On Shifting Ground

In the coming years, the United States will experience drastic social, racial and economic shifts. By 2050, the US population will be majority non-white and the median age will rise above 40. A significant generational gap is emerging in social and political values as well as religious, racial and ethnic identities. There is also a disparity in economic well-being. For the first time in American history, a new generation may have a lower standard of living than their parents. What do these changes mean for America's social, political and economic future? How will they affect our national identity and perceptions of our role in the world? Paul Taylor will draw on Pew Research Center's polls and data to discuss the implications of America's rapidly changing demographics.

Speaker Paul Taylor is Executive Vice President of Special Projects at the Pew Research Center.

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/events/event/1289

Direct download: 5_12_14_America_2050.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 8:55am PDT

More than nine billion devices around the world are currently connected to the Internet, including computers and smartphones. That number is expected to increase dramatically within the next decade, with estimates ranging from quintupling to 50 billion devices to reaching one trillion. Please join us for a discussion of how the Internet of Things will impact the way we live, the way business is done and how resources are consumed. Important to the discussion will be the challenges ahead when merging the physical and digital worlds and the implications for privacy and security around the world.

Speakers include:

Katherine Butler, General Counsel, GE Software | @GEsoftware

Guido Jouret, VP and General Manager, Internet of Things Group, Cisco | @gjouret @Cisco_IoT

Stephen Pattison, VP of Public Affairs, ARM | @SPattison_ARM @ARMCommunity

Steve Yankovich, VP of Innovation and New Ventures, eBay, Inc. | @SteveYankovich @ebayinc

The panel discussion is moderated by Aleecia McDonald, Director of Privacy, Center for Internet and Society, Stanford Law School | @StanfordCIS

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/internet-of-things

Direct download: 5_7_14_Internet_Things.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:29pm PDT

North Korea is once again in the headlines, thanks to a sequence of aggressive, yet carefully calculated actions: another missile test; a nuclear weapons test in January of last year followed by a declaration that Pyongyang was exiting the 60-year-old Korean armistice; the sudden execution of the leader's uncle; and a constant, continuing stream of vituperative denunciations of South Korea and the United States. What does the North hope to accomplish with these acts? And how should the United States and its allies respond? Also, as North Korea's lifeline, how should China respond? Philip Yun, executive director and COO of the Ploughshares Fund, is well-equipped to answer these questions. Yun is a former high-level diplomat who has worked extensively in academia, business, nonprofits and government. Prior to joining Ploughshares Fund, he was a Pantech Scholar in Korean Studies at Stanford University. He met Kim Jong Il in October, 2000 as a part of the delegation that travelled to North Korea with Secretary of State Madeline Albright and was a member of a working group that managed US policy toward North Korea under President Clinton. Yun was as a senior advisor to the first US Coordinator for North Korea Policy, former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry.

Speaker Philip W. Yun is Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Ploughshares Fund.

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1262

Direct download: 3_26_14_SAC_North_Korea.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 1:38pm PDT

For more than 50 years, CARE has been serving individuals and families in the world's poorest communities. Today, they work in 84 countries around the world, empowering women in Peru, promoting democratic governance in Mali and fostering education and healthcare projects in Cambodia, among hundreds of other projects. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE USA, will discuss her experiences in the fields of public health and international development.

Speaker Helene Gayle is President and CEO of CARE.

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1267

Direct download: 4_30_14_Helene_Gayle.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 10:56pm PDT

More than one billion people today live on just one dollar per day. Those who live at this level of poverty often work extremely hard at jobs few in the West would even entertain. They lack basic services such as healthcare and education, a deficit that all too often keeps them and their families stuck in a continuous poverty cycle, often for generations. Professor Thomas Nazario, founder of The Forgotten International, will discuss what he calls 'the forgotten people of the world'. Often they are those who live in abject poverty, often they are women and children and often they have absolutely no access to any kind of real power or influence. How can one bring more attention to these issues? And what, if anything, can be done to solve global poverty? This event will be followed by Last Call.

Speaker Tom Nazario is Founder and President of The Forgotten International.

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/events/event/1266

Direct download: 4_29_14_Global_Poverty.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 10:52pm PDT



On the occasion of Earth Day 2014, the World Affairs Council and the Commonwealth Club are delighted to host the President of Iceland. As a member of the Arctic Council, Iceland is at the forefront of those nations in the North feeling the environmental effects brought on by climate change. While the melting polar ice cap has potential broad negative consequences for the world's oceans, sea levels and climate, at the same time it increases the potential for commercial and economic activity in the Arctic region. President Grímsson will address both the challenges and opportunities that will arise from these important global changes in his talk "People and Ice: The New Significance of the Arctic and the Himalayas." His Excellency Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson has been Iceland's president since 1996 and is currently serving his fifth elected term in office. He has served a long and illustrious career in public service, first as a professor of political science at the University of Iceland and later holding numerous positions within the Icelandic government. Among many international awards he has received is the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize which he received on behalf of the international organization Parliamentarians for Global Action, of which he was chairman and later president from 1984 - 1990.

Speaker Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is President of the Republic of Iceland.

For more information about event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1286

Direct download: 4_22_14_Iceland_President-1.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 11:15am PDT

The war in Syria, revolutions and counter-revolutions in Egypt, counterterrorism operations in Northern Africa, attacks in Kenya, Nigeria and Russia—the news of today suggests the threat of terrorism is far from over. The post-Arab Spring security vacuum and the rise of social media has changed realities and transformed the terrorism landscape. Where the center of gravity of Bin Laden terrorism was once limited to Afghanistan, Al Qaeda has now adapted and incorporated loosely connected groups, ceding operational control in exchange for a more global reach. Ali Soufan, author of "The Black Banners", CEO of The Soufan Group and former FBI Special Agent, will discuss the spread of Al Qaeda's violent narratives and outline the current threat landscape.

Speaker Ali Soufan is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Soufan Group.

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1258

Direct download: 4_7_14_Al_Qaeda.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 8:56am PDT

Full event details: worldaffairs.org/wa2014

A keynote conversation with Ray Suarez, the new host of Inside Story, Al Jazeera America's daily program. Suarez was with PBS' NewsHour from 1999 to 2013, most recently as its chief national correspondent. He hosted National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation for six years before joining PBS. Suarez also spent seven years reporting for Chicago's NBC-owned station WMAQ-TV. Suarez began his career as a Los Angeles correspondent for CNN, a producer for the ABC Radio Network in New York and a reporter for CBS Radio in Rome.In 2010 Suarez was inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame. He is a co-recipient of two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards for NPR's on-site coverage of the first multi-racial elections in South Africa and of the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. Suarez is the author of the critically acclaimed "Latino Americans," the companion book to the PBS documentary series of the same name that was published in 2013.

Speakers
Ray Suarez, Host, Inside Story, Al Jazeera America
Jane M. Wales (moderator), President & Chief Executive Officer, World Affairs Council

Direct download: 3_15_14-WA14_Ray-Suarez.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 3:47pm PDT

Full event details: worldaffairs.org/wa2014

The Obama administration has long sought to reposition itself in the international arena - hoping to turn back the last decade's "tide of war," reduce American vulnerabilities in the Middle East, "rebalance" toward Asia and emphasize "nation-building" here at home. This is an ambitious agenda, but not an unfamiliar one. Retrenchment presidents of the past - those who charted a new path after major wars - give us a framework for evaluating the current administration's efforts. What can we learn from their experience? What are the pre-requisites for successful retrenchment? What are the pitfalls? And how well is the Obama administration meeting the challenge?

Speaker
Stephen Sestanovich, George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor for the Practice of International Diplomacy, Columbia University

Direct download: 3_15_14-WA14_US_Role.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 3:44pm PDT

Full event details: worldaffairs.org/wa2014

Four years after civil unrest and protests sparked transformations across the Arab world, we sit down with two prominent Arab scholars for a frank discussion of this deeply misunderstood region. What are the roots and the future of Arab politics and the unrest in the region? How will democracy evolve in such a diverse landscape? What is the future of political Islam? Is there a positive role for the West to play in the reconstruction and state-building of the new Arab world?

Speakers
Shadi Hamid, Director of Research at the Brookings Doha Center and a fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution
Marwan Muasher, former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Vice President of Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Janine Zacharia (moderator), Carlos Kelly McClatchy Visiting Lecturer, Department of Communications, Stanford University

Direct download: 3_15_14_WA14_Arab_Awakening.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 3:41pm PDT