America generates a third of the world’s waste but in the wake of new Chinese tariffs on recycled materials and refusal to take “contaminated” materials, the days of shipping our “recycled” waste to China has come to an end. Some U.S. recycling centers have closed and single-stream processing is being re-thought. PBS estimates that by 2030 we will have 100 million tons of recycling with no place to go. The problem is even worse in other parts of the world, with plastics increasingly fouling our oceans, and streams, and entering our food supply. 

Join J.D. LINDEBERG for a lively discussion of how we became dependent on sending our trash to China and what he sees for the future. With climate and the environment looking increasingly dire, what type of world are we leaving for our children? 

Cities and towns are about to radically change as new mobility technologies take to our streets and sidewalks. Private investment has quickened the pace of technological advances; public policy must keep pace with the changes already appearing. Ready or not, automated vehicles (AVs) are likely to become a regular feature of our city streets within a decade. How could these new technologies transform cities? And what can history tell us about the transportation challenges of the future? 

One thing is for sure:  the changes will be as dramatic as when the horse and buggy gave way to the Model T!

SAMUEL KLING is among the young dynamic leaders at the forefront of this emerging field. With a PhD in urban history from Northwestern University, he is uniquely qualified to examine the promise and peril of the new hands-off technology. He brings to our forum an authoritative understanding of what today's transportation technology designers and builders can learn from how our inventive spirit remade the city landscape a hundred years ago. His cutting-edge work offers a unique opportunity to look into the future that you won’t want to miss. 

About the Speaker:  https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/expert/samuel-kling

Space has transformed from a government-only, high-risk political effort, to a business full of new challenges and opportunities, including for private U.S. firms right here in Traverse City. NASA’s eighth successful Mars lander has landed and Elon Musk hopes to send the first humans to Mars in a decade. Could the International Space Station become a tourist destination by 2025? Meanwhile, China has landed on the “dark side” of the moon, underscoring its own ambitions for space.

It is our great honor to present the 12th NASA Administrator, CHARLES BOLDEN, to hear his personal story and a vision of the exciting future of space that will speak to future generations. 

During his 14 years as an astronaut, CHARLES BOLDEN logged more than 680 hours in space as pilot and then Commander of four Space Shuttle flights. His missions included deploying the Hubble Space Telescope, the first SPACELAB 'mission to planet Earth' to study Earth's atmosphere, and the first joint U.S.-Russian shuttle mission. He is a Naval Academy graduate and flew more than 100 combat missions during the Vietnam War. 

Charles F. Bolden, Jr:   https://news.usc.edu/135924/astronaut-and-nasa-leader-charles-f-bolden-jr-rejoins-usc-board-of-trustees/

China is heavily investing in education, infrastructure, and technology, hoping to dominate advanced manufacturing and technology of the future. China’s rapid application of artificial intelligence (AI) to business and military tasks is seen as a game-changer for America’s future role with some suggesting that ‘Made in China 2025’ is a new 'Sputnik moment' for America.

Our national leaders are focused on trade imbalances, currency manipulation, and cyber spying. But will pressuring China ensure America’s long-term competitiveness? What do we need to do to prepare for a hyper-competitive, disruptive, knowledge-based global economy where ideas and jobs can and will move around the world effortlessly? 

TOM WATKINS is one of Michigan’s foremost and most thoughtful experts on China. He is currently based in China and has traveled there repeatedly for more than 30 years. He is perfectly placed to describe the reality of what is happening in China today, including in manufacturing, innovation and technology and what the U.S. needs to do to compete, including here in Michigan. Are we preparing our children and nation for the past – or the future?

Follow Tom Watkins at https://www.chinausfocus.com/author/84/tom-watkins.html

RAMI KHOURI brings to Traverse City a journalistic lifetime of covering and commenting on conflict, terrorism and politics on the global stage. His appearance comes at a moment of crisis for the world press. 2018 was a brutal year for journalists. 53 were murdered for simply doing their jobs.

KHOURI is a Palestinian-Jordanian and U.S. citizen who resides in Beirut, Amman and Nazareth. His work includes commentary, teaching journalism, and research on the life of the late American journalist, Anthony Shadid. 

He followed his year as a Nieman Fellow in journalism at Harvard University with service as executive editor of the Beirut Daily Star. In 2005, after two years at the helm of the Daily Star, his global reputation as an authoritative voice led him to devote his time to informing audiences worldwide on the complexities of international affairs, particularly in the Middle East. 

He is a senior fellow and journalism professor at American University in Beirut, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, a dedicated sports fan of Syracuse University -- and former Chief Umpire of Little League Baseball in Jordan!

RAMI KHOURI'S timely visit to Traverse City will highlight the importance of World Press Freedom and focus on what the Committee to Protect Journalists describes as a “profound global crisis of press freedom. Join us. 

Rami Khouri:  https://www.belfercenter.org/person/rami-khouri

America’s southern neighbors are in political turmoil. Venezuela was once the richest country in South America. Today its economy has collapsed and millions of Venezuelans have fled the country. Cuba is clinging to Castro’s socialism while young Cubans clamber for a better life. Meanwhile, the immigration crisis at our southern border shows that people locked in poverty and violence will do whatever it takes to improve the lives of their children. How much influence does the U.S. have and is there a way to stabilize the region? 

Ambassador Shapiro is uniquely placed to give a thoughtful view of our future relationship with Latin America. He was Ambassador to Venezuela and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere, as well as Coordinator for Cuban Affairs. From 2011-2013 Shapiro was the president of the Institute of the Americas, a think tank at the University of California San Diego. He has led numerous missions to Cuba and has seen firsthand the opening and now the partial closing of U.S.-Cuban relations. Today he is President of one of the largest and most prestigious World Affairs Councils of America, in Atlanta. 

IAF closes out its 25th anniversary season at a moment of growing danger in a world gripped by toxic challenges to the United States from Russia. Across Europe, Russia seeks to upset the post-Cold War alliance anchored in NATO while at home we await the outcome of a special counsel investigation into charges of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Russian media trolls, encroachments and confrontations in countries neighboring Russia, and a collapsing regime of arms control has created a world fraught with life-and-death questions: what is Russia really after and what should the U.S. do to redefine the post-Cold War global order? 

ANGELA STENT has held critical roles at the power center of U.S. foreign policy for decades. She is America’s leading expert on the triangular relationship among the U.S., Russia and Europe. She has served Republican and Democratic presidents as National Intelligence Officer for Russia and Eurasia, in the State Department’s Office of Policy Planning, and adviser to NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander. 

DR. STENT is a prolific author of “must read books” on Russia, including the award-winning, Limits of Partnership: US-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century. 

Her latest book, PUTIN’S WORLD: Russia Against the West and with the Rest (to be released February 2019) is the culmination of four decades devoted to understanding how Russia, and the Soviet Union before it, really works. What this means for the U.S. and the global order is a discussion you will not want to miss.

The International Affairs Forum proudly announces Susan Goldberg, editor of National Geographic, as our speaker to kick off IAF’s 25th season. Goldberg is the first woman and only the 10th editor-in-chief of the iconic 130-year old magazine. She is now leading its transformation. 

 

This special event is presented jointly with Interlochen Center for the Arts, and in connection with a special National Geographic exhibit, Monster Fish, at NMC’s Dennos Museum.

A journalist for almost 40 years, her roots are in Michigan where she was born and raised, and graduated from Michigan State University’s School of Journalism. 

 

Her career has been described as a “vertical blur”, first covering local and state government for the Detroit Free Press, and then holding leading positions at California’s San Jose Mercury News, where she shared in the Pulitzer Prize, USA Today, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, and Bloomberg News. She now funds the Susan Goldberg Scholarship at MSU’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences’ School of Journalism. 

 

Susan is an advocate for telling stories across many platforms, as the evolution of National Geographic under her leadership demonstrates. We are thrilled to make her presentation accessible to local students both at Interlochen and in the region. With the generous help of our underwriters, 300 free seats will be set side for these young future leaders.

Nation-states in our globalized world are trying to secure their borders and mitigate threats even while expediting trade and optimizing the movement of peoples and ideas. It’s not easy. Increasingly the issues facing today’s world are borderless (for instance, cyber threats) as much as markers of sovereignty. 

 

Here in the United States, the implications for how we handle our border will be far-reaching, affecting the U.S. labor market, talent pool, and higher education institutions, to name just a few. We also face moral questions about how much the U.S. should be doing to help a growing number of displaced peoples.

 

Alan Bersin was Assistant Secretary for International Affairs in the Department of Homeland Security, serving as the lead representative for DHS on border affairs and strategy regarding security, immigration, narcotics, and trade matters as well as for coordinating the Department’s security initiatives along the nation’s borders. As head of US Customs and Border Protection, he managed 57,000 employees and an $12 billion budget. Bersin has also held numerous distinguished state and local government positions, including serving as California's Secretary of Education, Superintendent of Public Education in San Diego, and Chairman of the San Diego Airport Authority.

Today, he is the Inaugural Fellow for the Homeland Security Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, focusing on the unique challenges and choices around protecting the United States. The project provides a forum for academic and public policy pursuits related to immigration and borders, American resiliency issues, and the future of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Clarke served in the White House for an unprecedented ten years as Special Advisor to the President on Cyber Security, serving under President George H.W. Bush, President Bill Clinton, and President George W. Bush. In this role, Clarke also advised on counter-terrorism and other national security issues and was the national crisis manager on 9/11. 

In his role as the nation’s “Cyber-Czar,” Clarke developed the country’s first National Strategy to Defend Cyberspace. Following the Snowden revelations, President Obama asked Clarke to serve on the five-person President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Technology.

Today, Clarke is CEO of Good Harbor LLC, a boutique cyber security/risk management consultancy. Clarke is a sought-after advisor to leading CEOs, Boards, and C-level executives of Fortune 500 Companies in the US, as well as several state leaders, including the Governors of New York and Virginia, on all issues of cyber-security and risk and crisis management.

“Dangerous. Complex. Immediate... Now, more than ever, you should read this book. Accurate and timely warning are key to success, even to survival. That makes this not only a gripping read, but also a brilliant view of an uncertain future. Clarke and Eddy deliver veteran insights all leaders need to hear.”

 

 

“Fiction can often tell the truth better than non-fiction. And there is a lot of truth that needs to be told.”

 

“...required reading for anyone who wants to know the current status of the battle against terrorism”

 

“What Tom Clancy did for submarines, Richard A. Clarke does for drones”