On Shifting Ground

The 2013 Awards Dinner of the World Affairs Council and the Global Philanthropy Forum honors Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, Inc.

This year we recognize Dick Costolo for helping to achieve positive social change through private enterprise, and for his leadership of Twitter, which is making a transformational impact on societies, economies and polities here and around the globe.

Please check back soon for the full video.

Direct download: 11_21_13_Costolo_Awards_Dinner.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 10:47am PDT

Lester Brown, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, has lived his life on the forefront of speaking truth to environmental issues worldwide. In 1963 while at the US Department of Agriculture, Brown produced the first global food supply and demand projections to the end of the century and on a brief assignment in India in 1965 he sounded the alarm on an impending famine there, setting in motion the largest food rescue effort in history that helped save millions of lives. Brown helped pioneer the concept of environmentally sustainable development and focuses his research on food, population, water, climate change and renewable energy. Brown will speak about his life’s work and the continuation of the Earth Policy Institute’s vision to achieve an environmentally sustainable economy.

For more information about this event, please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/events/2013/a-pioneer-for-environmental-sustainability.html

Direct download: 11_13_13_Lester_Brown.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 8:00pm PDT

In the media realm, Rupert Murdoch stands alone. He is seen as the most influential media tycoon the English-speaking world has ever known. Murdoch's company, News Corp., which started with just one newspaper in Adelaide, Australia controlled hundreds of news outlets including newspapers, film, television, broadcasting, cable networks, publishing houses and more at its height. It was a company that had no rival. Then in 2011, a series of scandals (starting with the News of the World wire tapping) threatened to bring Murdoch's entire empire crumbling down, but it somehow survived. Media correspondent for NPR News, David Folkenflik will delve into the scandals that almost ended Rupert Murdoch's media empire to explain why a man with such influence was almost brought down and examine the true cost of Murdoch's survival.

David Folkenflik is a Media Correspondent for National Public Radio.

For more information about this event, visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/events/2013/murdoch.html

Direct download: 11_12_13_Murdoch_Empire.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 8:00pm PDT

Some call the 65 year-old relationship between Pakistan and the US a strategic alliance. For Pakistan, the US has been a source of much needed aid and military supply. For the US, Pakistan has been a stabilizing force in a largely unstable region. Today, Pakistan is seen in the US as a hotbed of terrorist activity and the US is seen in Pakistan as a constant source of humiliation. Former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, blames these deteriorating views on a relationship between these two countries that has always been based on mutual incomprehension and the belief that one can play the other. Drawing on his experience with his homeland and his time in the US as an ambassador and a professor, Haqqani will lay out his views on the US-Pakistani relationship and why the two just can't seem to understand each other.

Husain Haqqani is the Director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson Institute.

For more information about this event, visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/events/2013/pakistan-and-the-us.html

Direct download: 11_7_13_Pakistan_US_Alliance.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 8:00pm PDT

Recently, international attention has been focused on the impact of the Syrian civil war, which has driven over 2 million individuals out of the country, turning them into refugees overnight. This vast relocation puts a strain on the resources of neighboring countries and threatens to spread instability throughout a region that has been dealing with refugee crises for decades. In addition to those who have fled to other countries, hundreds of thousands of civilians are also displaced within Syria.

While the situation in Syria has grabbed headlines, a longer term refugee crisis continues. For over 60 years, Palestinian refugees have lived across the region, receiving services including education, health care, relief and social services, food assistance and other forms of emergency assistance from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Many of these individuals were seeking refuge in Syria and have now been forced to move once again.

What is the impact of the Syria crisis on the situation of Palestine Refugees and their unresolved status? Are there lessons to be learned from the ongoing plight of Palestinian refugees in the international community's response to the Syrian crisis? Filippo Grandi will discuss UNRWA's efforts in the region, the displacement caused by the Syrian civil war and long-term issues and instability in the region.

Filippo Grandi is the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

For more information about this event, visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/events/2013/seeking-refuge.html

Direct download: 11_4_13_Palestinian_Refuge.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:12pm PDT

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