The World Beyond the Headlines from the University of Chicago

A talk by journalist and author Steven LeVine. Pipeline politics became a modern day version of the 19th Century's Great Game, in which Britain and Russia had employed cunning and bluff to gain supremacy over the lands of the Caucasus and Central Asia. “The Oil and Glory” is the story of how, at the dawn of the 21st century, the game was played once more across the harsh environs of the Caspian Sea. Co-sponsor: Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies.

A talk by Pervez Hoodbhoy, Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azama University. Dr. Hoodbhoy received his bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, master's in solid state physics, and Ph.D in nuclear physics, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a faculty member at the Department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad since 1973. He is chairman of Mashal, a non-profit organization that publishes books in Urdu on women's rights, education, environmental issues, philosophy, and modern thought. Dr. Hoodbhoy has written and spoken extensively on topics ranging from science in Islam to education issues in Pakistan and nuclear disarmament. He produced a 13-part documentary series in Urdu for Pakistan Television on critical issues in education, and two other major television series aimed at popularizing science. He is author of Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality, now in 5 languages. Co-sponsors: Committee on Southern Asian Studies, South Asia Language and Area Center.

A talk by Dahr Jamail, independent journalist and author. As the occupation of Iraq unravels, the demand for independent reporting is growing. Since 2003, unembedded journalist Dahr Jamail has filed indispensable reports from Iraq that have made him this generation's chronicler of the unfolding disaster there. In these collected dispatches, Jamail presents never-before-published details of the siege of Fallujah and examines the origins of the Iraqi insurgency. Dahr Jamail makes frequent visits to Iraq and has published his accounts in newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has regularly appeared on Democracy Now!, as well as the BBC, Pacifica Radio, and numerous other networks. Co-sponsors: Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

A talk by David Cole, Professor of Law at Georgetown University. In "Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror," Professor Cole and Jules Lobel, two of the country's preeminent constitutional scholars, argue that the great irony is that the Bush administration's sacrifices in the rule of law, adopted in the name of prevention, have in fact made us more susceptible to future terrorist attacks. They debunk the administration's claim that it is winning the war on terror and offer an alternative strategy in which the rule of law is an asset, not an obstacle, in the struggle to keep us both safe and free.

A talk with Robert Amsterdam, founding partner, Amsterdam & Peroff, legal defense counsel for Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In practice since 1980, Mr. Amsterdam has extensive experience litigating and arbitrating corporate disputes in emerging markets, focusing on the areas of individual and corporate human rights. Mr. Amsterdam was retained by Mikhail Khodorkovsky in August, 2003 as part of the YUKOS-Group MENATEP defense team. Since then, he has worked with Russian human rights lawyers to prepare a White Paper on international human rights issues as they relate to the prosecution of Platon Lebedev, Alexei Pichugin and Mr. Khodorkovsky. (Moderated by Thomas Ginsburg, Visiting Professor, University of Chicago Law School.) Co-sponsor: The Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies.

A panel featuring John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "The Israel Lobby" was originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006. It provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. Now in a work of major importance, Mearsheimer and Walt deepen and expand their argument and confront recent developments in Lebanon and Iran. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan politician and environmental activist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize for Peace, the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize. Maathai was elected to Kenya's National Assembly with 98 percent of the vote in 2002 and in 2003 was appointed assistant minister of environment, natural resources, and wildlife. She is the author of "The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience". Co-sponsors: The Division of the Humanities and Rockefeller Chapel.

Lecture by journalist William Langewiesche. In his book The Atomic Bazaar, Langewiesche investigates the burgeoning global threat of nuclear weapons production. As more unstable and undeveloped nations find ways of acquiring the ultimate arms, the stakes of state-sponsored nuclear activity have soared to frightening heights. Even more disturbing is the likelihood of such weapons being manufactured and deployed by guerrilla non-state terrorists. Langewiesche also recounts the recent history of Abdul Qadeer Khan and examines in dramatic and tangible detail the chances for nuclear terrorism.

Lecture by Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. While America is focused on religious militancy and terrorism in the Middle East, democracy has been under siege from religious extremism in another critical part of the world. As Martha Nussbaum reveals in The Clash Within, the forces of the Hindu right pose a disturbing threat to India's democratic traditions and secular state. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

A conversation between Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, and Susan Thistlethwaite, President of Chicago Theological Seminary. In her book Failing America's Faithful, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend issues a spiritual call to arms to those who feel like her that today's churches—Catholic and Protestant alike—are failing to promote the welfare of those who depend upon them. After recounting her personal story in one of the most prominent Catholic families in America, she shows how America's neediest are now forgotten while their churches fight political battles against abortion rights and homosexual marriages. She provides hope through powerful examples of individuals effecting change and maintains that our individual actions can return our churches to their traditional role as shepherds to their flock. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series. Cosponsored with the Chicago Theological Seminary.