Law, Politics, and Current Affairs
June
Thursday June 8 10:00-12:00
Vignettes from 39 Years of Diplomacy: The Foreign Service Behind the Curtain
Sponsored By Milton and Marjorie Ruben
In his 35-year career in the foreign service, Gene Cretz has served in some of the most challenging countries in the world: India, China, Egypt, Syria, Israel and Libya. In China, Mr. Cretz was present at the gathering of the Falungong in Tiananmen Square in a protest that caught Chinese leadership by surprise in 1998. In Libya, where he served as America's first ambassador since the restoration of relations in 2006, his reporting on the regime of Muammar Gaddafi led to a warning from the government there that he should leave the country or be a target of possible assassination. In Egypt, Israel and Syria, he served as a senior American official to governments led by Hosni Mubarak, Benjamin Netanyahu and Bashar al-Assad and he will offer candid assessments of these key figures. Mr. Cretz will also discuss how and why diplomats remain critical in a world increasingly dominated by direct leadership interactions and non-traditional ways of doing business, including cyber intrusions and zoom meetings. Of greater interest to the audience may be vignettes relating to this body of experience. Come peer behind the curtain with perspectives on personnel in the State Department and working with Congress overseas.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Gene A. Cretz was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as the United States Ambassador to Libya in July 2007 and was confirmed by the Senate on November 20, 2008. Mr. Cretz subsequently also served as US Ambassador to Ghana (2012-2015). In a forty year career as a diplomat, specializing in Mideast, South Asia and African affairs, Ambassador Cretz also served in Tel Aviv, where he was responsible for the Arab affairs portfolio, including the Gaza Strip; Beijing, where he was in charge of China's External Affairs portfolio; Cairo, as Minister-Counselor for Economic and Political Affairs; Damascus, first as Charge d'Affaires, then as Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM); and Tel Aviv again, as Deputy Chief of Mission.
After retiring from the State Department, Ambassador Cretz served for four years (2015-2019) as the representative of the Director General of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in Tel Aviv.
Friday June 9 10:00-12:00
China in 2023: A Year of Living Dangerously
Sponsored By Milton and Marjorie Ruben
Now that China has emerged from two years of COVID lockdown, what can we expect in 2023 in terms of its domestic priorities and its international relationships, especially with the United States, Russia and the countries of the Asia-Pacific? Will the new leadership that emerged from the 20th Party Congress in October 2022 and the 14th National People’s Congress in March of this year be able to restore its reputation for competent governance? Will the economy again resume its role as one of the engines of global growth or see further slowdown and social unrest? Can China persuade other countries that it is a responsible caretaker of global security and trade norms or will it insist on transforming the rules of engagement? Will 2023 be a return to growth and a steady march toward parity with the United States or a year of living dangerously and risk taking?
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: For the past ten years, Robert Goldberg has been a Principal with The Scowcroft Group (TSG), a Washington DC-based consulting group which provides insights and analysis about US and global geopolitical and economic issues. Mr. Goldberg’s focus with TSG is on the Asia-Pacific region (China, Northeast Asia), regional security (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and economic institutions (the US Indo-Pacific Framework).
Prior to joining The Scowcroft Group, Mr. Goldberg served for thirty years as a diplomat in India, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, advocating for U.S. businesses abroad, advising companies on U.S. foreign and economic policies, negotiating the resolution of trade policy disputes and helping expand market and investment opportunities. Mr. Goldberg’s assignments include: Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, U.S. Consul General in Guangzhou, China, Director of the State Department's Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs, and Deputy Economic Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
Monday June 12 10:00-12:00
Presidential Transitions: Friendly and Hostile Takeovers
Peaceful transitions are one of the primary markers of democratic governance. In the United States we have, even today, a rather long period of transition compared to parliamentary democracies. There are basically two types of transitions, hostile and friendly takeovers. Most transitions in American History have been relatively friendly, regardless of the parties involved. But when the exchange is hostile, everybody suffers. Therefore, even in cases of hostile takeovers, most incoming and outgoing presidents have swallowed their pride and have done what's best for the country. In this presentation, Daniel will highlight two hostile and two friendly takeovers: Truman to Eisenhower, Hoover to Roosevelt, Johnson to Nixon, and Jefferson to Madison.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Daniel Franklin is Associate Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at Georgia State University. His areas of specialization were American Chief Executives, Film and Politics, Georgia State Politics, and Budgeting and the Legislative Process. He is the former Director of the Georgia Legislative Internship Program and a former Distinguished Honors Professor. He is the author of seven books, numerous articles and reviews. His latest book is on The Politics of Presidential Impeachment (with Robert Caress, Robert Sanders and Cole Tarratoot), and was published by the SUNY University Press (2020) and included in their American Constitutionalism Series.
Tuesday June 13 2:00-4:00
Europe's Persistent and Adaptable Far Right
Much has been written since the 1980s about the presumed resurgence of xenophobic, nationalist parties and movements throughout Europe. Whether in France, Italy, Austria, Hungary or elsewhere, the two primary questions animating public and scholarly discourse have been, “Why here?” and “Why now?” Granting the salience of those lines of discourse, this presentation will focus not on the sources and circumstances of mobilization for electorally successful far right parties, but instead on the distinct ways European states (and their previously dominant mainstream parties) have sought to address challenges from their extreme flanks. Key debates exist about who has been more effective in combating threats to the democratic order, with strategic responses ranging from political quarantines (the cordon sanitaire approach) to constructive engagement (the moderation through incumbency approach). Timely cases from national contexts throughout the continent (including post-Communist states) as well as the European Parliament illustrate the most frequent outcomes associated with strategic choices made by traditional conservative as well as social democratic parties.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Dr. William M. Downs is the 13th President of Gardner-Webb University. A Raleigh native, Downs earned his BA in Political Science (with a minor in Journalism) from North Carolina State University in 1988, and he holds MA (1990) and PhD (1994) degrees in Political Science from Emory University. Prior to his appointment at Gardner-Webb, Downs was Dean of the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Political Science, and W. Keats Sparrow Distinguished Chair in the Liberal Arts at East Carolina University. Downs was Area Dean for Social and Behavioral Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University, where he was a member of the faculty for 17 years. Before his service in the Dean’s Office at Georgia State, Downs was Chair of the Department of Political Science and, before that, Director of Graduate Studies in Political Science.
Thursday June 22 2:00-4:00
Putin's War in Ukraine: The Russian Empire Reborn?
Sponsored By Hugh and Connie Fitzpatrick
This presentation will provide a summary of Russia's attacks on Ukrainian territory since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, with a focus on the catastrophic Russian invasion launched in March 2022. It will then offer an overview of the major explanations advanced by scholars, observers and analysts for the Russian onslaught. Economists point to the stagnation of Russia's economy, while economic historians note the long term drive of Russia's rulers to expand their borders southward to warmer climes. Historians of Russian politics and ideology see the invasion as a continuation of the variety of extremist Russian nationalism, which views Ukrainian identity as an invention of the West, that has influenced the country's politics since the late nineteenth century. Scholars of Russian religion highlight the ways Russian nationalism has built on the religious significance of the country, and especially its capital, Kiev, in the history of Orthodox Christianity. Finally, a minority of scholars closely engages with Putin's popularity, and general receptivity to Russian nationalism, in certain segments of Ukrainian society. Taken together, these elements will provide participants a comprehensive grasp of the conflict and its history.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Boston native Eren Tasar has taught in the History Department at UNC since 2013. His interests are the religious and social history of Soviet Central Asia. Tasar's first book, Soviet and Muslim, examined Soviet policies toward Islamic institutions. He is currently writing a 24 lecture video series about the history of Central Asia since ancient times for The Great Courses. He is also working on a second book project dealing with atheistic literature written in languages spoken by Muslims in the USSR. This past summer, Tasar made a research trip to Uzbekistan with his wife and three children. Tasar received his Bachelors degree from Stanford University and Masters and PhD degrees from Harvard University.
Friday June 23 10:00-12:00
NEOM: Line City in the Saudi Desert
Sponsored By Hugh and Connie Fitzpatrick
Would you like to live in a 170-km long city? How about in the desert, where summer highs exceed 130 degrees? Does it sound crazy? Not to Saudi Arabia's future king, Muhammad bin Salman, who is trying to transform his regressive kingdom into a modernist utopia. Part of "Saudi Arabia 2030," a plan to diversity the country's oil-based economy in the next 25 years, the city will be built in a long line along the Red Sea Coast. Its name, which is a combination of the Greek word for "new" and the Arabic word for "future," aims to house 9 million people, who will be able to get all the services they need by walking no more than five minutes. The Line, as its known, will have an airport, a major port, and agricultural land on both sides, growing specially designed genetically modified crops that can withstand the extreme desert climate. This talk will describe the plans for this ambitious project in detail, but from a historical perspective. From Brasilia to Phoenix, grandiose urban construction projects have always had a dark side, and NEOM offers no exception. The area's indigenous tribal inhabitants have been forcibly evicted from their homes, and in some cases killed, to make room for construction. Announcement of the project has been accompanied by brutal human rights crackdowns. The city's targets have been called unrealistic, while no answer seems forthcoming on the question of who will actually live in NEOM. As a utopian project it offers a unique template into the anxieties of an impoverished, authoritarian, and deeply tribal society trying to somersault into the 21st century at the behest of one authoritarian ruler.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Boston native Eren Tasar has taught in the History Department at UNC since 2013. His interests are the religious and social history of Soviet Central Asia. Tasar's first book, Soviet and Muslim, examined Soviet policies toward Islamic institutions. He is currently writing a 24 lecture video series about the history of Central Asia since ancient times for The Great Courses. He is also working on a second book project dealing with atheistic literature written in languages spoken by Muslims in the USSR. This past summer, Tasar made a research trip to Uzbekistan with his wife and three children. Tasar received his Bachelors degree from Stanford University and Masters and PhD degrees from Harvard University.
July
Monday July 10 10:00-12:00
Meet Don McGahn, White House Counsel to President Trump
Sponsored By Bill Ritchie and Diana Hunt
In a spirited question and answer session, Don will discuss his role as campaign counsel for then candidate Trump and his years as White House Counsel. Several attorneys will pose questions to Don and CLE Members and guests will have an opportunity to join the action. Whatever your political persuasion, this promises to be a very special event.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Don McGahn served as Donald Trump’s campaign counsel during his run for the presidency and as White House Counsel for President Trump from the day of his inauguration through October 17, 2018. He was the point person in the White House assisting President Trump with his Supreme Court and other judicial nominations. Prior to his work in the Trump administration, he served for a number of years on the Federal Election Commission.
Monday July 10 2:00-4:00
The U.S. Supreme Court: A Year in Review
During its 2021-2022 term, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion, greatly restricted the ability of States to regulate guns, required funding of religious education in Maine, blocked COVID 19 mandates for large businesses, and restricted the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to address climate change, among many other important decisions. The 2022-23 term promises to be equally consequential. Affirmative action, the conflict between anti-discrimination laws and free speech rights, the continued viability of the Voting Rights Act, and state legislative control of the federal electoral process are among many issues the Court has agreed to address. This lecture will examine the decisions in those cases and the trends they reflect as the conservative majority asserts its power, and the role of the High Court in our judicial and political system.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Todd Collins, Ph.D., J.D., is Steed Distinguished Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Affairs and Director of the Public Policy Institute at Western Carolina University and a licensed attorney. His research focuses on constitutional law and judicial politics.
Monday July 17 10:00-12:00
Prosecuting a Former President: Perils and Challenges
Drawing on his unique perspective from serving as a senior member of Special Counsel Mueller’s team, a former FBI General Counsel, and a long-time white collar prosecutor, Mr. Weissmann will discuss the perils and challenges of investigating and prosecuting Donald J. Trump. He will explore the status of the various state and federal criminal and civil investigations and cases— including legal and factual issues involved in bringing certain charges, venue issues about where to bring those charges, and the national security implications of and debates about bringing certain charges. He will also address the challenges of the Special Counsel rules in conducting a federal investigation and bringing charges. He will explore ways those rules can be improved to deal with the difficult issue of how a member of the executive branch can investigate itself or former executive branch members.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Andrew Weissmann is a Professor of Practice with the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at New York University School of Law. He served as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office and as Chief of the Fraud Section in the U.S. Department of Justice He is the author of “Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation.” He also served as General Counsel for the F.B.I., Director of the Enron Task Force, and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for 15 years in the Eastern District of New York, where he served as the Chief of the Criminal Division. He is a frequent MSNBC news contributor on matters related to federal and state prosecutions of high profile political figures.
August
Thursday August 3 2:00-4:00
Leadership Challenges in the Digital Age
Sponsored By Lee and Chesley Garrett
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Ron Suskind has spent the majority of his career examining and writing about leadership, in both the public and private sectors. He is the author of signature investigations of leadership across decades for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and four bestselling books on U.S. presidents that shaped history. He wrote the seminal piece for the New York Times before the 2020 election that characterized the Trump presidency and predicted events that occurred on January 6.
Ron knows leadership and -- as a technology leader with five patents and deep expertise about the spread of disinformation -- the perils and possibilities of leading in the digital age. His first-hand knowledge and understanding of the leaders of our era is unique; his assessments, rapier sharp and informed by the hope of how we might meet the challenges of our time.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Ron Suskind is a journalist, author, and filmmaker. Writing for The Wall Street Journal from 1993 to 2000, he won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for articles that became the starting point for his first book, A Hope in the Unseen, that chronicles the journey of a student who aspired to escape his “blighted D.C. upbringing” and attend an Ivy League university. He has written four other books about national politics and issues related to the United States’ use of power: the Price of Loyalty, on the two-year tenure of George W. Bush’s Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill; the New York Times Best Seller, The One Percent Doctrine, about the Bush administration’s foreign policy after 9/11, driven by Vice President Cheney’s focus on terrorists and rogue states access to nuclear weapons; The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism, about the struggles of individuals in the U.S. government and elsewhere around the world to combat nuclear terrorism; and, Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington and the Education of a President, that describes the 2008 financial crisis and President Obama’s White House efforts to address it. His memoir Life Animated: A story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism became an Emmy Award winning, Academy Award-nominated feature documentary.
Tuesday August 8 10:00-12:00
Future of Journalism in a Polarized World
Sponsored By Ray and Diane McPhail
The litany of complaints about the press and social media are familiar:
• Conflicts of interest
• Bias and loss of trust in journalists and media organizations
• The challenge of misinformation and disinformation in a daunting, factually complex world of political,
cultural, and economic issues
• The nationalization of politics and the erosion of local journalism
With thirty years directing programming for NBC News, Jeffrey Blount is uniquely positioned to explain the origins of these developments, discuss the consequences for democracy, and offer ideas for correcting, or at least mitigating the problems they pose to democracy. In this Q & A presentation, Mr. Blount will touch on a wide variety of issues: the Founders’ vision of the role of the free press in a democracy; the consequences of the adoption by TV and radio of the “entertainment” business model; the common use of “both sides,” “horse-race” and “false equivalence” political coverage rather than substantive policy analysis; the role of unconscious bias; how journalists do or should cover matters of social justice and “culture war” controversies. Join us for a lively discussion of these issues and come prepared with questions.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Jeffrey Blount is the award-winning author of three novels — Almost Snow White, Hating Heidi Foster, and The Emancipation of Evan Walls, which won the 2020 National Indie Excellence Award for African American fiction, the 2019 Readers Favorite Book Award, the 2019 American Bookfest Best Book Award and a Shelf Unbound 2019 Notable Book. He is also an Emmy award- winning television director and a 2016 inductee to the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame. During a 34-year career at NBC News, Jeffrey directed a decade of Meet the Press, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and major special events. He has contributed writings to HuffPost, The Washington Post, The Grio.com and other publications, commenting on issues of race, social justice, and writing. He is also an award-winning documentary scriptwriter for films and interactives that are on display in the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture, America I AM: The African American Imprint at the National Constitution Center, The Museum at Bethel Woods at the site of the 1969 Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, and others. In 2017 and 2018, Jeffrey served as Journalist in Residence and Shapiro Fellow at the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University.
Thursday August 17 10:00-12:00
Subversive Books, Politics, and the First Amendment
In the last five years, there has been an upsurge in the effort to ban books from public libraries and schools, even such seemingly inoffensive and inspiring children’s books like Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington and Ruby Bridges Goes to School, a memoir by an African American girl who integrated a white New Orleans school. In response to what they characterize as “woke” indoctrination of students, conservative organizations have offered model legislation for states to adopt to prohibit not only specific books but also the mention of LGBTQ+ people and difficult historical topics like slavery and the Civil War. Many of these censorship laws have been adopted.. Meanwhile, left-leaning groups have pressured school boards and libraries to remove books deemed racist, such as Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird, sexist or homophobic. This presentation will discuss the free speech issues generated by this controversy.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Presenter: Woody Holton is the Peter and Bonnie McCausland Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, where he teaches and researches Early American history, especially the American Revolution, with a focus on economic history and on African Americans, Native Americans, and women. He is the author of several previous books, including Abigail Adams, which was awarded the Bancroft Prize; his second book, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Tuesday August 22 10:00-12:00
Regime Theory and American Politics for the Next Generation
Thirty years ago, Stephen Skowronek, a political scientist at Yale, published a book titled The Politics Presidents Make. It was generally recognized as one of the most important books on the presidency since Richard Neustadt’s book, Presidential Power. In his book, Skowronek argued that every 40 years or so, a “reconstructive” president comes along and establishes a new presidential “regime.” Former President Trump might well be regarded as a "reconstructive president,” or one that completely transformed American politics for at least a generation. Trump has a unique ability to question the central precepts of the last half century. That’s what reconstructive presidents do.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Daniel Franklin is Associate Professor of Political Science, Emeritus at Georgia State University. His areas of specialization were American Chief Executives, Film and Politics, Georgia State Politics, and Budgeting and the Legislative Process. He is the former Director of the Georgia Legislative Internship Program and a former Distinguished Honors Professor. He is the author of seven books, numerous articles and reviews. His latest book is on The Politics of Presidential Impeachment (with Robert Caress, Robert Sanders and Cole Tarratoot), and was published by the SUNY University Press (2020) and included in their American Constitutionalism Series.
Friday August 25 2:00-4:00
What is a Just War?
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been widely condemned as unjust. But what makes it unjust? How, precisely, does the invasion – or any other current or historical military intervention – violate standard ethical considerations about war? This talk will lay out the generally accepted framework of just war theory and review some of the current philosophical disagreements surrounding that framework.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall