Category Archives: Events

Climate Change in the Post-Pandemic World

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Theresa Sabonis-HelfGrab your favorite beverage and join us for a live Happy Hour Webinar to discuss the impact that COVID-19 has had on global oil trade and climate change!  The environment has been a (short term) beneficiary of COVID-19. From altering supply chains, to collapsing oil prices, to mixing virtual and physical presence in the workplace, this discussion will examine the potential environmental impacts of how Americans are rethinking trade, work, and travel in the post-pandemic world.

Dr. Theresa Sabonis-Helf is the Inaugural Chair of the Science, Technology and International Affairs concentration in the Master’s Degree program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Prior to joining Georgetown, she was a Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College in Washington DC.  She has lived and worked in seven countries of the Former USSR, has assisted two nations with the development of their first National Security Strategies, and has co-edited two volumes on Central Asia’s political and economic transition.  She has also published and lectured extensively on energy security, climate change policies, post-Soviet energy and environmental issues, regional water politics, regional trade and transit, and the politics of electricity.  She is a frequent advisor to the US Department of State and USAID and is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

This FREE Live Webinar Event will be taking place on
Thu, July 9, 2020 from 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM EDT

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US – China: Dimensions of a Complicated Relationship

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An Evening with Dr. Cynthia Watson
Wednesday, June 3, 2020 @ 7:00 p.m. EST

Please Join an FPLC Meeting Event with Cynthia Watson, Ph.D. – Dean of Faculty & Academic Programs at The National War College, The National Defense University

The U.S. and China form what has been called “the determinant relationship of the 21st century.” In this time of upheaval, where is that relationship headed? Are there areas of agreement on issues that affect our country and the world—the economy, trade, and our shared climate? Or are we entering a new Cold War? FPLC is pleased to welcome back Cynthia Watson from the National War College to give us her views on this crucial topic.

Cynthia Watson has served on the faculty of the National War College since she arrived in l992. She accepted the position of Dean of Faculty & Academic Programs in 2014. The mission of the National War College is to educate future leaders of the Armed Forces, Department of State and other civilian agencies for high-level policy command and staff responsibilities by conducting a senior-level course of study in national strategy. When she last spoke to FPLC in 2017, she was focused on military education as an instrument of statecraft as well as China’s modernizing and how that affects its security relations. She has worked on China in Latin America for the past fifteen years. Her most recent manuscript was Asia First: Reflecting or Refracting Strategy? It is an assessment of the use of strategy to achieve the rebalance to Asia and the future of the United States around the world.

She grew up in Thailand and Colombia, earned her M.A. in Economic History/Latin American Studies from the London School of Economics and has a PhD in Government & International Studies from the University of Notre Dame. Her Alma Mater, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, honored her as Alumna of the Year in 2011. She has published nine books on various security issues, including Combatant Commands: Origins, Structure and Engagements (2011), Stability, Security, Reconstruction and Transition Operations (2012), and Military Education (2007).

She was Assistant Dean for Social Sciences at Loyola University of Chicago where she also taught Political Science. Dr. Watson worked for the House Subcommittee on Government Information and Individual Rights as well as the U.S. General Accounting Office. Among other posts she is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

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How to start, build and run a social enterprise that changes the world

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An evening with Rupert Scofield
Co-Founder and CEO of FINCA INT’L

Schiff Conference Center/Cintas – Xavier University

Thursday, February 27
5:30 reception/6:15 dinner/7:00 talk/discussion

Mr. Rupert Scofield co-founded FINCA International — the founder and majority owner of a global network of 20 microfinance institutions and banks on five continents — in 1984 and has served as President/CEO since 1994.

Rupert leads FINCA International on the next leg of its journey: supporting the rise of social enterprises delivering basic service and financial innovation. An expert on microfinance, social enterprise and impact investing, Rupert is an author, podcast presenter and frequent speaker, offering insights and guidance on market-based solutions to global poverty.

Rupert Scofield co-founded microfinance pioneer FINCA International (“FINCA”). As FINCA scaled around the world, so too did microfinance. Rupert learned what it took to start, build and run one of the original social enterprises and learned an invaluable lesson: to alleviate poverty takes a network of social enterprises that improve lives worldwide. Rupert will share why social enterprises are needed now more than ever to address the world’s pressing development challenges. He’ll ground this in firsthand experience of not only building and running a global social enterprise, but also becoming an investor in early-stage social enterprises through FINCA Ventures. Rupert will address the network effect of social enterprises and how social enterprise initiatives grew out of his recognition that access to basic services requires financial inclusion and that both are essential to poverty alleviation.

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Clash of Globalizations

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The USA and China:
Much more than a Trade War
An Evening with Dr. James P. Buchanan

Thursday, November 14, 2019

5:30 p.m. Reception/6:15 p.m. Dinner/7:00 p.m. Presentation
Schiff Family Conference Center at Xavier University

There is a great deal of discussion about the trade war with China. President Trump has imposed an increasing series of tariffs on China in order to get what he believes to be a better trading agreement with China. China has retaliated with their own tariffs. That this is having negative impacts in both the US and China is undeniable. The outcome is to be determined. But the current trade war is just a small part of a much larger conflict between the West and China – a clash of models of globalization. The Washington Consensus, also known as the Bretton-Woods System has been the dominant mode of globalization since the 1950’s and has gone through its own evolution culminating with the formation of the World Trade Organization in 1992.

While China is a member of the WTO, at the same time it has developed and pursued its own competing model of globalization, which not only competes with the Bretton-Woods model but is often in violation of the rules governing its membership in the WTO. The best example of the Chinese model of globalization is The Belt and Road Initiative – a long-term plan for regional interconnectivity and dominance in Asia to which China has committed some $8 trillion dollars. Both the WTO and The Belt and Road are facing significant challenges. This session will lay out in broad terms the two Globalizations allowing us to discuss this clash of globalizations and the implications for US foreign and trade policy.

Dr. James P. Buchanan was educated at Yale University and University of Chicago where he completed a PhD in comparative religions, philosophies and comparative value systems. He has also studied in France, Russia and China. In 2000 he became the first holder of the Besl Family Chair in Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University. From 2002 to the present he has been University Professor and Executive Director of The Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue at Xavier.

Dr. Buchanan has delivered over 300 lectures and talks worldwide on issues ranging from interfaith relations; globalization; systems theory and global systems, and sustainability. He has published widely. His new book, Wagers Into the Abyss: Ethics in an Age of Global Systems will be published next year.

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Xavier University - Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue

World Affairs Council