May 4 Symposium

Date: Wednesday March 13, 2013

May 4 Symposium Tackles Subject of Food Security and Climate Change

How climate change may affect global food supplies and security, around the world and here in Maine, will be the subject of a one-day symposium on Saturday, May 4, 2013, at the First Congregational Church in Camden.

“Food and Climate Change: Global Challenges and Maine Responses” is being organized by the Quaker Peace Center of the Midcoast Meeting of Friends and the First Congregational Church of Camden, in collaboration with the Camden Conference.

“Global warming poses enormous risks to global food production and security,” said Brewster Grace, an event organizer for the Peace Center of the Midcoast Meeting of Friends. “Major effects of increased greenhouse gas emissions—droughts, floods, rising temperatures, and unpredictable growing seasons—are now devastating many regions of the world. Maine is already affected by ocean acidification and plant infestations as temperatures rise.”

“We can see the trends in temperature, weather patterns, and extreme weather, but there are questions concerning where these trends will take us and what we can do to assure that critical production of our farms and fisheries continues to meet the needs of growth populations,” said Bruce Cole, event organizer for the First Congregational Church of Camden.

The symposium will address how global farming and fishing efforts can be modified to adapt to climate change and how we can use farming to mitigate the impacts of climate change. It will then consider the relevance of these global activities to farming and fishing in Maine.

Grace noted that agriculture now accounts for about 30 percent of total worldwide greenhouse gas emissions through the production of fertilizer, the use of energy to produce and transport food, and deforestation for crops and grazing.

“But agriculture also contributes to mitigating climate change by sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere, especially through organic farming and forest and land conservation, in both of which Maine sets an exceptional example.”

Speakers for the May 4 symposium include:

• Molly Anderson, Partridge Chair in Food and Sustainable Agriculture Systems, College of the Atlantic
• Seth Shames, EcoAgriculture Partners, Washington, D.C.
• Doreen Stabinsky, Professor of Global Environment Politics, College of the Atlantic
• Chellie Pingree, (invited) U.S. House of Representative
• Julia Olmstead, Senior Associate, Rural Communities Program, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
• Timothy Griffin, Associate Professor and Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program, Tufts University
• John Jemison, Cooperative Extension, University of Maine
• Robin Alden, Penobscot East Resource Center, Stonington

The May 4 symposium, “Food and Climate Change: Global Challenges and Maine Responses,” is also a community event of the Camden Conference, which will present its major regional conference in February 2014 on the topic of “The Global Politics of Food and Water.”

Site of the May 4 symposium will be the First Congregational Church, located near the center of Camden at 59 Elm Street. Registration forms are available at: http://www.midcoastfriendsmeeting.org/peace-center/ The registration fee is $25 for the one-day program.

For additional information call Bruce Cole, First Congregational Church, at 691-4893.

Students at the 2013 Conference

Date: Tuesday March 12, 2013

There were many students from a number of schools in attendance at the 2013 Camden Conference. Here are a few explorations about their remarkable involvement and participation during the conference weekend.

College of the Atlantic     Portland High School     University of Maine

Opera House – Sold Out!

Date: Friday January 25, 2013

Opera House Sold Out for Camden Conference

The Camden Conference reports this week that all seats at the Camden Opera House have been filled for the 26th Annual Conference, “The Middle East: What Next?” the weekend of February 22-24. Seats are still available, however, at the three live-streaming satellite venues: The Strand in Rockland, the Hutchinson Center in Belfast, and The Grand in Ellsworth. Please click here to register.

Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who was slated to be one of the conference speakers, has been called away on urgent overseas business. Taking his place will be Ambassador Laurence Pope, a career diplomat, addressing U.S. policies and their role in the Middle East.

Pope, a Bowdoin College graduate, is a former U.S. ambassador to Chad and former chargé d’affaires in Libya. Fluent in Arabic and French, he has also held a number of senior posts in the Department of State. He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2000 after 31 years of service but emerged from retirement in the fall of 2012 to assume the temporary post of chargé d’affaires in Libya following the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens in Benghazi. He has now returned to his home in Portland, from where he continues to consult with various institutions.

“The Middle East: What Next?” kicks off at 8 p.m. on Friday, February 22, with noted journalist Robin Wright as keynoter, and continues until 1 p.m. on Sunday, February 24, with a full slate of speakers moderated by Ambassador Nicholas Burns of Harvard’s Kennedy School. For anyone still hoping to attend the conference at the Opera House, the Camden Conference office is maintaining a waiting list in case of cancellations.

For more information, visit www.camdenconference.org or call 207-236-1034.

R.M. Davis is 2013 Global Sponsor

Date: Tuesday January 15, 2013

Maine’s premiere foreign policy conference returns to Camden for 26th year
R. M. Davis commits to conference in big way, as “global sponsor” for three years

This year’s Camden Conference, “The Middle East: What Next?” cannot provide all the answers to this pressing question. But what it will do, with its roster of acknowledged experts—focusing on the key countries of the Middle East—is provide historical analysis with current insights, giving participants a deeper understanding of the elements that will influence the future.

“Attendees will emerge from the weekend Conference with a keener sense of the fundamental issues underlying today’s complex Middle East so that, as events unfold, they can view and understand them in a proper historical framework,” says Camden Conference Board President Bland Banwell.

Helping to make this year’s event possible is R. M. Davis, Inc., a Maine-based, nationally recognized, investment management firm. “As the Global Sponsor, R. M. Davis has again come to the table to make The Camden Conference a premiere event in Maine and a premiere event in the foreign policy community, allowing Camden, Maine to play host to a prestigious slate of informative speakers and to hundreds of Conference attendees for the three day, annual event,” notes Banwell.

“This acclaimed event fosters discourse on the world’s most pressing issues, many of which are economic in nature, and all of which will impact America’s future. Our partnership with The Camden Conference is part of our ongoing commitment to foster education among our community, our clients, and their families,” notes R. M. Davis Vice President, Scott Konecny. To that end, Konecny announced that R. M. Davis will serve as Global Sponsor of the event not only this year, but for an additional two years, through 2015.

This year the Conference will be held February 22-24, 2013 at the Camden Opera House in Camden, Maine and live streamed to venues in Rockland, Belfast, and Ellsworth.

The Conference’s keynote speaker will be journalist, author, and foreign policy analyst Robin Wright, who has reported from more than 140 countries on six continents for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Sunday Times of London, CBS News, and the Christian Science Monitor, having most recently covered U.S. foreign policy for the Washington Post. Besides a long career in journalism, Wright is the author of three books and has been a fellow at the Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Yale, Duke, Stanford, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Southern California.

Other Conference participants include: former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the State Department, R. Nicholas Burns; Professor Shai Feldman, the Judith and Sidney Swartz Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and Professor of Politics at Brandeis University; F. Gregory Gause III, a professor and chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Vermont; Dr. Barbara Ibrahim, Founding Director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo; Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Professor Joshua Landis; Marc Lynch, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs and Director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University; former Iranian Ambassador to Germany and current Research Scholar at the Program on Science and Global Security, Seyed Hossein Mousavian; and Marwan Muasher, a Jordanian diplomat who currently serves as Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.

Tickets for the 26th annual Camden Conference, “The Middle East: What Next?” are currently on sale to both Conference members and the public via www.camdenconference.org or by dialing 1-877-214-8579.

About The Camden Conference
The Camden Conference was founded in 1987 as a nonprofit, non-partisan educational organization whose mission is to foster informed discourse on world issues. In the years since, it has convened its annual February Conference in the historic Camden Opera House, drawing some of the best minds on foreign policy to share their insights and expertise on a range of global issues with the community. Conference topics have included The Making of American Foreign Policy, The Influence of the News Media on Foreign Policy, US-Japan Relations, Globalization, The Politics of Energy and Water, Religion, Global Leadership, and a number of conferences focusing on regions of the world. Visit www.camdenconference.org for additional details.

About R. M. Davis, Inc.
R. M. Davis, Inc. is a nationally recognized wealth management firm located in Portland, Maine. For generations, clients located throughout Northern New England have turned to R. M. Davis for objective, independent financial advice and a wide range of problem-solving services. R. M. Davis’ trusted advisors simplify clients’ lives through a responsive, integrated approach to the accumulation, protection, and transition of their wealth. Visit www.rmdavis.com for details.

Sam L. Cohen Foundation

Date: Friday January 11, 2013

The Sam L. Cohen Foundation, established 29 years ago in Portland to benefit individuals living in southern Maine, has awarded the Camden Conference a grant for 15 Portland High School students and 2 teachers to attend the February 22-24, 2013 Conference in Camden. This year’s Camden Conference theme “The Middle East: What Next?” will focus on the current status and future prospects of the Arab Awakening across the Middle East and its likely impacts upon U.S. policies and U.S. roles in the region. The students to attend will be selected from Portland High School’s Global Studies Certificate Program, and will recognize other recommendations from the Portland Mentoring Alliance, the Make It Happen Program and various ELL programs. The Global Studies program is open to native-born and immigrant students and combines cultural competence skills training, monthly seminars ranging from music to international humanitarian aid efforts, and a senior service learning project to challenge and reward students who are dedicated to becoming global citizens.

The Sam L. Cohen Foundation supports a wide variety of organizations that provide access to educational opportunities, promote culture and the arts and contribute to civic improvement and community well being.

Robin Wright, journalist, author and foreign policy analyst, is the Camden Conference’s keynote speaker, followed over the course of the weekend by eight other recognized experts representing various countries in the Middle East. Serving as Conference moderator is Ambassador Nicholas Burns, currently Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School.

This is the Camden Conference’s 26th year of offering informed discourse on world affairs through community events that start seven months prior to the Conference and culminate with the February Conference weekend. The Conference is held at the Camden Opera House, Camden and streamed live to venues in Rockland, Belfast and Ellsworth. For more information on speakers, topics and registration, please check the website www.camdenconference.org.

100 Days in 100 Minutes

Date: Friday November 16, 2012

The Camden Conference proudly presents Mac Deford and Tom DeMarco’s 7th annual 100 minute history roadshow: 100 DAYS IN 100 MINUTES – ADAMS V. JEFFERSON: THE FURIOUS ELECTION OF 1800. If you think US elections have gone downhill since the founders’ time, think again. The 1800 election had it all: slander, libel, name-calling, tinkering, bribes, and apocalyptic predictions for what would happen if “the other guy” should win.

By popular demand, this lively 100 minute event is available for viewing on-line. Click here to enjoy the show!

Conference Registration Opens

Date: Thursday November 15, 2012

Tickets go on sale to the public on Monday, November 26, for the next Camden Conference, “The Middle East: What Next?” scheduled for February 22-24, 2013. An outstanding slate of speakers has been assembled for the weekend-long conference, including many noted Middle East experts who have appeared frequently in the media. Advance ticket sales to Camden Conference members have already been brisk—the topic and the first-rate speaker roster have proven to be a big draw. Everyone with an interest in the topic should make reservations as soon as possible.

As previously announced, the keynote speaker on Friday evening, February 22, will be Robin Wright, who has reported from more than 140 countries on six continents for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Time, The Atlantic, The Sunday Times of London, CBS News, Foreign Affairs, and many others. Her overseas assignments have included the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and several years as a roving foreign correspondent worldwide.

On Sunday morning, the closing speaker will be Ryan Crocker, a Career Ambassador—highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service—and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In midsummer 2012, he stepped down as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, a position for which he was recalled from retirement in 2011 after having been U.S. Ambassador to Iraq from 2007 to 2009. Crocker previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon (1990-1993), Kuwait (1994-1997), Syria (1998-2001), and Pakistan (2004-2007). Over the course of his career, he studied Farsi prior to a posting to Iran in 1972 and he undertook long-term study of Arabic in 1976, followed by postings in Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt as well as the State Department in Washington. Crocker, who has been called America’s diplomatic superstar, is sure to provide significant insights on the Middle East and the U.S. role there.

Returning to the conference as moderator will be Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School. In April 2008, he retired from the State Department after a distinguished diplomatic career spanning 27 years. From 2005 until his retirement, Burns was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs—the third-ranking position in the State Department—where he led U.S. negotiations with such countries as Iran, India, and Kosovo and supervised U.S. diplomacy throughout the world. Burns was also U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005) and to Greece (1997-2001). He was the State Department Spokesman for two years and spent five years on the National Security Council staff, including a stint as Special Assistant to President Clinton, focusing on the former Soviet Union. Under President George H.W. Bush, he was the NSC Director for Soviet Affairs. Earlier in his career, Burns was posted to Egypt and Mauritania and served as Political Officer at the American Consulate General in Jerusalem. He is the Director of the Aspen Strategy Group, Senior Counselor at the Cohen Group, and serves on many boards, including the Atlantic Council, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the American Ditchley Foundation, Veracity Worldwide, and the Center for a New American Security.

The 26th Annual Camden Conference, “The Middle East: What Next?” takes place live from the Camden Opera House and is simulcast to three satellite venues: the Strand Theatre in Rockland, the Hutchinson Center in Belfast, and the Grand in Ellsworth. For more information, visit www.camdenconference.org or call 207-236-1034.

Member Registration

Date: Wednesday November 7, 2012

Registration for the 2013 Camden Conference is now open for Members! If you are a Camden Conference Member, please call the office at (207) 236-1034 or 1-877-214-8579 or email info@camdenconference.org for registration details. Click here to become a Member now!

On-line registration will be available beginning on Monday, November 26.

Registration for the live venue at the Camden Opera House is $250. Satellite venue registration (The Strand, Rockland or The Hutchinson Center, Belfast) is $140. For information about registering for The Grand, please contact their box office directly.

2013 Booklist Updated!

Date: Thursday November 1, 2012

On this first day of November, the Camden Conference Program Committee is pleased to present its Late Fall Booklist Edition of recommended reading for the 26th Annual Camden Conference: The Middle East: What Next?

This updated Booklist includes the latest work of 2013 Camden Conference speakers, Gregory Gause, Marc Lynch and Robin Wright, as well as past Conference speakers, Deborah Amos and Olivier Roy.

You may view the Booklist here.

To learn more about the upcoming Conference, please visit our Program and Speakers pages.

2013 Conference Announced

Date: Tuesday October 30, 2012

The Camden Conference announces that the topic for 2013 will be “The Middle East: What Next.” The Conference cannot provide all the answers to that question. But what it will do, with its roster of acknowledged experts—focusing on the key countries of the Middle East—is provide historical analysis with current insights, giving participants a firmer understanding of the elements that will influence the future. The 2013 conference will feature a line-up of outstanding speakers, many of whom are appearing regularly on today’s news shows and commentary.

The Syrian civil war escalates daily; riots spread from Cairo to encompass most of the Muslim world; terrorists assassinate the U.S. ambassador in Libya; political instability and sectarian violence increase in Iraq: where is the Arab Spring—that early, optimistic designation—heading?

All revolutions are unique. In Egypt, three decades of Mubarak’s corrupt rule ended almost overnight; in Syria, the Assad family dynasty could collapse tomorrow or hang on for the foreseeable future. Will peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors fall victim to the enveloping unrest? And where will Iran, with its nuclear ambitions, fit in the ever-evolving picture? Predicting what the Middle East will look like in five years, or even one, is clearly impossible. But Conference attendees will emerge from the weekend with a keener sense of the fundamental issues that underlie today’s complex Middle East, so that, as events unfold, they can view and understand them in a proper historical framework.

The keynote speaker on Friday evening will be Robin Wright, who has reported from more than 140 countries on six continents for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Time, The Atlantic, The Sunday Times (London), CBS News, Foreign Affairs, and many others. Her foreign tours have included the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, as well as several years as a roving foreign correspondent. She has covered a dozen wars and several revolutions. Besides a long career in journalism, Wright has been a fellow at the Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Yale, Duke, Stanford, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Southern California. Wright holds a joint appointment as a United States Institute of Peace Senior Fellow and Wilson Center Distinguished Scholar, during which she has produced three books: The Iran Primer: Power, Politics, and U.S. Policy (2010), Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World (2011), and The Islamists Are Coming: Who They Really Are (2012).

The 26th Annual Camden Conference, “The Middle East: What Next?” takes place February 22-24, 2013, live at the Camden Opera House and simulcast to satellite venues, the Strand Theatre in Rockland, the Hutchinson Center in Belfast, and the Grand in Ellsworth. Tickets for the February weekend will go on sale to Camden Conference members November 5 and to the general public November 26. For more information, visit www.camdenconference.org or call 207-236-1034.

Membership Campaign Underway!

Date: Friday September 28, 2012

Annual Membership Campaign is Now Underway! Very shortly, you and all other friends of the Camden Conference will be receiving a letter asking you to consider becoming (if you aren’t already) a contributing member of the Conference. Why become a member, you ask? The letter will explain in brief the various benefits that you, the Conference, and our community receive from you contribution, but it can best be summed up by saying: “Without you, the Camden Conference would be a very small program of much lower quality reaching far fewer people.”

Learn about the benefits of membership here.

Member contributions do the following:

• Help us to bring the best available speakers to the February event;
• Help support the scores of Conference-sponsored community events in Maine that attract thousands of attendees over the year;
• Contribute to the upkeep of the electronic equipment that supports our popular Website and our video streaming to venues in Rockland, Belfast, and Ellsworth;
• Make it possible to undertake new projects in furtherance of our mission to foster informed discourse on world affairs.

Camden Conference members have a lot to be proud of, and we urge you to join their number and help create an even better Conference!

Thank you! From the Conference Development Committee

Conference Season Kick-Off

Date: Thursday September 13, 2012

It was less than two years ago that a Tunisian named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself and the Arab World on fire. He was a 26 year old college graduate trying to make a living selling vegetables on the street and, after police confiscated his cart and roughed him up, he took his own life to protest.

Reverberations from this single man’s death and the subsequent revolts that overturned entrenched dictatorial regimes in the Middle East have come to be known as the The Arab Spring. Events in its aftermath continue to dominate the news from Iran’s nuclear ambitions to Syria’s horrific bloodshed, from the ascendancy of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood to the deaths of American diplomats in Libya.

The 26th Camden Conference, “The Middle East: What Next?” will offer explanations, insights and opinions from people who have been directly involved with recent events and their impacts on the countries and people in the region and on American foreign policy.

The annual event takes place February 22-24, 2013 live from the historic Camden Opera House with streaming to satellite venues in Belfast at the Hutchinson Center, Ellsworth at The Grand, and Rockland’s Strand Theatre.

The Camden Conference is not limited to those three days in February. It also includes a robust season of free community events leading up to the February Conference that promise to prepare you for “The Middle East: What Next?” For example:

THE LIST, a modern-day Schindler’s List story focusing on Kirk Johnson, an American fighting to save thousands of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they helped the U.S. rebuild Iraq. Co-sponsored with the Camden International Film Festival, Saturday, September 29, 4PM at the Bayview Street Cinema, Camden. Post film discussion moderated by Mac Deford.

INTERNET AND REVOLUTION: From text messaging to Twitter… How is technology along with social media driving The Arab Spring”? –With U. of Maine Professor Paul Holman on Thursday, October 4, 6:30-8:00PM at the Rockland Public Library.

THE CHANGING ROLE OF RELIGION IN THE ISRAEL/PALESTINE CONFLICT: Why has religion become more central to reaching a peace agreement? –with Colby Professor David Freidenreich on Monday, October 15, 6:30-8:00PM at the Adas Yoshuron Synagogue in Rockland.

SEEDS OF PEACE with Tim Wilson, former director of both the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Maine and the Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem. Tuesday, October 23, 6:30-8:00PM at the Belfast Free Library.

THE KING AND I: I TAUGHT HIM HOW TO SERVE: With Maureen O’Keefe, the first national tennis coach for the Jordanian Tennis Federation and personal coach to King Hussein on Thursday, November 1, 6:30-8:00PM at the Rockland Public Library.

ADAMS V. JEFFERSON: THE FURIOUS ELECTION OF 1800 – 100 DAYS IN 100 MINUTES with Mac Deford and Tom DeMarco returning with their popular history road show just in time for the Election. Friday, November 2, 7PM at the Rockport Opera House and Sunday, November 4, 2PM at the University of Maine’s Hutchinson Center in Belfast.

REVOLUTIONS WITHOUT REASON: HOW RELIGION UNDERMINES FREEDOM IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA with Dr. Anouar Majid of the UNE Center for Global Humanities, Thursday, December 13, 6:30-8:00PM at the Camden Public Library.

For a full listing, please visit our Community Events Calendar at http://www.camdenconference.org/community-events/

The Camden Conference is a nonprofit, non-partisan educational organization whose mission is to foster informed discourse on world affairs through year-round community events, public and student engagement, and an annual weekend Conference featuring distinguished speakers focusing on a central theme related to U.S. foreign affairs. For more information, please visit www.camdenconference.org or call 877-214-8579.

2013 Summer Booklist

Date: Wednesday June 20, 2012

Just in time for summer, the Camden Conference Program Committee has issued an expanded list of recommended reading for the 2013 Camden Conference, The Middle East: What Next?

The Committee’s first choice is David Fromkin’s A Peace to End All Peace. 20th Anniversary Edition: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and Creation of the Modern Middle East.

His original book was published in 1989, and now is in a 463-page paper edition with an Afterword by Fromkin. Both will provide a better understanding of how the Ottoman Empire was carved up after WW1 and how it has fared since then. Interestingly, young Winston Churchill was in charge of that huge break-up project.

For more summer reading ideas, please see the 2013 Conference Booklist here.

Sen. George Mitchell’s Address

Date: Wednesday November 16, 2011

Former U. S. Senator George Mitchell spoke in Belfast last November as part of the distinguished lecture series presented by Senior College and the Camden Conference. If you missed it, you may watch it here.

For a written account of one of Senator Mitchell’s earlier appearances at the Camden Conference, click here.

THANK YOU!!!

Date: Thursday February 24, 2011

The Camden Conference is fortunate to have many volunteers who make the annual Conference possible. In addition to the Board of Directors and Advisory Council, the following individuals have generously given of their time as community event speakers, senior college presenters, community partners, committee members, office helpers and volunteers during this weekend Conference. Thank you very much for your assistance – we could not do this without you!

Carol Bachofner, Jon Bahrt, Beth Berry*, Hope Berry*, Genna Black*, Dwight Blue, Margaret Boyajian, Rich Boulet, Fiona Boyd*, Joanne Boynton, Mabel Cabot, Alexandra Calamari*, Anna Carr*, Zeb Casperson*, Charlene Churchill, Charlene Clemons, Cassidy Crawford*, Lucy Creevey, Dominic Cucinella*, Joshua Curry, Sophie Davis*, Roger Dell, John Doncaster, Steve Donoso, Candy Emlen, Reid Evans*, David Firestein, Benjamin Fox, Judy Gannon, Peter Gelman, Carol Gillette, Peter Gimlewicz*, Ellen Goldsmith, Pam Gormley, Dorothea Graham, Pat Griffith, Ken Gross, Judy Groth, Brenda Harrington, Anne Holmes, Jeff Howland, Nancy Howland, John Hufnagel, Jane Hultberg, Stephen Huyler, Pat Jones, Tierra Knight*, Colin Kolmar, Molly Larson, Caroline Locke, Connie Manter, Charles Marecic, Megan Marsanskis, Kevin Martin, Emma Mason*, Rick McDowell, Phil McKean, Lys McLaughlin, Heidi Mills, Peter Muth, Bill Newman, Enid Bok Okun, Geoffrey Parker, Neil Petersen, Manuel Pizarro, Gene Reil, Diana Rigg, Anne Romans, Jim Ruddy, Maggie Samuels*, Bob Sargent, Lee Schneller, Melody Schubert, Devin Sewell*, Mark Shapiro, Chris Slininger, Andrew Stancioff, Susan Taylor, Capt. William Taylor, Joan Thibault, Mitch and Cindy Thomashow, Mary Trotochaud, Pia Walther*

And a special thanks to AVX, Camden Police Department, Chromunique, Audio Visual, Communication Graphics, The Hawthorn Inn, HAV II, Harbor Digital, James Ruddy Productions, Kerry Hadley, Dave Morrison and the Opera House Staff, Owl and Turtle Book Shop, Road Scholar, The Grand, Strand Theatre, Towne Motel, Univ. of Maine Hutchinson Center, Warner Graphics, and to all of our generous sponsors!

*Students of CHRHS, RDHS, Watershed School and the Game Loft, Belfast

2011 Conference dedication

Date: Monday January 31, 2011

The Board of Directors of the Camden Conference has announced that it will dedicate the upcoming Conference, The Challenges of Asia, to honor the memory of Matthew R. Simmons. Matt was the keynote speaker of the 15th Camden Conference in 2002: The Politics of Energy and Water. His talk was titled Nightmares and Dreams About World Energy Crises. He was a long-standing member of the Camden Conference Advisory Council and had always been a generous benefactor in support of the mission of the organization.

Matt founded Simmons & Company International, a Houston-based energy investment bank, in 1974. It eventually expanded to London, Aberdeen, and Dubai. More recently, Matt founded the Maine-based Ocean Energy Institute, a non-profit research organization to promote clean, sustainable energy production from off-shore wind and ocean forces.

Matt Simmons left an enduring mark on Maine, especially in the MidCoast. His vision and backing enabled the restoration of the Strand Theater in Rockland. The Strand has had a tremendously positive impact on the lives of many people who are fortunate to live or visit in the MidCoast.

Matt was a creative, humor-filled extrovert with great integrity. He had a deep value for education, and, in that vein, the Camden Conference has established an annual scholarship for a student to attend the Conference in Matt’s honor. The recipient of the 2011 Matthew R. Simmons Scholarship is Mary P. Lynch, a public policy major at the University College at Rockland.

The Camden Conference is a nonprofit, non-partisan educational organization whose mission is to foster informed discourse on world affairs through year-round community events, public and student engagement, and an annual weekend Conference featuring distinguished speakers focusing on a central theme related to U.S. foreign affairs. For more information, please visit www.camdenconference.org or call (207) 236-1034.

Rashid is Top Global Thinker

Date: Friday December 3, 2010

Ahmed Rashid, who keynoted this years Camden Conference “Crossroads of Conflict” was recognized in the December 2010 issue of Foreign Policy Magazine as being among the 100 most influential global thinkers. Rashid, who was listed in 51st position, was cited “for being the world’s eyes and ears in one of its most volatile regions”. Among other Asian thinkers identified by Foreign Policy, with their position on the list in parenthesis are: Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People’s Bank, China (4); Liu Xiaobo, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, China (16); Shivshankar Menon, National Security Advisor, India (18); Nandan Nilekani, Entrepeneur, India (43); Zheng Bijian, Geostrategist, China (44); Aung San Suu Kyi, Dissident, Burma (75); Hu Shuli, Editor, China (82) and Kishore Mahbubani, Academic Dean, Singapore (92).

Camden Conference a UMO Favorite

Date: Monday July 26, 2010

UMaine Valedictorian, Amy Smith, declares Camden Conference classes among her favorites in a recent article spotlighting her accomplishments. Read about Amy in the recent edition of UMaine Today.

We Have Moved!

Date: Tuesday June 29, 2010

The Camden Conference Office has moved to a new location at 25 Bayview St., 2nd floor. Our postal address and phone numbers are unchanged.

2010 Conference Highlights

Date: Tuesday June 29, 2010

The 2010 Conference Highlights have arrived! Highlights from the 23rd Annual Camden Conference: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India — Crossroads of Conflict are now available. To receive your copy, please send $10 (incl. S&H) to the Camden Conference, P.O. Box 882, Camden, ME 04843. To order by credit card, please call us at 236-1034 or toll free at 1-877-214-8579.  Highlights is also available to view and download on our website.

Support a Student in 2011!

Date: Tuesday June 1, 2010

Help bring more students to the 2011 Camden Conference! Because the Camden Conference is, above all, an educational event, it is fitting that students have an important and growing place in it! Many attendees feel that the best and most meaningful questions to Conference speakers come from the student participants.” The 103 students at our most recent Conference were an increase from 69 the year before. Of these, 78 were from colleges, 25 from regional secondary schools, and three were from the South Asian region being discussed. Almost all of them benefited from scholarships or discounted student rates and had their Conference experience enriched through a special program organized by the Conference. The total cost of this student program was $11,577, offset by $2,150 in donations for scholarships. The remaining costs, $9,427, came out of the Conference organization’s own resources, reducing our ability to expand and improve this valuable and exciting program.

We are working to increase the student participation at each venue to up to 20% of the total attendance and to expand our current program in ways that will make it a richer experience for the student participants and us all. At current costs, a gift of $150 would help us to bring one student to the Camden Opera House or two students to one of our two remote venues. Of course, every contribution will be welcome and help support our program.

With record student attendance, the 2010 Camden Conference had a new and younger dynamic – many of the most thoughtful questions were asked by students. We hope to expand student attendance in the years to come. Please visit our website’s “Support a Student” link and give generously to this year’s Student Scholarship Fund.

2011 Conference Topic Announced

Date: Friday March 26, 2010

The 24^th Annual Camden Conference: The Challenges of Asia will take place February 18- 20, 2011.  The Camden Conference Board of Directors wishes share with its friends and members this brief overview of next year’s conference.  While the general theme has been chosen, this working title and program details are in early stages of development by the Program Committee and will surely evolve before reaching its final form.  Please visit our website often to monitor our progress.

Topics likely to be covered include:

• Single Country Assessments of China, India, and Japan
• Economic Overview of Asia and Economic/Trade Relations with the U.S.
• Energy and Resource Competition Across Asia
• Military and Geo-Strategic Overview of Asia in relation to U.S. Role, Responses, and Military Presence in the Region
• New Technologies, “Green” Jobs and Production, Environmental Issues
• How should the U.S. Respond to the Many Challenges of a Rising Asia?
• What changes may be required of us and our systems?
• Attention will be given to Social, Cultural, Artistic, and Religious Aspects, and the Traditional Values of the many Peoples of Asia

Please address queries or suggestions to Jim Matlack, Chairman of the Program Committee at jmatlack@roadrunner.com

2010 CamCasts are Available!

Date: Thursday March 4, 2010

The recent 23rd Annual Camden Conference, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India – Crossroads of Conflict, is receiving much praise and positive press coverage!

In case you missed it or want to experience it again…. CamCasts of each 2010 Camden Conference Presentation are now available for viewing anytime on our website.

And you may browse images from the 2010 Camden Conference at our new Photo Gallery.

Camden Conference Thanks You!

Date: Thursday March 4, 2010

The Camden Conference wishes to thank everyone who helped make the recent conference season such a success!

The Camden Conference is fortunate to have many volunteers who make this annual Conference possible. In addition to the dedicated volunteer Board of Directors and Advisory Council, the following individuals and businesses have generously given of their time as community event speakers, senior college presenters, community partners, committee members, office helpers and volunteers during this weekend Conference:

Acadia Senior College ~ Bangor Public Library ~ Meredith Barnett ~ Belfast Free Library ~ Belfast Senior College ~ Ann Bex ~ Genna Black ~ Dwight Blue ~ Blue Hill Public Library ~ Margaret Boyajian ~ Joanne Boynton ~ Steven Butterfield ~ Camden Police Department ~ Camden Public Library ~ Ben Cameron ~ Sean Carnell ~ Anna Carr ~ Zeb Casperson ~ Marlene Charron ~ Jon Cheston ~ Chromunique´Audio Visual ~ Coastal Discoveries ~ Coastal Senior College ~ Colloquy Downeast ~ Communication Graphics ~ Stephanie Cooke ~ The Country Inn ~ Lucy Creevey ~ Roger Dell ~ Tom DeMarco ~ John Doncaster ~ Steve Donoso ~ Candy Emlen ~ Wendy Ross Eichler ~ Reid Evans ~ Tyler Evans ~ Exploritas ~ Farmers Fare ~ Alex Fitzgerald ~ The Game Loft~ Judy Gannon ~ Pam Gormley ~ Dorothea Graham ~ Ken Gross ~ John Grossbaum ~ Kerry Hadley~ HAV II ~ Harbor Digital ~ Brenda Harrington ~ Anne Holmes ~ Jeff Howland ~ Nancy Howland ~ Jane Hultberg ~ Pamela Hunte ~ Stephen Huyler ~ Jackson Memorial Library ~ James Ruddy Productions ~ Jesup Memorial Library ~ Paul Johnson ~ Mike Kennedy ~ Tierra Knight ~ Kevin LaPointe ~ Molly Larsen ~ Lily Lupine & Fern ~ Emily Lusher ~ Mary Lynch ~ Anouar Majid ~ Charles Marecic ~ Megan Marsanskis ~ Rick McDowell ~ Phil McKean ~ Midcoast Senior College ~ Heidi Mills ~ Dave Morrison ~ Peter Muth ~ Bill Newman ~ Northeast Harbor Library ~ Enid Bok Okun ~ Opera House Staff ~ Osher Lifelong Learning Institute ~ Lauren Ouellette ~ Owl & Turtle Bookshop ~ Cameron Paddock-McRae ~ Peter Pfister ~ Alistair Phaup ~ Joan Phaup ~ Elaine Pew ~ Neil Petersen ~ Lys McLaughlin-Pike ~ Eugene Reil ~ David Renne ~ Rockport Public Library~ Rockland Public Library ~ Lori Roming ~ Jim Ruddy ~ Maggie Samuels ~ Bob Sargent ~ Melody Schubert ~ Sangaree Sengupta ~ Mark Shapiro ~ Skidompha Public Library ~ Southwest Harbor Public Library ~ Lincoln Spear ~ Jan Summers ~ Susan Taylor ~ Capt. William Taylor ~ The Strand Theatre ~ Hans Stege ~ Joan Thibault ~ Thorndike Library ~ The Towne Motel ~ Mary Trotochaud ~ University of Maine ~ Univ. of Maine Hutchinson Center ~ Ilmarinen Vogel ~ Warner Graphics ~ Watershed School ~ Peggy Watson ~ Hannah Woodman

Thank you very much for your assistance – we could not do this without you!

Save the Date!

Date: Thursday March 4, 2010

The 24th Annual Camden Conference will take place February 18-20, 2011. Check the Camden Conference website often for updates on next year’s topic, speakers, programs, and community events.

Continuing Education Credits

Date: Tuesday February 2, 2010

We are pleased to announce that the 23rd Annual Camden Conference: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India – Crossroads of Conflict has recently been approved by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar for five (5) Continuing Legal Education Credits for Attorneys. In addition, Teachers who attend the Conference are eligible for 1.5 Continuing Education Units through the University of Maine. Register for the conference or contact the Camden Conference for more information.

Speaker Books on Booklist

Date: Wednesday January 6, 2010

Highly recommended by several Conference Program Committee members, Whitney Azoy’s Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan has been added to the 2010 Camden Conference Book List.

Azoy joins other 2010 Conference Speakers Ahmed Rashid, Paul Pillar, and Teresita Schaffer on the recommended reading list for the 23rd Annual Camden Conference: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India – Crossroads of Conflict, live at the Camden Opera House, February 19-21, 2010.

In this second edition paperback (Waveland Press 2002), Azoy, a confirmed speaker at the upcoming February Camden Conference, describes a fascinating relationship between Afghanistan’s ‘national sport’ and its political evolution. Amazon reader Hanif Yazid calls it “witty and genuine, his firsthand accounts of traditional Afghan notions of power, status and honor give the book a unique flavour. Buzkashi is short, but informative. Easy to read and enjoy, it made me want to ride like the wind, dead goat in hand, to victory and glory!”

See the full list of recommended reading in preparation for the 2010 Camden Conference Here

Gain Insight

Date: Tuesday December 15, 2009

Gain insight into one of today’s most complicated foreign policy issues: What to do in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now that President Obama has shared his plans, the US is embarking on actions for the near future. International pundits as well as members of Congress and the press have weighed in with their thoughts. At the 2010 Camden Conference, you will have the chance to hear what many of these experts have to say and decide for yourself. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to gain insight to a very current issue.

Tickets for the Conference at the Camden Opera House are selling briskly, so get yours while they are still available.

Give insight…Tickets to the Conference make great Holiday gifts for friends and family!

Help sign up new, first-time attendees at any venue and receive a free Camden Conference tote bag. And if you bring a new attendee to the Camden Opera House, you will also receive 25% off on an Owl and Turtle book purchase.

Keynote speaker, Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban and Descent into Chaos – The U.S. and the Disaster in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Central Asia will travel from Pakistan to open the Conference and set the stage for what follows. Nicholas Burns, former Undersecretary of State and NATO Ambassador, who captivated the audience at last year’s Camden Conference, will serve as moderator.

Additional speakers include:

* Whitney Azoy, cultural anthropologist and former director of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies in Kabul; * Brig. Gen. John “Mick” Nicholson, Senior counterinsurgency expert and director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Coordination Cell at the Pentagon; * Paul Pillar former National Intelligence Officer for Near East and South Asia, now at Georgetown University; * Samina Quraeshi, award-winning Pakistani author, artist, and designer; and * Teresita Schaffer, former ambassador to Sri Lanka and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Sarasota.

Tickets can be purchased online or by calling the office at 207-236-1034. Get yours soon!

New Addition to Book List

Date: Tuesday December 15, 2009

Greg Mortenson’s latest book has been added to the 2010 Conference Book List.  In Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Viking, December 2009), Mortenson shares for the first time his broader vision to promote peace through education and literacy, as well as touching on military matters, Islam, and women-all woven together with the many rich personal stories of the people who have been involved in this remarkable two-decade humanitarian effort.

See the full list of recommended reading in preparation for the 2010 Camden Conference Here.

2010 KEYNOTE ANNOUNCED

Date: Friday October 30, 2009

The airways are filled with calls to “rethink Afghanistan” and to develop a fuller understanding of Pakistan and its complex and often strife-torn relations with India. This is precisely what the upcoming Camden Conference: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India – Crossroads of Conflict proposes to do, starting with a keynote address by Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and author who is perhaps the pre-eminent regional commentator on Afghanistan and its relations with his home country and with India.

Also helping the February 2010 event to shape up as one of the best Camden Conferences ever will be the presence as conference moderator of Nicholas Burns, who as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in the George W. Bush administration led negotiations with Iran and India — and who was a featured speaker at the 2009 Camden Conference. At that conference, Burns outlined “A New Era of Diplomacy for the Obama Administration,” a topic on which he has since become a prominent commentator.

His active exchanges with other speakers should be an entertaining and informative new aspect of the 2010 Camden Conference. Burns will also wrap up the conference — for which tickets will soon go on sale — with a concluding assessment of US policy options in the region.

A New York Times profile last year described how keynote speaker Rashid, “Fresh out of Cambridge University in the late 1960s, and steeped in the era’s favorites — Marx, Mao and Che” took out for the hills of Baluchistan in his native Pakistan, where he spent ten years as a guerrilla fighter and political organizer of peasants seeking autonomy from the Pakistani government. He describes himself as having emerged “not exactly disillusioned, but defeated.”

That defeat quickly turned into a “launching pad” for Rashid’s career as a journalist, scholar, and best-selling author of several books on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the entire Central Asian region. In 2000, the year before 9/11, he wrote Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, a book that was used extensively by US analysts in the wake of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks and became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, selling over 1.5 million copies.

In his most recent book, Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, Rashid examined the record of the Bush administration and various European governments in Central Asia. His conclusions are devastating: An unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan, a renewed al’ Qaeda profiting from a booming opium trade, and a Taliban resurgence and reconquest.

In an interview just this summer with the Bernard Gwertzman of the Council on Foreign Relations, Rashid traces Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s turn back toward reliance on the “old war lords” — rather than a new generation of politicians he had been fostering — to “the failure of the international community to come up with the goods.” In words that seem particularly prescient in light of subsequent charges of widespread fraud by Karzai supporters in the subsequent presidential election, Rashid explained, “The real cause for the lack of good governance in Afghanistan is the lack of attention from the Bush administration: the lack of resources, money, civilian aid, etc.”

That interview can be read in full on the Camden Conference website, www.CamdenConference.org.

Rashid is now supporting calls for the US to commit more troops, more civilian advisors and more time to creating stability in Afghanistan. Talking to Terry Gross, host of National Public Radio program Fresh Air, in early October, Rashid noted: “If the [US] commitment slows down in any way, I think the Taliban will take Kabul within six months to a year, and the situation will deteriorate enormously.”

Besides Rashid’s own talk, conference participants can look forward to the give and take of a discussion between him and former Bush Administration official Burns on developments since Obama took over responsibility for stabilizing Afghanistan and Pakistan and routing out al-Qaeda. Burns, now Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, has also been on the radio, TV and in print frequently of late, commenting most often on the Obama administration’s opening of the negotiations with Iran that he was not able to pursue in the Bush Administration — and which he now strongly supports.

The 23rd Annual Camden Conference: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India: Crossroads of Conflict takes place February 19-21, 2010 live at the historic Camden Opera House, with satellite venues at The Strand Theatre in Rockland and Univ. Maine Hutchinson Center in Belfast. Conference registration begins on Monday, November 30th. (Early Member registration begins November 9th). For more information, please call 236-1034 or visit www.camdenconference.org.

2010 Booklist Updated

Date: Wednesday October 21, 2009

Additions Highlight Challenges, Changes in Region.

The 2010 Camden Conference: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India: Crossroads of Conflict couldn’t be on a timelier or more relevant topic. As our informed members know, the situation in the region is changing rapidly. It will therefore be no surprise that we have new additions to the booklist for the 2010 Conference. These works cover topics ranging from the heroin money financing the Taliban and al Qaeda, to several works examining aspects of the fascinating culture and history of the Middle East, to the so-called “Twilight of Oil” and the “resource curse,” and the role that counterterrorism operations can and should play in American foreign policy.

We have two new titles for our “Top Picks” list:

• Seeds of Terror: How Heroin is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda by Gretchen Peters
• Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy by Paul Pillar

We are adding a brand-new section to our list called “The Troubling Middle East Setting” with three fascinating titles:

• Last Chance: The Middle East in the Balance by David Gardiner
• Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil by Peter Maas
• Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World by Vali Nasr

Finally, we have one new book for our “Human Interest” section:

• To Live or to Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan by Nicholas Schmidle

See the full 2010 Camden Conference Booklist here.

Community Events Underway

Date: Thursday September 17, 2009

Next February’s Camden Conference on “Afghanistan, Pakistan, India — Crossroads of Conflict,” has already begun to inspire a lively series of community events in the Midcoast area, beginning with presentations by Prof. Paul Holman on “The New Great Game for Control of Central Asia.”

Dr. Holman’s dynamic exploration of the strategic rivalries that have shaped today’s tragic and troubling conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan drew record crowds to the Camden and Rockland Libraries earlier this month and he will repeat the talk on Tuesday, September 22nd at the Belfast Free Library.  The event takes place from 6:30-8 pm and is open to the public, free of charge.

Holman, a Camden resident who is currently a visiting professor of international relations at the University of Maine in Orono, will first consider the 19th century power struggle between the British and Russian Empires, which was the original “Great Game.” He will then examine the Cold War game in which the US supported the Afghan “freedom fighters” against the Soviet Armed Forces, as recently dramatized in the film “Charlie Wilson’s War,” starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

Also an adjunct professor at the Naval War College, Holman will conclude by sketching out the radically different rules and higher stakes that characterize the “new” Great Game. He will take a close look at US policy toward Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, and will argue that Washington has consistently misread regional politics, misunderstood the strategic situation in the region, and failed to protect its own best interests in this increasingly unstable part of the world.

Holman is a well known author and lecturer. From 1996 to 2003, he directed a 15-week executive course at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in which mid-career military officers, diplomats, and parliamentarians from all of the formerly Communist countries of Europe and Asia participated. His many articles on national security have appeared in the Naval War College Review, Strategic Review, US Naval Institute Proceedings, Brown Journal of World Affairs, Argentinian Naval War College Review, Air Force Magazine, and US Marine Corps Gazette. He also serves on the Camden Conference Board of Directors.

This kick-off event is just the beginning of a Camden Conference Community Events season that will feature programs as diverse as a discussion on the Mughal Gardens of Afghanistan and the subcontinent led by local gardening guru Peggy Watson; a screening of Stephen Huyler’s new film, Sonabai: A new Way of Seeing; a talk on Islam by Anouar Majid, University of New England professor, novelist and author of We Are All Moors: Ending Centuries of Crusades Against Muslims and Other Minorities; and, a collaborative venture with the Farnsworth Museum in Rockland on Art in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.  Visit our Community Events Section for the most up to date information.

2010 Camden Conference

Date: Monday June 15, 2009

Planning is currently underway for the 23rd Annual Camden Conference: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India – Crossroads of Conflict, February 19 – 21, 2010

Even as President Obama seeks to reduce U.S. military presence in Iraq, he is pledged to increase troop levels in Afghanistan where the war has already lasted longer and the U.S. position seems to be deteriorating. Throughout history no external power has long succeeded in subduing tribal groups or ending endemic violence when occupying Afghanistan. Where will the U.S. project stand in a year’s time?

No assessment or understanding of the situation in Afghanistan can be separated from attention to critical factors and developments in neighboring Pakistan which in turn leads to a focus upon the complex and volatile relations between Pakistan and India. Next year’s conference will offer both specific and overview presentations devoted to the broad array of issues raised within this turbulent region as well as the role of U.S. policies and programs in this “crossroads of conflict.”

POSSIBLE TOPICS: We expect that the conference will engage with such issues as:

• U.S. Military and Development Programs in Afghanistan and in the wider region.
• Who are the Afghans—in Cultural, Social, Political, and Religious Terms?
• What Impacts Stem from Diminished U.S. Presence in Iraq?
• Political and Military Stability in Pakistan and its Attempts to Curb Radical Elements.
• India’s Internal Coherence and Stability after another year of Global Recession.
• What Prospects for Violence between Pakistan and India, especially after the Mumbai Attack?
• Can the Kashmir Problem be Resolved?
• What Dangers from the Nuclear Arsenals in India and Pakistan (and Other Powers)?
• Radical Islam and Terrorism—Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, and the Rise of Radical Islam.
• What roles do China, Russia, Iran, and other Neighboring Powers Play in the Region?
• What are the Political and Economic Impacts of Energy Reserves and Transit Pipelines?
• What is the Historical Background for the Conflicts and Cultures in Afghanistan and the Region?

While the general theme has been chosen, the details of the program are in early stages of development. Please visit our Program Page often to monitor our progress.