Distinguished Lecturer Series Board Site
Nominated Speakers:
World Affairs
Peter Zeihan
Geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan is a global energy demographic and security expert. His worldview merges the realities of geography and populations, offering a deep understanding of how global politics impact economic and market trends. Peter has predicted several of the most recent geopolitical events including Brexit, the shale revolution, the rise of populism and the US backing away from the world as a global superpower. Before founding his own firm he worked for the US State Department and private think tanks. He is the author of the Accidental Superpower and the Absent Superpower. His talks have a very lively non-partisan approach, based on a decade in private intelligence.
I would add to the above commentary that he is very colorful, provocative and interesting to listen to. The YouTube sections to show are from "Keynote-Peter Zeihan-2022", an address made on September 8, 2022. (Click on underlined text to see this talk exceprts of which appear below.)
If committee members think that he might be a good speaker, I encourage them to YouTube him and wander through various comments. You will not be bored. You can watch the complete YouTube from which the clip below was taken by clicking here.
He is represented by Big Speak Speakers Bureau. The quoted rate is $20,000 to $30,000.
-- Paul Becker
Kevin Rudd
The Honorable Kevin Rudd became President and CEO of Asia Society in January 2021 and has been president of the Asia Society Policy Institute since January 2015. He served as Australia's 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. He is also a leading international authority on China. He began his career as a China scholar, serving as an Australian diplomat in Beijing before entering Australian politics.
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Also, for anyone interested, I have added a recent Foreign Affairs article that reflects PM Rudds deep thinking and knowledge on the subject of Xi Jinping. You can read the article by clicking here.
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The video below describes PM Rudd's interactions with Xi Jinping. The full one-hour interview with Secretary Rice can be seen by clicking here.
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-- Don Laurie
Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for The Atlantic and a Pulitzer-prize winning historian. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Agora Institute, where she co-directs Arena, a program on disinformation and 21st century propaganda.
A Washington Post columnist for fifteen years and a former member of the editorial board, she has also worked as the Foreign and Deputy Editor of the Spectator magazine in London, as the Political Editor of the Evening Standard, and as a columnist at Slate as well as the Daily and Sunday Telegraphs. From 1988-1991 she covered the collapse of communism as the Warsaw correspondent of the Economist magazine and the Independent newspaper.
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You can view the entire YouTube video by clicking here.
Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Germany and has served three terms. As a Lutheran divorced woman from East Germany, she defied convention by breaking into, and eventually leading, the traditionally conservative male-dominated Christian Democratic Union party. She is considered the de facto leader of the European Union. In 2015, Time Magazine named her Person of the Year. Female.
She was born on July 17th 1954 in Hamburg, Germany. In school, Merkel excelled at Russian and Mathematics, and she went on to study Physics at the University of Leipzig. She also earned a doctorate in Quantum Chemistry which led her to seek a career as a research scientist. Smart.
Merkel’s involvement with politics began after the fall of the Berlin Wall when she joined the Democratic Awakening party which resulted winning several elections – Cabinet Member (1990), Minister for the Environment and Nuclear Safety (1994), General Secretary Christian Democratic Union, and Leader of the Opposition in the Bundestag (2002). Experienced.
In the 2005 election, neither the CDU nor the Social Democratic Party (SDP) won a clear majority. The CDU successfully negotiated a grand coalition government with the
SDP; consequently, Merkel became Chancellor of Germany, the first female to win the position. She has held the chancellery for three terms, and, with no obvious successor
in place and no term limits in Germany, it is likely she will contest for a fourth. As Germany is the most populous and richest country in the European Union, Merkel is
also known as the de facto leader of the EU. Accomplished.
In 2015, Time Magazine named her Person of the Year. She has also been awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. She also has also forcefully condemned Russia’s war in the Ukraine. Relevant.
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The short clip below shows Chancellor Merkel speaking in both English and in German (via a translator on Putin). Click here to view her 2019 Commencement Address at Harvard which is entirely in English.
Paul Goble
Paul Goble is a long term specialist on ethic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently he was director of researchand publication at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier he served as Vice Dean of social sciences and humanities and a senior research associate in Estonia, where he launched “Windows on Eurasia”.
Prior to 2004 he served in various capacities in the US State Department, the CIA and International Broadcasting Bureau, as well as once of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Carnegie Endowment for International peace. He was former Special Advisor to Secretary of State James Baker on Soviet nationality issues and Baltic affairs.and Senior Advisor to the Director of Voice of America.
He trained at the Miami University of Ohio and the University of Chicago. He has been decorated by the government’s of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for his work in promoting Baltic independence and the withdrawal of Russia from those formerly occupied lands.
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You can see the full YouTube from which this clip is taken by clicking here.
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-- Frannie Atchison