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GREAT DECISIONS DISCUSSIONS
OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY At Highland Farms Retirement Community Black Mountain, North Carolina 28711 MEETING ROOM:BROOKSIDE LOWER CORE THREE Wednesdays 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. YEAR 2006: MARCH 15 TO MAY 05 Group Leader: Mary Klein Killough, PhD Sound systems: T. Patrick Killough, US Foreign Service (retired) INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS:
Highland Farms Retirement Community (http://www.highlandfarms.com) has hosted Great Decisions Foreign Policy Discussions (http://www.fpa.org/info-url_nocat4705/info-url_nocat.htm) for nearly twenty years. For the longest time six meetings per year were sponsored by the World Affairs Council at the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA). In 2006 the sponsors of eight meeting were drawn from residents of Highland Farms and members of the larger Swannanoa Valley/East Asheville Community (the latter notified by placements in the Black Mountain press). Participation in Highland Farms Great Decisions is open to the public at no cost. The texts below represent announcements originally made on Highland Farms (internal) Cable Channel 14 and to local media. Attendance figures were added after each meeting. The sequence of eight topics is slightly different from that in the 2006 study guide issued by The Foreign Policy Association. T. Patrick Killough April 27, 1006 -O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-
TOPIC ONE The March 15 Great Decisions topic is U.N. REFORM. ..... Attendance was 14. PATRICK KILLOUGH will help participants make up their minds about issues in three areas: 1. The most important functions of the U.N. in 2006 2. Technical competence of U.N.'s international civil servants 3. How much should the USA subordinate national goals to the common good of all the world's nations? ===-==-=-=-=-=-=-= TOPIC TWO: March 22 IRAN ..... Attendance was 16. MARY KILLOUGH will facilitate your personal policy preferences regarding three issues with IRAN: 1. Should the U.S. attempt genuine dialog with Iran? 2. How should the U.S. handle Iran's nuclear weapons potential? 3. Ranking the difficulties in U.S. relations with Iran. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= TOPIC THREE: March 29 ENERGY ..... Attendance was 19. CARYL AND JIM HEID will help us approach U.S. policy toward ENERGY. Some questions: --Is US energy consumption impossible to control? --Are there realistic alternatives to oil and gas? --Must we raise fuel taxes? --Should we never send in troops to secure foreign energy sources? -=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=- TOPIC FOUR: APRIL 5 PANDEMICS/NATIONAL SECURITY ..... Attendance was 17. PATRICK KILLOUGH will review the likelihood that the threat of PANDEMIC diseases will also impact U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY. Since October 2005 scientists have known that the 1918-1919 global flu epidemic which killed 500,000 Americans and 50 million world wide was a "bird-flu virus that had jumped to human-to-human transmission." How can the US protect itself against a new global bird-flu outbreak? Surveillance and distant warning networks can help. But when even the armed forces themselves succumb to a pandemic, what is to be done? [POST EVENT NOTES: Patrick Killough built his presentation around the texts of three books recommended by the FPA Study Guide: --John M. Barry, THE GREAT INFLUENZA: THE STORY OF THE DEADLIEST PANDEMIC IN HISTORY (2004, 2005), --R.S. Bray, ARMIES OF PESTILENCE: THE IMPACT OF DISEASE ON HISTORY. (1996, 2000), --Jared Diamond, GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL: THE FATES OF HUMAN SOCIETIES. (1997, 1999) These books were then borrowed by members of the discussion group. We also had the benefit of contributions by three medical doctors to this debate.] =-=-==-=-=-=-= TOPIC FIVE: APRIL 12 HUMAN RIGHTS/ TERRORISM ..... Attendance was 17. BETTY BECKER will introduce and lead discussion of HUMAN RIGHTS IN AN AGE OF TERRORISM. Her focus will include (1) Coercive interrogation of terror suspects; (2) justification, if any, for non-humane treatment of detainees in U.S. Custody and (3) pros and cons of a special prosecutor for abuses at the Abu Ghraib (Iraq) and Guantanamo (Cuba) prisons. =-=-===-=-=-=-=-=- TOPIC SIX: APRIL 19 INDIA AND CHINA ..... Attendance was 17. ALLEN AND RUTH TARBELL will present INDIA AND CHINA: COMPETITION AND COOPERATION. Some items under consideration: importance for U.S. policy of effective diplomatic bilateral ties and military security between India and China. Also what to do about Tibet, Burma and Taiwan. Finally, challenges to trade between China and India and managing the nuclear capabilities of China, India and Pakistan. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- TOPIC SEVEN: APRIL 26 TURKEY AND EUROPE. ..... Attendance was 19. CHARLES AND NADA BARNETT, just back from travel in the eastern Mediterranean, will stimulate discussion of our seventh topic for 2006: TURKEY: ON EUROPE'S VERGE? The BARNETTs will stimulate discussion of Turkey's coming entry into the European Union (EU). How will this be good for Europe? For Turkey? For the USA? Are there drawbacks to embedding Turkey more deeply into Europe? =-=-=-=-=-=- TOPIC EIGHT: MAY 3 BRAZIL For the eighth and last GREAT DECISIONS discussions at Highland Farms in 2006 of U.S. Foreign Policy, BILL HAFLEY tackles BRAZIL: INVENTED PASTS AND HOPED-FOR FUTURES. Bill will, inter alia, help participants understand what price Brazil is paying for modeling its higher education on the U.S.'s. How did the U.S. and Brazil handle differently their centuries as practitioners of black chattel slavery? Can Brazil teach the U.S. about federalism? =-=-=-=--=-=-=- -OOO- TP Killough 04/27/2006 |