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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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Cambridge Forum

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Cambridge Forum hosts free, public discussions that inform and engage, so that people can better explore the varied issues and ideas that shape our changing world. CF broadcasts its live events via podcasts, weekly NPR shows and online presentations via GBH Forum Network on YouTube.

http://www.cambridgeforum.org

  • Diana Buttu addresses the question of the role of diplomacy in an insecure world, as she discuses her research on the dynamics of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, "Negotiating in the Absence of the Law: Palestine's Refugees and the Palestinian-Israeli Negotiations, 1993-2007". How has the role the United States plays in the peace process changed over that period? What impact have the events of the Arab Spring had on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? What are the sources of the Palestinian petition for recognition by the United Nations? How should the United States respond to these new initiatives?
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  • "The Great Recession of 2008 revealed a new threat to Americans' sense of security: the global economy. The meltdown of domestic housing and financial markets shook the international economy to its core, exposing weaknesses in the Eurozone that now threaten not only a global recovery but also the U.S. economic recovery. What were the causes of the Greek debt crisis? Why don't the solutions proposed by the European Union seem to be working? How could the European crisis come back to weaken the United States economy? Richard Parker of the Harvard Kennedy School explores these issues and more. "
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  • Stephen van Evera of MIT's Security Studies Program looks at the ways the United States has responded to military, diplomatic, and economic challenges in the decade since 9/11 and asks 'Have our actions made us more secure?' Arguing that, in fact, U.S. strategies have been ineffective, even counter-productive, he outlines an 'American grand strategy' for the new globalized web of international relationships. What policies and actions does he see as effective in promoting American and global security going forward? Where does he find the political and economic will to achieve such a new strategic vision? What should citizens be doing to foster increased security?
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  • Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, assesses the high-stakes diplomatic sparring between Washington and Tehran. As the threat of hostilities hangs over the Middle East again, what should the United States policy toward Iran be? Parsi explores this question in his new book, *A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran*. To write it he interviewed 70 high-ranking officials from the U.S., Iran, Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Brazil—including the top American and Iranian negotiators. From this kaleidoscope of information, Parsi assembles all the pieces of the complex and often misunderstood details of the administration's efforts to end three decades of futility with Iran. Have the diplomatic efforts of the Obama administration toward Iran failed? Was the Bush administration's emphasis on military intervention, refusal to negotiate, and pursuit of regime change a better approach? How can the United States best address the ongoing turmoil in Tehran?"
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  • Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large of *The American Prospect*, explores the impact of "Globalization of Markets" on the American economy. When Henry Ford revolutionized American auto manufacturing a century ago, he not only introduced the assembly line; he also paid his workers enough to allow them to buy a Ford. This move was one of the first steps in creating an American economy that is driven by consumption. If globalization is keeping American incomes low, how can consumption rebound to fuel a recovery? If globalization is moving investments overseas, what role will commerce play in the national economy?
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  • Harvard economist Dani Rodrik argues that we cannot simultaneously pursue democracy, national self-determination, and economic globalization. While the world economy is becoming an international system, the political systems of the world remain based in the construct of the nation-state. And while nations have organized some international political and economic governing authorities, such as the WTO, IMF, and World Bank, a comprehensive and widely accepted international system to regulate the global economy does not exist. When the social arrangements of democracies inevitably clash with the international demands of globalization, national priorities should take precedence. What are the most effective responses to today's globalized economy? Is Rodrik's vision of 'balanced prosperity' based on globalization supported by a light frame of international rules feasible? How can national governments reclaim a role in managing globalization under his proposals?
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  • In Terezin, the concentration camp in which Jewish artists, writers, and musicians were imprisoned, the opportunity to practice art'to draw, to write, to perform'provided a kind of spiritual or emotional sustenance for the prisoners. This panel discussion examines the relationship between creativity and stress. How can human creativity survive and assert itself under inhuman conditions? What can modern neuroscience show us about the ways in which extreme stress stimulates or impedes creativity? What can we learn from the experience of the artists of the Holocaust about using the arts to assist victims of torture, rape, and other human rights abuses to cope and to heal? What can we learn about the role of creativity in our own lives? Panelists include Debra Wise, Artistic Director of Underground Railway Theater; Dr. Michael Grodin, Professor of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health; and Guila Clara Kessous, Carr Center's Initiative in Theater and Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
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  • Joseph Nye of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government draws upon the insights of his recent meetings with China's future leaders to examine the future of American relations with China. As China has become a more powerful player in the Pacific, how has it projected its strength? How have strategic alliances among its neighbors changed in response to China's growing economic and military might? What does the Obama administration's new emphasis on the Pacific mean for the future of American relations with China? Moderated by PRI's The World's Lisa Mullins.
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  • China expert, Ezra Vogel of Harvard University, spent twelve years researching and writing his biography of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and his era, *Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.* This masterful and comprehensive study chronicles Deng's rich and intricate career from his birth in 1904 at the end of the Qing Dynasty to his death in 1997 a few months before the return of Hong Kong to the mainland. Deng's life spanned almost a century of dramatic changes in China as it experienced war, the Communist Revolution, decades of Mao's rule, and finally, economic boom, and Deng played a major in his nation's development over that period. How did Deng Xiaoping find a way to turn China into a wealthy and powerful member of the international community? What personal and cultural factors contributed to his success? What obstacles did he face? How did Vogel go about researching and writing this study of Deng's life and legacy?
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  • "Duplicate Joseph Nye of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government draws upon the insights of his recent meetings with China's future leaders to examine the future of American relations with China. As China has become a more powerful player in the Pacific, how has it projected its strength? How have strategic alliances among its neighbors changed in response to China's growing economic and military might? What does the Obama administration's new emphasis on the Pacific mean for the future of American relations with China? Moderated by PRI's The World's Lisa Mullins."
    Partner:
    Cambridge Forum