Great Decisions in the News 2016

WZZM13.com, Diplomat visiting Grand Rapids speaks on US relationship with Cuba, March 28
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"I believe when you have difficult relationships, that's when you ought to be talking, not when you ought to cut them off," Shapiro said. "Having normal diplomatic relations doesn't mean you like a country, it means you talk to that country." 

 

Citylife Chiang Mai, Great Decisions Group, March 22
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"ISIS wil be the focus of the Great Decisions group meeting at Sang Dee Gallery," Chiang Mai, Thailand.

 

Mlive.com, Why outlook on ISIS is 'pretty negative,' ex-CIA officer says, March 21
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"After 9/11 (attacks) al-Qaeda tried really hard to do another 'spectacular,'but they were never able to pull off that spectacular," Skinner said. "They didn't do attacks because they wanted the perfect attack, and that opportunity never came. For (ISIS), they're the exact opposite. There is no such thing as a failed terror attack. They only requirement is it has to be immediately known that it's an ISIS-inspired attack. As soon as it's (publicized as an attack by) ISIS, everybody freaks out. Now the 'spectacular' is us. It's our overraction. San Bernardino is a big tragedy, sure, but is it going to topple California? No."

 

The Virginia Gazette, Foreign policy is twined with U.S. policy, March 16
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"I suppose that my main message is that foreign policy matters! There is an old saw that all politics is local and it is surely true. But the environment, security, trade and commerce are all transnational issues that shapre our well-being at home. We have a moral and economic state in the stability of or neighbors. Our most basic values and ideals are tested in faraway conflicts and crisis. So we have to stay engaged and vigilant in the world because what happens in the world affects us."

 

The Virginia Gazette, American military presence problem for North Korea, March 16
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"North Korea is developing nuclear weapons, and American military presence is to blame, according to retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. Wilkerson, who had a 31-year career and served as chief of staff to Gen. Colin Powell between 2002 and 2005, spoke on March 15 about the reunifying North and South Korea as part of the League of Women Voter's Great Decisions Series."

 

Jackson Hole News & Guide, Faraway countries are much closer now, March 9
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"So why does it matter whether or not we take the time or make the effort to understand faraway places? We live in an interdependent world. What happens elsewhere can affect us. Our real enemy is ignorance. If we react with ignorance to the threat of terrorism and Islamic extremism, for example, we could feed the very threat that we fear."

 

The Virginia Gazette, Refugee migration topic of Great Decisions lecture, March 8
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"Migration is an increasingly important international topic of discussion as conflicts around the globe force many refugees to seek asylum outside of their home countries. Banks' lecture focused on two areas with an increasing number of refugees due to gang and political wars: Central America and Syria."

 

Citizen-Times, Guest columnist: World Affairs Council a dynamic presence in Asheville, Feb. 26
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"The WACA is a consortium of nearly one hundred chapters all over America. [...] It has a winter series that comprises lectures every week for six weeks during February and March. These lectures, known as the "Great Decisions" series, are presented in Hendersonville, Brevard and Columbus, as well as in Asheville. Great Decisions is a nationwide program of the Foreign Policy Assocation, in which WAC-WNC and its partners join in the wider national conversation about the issues the FPA review and publishes each year."

 

Houston Chronicle, Gatherings to probe hot-button topics in foreign policy, Feb. 2 
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"'I kind of refer to Great Decisions as a primer,' Handy said. 'We get people in every year who simply haven't been exposed to the inside of American foreign policy.'"

"'Participants kind of cross all kinds of lines,' he said. 'We have arch conservatives. We have solid liberals. We have different religious groups that participate as individuals, not necessarily representing their religious groups.'"
 

American Diplomacy, Upcoming PBS Video, "America's Diplomats", January
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The documentary "is designed to summarize the historical contribution of American diplomats to the nation's security and well-being, and to provide a portrait of the Foreign Service of the United States, America's professional diplomatic service. It illustrates the responsibilities, achievements and challenges of United States diplomacy in the 21st Century."

 

Chicago Tribune, Great Decisions group focuses on foreign policy, big picture, Jan. 21
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“There are lots of registered voters who cannot locate Saudi Arabia on a map and are not ashamed of that fact. But Rick Blackwell and his Great Decisions cohorts are not among that voting bloc. Instead, this is a group of people armed with both curiosity and willingness to learn, and frankly every educated voter in the United States should follow their example.”

 

Jackson Hole News & Guide, Weigh foreign policy at library discussions, Jan. 20
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“Several years ago John Hebberger Jr. was participating in a foreign policy discussion […] on the relationship between the United States and Cuba, when a man who lived for years in Cuba started talking. The former Cuba resident brought a whole different perspective to the conservation, Hebberger said. That’s why the library’s foreign policy discussions are so fascinating. ‘You never who is going to be there or what kind of background they are going to have,’ Hebberger said. ‘You never know what direction the discussion is going to go. In a community like this you have people that have been to many of these places, who really know these issues.’”

 

Tryon Daily Bulletin, Great Decisions Lecture Series returns to ICC, Jan. 18
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“Samer Traboulsi of the UNCA History Department […] opens our series addressing the complex issues of Middle East alliances. In week two we consider the ISIS/Daesh threat, when Major General Rick Devereaux, Director Operational Planning, Policy and Strategy of the Air Force, will address the military, diplomatic, and strategic steps that are being taken to confront it. Climate change [...] will be reviewed in our third week by Tom Peterson, a widely published climate scientist, current president of the Commission for Climatology Structure at the World Meteorological Organization, and recently retired NOAA climatologist.”

 

Star Tribune, Sobering global events crash New Year's party, Jan. 8
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“The Foreign Policy Association’s 2016 “Great Decisions” topics reflect real-time crises (Mideast alliances, ISIL, the Kurds, the Koreas, migration) as well as longer-term challenges (climate change, Cuba and the U.S., the United Nations).”