Public Affairs

Overview

Public Affairs hosted speakers who are prominent people in the world of international affairs, from acclaimed authors, to Nobel laureates, to high-ranking UN officials.

UN Building, New York

FEB 19, 2004 Transcript

Challenges to the UN

Sir Kieran Prendergast gives a progress report on the panel appointed by Kofi Annan to recommend changes that would enable the UN to respond more ...

FEB 4, 2004 Transcript

Of Paradise and Power: America vs. Europe in the New World Order (With a New Afterword)

The widening military gap between Europe and the United States has an unavoidable effect, says Robert Kagan. "It is a natural human phenomenon that if ...

The Lesser Evil:  Hard Choices in a War on Terror by Michael Ignatieff

JAN 23, 2004 Transcript

The Lesser Evil: Hard Choices in a War on Terror

Ignatieff says that while the battle against terrorism may sometimes require infringing international norms on the use of force, we must constantly guard against slipping ...

Detail from book cover.

JAN 21, 2004 Transcript

The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia

Is Khordorovsky a captialist or a criminal, and what does his case teach us about Putin's Russia?

Freedom on Fire: Human Rights Wars and America’s Response by John Shattuck

NOV 20, 2003 Transcript

Freedom on Fire: Human Rights Wars and America's Response

Shattuck says that the forces unleashed against us on 9/11 were the very forces of disintegration that he witnessed in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Haiti, and are ...

NOV 13, 2003 Transcript

Nehru: The Invention of India

Shashi Tharoor assesses the legacy of Nehru, the man who "through his writings, his speeches, his leadership,...invented India in an extraordinary way."

The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World’s Most Prosperous Decade by Joseph Stiglitz

NOV 5, 2003 Transcript

The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade

Looking back at the economy of the 1990s, Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz draws a lesson for the present: “We must restore the balance between ...

OCT 21, 2003 Transcript

Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy in an Age of Interdependence

Benjamin Barber urges the United States to curb its militaristic impulses in favor of working for "global comity" within the framework of universal rights and ...

PLAN B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble by Lester Brown

OCT 15, 2003 Transcript

PLAN B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble

An in-depth look at human damage to the natural environment and the social and technological possibilities for remedying such degradation.

The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century by Paul Krugman

OCT 2, 2003 Transcript

The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century

According to economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, the radicalism of the current administration’s political agenda, from its Social Security plans to ...