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• Distinguished Speaker Series "Blueprints for a More Modern US Diplomatic Service: US-Turkey Relations" with Ambassador Marc Grossman

  • When
    October 24, 2023
  •  
    6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
  • Location
    Hall of Nations
  • Spaces left
    68

  Register

  

  The San Diego World Affairs Council presents the

  Distinguished Speaker Series
  

  Ambassador Marc Grossman

  Presenting:
  

  "Blueprints for a More Modern US Diplomatic Service: US-Turkey Relations & How Implementing 'Blueprints. Can Enhance Diplomatic Efforts"

  
  

  About Ambassador Marc Grossman

  US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (2011-2012)
  Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (2001-2005)
  Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (1997-2000)
  US Ambassador to Turkey (1994-1997)

  Ambassador Grossman served as the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the State Department's third ranking official, until his retirement in 2005, after 29 years in the US Foreign Service. As Under Secretary, he helped marshal diplomatic support for the international response to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. He also managed US policies in the Balkans and Colombia and promoted a key expansion of the NATO alliance. As Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, he helped direct NATO's military campaign in Kosovo and an earlier round of NATO expansion. In Turkey, Ambassador Grossman encouraged vibrant US-Turkish political, military, and economic relations.

  Ambassador Grossman was a Vice Chairman of The Cohen Group from July 2005 to February 2011.

  In February 2011, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton called Ambassador Grossman back to service as the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ambassador Grossman promoted the international effort to support Afghanistan by shaping major international meetings in Istanbul, Bonn, Chicago and Tokyo. He provided US backing for an Afghan peace process designed to end thirty years of conflict and played an important part in managing US relations with Pakistan. Ambassador Grossman returned to The Cohen Group in February 2013.

  Ambassador Grossman is the Chairman of the Board of the Senior Living Foundation of the Foreign Service. He also serves as a Trustee of the University of California Santa Barbara Foundation and is a member of the Board of the C&O Canal Trust.

  Raised in Los Angeles, California, Ambassador Grossman has a BA in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an M.Sc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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• Distinguished Speaker Series "Beyond the American Lens: The Legacy of War, Transgenerational Trauma, Reconciliation, and Healing'' with Le Ly Hayslip

  • When
    November 02, 2023
  •  
    11:30 AM - 2:00 PM
  • Location
    National University

  Register

  
  

  The San Diego World Affairs Council and National University present the
  Distinguished Speaker Series
  

  Le Ly Hayslip

  in conversation with Professor Gregory Daddis

  Presenting:
  

  "Beyond the American Lens: The Legacy of War, Transgenerational Trauma, Reconciliation, and Healing"

  
  

  Thursday, November 2nd, 2023

  11:30am - 2:00pm

  National University 

  9388 Lightwave Ave, San Diego, CA 92123

  San Diego World Affairs Council is pleased to partner with National University to engage the public on this timely topic, as it coincides with the 50^th anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. This program will be structured as a guided conversation between Daddis and Hayslip, including ample time for participant questions and answers. 

  About Le Ly Hayslip

  Le Ly is an internationally known Vietnamese-American author, philanthropist, peace activist, and speaker. She grew up in Ky La (now known as Xa Hoa Quy), Vietnam during the American-Vietnam War. She wrote two best-selling memoirs—When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Child of War, Woman of Peace, based on her painful and ultimately triumphant journey from a traumatizing childhood in war-ravaged Vietnam to her new life in America. Having grown up in Central Vietnam as a woman, Le Ly shares a perspective that is unique when it comes to the Vietnam War. She received raving reviews for both books, including from The New York Times and The Washington Post. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places was included in the 1990 edition of Reader’s Digest’s Today’s Best Nonfiction. Her memoirs, having been published in 17 different languages throughout the world, are now used in several universities as course material to study women in history, the American/Vietnam War, and other topics. In 1993, the books were adapted into the film “Heaven & Earth,” directed by the award-winning director Oliver Stone and starring Hiep Thi Le and Tommy Lee Jones. 

  Le Ly’s life as a humanitarian began after she arrived in the US in 1970 and became a US citizen, but returned to her native Vietnam in 1986. Her shock from the devastation, poverty, and illness left by the war became the impetus for her two philanthropic organizations, East Meets West Foundation and Global Village Foundation. Both organizations dedicate their efforts to humanitarian relief, education, and development to help rebuild Vietnam through providing basic needs (shelter, clean water, medical facilities, education), establishing revolving loan programs, and finding homes for several hundreds of orphaned children. Hayslip continues to lead groups and delegations in cultural and anthropological studies in her home village.

  About Professor Gregory Daddis
  

  Gregory is the Director of the Center for War and Society and the USS Midway Chair in Modern U.S. Military History.  Originally from the Garden State of New Jersey, he holds a bachelor of science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, a master’s degree from Villanova University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduating from West Point, he served for 26 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a colonel. He is a veteran of both Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom and his military awards include the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, and the Meritorious Service Medals. His final assignment in the army was as the Chief of the American History Division in the Department of History at the United States Military Academy.

  Daddis specializes in Cold War history with an emphasis on the American war in Vietnam. He has authored five books, including his most recent with Cambridge University Press, Pulp Vietnam: War and Gender in Cold War Men's Adventure Magazines (2020). Daddis also has published a trilogy on the American war in Vietnam with Oxford University Press: Withdrawal: Reassessing America’s Final Years in Vietnam (2017), Westmoreland’s War: Reassessing American Strategy in Vietnam (2014) and No Sure Victory: Measuring U.S. Army Effectiveness and Progress in the Vietnam War (2011). Additionally, he has published scholarly articles in some of his field’s leading journals, to include The Journal of Cold War Studies, The Journal of Military History, and The Journal of Strategic Studies.

  
  

  
  

  
  

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• Distinguished Speaker Series ”The Essential Role of Social Mobilization in Confronting the Climate Crisis: Implications for Global Action” with Professor Adam Aron

  • When
    January 11, 2024
  •  
    6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
  • Location
    Hall of Nations, Balboa Park

  Register

  The San Diego World Affairs Council Presents the 

  Distinguished Speaker Series

  featuring:

  UCSD PROFESSOR ADAM ARON

  ”The Essential Role of Social Mobilization in Confronting the Climate Crisis: Implications for Global Action”

  
  

  Thursday, January 11th, 2024

  6:00pm - 8:00pm

  Hall of Nations, Balboa Park

  2294 Pan American Plaza, San Diego, CA 92101

  Why, despite all we know about the causes and harms of global heating, has so little effective action been taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and what we can do to change that? UCSD Professor Adam Aron's latest book explains the mechanisms and impacts of the climate crisis, traces the history and reasons behind the lack of serious effort to combat it, describes some people’s ongoing skepticism and how to shift it, and motivates an urgent program of action. 

  Professor Aron argues that the pathway to stopping dangerous global heating will require a much larger mobilization of advocacy and activism to impel decision makers to abandon fossil fuels, and transition to renewable energy and electrification embedded in a political and social framework guided by justice principles. .

  About Professor Adam Aron

  Adam is a Professor in the Psychology Department at UC San Diego. His research and teaching focus on the social science of collective action on the climate crisis. His climate activism has been through the Green New Deal at UC San Diego where he has worked on several campaigns such as ElectrifyUC and has also produced the documentary Coming Clean. Before switching to the climate crisis, Adam had a successful career in cognitive neuroscience. Adam attended Waterford Kamhlaba (United World College of Southern Africa), received a BSc and BA (hons) at the University of Cape Town before earning his PhD from the University of Cambridge, and was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA.

  Info on his latest book here: www.aronclimatecrisis.net 
  

  
  

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