International Politics

Roland Bunch has worked as a consultant in agricultural development for over 40 NGOs and governments in 50 nations, including Cornell University, the Ford Foundation, several of the Oxfams, Save the Children, CARE, and the governments of Guatemala, Honduras, Swaziland, Laos and Vietnam. In 1982, he authored the second of his four books, Two Ears of Corn, A Guide to People-Centered Agricultural Improvement, which was eventually published in ten languages and became one of the all-time best-sellers in agricultural development.

He has also, over the last 30 years, been one of several worldwide leaders (along with a half-dozen Brazilians) in developing green manure/cover crop technologies and spreading them around the world. Roland has been nominated for the Global 500 Award, the US President’s End the Hunger Prize, and the World Food Prize.

Recorded August 26, 2015

When the Middle East is in the news, it can be hard to understand the context. Paul Barker traces the history of Iran and their relations with the United States with remarkable clarity and optimism.

Paul Barker was most recently Country Director for Save the Children International in Afghanistan. He will share insights about opportunities for improving relations between Iran and the U.S. in the context of popular feelings towards America by most Iranians, negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program, the threats and opportunities posed by ISIS, and U.S. desire to end its military engagement in Afghanistan.

Recorded May 4, 2015

What is cyberwar? Why doesn’t mutually assured destruction work with cyber threats? And why did all the computers in an underground nuclear facility start playing rock music at 3:00 in the morning?

A fascinating exploration of how cyber attacks happen and how it affects governments and private enterprise.

Lawrence Husick is Co-Chairman of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Center for the Study of Terrorism where he concentrates on the study of terrorist tactics and counterterrorism strategies, with a particular focus on technology leverage as a defining characteristic of the modern terrorist.

The Juneau World Affairs Council presents “Greenland and the Changing Arctic: Climate, Culture and Self-Determination” with Richard Caulfield. Caulfield is an author and the provost of the University of Alaska Southeast. His doctoral dissertation focused on aboriginal subsistence whaling in Greenland and cultural dynamics of natural resource use in the Arctic.

This presentation was recorded April 15, 2015 @360.

Maria Offer presents “Revisiting Human Rights in Guatemala in the aftermath of the civil war.”

Offer is a reading and curriculum specialist and education consultant who does volunteer literacy work with Indigenous communities in Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru (as well as developing culturally responsive programs for Alaskan Native students). She did volunteer work in Guatemala during the 1980s when that country’s civil war was taking place, and is currently working to set up a program to support primary and secondary education for Indigenous children in a rural area of Guatemala. She also discusses the genocide trial of Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt, as well as human trafficking.

This presentation was filmed March 9, 2015 @360.

The Juneau World Affairs Council presents “Faith-based Diplomacy: Bridging the Religious Divide” with Douglas Johnston.

Johnston is president and founder of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy. The nongovernmental organization’s mission is to prevent and resolve identity-based conflicts that exceed the reach of traditional diplomacy by incorporating religion as part of the solution.

Recorded January 21, 2015