A nation must think before it acts.
Message from the President · Mar 2013
Friends of FPRI,
Just a short note to let you know that the creator of the original Firing Line has asked us to use another name for our monthly discussion program modeled on Firing Line, and we have decided to respect that request. The new name of the program is “Geopolitics with Ron Granieri,” reflecting FPRI’s approach to understanding contemporary international affairs through the study of history, geography, and culture – or, as FPRI Senior Fellow James Kurth has put it, through interpreting “the realities and mentalities of the localities.”
On the second Tuesday of every month, FPRI Senior Fellow Ron Granieri, who has proved to be a unique combination of Bill Buckley and Phil Donahue, will interview — I like to say interrogate – an FPRI scholar or other guest on some critical international issue in the news. Ron directs FPRI’s Center for the Study of America and the West, holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago, and has a flair for the memorable metaphor. The audience participates in the interrogation!
Audio Files of Past Programs in This Series
We began this series in January 2013, when Ron hosted James Kurth, and the subject was his recent article pondering the end of the road for conservatism in light of the 2012 presidential election. In February, we turned our sights on FPRI Senior Fellow Andrew Garfield and Afghanistan, drawing on his soon-to-be-published report on in-depth interviews with 78 Taliban insurgents. You can listen to the interviews, including major participation from our audience, here:
/multimedia/2013/01/firing-line-20-january-2013-audio
/multimedia/2013/02/firing-line-20-february-2013-audio
Coming Up on March 12
On March 12, Ron will match wits with FPRI Senior Fellow Barak Mendelsohn, Associate Professor of Political Science at Haverford College, as they grapple with the situation in Syria, where some 70,000 people have been killed in the course of a civil war triggered by the regime’s torture of young kids who had scribbled anti-government graffiti in public spaces. Should the US assist the opposition to the reigme and help overthrow Assad, or will that risk unintended consequences that will only replace the Assad regime with something even worse?
Who Can Attend in Person and on the Web?
By way of reminder, this monthly program takes place on the second Tuesday of every month from 11:30 to 12:30 at FPRI, 1528 Walnut Street, Suite 610, Philadelphia, or on the web. It is exclusively for FPRI members, as described below:
*Attendance in person is for members at the $75 level.
*Attendance over the web is for members at the $35 level.
*Attendance at the private lunch immediately following is for members at the $500 level.
If you plan to attend in person, be sure to RSVP to events@fpri.org.
If you plan to listen on the web, go to our website for instructions:
/events/2013/03/geopolitics-march-2013
How and Why to Join FPRI
I encourage you to enroll in FPRI right now not just to become eligible to participate in this and other FPRI programs but also to support the research, educational and publication programs of the nation’s top think (with a budget under $5 million, as ranked by the University of Pennsylvania’s Global Think Tank Rankings Index). You can sign up here:
To keep up with FPRI, be sure to “like” us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @fprinews.
With very best wishes,
Alan H. Luxenberg
President
Foreign Policy Research Institute