Lecture and Screening of “TRANSIT”
March 12, 2019
Dr. Randall Halle
This program is presented through a joint partnership of the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence, the Center for Contemporary Art and the Santa Fe World Affairs Forum
Dr. Randall Halle
Tuesday, March 12, 2019 @ 6 pm
The Screen
1600 Saint Michaels Drive Santa Fe, NM 87505
Dr. Randall Halle, The Klaus W. Jonas Professor of German Film and Cultural Studies and the Director of the Film and Media Studies Program at University of Pittsburgh, presents a lecture and screening of a film that addresses many of the urgent challenges facing societies across the globe.
His books include: The Europeanization of Cinema, German Film after Germany, Queer Readings in Social Philosophy and the co-edited volumes After the Avant-Garde and Light Motives.
The screening is Christian Petzold’s “TRANSIT”, an engaging and challenging drama with refugees, fascism, desperation, betrayal, mystery and love. The film adapts Anna Segher’s 1944 novel about German refugee who fled to Marseille at the outbreak of WWII, the invading Nazi forces on their heels. But it moves between the plight of the displaced then and now. Living among refugees from around the world huddled in Marseille, our main character assumes the identity of the dead writer whose transit papers he is carrying. And he falls for, a mysterious woman searching for her husband—the man whose identity he has stolen. (Germany/France, 2018, 101m)
“Extraordinary! Conceptually daring.”
–Variety“Moody, beguiling, formally bold. Turns history
into an existential maze fromwhich few seem destined to escape” –The New
York Times“Urgent and slyly brilliant. Like
a remake of Casablanca as written by Franz Kafka.” –IndieWire
Tuesday, March 12, 2019 @ 6 pm
The Screen
1600 Saint Michaels Drive Santa Fe, NM 87505
Past Programs
The intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Next Arms Race
February 26, 2019
Cheryl Rofer
Click here to download: The INF Treaty and the Next Arms Race power point slides
The Trump administration has been threatening to withdraw the United States from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Agreement by February 2, 2019. Its stated reason is that Russia has developed a missile that violates the treaty. US withdrawal, however, is likely to lead to a new nuclear arms race. The INF Treaty was signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987 to end a dangerous arms race that threatened the European continent. The treaty outlawed an entire class of weapon and formed a basis for later arms control agreements. We do not know what President Donald Trump will actually do with respect to the treaty. This talk will be up to the minute. It will include the historical background of the INF Treaty, its place in the framework of arms control treaties, and how the US’s withdrawal from it can provoke a new arms race, along with the implications of actions taken by the administration during February. Cheryl Rofer was a chemist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for 35 years. She now writes scientific and political commentary for the web publications Nuclear Diner and Balloon Juice. She regularly provides background information on nuclear topics to reporters and has been quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Vox. Her work at Los Alamos included projects in fossil fuels, laser development, and the nuclear fuel cycle and has worked on environmental remediation at Los Alamos and in Estonia and Kazakhstan. She is past president of the Los Alamos Committee on Arms Control and International Security and a founding member of SFWAF. She has published in scientific and political science journals and edited a book. She holds an A.B. from Ripon College and an M.S. from the University of California at Berkeley. She has spoken to SFWAF on several previous occasions, most recently on the Iran Nuclear Agreement. The SFWAF Program will be in the: The SFCC Board Room (#223) which is in the West Wing (Administration building) of the Santa Fe Community College.
Water as the Common Denominator for Health and Peace
January 22, 2019
David Douglas
SOLD OUT! There is no more serious and solvable global health problem in developing countries than the lack of safe water in hospitals and clinics. The need for safe water in Gaza and the West Bank represents a common goal for Palestinians and Israelis at a time when few other issues bring the sides together. The Washington D.C.-based advocacy organization, Global Water 2020, where David Douglas is a principal, has become one of the key entities working behind the scenes on these two issues to expand safe water access. Douglas, a Santa Fe resident, will focus on current steps being taken by governments, UN agencies, NGOs, and donors to extend safe water to tens of thousands of health-care facilities in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He’ll also describe several quiet efforts now underway by Palestinians, Israelis and international donors to improve drinking water and wastewater conditions in Gaza and the West Bank. David Douglas leads non-profit organizations devoted to global clean drinking water, including the DC-based Global Water 2020 (www.globalwater2020.org) and the Santa-Fe based non-profit organization Waterlines (www.waterlines.org) which has provided funding and technical aid for over 1,000 small-scale drinking water projects in rural villages, schools, churches and clinics in developing countries. From 2005-2010 he headed the time-limited initiative Water Advocates, the US’s first advocacy organization devoted to increasing public and private support for safe drinking water and adequate sanitation worldwide. This past November, at the invitation of the US State Department and the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development, Douglas spoke in Rome on the appalling lack of safe water and sanitation in government and faith-based health-care facilities in developing countries. Douglas practiced environmental law and wrote extensively in the 1980’s and 1990’s on global drinking water issues. He is the author of “Wilderness Sojourn: Notes in the Desert Silence,” “Letters of Faith: Memoirs of an Appalachian Conversion,” and co-author with his wife, Deborah, of “Pilgrims in the Kingdom: Travels in Christian Britain.” He and Deborah live in Santa Fe and have two grown daughters and five grandchildren. The SFWAF Program will be in the: The SFCC Board Room (#223) which is in the West Wing (Administration building) of the Santa Fe Community College.
Foreign Policy Begins at Home: Public Opinion and National Security in a Democracy
November 29, 2018
Ted McNamara
Throughout our history, the degree of our success in foreign affairs depends on our strength and unity at home and public understanding and support of our foreign policies. Q: what did this last election do in this regard?
Ambassador McNamara is the President of the Diplomacy Center Foundation, a not-for-profit partner of the Department of State, building the nation’s first ever museum and educational center devoted to American diplomacy. He retired in 1997 as Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs, but returned in 2001 to be Senior Advisor to the Secretary on terrorism and homeland security. He previously served as Ambassador to Colombia, Special Assistant to the President, Ambassador at Large for Counter Terrorism, Special Negotiator for Panama, and other senior positions. From 1998 to 2001 he was President and CEO of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas in New York. He was Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment, reporting to the President, Congress, and Director of National Intelligence (2006-09). He is also Adjunct Professor in the Elliot School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. A career diplomat with postings in Colombia, Russia, Congo, and France, he has written extensively on Latin America, terrorism, arms control, non-proliferation and regional security. He is the recipient of numerous distinguished service awards and has appeared on the PBS Newshour, CNN, NPR, BBC, VOA and other national and international news media. The SFWAF Program will be in the: The SFCC Board Room (#223) which is in the West Wing (Administration building) of the Santa Fe Community College.
The US and China: A Fragile Relationship Under Stress
November 1, 2018
Henry (Hank) A. Levine
In late September, the US-Chinese relationship took a turn for the worse in economic and national security terms. What happened? What is the state of play and what does this mean for US companies and other American businesses in terms of trade with our single largest trading partner? What is the state of the Chinese economy? Are the Trump administration’s tariff wars justified? Are they effective? Or has the relationship between these two giants soured so much that economic disagreements also affect national security and other interests? Hank Levine is a Senior Advisor with the Albright Stonebridge Group — a strategic advisory firm in Washington, DC. As a senior member of the firm’s multimillion-dollar China practice Mr. Levine helps international firms deepen their interactions with government and non-government entities in China and resolve business issues. Before entering the private sector Mr. Levine spent 25 years as a Foreign Service Officer with the US Department of State. In this capacity he served twice in the State Department’s Office of China Affairs, twice at the US Embassy in Beijing, and as US Consul General in Shanghai. Following his tour in Shanghai he served for three years as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asia at the US Department of Commerce. In that capacity he was the senior China advisor to two secretaries of Commerce and lead negotiator for the annual US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. Mr. Levine is a member of the National Committee on US China Relations and a member of the Advisory Council of the US-China Education Trust, where he previously served as Executive Director. Mr. Levine has a B.A. in Political Science from Bucknell University. He did graduate work in international affairs at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is a graduate, with distinction, from the US National War College. He is fluent in Chinese (Mandarin). Time: 12-2 pm Location: The Hotel Santa Fe (#Kiva C), 1501 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, NM 87501
Common Sense Immigration: Let’s Talk Facts and Distinguish between Good Politics and Bad Policy
October 23, 2018
Todd Greentree
The flow of migrants from Central America is a serious issue, but the United States is not suffering a general crisis of illegal immigration. Let’s talk facts and distinguish between good politics and bad policy. Much of this is common sense. Other nations do not “send” their worst people to the United States, rather the U.S. remains a beacon for citizens of other nations who are seeking better lives for many reasons. The total number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S.has actually declined from its peak of 12.2 million in 2007.More Mexicans are returning home than are coming into to the U.S, a trend that began in 2009 and which job growth from NAFTA has reinforced. MS-13, the gang that Trump loves to hate, spawned in the jails of Los Angeles, not the streets of San Salvador. The surge of people fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras has its roots in the U.S.-backed civil wars of the 1980s, the “low quality” democracies that have resulted in the succeeding decades, and drug trafficking that transits Central America on the way to the U.S. Research generally shows that the crime rate among illegal immigrants is lower than the general population, and is even lower among legal immigrants. The principal implication is that solutions will come not by building a wall or draconian enforcement, but rather though a combination of effective border security, foreign assistance, and legislation that regularizes the flow of human beings into the country as well as the status of those who are here now. A former U.S. Foreign Service Officer, Todd Greentree has served in five wars, from El Salvador in the early 1980s to Afghanistan between 2008 and 2012. Mr. Greentree graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz, received his master’s degree in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and his doctorate in history from Oxford University. He has taught Strategy and Policy at the Naval War College and the University of New Mexico and was a Visiting Scholar at the SAIS Merrill Center for Strategic Studies. Currently, he is a Research Associate with the Oxford Changing Character of War Centre, conducts programs in Latin America with the U.S. Center for Civil -Military Relations, and teaches international relations at UNM. He is writing a book titled The Blood of Others, about the origins and consequences of the wars at the end of the Cold War in Angola, Central America, and Afghanistan. Location at Santa Fe Community College Board Room (#223).
Will North Korea Denuclearize if the U.S. does not normalize?
SOLD OUT!
September 17, 2018
Siegfried S. Hecker
2017 was a very bad year for North Korea–U.S. relations as the two appeared headed toward military conflict. North-South Korea rapprochement in 2018 led to a peaceful Winter Olympics and opened the door for the Singapore Summit on June 12, at which Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump stepped back from the precipice. Three months later, however, we are no closer to the denuclearization of North Korea. Dr. Hecker will draw on our historical studies of North Korea’s nuclear program and his seven visits to North Korea to explain why denuclearization will not occur without concurrent normalization of relations. Siegfried S. Hecker is a professor emeritus (research) in the department of management science and engineering and a senior fellow emeritus at the center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University. Hecker was Co-Director of cisac from 2007-2012. He served as the fifth director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1986-1997. Hecker received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in metallurgy from Case Western Reserve University. His professional interests include nuclear weapons policy, plutonium research, global nuclear risk reduction with Russia, China, Pakistan, India, North Korea and Iran, and threats of nuclear terrorism. Location at Santa Fe Community College Board Room (#223).
