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 On
November 4, 2008, Americans will choose their 44th President.
The wide-open primaries and presidential campaign look set to
revolve a round two of the most historically contentious
issues in U.S. politics: race and the use of American power
abroad.
Is America ready
to elect a black president ? Or, for that matter a woman? How
will both parties re-imagine America’s role in the world in
the aftermath of the botched occupation of Iraq? And what are
the implications for Canada of a Democratic or Republican
victory?
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SEPTEMBER ,
2007
Camille Paglia
Acknowledged as a leading social critic and educator, she came to prominence in
1990 after publishing the highly acclaimed book Sexual Personae. Her
other works include Sex, Art, and American Culture and the 1994
collection Vamps and Tramps, which dealt with such celebrities as Bill
and Hillary Clinton. Her latest book on poetry Break, Blow, Burn has also
met with critical and commercial success. She is currently a professor at the
University of the Arts in Philadelphia and writes a political column for
Salon.com.
VIDEO: Part 1
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Part 3
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OCTOBER ,
2007
Shelby Steele
Is a
leading expert in the study of race relations in the U.S. In 2006, he received
the Bradley Prize for his work on the study of race in America. In 1991, his
documentary work Seven Days in Bensonhurst won an Emmy. Dr. Steele
received the National Book Critic’s Circle Award for his book The Content of
Our Character. His most recent book is A Dream Deferred: The Second
Betrayal of Black Freedom in America. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the
Hoover Institution at Stanford and writes regularly for The New York Times
and Wall Street Journal.
VIDEO:
Part 1
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Part 3
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FEBRUARY,
2008
James Carville
A
controversial and colourful personality, James Carville is one of America’s most
recognized political consultants and media pundits. He also runs a successful
international political consulting business. Also known as the "Ragin’ Cajun"
Carville gained national attention for his work as the lead strategist of the
successful 1992 presidential campaign of then - Arkansas governor Bill Clinton.
Carville was the co-host of CNN’s Crossfire and appears regularly on its
political show The Situation Room. His latest book is Take It Back: A Battle
Plan for Democratic Victory.
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MAY, 2008
David Gergen
Is a
well known and respected commentator, author and adviser to presidents for 30
years. He served as director of communications for President Reagan and held
positions in the administrations of Presidents Nixon, Ford and Clinton. He
currently teaches at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University and is editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report. In the
fall of 2000 he published the best-selling Eyewitness to Power: The Essence
of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton. Mr. Gergen is a regular guest on PBS’ The
NEWSHOUR with Jim Lehrer.
VIDEO:
Part 1
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 With
the collapse of the Soviet Union, some thought, or hoped,
Europe would become the counterweight to U.S. global
dominance. Rather than gain influence, Europe seems in the
grips of an internal crisis. From permanent under-employment,
an aging population, labour strife to growing Islamic
radicalism, terrorism and failed immigration policies,
Brussels's grand vision seems under threat as never before.
What are sources
of Europe's current troubles? Can the continent bounce back?
And what would the decline of Europe's power and status mean
for the rest of the world?
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OCTOBER,
2006
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
An
outspoken critic of fundamentalist Islam and its treatment of women. Originally
from Somalia, she fled to the Netherlands in 1992. Hirsi Ali served as a member
of parliament for three years until May 2006 when she resigned her seat over
allegations about the status of her citizenship. In 2004 she wrote the
screenplay for the documentary Submission directed by Theo Van Gogh, who was
murdered by an Islamic extremist. Her latest book is The Caged Virgin: An
Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam. She is currently Resident Fellow
at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington D.C.
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NOVEMBER,
2006
Bernard-Henri Levy
One of
France¹s most popular philosophers, journalists and filmmakers. An iconoclastic
thinker and bon vivant, Lévy is the author of dozens of books including the
international bestsellers Barbarism with a Human Face, Who Killed Daniel
Pearl,
and his most recent, American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of
Tocqueville. Lévy is also co-founder of the antiracist group SOS Racism. He
currently writes weekly a column for Le Point magazine.
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FEBRUARY,
2007
Anne Applebaum
The
Pulitzer Prize winning author of Gulag: A History and a columnist for The
Washington Post. She worked as a correspondent for the Economist covering
Eastern Europe, and later served as Deputy Editor of the Spectator magazine in
England. She has written for the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the
Times Literary Supplement. Married to the defense minister of Poland, Ms. Applebaum divides her time between Warsaw and Washington D.C.
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MAY, 2007
Gore Vidal
An
American literary icon. He has led an eclectic public life since publishing his
first novel at the age of 21. Aside from his numerous best-selling novels and
essays, Gore Vidal has worked as an actor and writer for film, TV, and the
stage. He received a Tony nomination for his Broadway play The Best Man and won
the National Book Award for United States Essays: 1952-1992. He recently sold
his renowned hillside estate in Ravello, Italy, where he lived since the 1960s.
He now makes his home in Los Angeles, California.
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 From
Afghanistan and Iraq to Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon,
democracy, however nascent and imperfect, seems to be taking
hold in the Middle East. The driving force behind the region's
transformation has been the unprecedented use of American
power by the Bush administration.
Will George W.
Bush's historic gamble succeed? Or, will the push for
democracy sow the seeds of ethnic conflict, state failure and
regional instability?
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SEPTEMBER,
2005
Robert Kaplan
Robert
Kaplan is the highly acclaimed author of seven books on
international affairs and the Middle East, including
Balkan Ghosts, The Arabists, The Ends of the Earth and
The Coming Anarchy. His recent book, Eastward to
Tartary, takes readers on a geopolitical tour of the
Middle East, the Balkans and the Caucasus. Mr. Kaplan is
also an accomplished essayist, having published numerous
cover stories in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times,
The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
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NOVEMBER,
2005
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens is perhaps the most brilliant and
controversial political commentarist and essayist in
America today. A prolific writer, he is the author of more
than ten books including, most recently, A Long Short
War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq, Why Orwell Matters,
The Trial of Henry Kissinger, and Letters to a
Young Contrarian. He is currently a contributing
editor to Vanity Fair, and writes regularly on various
topics for Harper's, The Los Angeles Times Book Review,
Slate, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
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FEBRUARY
, 2006
Fouad Ajami
Fouad
Ajami is the Majid Khadduri Professor and Director of
Middle East Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School
for Advanced International Studies in Washington DC. He is
the author of The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A
Generation’s Odyssey, The Arab Predicament, Beirut: The
City of Regrets, The Vanished Imam, and other works.
His essays have appeared in The New Republic, The New York
Times Book Review, The Times Literary Supplement (London),
The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post Book World,
and The New York Times.
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MAY, 2006
Bernard Lewis
Bernard
Lewis is the Cleveland E. Lodge Professor Emeritus of Near
Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He is
internationally recognized as one of the greatest living
scholars of the Middle East. Some of his many books
include The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last
2,000 years, The Emergence of Modern Turkey, The Arabs in
History, and the international bestseller What Went
Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response.
Since 9/11 Professor Lewis has been a senior advisor to
the President on Middle Eastern affairs.
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 The
inaugural Grano Series saw four leading thinkers come to
Toronto discuss the current state and future of American
foreign policy.
Canada's Michael
Ignatieff, U.S. conservative thinker William Kristol, and
heavyweight U.S. academics Samuel Huntington and John Lukacs
provided Grano Series members with their compelling and
provocative insights into whether America was on the verge of
becoming an 'Empire'.
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William Kristol,
one of America’s leading political analysts and media commentators, is editor of
the influential Washington-based political magazine,
The Weekly Standard. Before starting The Weekly Standard, he led
the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shape the strategy that
produced the 1994 Republican congressional victory.
Before
coming to Washington in 1985, Mr. Kristol taught politics at the University of
Pennsylvania and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and more recently
co-authored the New York Times bestseller The War Over
Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission.
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Michael Ignatieff
is an internationally known writer and broadcaster. His award-winning television
series Blood and Belonging: Journeys into the New Nationalism, examined the
issue of nationalism in the late 20th century. He has written a number of books
including The Warrior's Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience and
Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond. His most recent book,
Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an “Age of Terror”, examines the
tensions between the values of liberal democracies and waging war against
terrorism.
Mr. Ignatieff is currently Carr Professor and Director of the Carr
Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University.
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Samuel P.Huntington
is one of the most influential political scientists of his generation. He is the
Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard University, where he
is also Director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and
Chairman of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies at the Center
for International Affairs.
Dr. Huntington is the author of over a dozen books including The
Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, which Zbigniew
Brzezinski described as a “tour de force that will revolutionize our
understanding of international affairs.” The book has been translated into 22
languages.
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John Lukacs
Described by Jacques Barzun as “…one of the outstanding historians of the
generation and, indeed, or our time” he has been praised by critics as a
historian who has the literary talents of a novelist, John Lukacs is the author
of more than 20 books, including Outgrowing Democracy: A historical
Interpretation of the U.S in the 20th Century, The Hitler of History, and the
bestselling Five Days in London : May 1940. A recipient of the Ingersoll Prize,
Professor Lukacs served from 1947–94 as professor of history at Chestnut Hill
College, and also served as a visiting professor at many universities, including
Columbia, Princeton, Johns Hopkins University, and at the University of Budapest
in his native Hungary.
John Lukacs’ topic for the Grano series on the theme The American
Empire, is entitled “Split-minded imperialism: Is the U.S an imperial power?”
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