January Reading Group

Hell and Other Destinations: A 21st-Century Memoir

By Madeleine Albright

Friday, January 22, 2021

7:30 - 9:00 am MST

Venue

Online Zoom Meeting

About the Book

In this revealing, funny, and inspiring memoir, seven-time New York Times bestselling author and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright—among the world’s most admired and tireless public servants—reflects on the challenge of continuing one’s career far beyond the normal age of retirement.

In 2001, when Madeleine Albright was leaving office as America’s first female secretary of state, interviewers asked her how she wished to be remembered. “I don’t want to be remembered,” she answered. “I am still here and have much more I intend to do. As difficult as it might seem, I want every stage of my life to be more exciting than the last.”

In that time of transition, the former Secretary considered the possibilities: she could write, teach, travel, give speeches, start a business, fight for democracy, help to empower women, campaign for favored political candidates, spend more time with her grandchildren. Instead of choosing one or two, she decided to do it all. For nearly twenty years, Albright has been in constant motion, navigating half a dozen professions, clashing with presidents and prime ministers, learning every day. Since leaving the State Department, she has blazed her own trail—and given voice to millions who yearn for respect, regardless of gender, background, or age.

Hell and Other Destinations reveals this remarkable figure at her bluntest, funniest, most intimate, and most serious. It is the tale of our times anchored in lessons for all time, narrated by an extraordinary woman with a matchless zest for life.

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Virtual Discussion

America’s International Image at a Moment of Change

This presentation will focus on initial public reactions to Biden’s victory in three key allies of the U.S., based on a new survey conducted in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. It will also explore the downturn in America’s reputation during the Trump era, and what foreign publics are looking for from the U.S. as a new president moves into the White House.

About the Presenter

Richard Wike

Director of Global Attitudes Research

Pew Research Center

Richard Wike is director of global attitudes research at Pew Research Center. He conducts research and writes about international public opinion on a variety of topics, such as America’s global image, the rise of China, democracy, and globalization. He is an author of numerous Pew Research Center reports and has written pieces for The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, the Guardian, Politico, Foreign Policy, CNN, BBC, CNBC, and other online and print publications.

Wike has been interviewed by American news organizations such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC, CNN, C-SPAN, and NPR, as well as numerous non-U.S. news organizations, including The Financial Times, The Guardian, El País, BBC, Deutsche Welle, France 24 and Al Jazeera. Wike gives talks and presentations to a variety of audiences, including government, think tanks, business groups, and academic conferences. Wike received a doctorate in political science from Emory University. Before joining Pew Research Center, he was a senior associate for international and corporate clients at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.

Registration

FREE for PCFR Members

$10 for Non-Members

Schedule

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

12:00 pm-1:15 pm MT

Venue

Zoom Meeting

Meeting link and instructions will be emailed prior to the event.

Worldly Perspectives: PCFR Members Take Flight

A Members-Only Program

February 9, 2021

5:00pm - 6:15pm MT

Virtual Event

How many times has your perspective on the world been influenced by fellow members of PCFR? Now is your chance to learn more in the new PCFR Worldly Perspectives Program series — featuring PCFR members who have led fascinating lives working and travelling around the world.

Learn from one of our long-time members who mastered diplomacy and economic development before being recruited by the private sector while on a work tour in Africa!

Step into the world of a young college student working in refugee camps in Lebanon to build schools and curriculum for displaced children of the Syrian Civil War.

Each quarter, we will gather featured speakers to share their stories. Following the moderated discussion period, the conversation will continue in smaller groups. Expand your perspective and your network through PCFR Worldly Perspectives — the world’s stories told from our own backyard.

REGISTER

Have your own story to share?

Reach out to Luke, PCFR Program Committee Co-chair and Board Director, to share how your perspective can benefit our membership as a whole.

February Reading Group

Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of The American Century

by George Packer

Friday, February 19, 2021

7:30 - 9:00 am MST

Venue

Online Zoom Meeting

About the Book

Brilliant and driven. Self-absorbed and idealistic. A man of enormous appetites and ambitions to match. Richard Holbrooke, an American diplomat and author, played substantial roles in conflicts ranging from Vietnam to Afghanistan. He was admired by some as a peacemaker and detested by others as a troublemaker at a time when the US instinctually acted on the impulse to take the lead on the global stage.

Based on Holbrooke's diaries and papers, award-winning author George Packer's has created an intimate portrait of this complex diplomat. The author argues that America's confidence and energy, its reach and grasp, its excess and blindness "were not so different from Holbrooke's."

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March Reading Group

Dangerous Nation

by Robert Kagan

Friday, March 19, 2021

7:30 - 9:00 am MST

Venue

Online Zoom Meeting

About the Book

The newly elected presidential administration must set a foreign policy path for the next four years. What should it be? What role should America play in the future? Should it be the same as the Post World War II period, the abrupt policy change during the Trump Administration or something totally new and innovative? Should America attempt aggressive leadership or pursue a more passive strategy? We have been taught that early American foreign policy was isolationist and for proof, we are shown George Washington’s Farewell Address, The Monroe Doctrine and its Corollary.

To help formulate a foreign policy for the future, it would be useful to review foreign policy of the past. Historian Robert Kagan in 2002 wrote an unconventional and controversial history of American foreign policy with a unique argument that American foreign policy isolation is a myth and that, according to Kagan’s reviewer “…Americans have been increasing their global power and influence steadily for the past four centuries Even from the time of the Pilgrims. He (Kagan) reveals America is no shining “city upon a hill” but an engine of commercial and territorial expansion that drove native Americans , as well as French, Spanish, Russian and ultimately British power from the North American continent.”

Kagan argues that America was “always internationalist at its core”. From the book, learn why Kagan thinks the Civil War and the abolition of slavery were “decisive turning points in American foreign policy”. Finally, decide if Kagan is correct that from a foreigner’s point of view, America has always been a “dangerous nation”.

The book is in all formats and can be purchased as a used book at a discount. 

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