lecture explores the relationship between war and natural selection by first examining war’s biological origins, and then placing them within a multidisciplinary framework called the Nature of War Theory.

This theory, as its name implies, reconciles natural selection and war to reveal a shared overarching and paradoxical duality, displaying that war is characterized by the simultaneous violent interplay of evolutionary individual-level and group-level adaptations, manifested by individualist and altruistic wars, respectively, and highlighted by trends and insights recognizable to both students of war and evolutionary biology.

This event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the Departments of Biology and Psychology.

Paul OlsenBiography (provided by the speaker)
Colonel Olsen was commissioned in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography. He has held leadership positions in Army engineer units in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Read more

Arab Spring

Arab Spring FINAL POSTERTuesday, November 15, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Protest movements continue to spread in the Arab world, taking different shape according to local political structures and social dynamics and posing knotty challenges to U.S. policymakers to keep up with the breakneck speed of developments.

Panelists

P.J. Crowley – Omar N. Bradley Joint Chair in Strategic Leadership
Ed Webb -Professor of political science and international studies, Dickinson College
Sherifa Zuhur – Director of the Institute of Middle Eastern, Islamic, and Strategic Studies
David Commins (moderator) – Professor of history and Middle East studies, Dickinson College

Biographies
David Commins is a professor of history and the Benjamin Rush Distinguished Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences at Dickinson College. He teaches courses in the Middle East studies program and the history department. His publications include Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria (Oxford University Press, 1990), Historical Dictionary of Syria (Scarecrow Press, 1995, revised edition 2004), and The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia (IB Tauris, 2006).

P.J Crowley, former United States assistant Secretary of State for public affairs, is the 2011-2012 recipient of the General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership. While in residence, Crowley conducts Read more

Justice Unfunded – Justice Undone: Assuring Sustainable Funding for Courts

Justice Unfunded PosterThursday, November 10, 2011

Penn State Dickinson School of Law
Lewis Katz Hall, Carlisle
Simulcast to Lewis Katz Building, University Park
2:00 p.m.

A distinguished list of speakers and panelists will discuss the consequences of an unfunded judiciary on democracy — whether in Pennsylvania or the other 49 states at both the state and federal levels. In addition, the forum will explore how Pennsylvania’s judiciary, as is true in other states, is joining with the other branches to be part of the solution, rather than a problem, in addressing the ongoing budget shortfalls.

The panel will be moderated by Dick Thornburgh, former Pennsylvania Governor and U.S. Attorney General, and will include Mary McQueen, President, National Center for State Courts, David Quam, Director Federal Relations, National Governors Association, The Honorable Dominic Pileggi, Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader, The Honorable Debra Todd, Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and The Honorable Charles Zogby, Budget Secretary to Governor Tom Corbett.

Distinguished guests in attendance will include Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Ronald D. Castille, U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III, American Bar Association President William Robinson III, and Pennsylvania Bar Association President Matthew Crème.

The event Read more

Michael Klare

klareposterFive College professor of Peace and World Security Studies

The Great Struggle Over Energy

Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

This lecture will explain how the world’s existing energy system, based on oil and other fossil fuels, will have to be replaced by a new one over the next 30 years or so due to resource scarcity and climate change. But as no known alternative can replace fossil fuels at the present time, there will be an intense struggle over the various contenders for this role – a struggle that will have immense consequences for the major energy firms, the major energy producers and consumers, and all human beings.

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

michael klareBiography (provided by the speaker)
Michael T. Klare is the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, a joint appointment at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Professor Klare has written widely on world security affairs, the arms trade, and global resource politics. His most recent books include Resource Wars (2001), Blood Read more

Bernardino León Gross

E.U. Special Representative (EUSR) for the Southern Mediterranean

Arab Euro PosterArab Spring: A European Perspective

Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room – 12:30 p.m.

Protest movements and uprisings continue to spread in the Arab world, taking different shape according to local political structures and social dynamics. The trend poses knotty challenges to European Union policy makers as they try to keep up with the breakneck speed of developments.

This event is sponsored by The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
Bernardino Leon is the European Union Special Representative (EUSR) for the Southern Mediterranean.

He was born in Malaga, where he obtained a degree in Law focusing his studies in public international law. He got a diploma in international studies from the CEI, University of Barcelona. He became a Spanish diplomat in 1989. He was first posted to Liberia in 1990-1991, where the devastating civil war focused his professional interest in understanding the underpinning causes of ethnic violence.

Since then, his political and diplomatic career has been mainly devoted to the Arab world. In 1991, he was part of a short mission to Libya in the context of establishing the Read more

George Whitesides -“Joseph Priestley Award Lecturer”

Whitesides PosterWoodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology,
Harvard University

Low Cost Diagnostics

Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

* Professor Whitesides will sign copies of his book
No Small Matter: Science on the Nanoscale
Monday, November 7 at 4:00 p.m. in the Waidner-Spahr Library’s Biblio Café.

Biography (provided by the speaker)
George M. Whitesides has worked in an unusually broad range of areas, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, organometallic chemiWhitesidesstry, applied enzymology, self-assembly, soft lithography, microfluidics, organic surface science, and nanotechnology. His current research interests include physical and organic chemistry, materials science, biophysics, complexity and simplicity, tools for biology, technology for developing economies, and the origin of life. His laboratory at Harvard University is noted for its diversity, creativity, and productivity, and for the quality of the students it produces.

He received an A.B. degree from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology under John D. Roberts. He was a member of the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1963 to 1982. He joined the Department of Chemistry at Harvard in 1982 and served as department chairman from 1986 to 1989. Read more

Dennis Blair

Former United States Director of National Intelligence, Commander in Chief of U.S. Pacific Command, and Retired United States Navy Admiral

The Challenges of China

dennis blair poster

Thursday, November 3, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

* This event is part of The Clarke Forum’s series on Leadership in an Age
of Uncertainty.

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

Lecture Description (provided by the speaker)
To outsiders, China seems to be on a roll these days. The 2008 Olympics were an impressive coming-out party; it weathered the 2007-2008 world economic crisis better than most other countries, and has resumed double-digit economic growth; it has shown the world an advanced stealth aircraft, is about to launch an aircraft carrier, and has sent ships to join the international anti-piracy patrol in the Indian Ocean. Yet in many ways China does not act like a powerful, confident country. It squabbles with its neighbors to the East and South; it is in the midst of a mostly secret succession process; Chinese search engines will not accept “jasmine”; labor unrest and inflation are growing. Admiral Blair will describe Read more

“3/11”: Japan’s Disaster (Part 2)

Japan Disaster PosterTuesday, November 1, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Panelists

Saiko Miyamoto, Student, U.S. Army War College
Ben Edwards, Earth Sciences, Dickinson College
John Luetzelschwab, Physics and Astronomy (Ret.), Dickinson College
Jeff Niemitz (moderator), Earth Sciences, Dickinson College

During the fall 2011 semester, the Clarke Forum will sponsor two panel discussions on Japan’s “3/11” that will examine the powerful Tohoku earthquake, the ensuing tsunami, and the ongoing nuclear situation. This panel will examine the disasters from a scientific perspective.

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

Biographies of the Panelists

Saiko Miyamoto is a student at the U.S. Army War College.  She holds a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo; a master of arts degree in translation and interpretation for Japanese and English from Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA; and a master of business administration from University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, MD.  Most recently, she was the assistant deputy chief of staff for Host Nation Acitivies (G5), U.S. Army, Read more

P. J. Crowley – General Omar N. Bradley Lecture

Former United States Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs

General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership

WIKILEAKS: One Year Later

Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Penn State University Dickinson School of Law
Lewis Katz Hall Auditorium, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Crowley will explore the impact that Wikileaks has had on global politics and the media as well as the implications it has had for relevant national security policies.

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

PJ CrowleyBiography
Philip J. “P.J.” Crowley, former United States assistant secretary of state for public affairs, is the 2011-2012 recipient of the General Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership. While in residence, Crowley conducts classes at Dickinson College, the U.S. Army War College and Penn State University Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs.

President Barack Obama nominated Crowley to be assistant secretary of state for public affairs in the U.S. Department of State in 2009. Previously, he served as special assistant to the president for national security affairs and senior director of public affairs for the National Read more

County Commissioners’ Election Debate

commissioners debate posterThursday, October 13, 2011 – 7:00 p.m.
Stern Center, Great Room

Candidates

Barb Cross (R)
Gary Eichelberger (R)
Jim Hertzler (D)
Joshua Monighan (I)
Sean Shultz (D)

The five candidates vying for the three seats on the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners will meet for a candidates’ debate. This event is being sponsored by the The Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues at Dickinson College, Carlisle YWCA, Carlisle and Harrisburg League of Women Voters, Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce and the AAUW.

The candidates are Commissioner Barb Cross, Commissioner Gary Eichelberger, East Pennsboro Township Commissioner Jim Hertzler, Carlisle Borough Council Member Sean Shultz and Hampton Township Resident Joshua Monighan.  Professor Andy Rudalevige from Dickinson College’s political science department will moderate. Read more

“3/11”: Japan’s Disaster (Part 1)

Japan Disaster PosterTuesday, October 11, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Panelists

Satsuki Takahashi, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of East Asian Studies, Princeton University
David Leheny, East Asian Studies, Princeton University
Alex Bates, East Asian Studies, Dickinson College
Shawn Bender (moderator), East Asian Studies, Dickinson College

During the fall 2011 semester, the Clarke Forum will sponsor two panel discussions on Japan’s “3/11” that will examine the powerful Tohoku earthquake, the ensuing tsunami, and the ongoing nuclear situation. This panel will situate the current disaster historically and explore its social, cultural and political impact.

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

Biographies

Satsuki Takahashi is a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from Rutgers University in 2010, and has served for three years as a research fellow at the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo. Based on her dissertation on fishing communities and on ongoing NSF RAPID-funded follow-up research, she is currently preparing a book manuscript on “unending modernization,” human-ocean relations, and Read more

James Mann

Globe Poster James MannAuthor-in-Residence, Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies

Political Parties and U.S. Foreign Policy

Thursday, October 6, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

Description of Lecture
In election years, presidential candidates like to talk in stark terms about the differences between the Republicans and the Democrats. After a new president takes office, however, the differences sometimes don’t seem so profound as they were made to sound in the political campaign. So it has been with the Obama administration: there has been considerably more continuity from the George W. Bush administration to Obama’s than was expected during the 2008 election. There are, in fact, some longstanding differences between the two parties, but they are not always the ones the candidates of either party describe. And on some broad foreign-policy issues, both the Republicans and the Democrats have switched back and forth from decade to decade.

This event is co-sponsored by the Department of International Business and Management.

MannJamesBWBiography (provided by the speaker)
James Mann is author-in-residence at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He was previously a Washington correspondent, columnist and Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times.

He has written five books: Beijing Jeep (Simon & Read more

Life on the Streets

Homelessness Poster FinalWednesday, October 5, 2011
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, 7:00 p.m.

A panel of homeless and prior homeless individuals from Cumberland County will share their stories of how they fell through the social safety net and will answer questions on how they are recovering from their experiences.

There are more than a million homeless people in the United States living in shelters, on the street, in the woods, in storage units and doubled up with friends or relatives. Each story of homelessness is unique. While many folks suffer from addiction and mental health issues this is not the rule. In fact the average age of a homeless person (according to the National Coalition for the Homeless) is nine years old. Families with children is the fastest growing subset while veterans are the largest single subset.

This forum will allow for an opportunity to have candid discussions with individuals who have suffered from homelessness and to gain a better understanding of the issues that cause this condition.

For more information, visit www.safeharbouronline.org or www.facebook.com/groups/ilovesafeharbour

Biography (provided by the moderator)
Moderator, Pat LaMarche, is the voice of The Pulse Morning Show. It broadcasts in Maine and is available on the web Read more

Rita King

Nothing to Hide Poster FinalFounder and Creative Director of Dancing Ink Productions

Nothing to Hide?

Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, 7:00 p.m.

While Facebook has served as a catalyst for discussions about privacy issues, it’s only one aspect of a major shift permeating the world. Platforms come and go but privacy issues continue to influence and shape modern life. Perceptions of what privacy is and what it’s worth are changing. In addition to internet privacy issues, urban environments are increasingly filled with surveillance cameras. Nearly everybody on the street is carrying a mobile device, maybe capturing some fragment of your story arc in the form of an image or overheard snippet of conversation. Digital algorithms can piece together the puzzle of your life by recognizing your patterns, habits and even your face. How will the construction of identity and society be affected? How will *you* be affected?

This event is co-sponsored by the Departments of American Studies, Math and Computer Science and Sociology.

RJKprofBiography (provided by the speaker)

Rita J. King is a writer, conceptual artist and entrepreneur. As the executive vice president of business development at Science House and founder of Dancing Ink Productions, her work centers on the development Read more

Brian Haig

brian haig poster webBestselling Author and Former Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Fiction Explains Things Nonfiction Can’t

Friday, September 23, 2011
Stern Center, Great Room, **3:30 p.m.**
Book Sale/Signing will follow the lecture.
The Capital Game and Man in the Middle will be available for purchase.

Haig will discuss the impact of fiction on how readers understand their political and social worlds and how this understanding can shape their conduct and hence our future. For example, Tom Clancy introduced us to military technology, Dan Brown made us re-think religion, Steig Larsson made us see Sweden in a whole new way. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin helped launch a civil war to end slavery; Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War kicked off the World War Two craze; Leon Uris’s Exodus shaped how Americans see Israel; and Alex Haley’s Roots explained the black experience in America.

Brian HaigBiography (provided by the speaker)
Brian Haig P’12 and P’13 graduated from West Point in 1975, spent 22 years on active duty, his last four as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After retiring from the Army, he was president of two companies before becoming a writer. Read more

Michael Chertoff – Constitution Day Address Lecturer

Chertoff Poster FinalFormer Federal Judge and Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Understanding Today’s Threat Environment

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 *
Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium, **5:00 p.m.**

Despite recent counterterrorism successes, including the death of Osama bin Laden, our world remains threatened by terrorist organizations whose members hate freedom, justice and liberty for all. Ten years after September 11, 2001, former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff discusses why we must not take our attention away from these significant dangers and the threat they pose to our future.

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

* This event is part of The Clarke Forum’s series on Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty.
ChertoffBiography (provided by speaker)

As Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from 2005 to 2009, Mr. Chertoff led the country in blocking would-be terrorists from crossing our borders or implementing their plans if they were already in the country. He also transformed FEMA into an effective organization following Hurricane Katrina. His greatest successes have earned few headlines – because the important news is what didn’t happen.

At Chertoff Read more