Daughter and Son Event: A Meeting with Kofi Annan
Related Project: Daughter and Sons Event Series
Presider: Charlie Rose, Executive Producer and Host, Charlie Rose
Speaker: Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations
Members may bring high school or college-age children to this event.
Related Reading:
Foreign Affairs: "Bewitched, bothered and bewildered", by R. Butler. Sept/Oct 1999
A Special Briefing by the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Presider: Louis V. Gerstner Jr., Chairman and CEO, IBM Corporation
Speaker: Richard C. Holbrooke, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Richard Holbrooke discusses the complex challenges facing the UN today.
Daughter and Son Event: U.S. Intelligence on the Eve of the 21st Century
Related Project: Daughter and Sons Event Series
Presider: Warren B. Rudman, Partner, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Chairman, The President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
Speaker: George J. Tenet, Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Since 1997, Tenet has served as Director of Central Intelligence, overseeing the activities of the U.S. intelligence community. With the Los Alamos espionage case and hackers breaking into secured websites more frequently, a new focus on cyber warfare and the need for an overall re-evaluation of what our intelligence needs and vulnerabilities will be in the next century has emerged.
U.S. Africa Policy: The Year Ahead
Related Project: Africa Roundtable Series
Presider: Gay J. McDougall, International Human Rights Law Group
Speaker: Susan E. Rice, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, U.S. Department of State
New England Members Holiday Party
To RSVP please contact Gina Celcis at 212-434-9484 or e-mail at gcelcis@cfr.org.
Toward the New Millennium: Israel’s Political and Legal Agenda
Related Project: U.S./Middle East Project Roundtable
Speaker: Yossi Beilin, Minister of Justice, Israel
China Briefing: Economic Prospects, WTO Deal and Taiwan
Speaker: Walter Russell Mead, Senior Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations
Council Senior Fellow Walter Russell Mead has just returned from a three-week trip to China -- Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Yichan, Shenzhen, Hong Kong -- where he met with a wide variety of individuals in universities and think tanks, the Foreign Ministry, and the State Structural Reform Commission, the agency responsible for drafting the 5-Year Plan.
Mr. Mead will brief us on what he learned from his meetings -- above all, the Chinese perspective on today's most critical issues -- the economy (declining growth rate), Taiwan (including openness to expanded arm sales to Taiwan if U.S. pledges no support of independence), other security concerns (growing suspicion of Japan's apparent move toward rearmament), and the WTO deal.
To register, please contact Kim Knox at 212-434-9684 by noon on Tuesday, December 14th.
New York Holiday Reception (1999)
Look for your invitation in the mail.
The Upcoming Russian Elections: Prospects for E.U.- and U.S.-Russian Relations
Presider: Strobe Talbott, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Speaker: Martti Ahtisaari, President, Republic of Finland
Russia expert Martti Ahtisaari and State Department's second in command, Strobe Talbott will discuss prospects of change and relations between Europe and neighboring Russia and the United States.
Assessing the Iraqi Opposition - A Work in Progress
Related Project: Middle East Forum
Presider: Judith Kipper, Director, Middle East Forum, Council on Foreign Relations
Speaker: Francis J. Ricciardone, Special Coordinator for the Transition of Iraq, U.S. Department of State
Meeting on International Ban on Military Service by Children Under Age 18
Speaker: Olara Otunnu, Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict
Rebuilding Consensus on U.S. Strategic Doctrine: An Issue for Campaign 2000
Related Project: Jacob K. Javits Memorial Lecture Series
Presider: Richard Ravitch, Ravitch, Rice & Co.
Speaker: Joseph R. Biden Jr., Member, U.S. Senate (D-Del.)
Established in honor of Senator Jacob Javits, this new lecture series brings leading congressional thinkers on foreign policy to the Council.
Department of Energy Briefing
Presider: Leslie H. Gelb, President, CFR
Speaker: Bill Richardson, U.S. Secretary of Energy
The Politics of Mexican Economic and Political Transition
Related Project: Latin America Roundtable
Presider: Kenneth R. Maxwell
Speaker: Luis Rubio, Director, Center of Research for Development (CIDAC)
After 70 years of authoritarian rule and stage-managed presidential successions, one of the most important elections since the Second World War will take place in Mexico in July 2000. Competition among the political parties-best reflected in the 1997 midterm election when the PRI lost its historical dominance in Congress-has increased dramatically, giving more opportunities to the opposition presidential candidates. On November 7, a new era in Mexican politics was inaugurated with PRI's historic first primary, which was run with a degree of legitimacy unseen for several decades, and saw Francisco Labastida emerge as the clear PRI candidate. But the path to democracy runs through dangerous minefields. The banking crisis, social insecurity and rising violence and crime, particularly in Mexico City, the unresolved Chiapas conflict, and the unequal distribution of income and poverty are only a few of the issues the candidates will face.
Luis Rubio, Director of CIDAC - Center of Research and Development, an independent institution devoted to the study of economic and political policy issues, will discuss this complex transition period confronting Mexico. Dr. Rubio is author and editor of nearly thirty volumes, including Mexico's Dilemma: The Political Origins of Economic Crisis and Political Reform: Necessary Component of Modernity. His most recent book is Mexican Democracy.
Thinking Regionally: A Framework for U.S. Policy Toward Africa—Session II (D.C.)
Related Project: Study Group on Thinking Regionally in Africa
Panelist: Jendayi E. Fraisser, Assistant Professor, Harvard University
Speaker: Ibrahim Wani, African Center for Strategic Studies, Dawn T. Calabia, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Contact: Chikondi Mseka, 202-518-3421 or cmseka@cfr.org
Argentina: Economic and Political Prospects in a Post-Menem Era
Related Project: Latin America Roundtable
Presider: Kenneth R. Maxwell, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Speaker: Rosendo Fraga, Executive Director, Centro de Estudios Unión para la Nueva Mayoría, Felipe de la Balze, Centro Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales (CARI)
The election of Fernando de la Rúa on October 24 ended a decade during which Carlos Menem and the Justicialist Party dominated the Argentine political scene, in power longer than any other president. De la Rúa, the center-left Alliance candidate, achieved a comfortable victory, having campaigned on a platform of sobriety and "moral change" that proved attractive to voters. However, Argentina still faces enormous political and economic challenges.
Dr. Rosendo Fraga is Executive Director of the Centro de Estudios Unión para la Nueva Mayoría, a research center on military, political, and historical topics. Dr. Felipe de la Balze who has wide experience in the private sector, is a Board Member of the Centro Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales (CARI) and Professor of International Economics at Argentina's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Schools. Dr. Fraga will address the political consequences of the election, while Dr. de la Balze will examine the economic and financial repercussions.
Is the Libyan Leopard Changing His Spots?
Presider: Robert H. Pelletreau Jr., Partner, Afridi and Angell; former Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Speaker: Herman J. Cohen, President, Cohen and Woods International, Inc.; former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa
Herman Cohen will discuss visits he made to Libya between 1996 and 1999, and the changes in Libyan policies as a result of the country's handling of the Pan Am 103 disaster with the remittance of the suspected terrorists to The Hague.
Related Reading:
Foreign Affairs: "The colonel in his labyrinth", by M. Viorst. March/April 1999
Study Group on Assessing the Future of Chinese Power
Panelist: Robert A. Theleen, Chairman, ChinaVest, Inc.
Speaker: Richard K. Betts, Senior Fellow, and Director, National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
Richard Betts will assess the interrelationships of political, economic, and military developments in the evolution of Chinese power and the challenges China
will pose to regional and global order.
U.S. Foreign Policy at the Millennium—Seesion II
Related Project: Roundtable on U.S. Foreign Policy at the Millennium: Moving from Political Theory to Political Engineering
Presider: Kiron Skinner
Speaker: Charles Hill
U.S.-China Relations in the 21st Century
Presider: Peter W. Rodman, Director, National Security Programs, the Nixon Center
Speaker: Li Zhaoxing, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the United States
U.S.-China relations are at a crossroads, with issues such as WTO, Cross-Strait tensions and Falun Gong crackdowns threatening to undermine 25 years of normalized relations.
Related Reading:
Foreign Affairs: "Does China Matter?", by G. Segal. Sept/Oct 1999
Foreign Affairs: "The (ab)normalization of U.S.-Chinese relations",
by P. Tyler. Sept/Oct 1999
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