At PCFR: Cities, "backstabbers'' and world shipping/ports

April 12, 2016
 
This evening we hear Hedrick Smith at the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org) dinner.
 

The next speaker for the PCFR comes Wednesday, May 11, with Greg Lindsay, a famed writer on cities and transportation around the world.

Look at:
 

Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next

$16.22

By John D. Kasarda, Greg Lindsay

Buy on Amazon

He is a contributing writer for Fast Company, author of the forthcoming book Engineering Serendipity, and co-author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next. He is also a senior fellow of the New Cities Foundation — where he leads the Connected Mobility Initiative — a non-resident senior fellow of The Atlantic Council’s Strategic Foresight Initiative, a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, and a senior fellow of the World Policy Institute.
 
On Tuesday, June 7, Michael Soussan, former UN whistleblower; acclaimed author; widely published journalist; NYU writing professor, and women's rights advocate, will speak. His satirical memoir about global corruption,  Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course In International Diplomacy (Nation Books / Perseus) is being adapted  for a feature film, starring Ben Kingsley and Josh Hutcherson

He will speak about the subject of his next book TRUTH TO POWER: how great minds changed the world. A brief history of thought leadership.
 
Evan Matthews, a key thought leader at the North Atlantic Ports Association and director of the Port of Davisville, has very kindly offered to talk to us on Wednesday, June 22, on changes in world shipping, including the widening of the Panama Canal and other changes of huge interest to New England ports. 

We plan to get experts on the Zika virus, ocean fishing and the geopolitical effects of global warming in the next season. Expert on Central Asia Morris Rossabi and former Ambassador to Slovakia Tod Sedgwick will be among those speaking in that season, which starts after Labor Day.
 

@ThePCFR

The future of world shipping

The next guest speaker of the Providence Committee on Foreign Relations (thepcfr.org) comes Tuesday, Jan. 12, for when we have scheduled Eric Brenner, a high official of Hapag-Lloyd, the huge international shipping company, to talk about the effects of the widening of the Panama Canal and other changes in world shipping – including, presumably, the happy economic effects on the ports of Quonset, Providence, New Haven, Bridgeport, Boston and Portland.

Perhaps he’ll also talk about how a proposed North American-European trade community might boost the volume of shipping.

For Tuesday, Feb. 16, we have scheduled Greg Lindsay. Mr. Lindsay is an internationally known urbanist who speaks often about globalization, innovation and the future of cities. Here’s a sampling of his work:

By John D. Kasarda, Greg Lindsay: Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next

By Straus and Giroux- -Farrar

Buy on Amazon

He is a contributing writer for Fast Company, author of the forthcoming book Engineering Serendipity, and co-author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next. He is also a senior fellow of the New Cities Foundation — where he leads the Connected Mobility Initiative — a non-resident senior fellow of The Atlantic Council’s Strategic Foresight Initiative, a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, and a senior fellow of the World Policy Institute.

On Tuesday March 15, we’ll haveMorris Rossabi, one of the world’s greatest experts on Central Asia. He’s a professor at Columbia University

Among his many other honors and posts, he became chairman of the Arts and Culture Board of the Open Society Institute.

We have asked him to focus on Mongolia, whose ability to become a real democracy stuck between the great expansionist police states of China and Russia, has long fascinated me.

In mid-April, celebrated author, TV documentary maker and former foreign correspondent Hedrick Smith will join us; he’ll talk about Russia, and the current state of America, too. We’ll nail down the exact date soon. Thanks to PCFR member Llewellyn King for suggesting this.

Tod Sedgwick, former U.S. ambassador to Slovakia, will join us in May 18 to talk about the future of Central Europe. He’s another friend of Mr. King.

On Tuesday, June 7, Michael Soussan, former UN whistleblower; acclaimed author; widely published journalist; NYU writing professor, and women's rights advocate, will speak. His satirical memoir about global corruption,  Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course In International Diplomacy (Nation Books / Perseus) is being adapted  for a feature film, starring Ben Kingsley and Josh Hutcherson.

Mr. Soussan  will speak about the subject of his next book TRUTH TO POWER: how great minds changed the world. A brief history of thought leadership.

We may also have an expert from Bhutan, mostly because that tiny country includes happiness  in its measurement of national prosperity, andan official of the Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project. All is not grim on the planet.

A reminder that general and specific information is available on thepcfr.org