In addition to the Royal D. Alworth, Jr. Memorial Lecture, forums and conferences, the Institute provides a series of international lectures by local, national and international authorities on subjects of timely interest. The Alworth Institute draws not only upon the rich store of local academics with expertise in a variety of areas, but also visiting international faculty.
Fall 2024 Lectures (3 total)
Organizing for Climate Justice and Democracy: Perspectives from German Youth Activism
Friday, October 11 - 7:00 pm - UMD Solon Campus Center 120
Presented by Luisa Neubauer and Helena Marschall
Germany’s most prominent and involved climate activists and movement builders
Neubauer and Marschall will share lessons learned from climate and democracy organizing in Germany and across Europe. Their presentation will explore opportunities to foster dialogue and collaboration between activists in both countries, emphasizing the interconnectedness of climate action and social justice and seeking to find mutual inspiration. They are particularly excited to present on and discuss stopping fossil fuel extraction and LNG exports, how the fights for democracy and climate justice can be fought and won together, movement-building and community organizing strategies, and coalition-building between climate, social justice, and labor movements.
Luisa Neubauer is the leading voice on the climate crisis in Germany and the climate justice movement's most prominent representative. The TIMES listed her on the 2022 list of the 100next. In 2021, she and others sued the German government for its lack of climate action in a landmark constitutional court ruling "Neubauer vs. Germany“ - and won. She has met with multiple heads of state including Barack Obama, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, and published three best-selling books on the climate crisis. She is also host of the Spotify Original Podcast "1.5 degrees" and is a frequent speaker, columnist and contributor for large outlets and events.
Helena Marschall is a 21-year-old climate activist and one of the key organizers behind Germany's largest climate and democracy mobilizations and protests in recent years. At 16, Helena organized school walkouts for climate with tens of thousands of participants in her city. Since then, she has coordinated dozens of national and European campaigns targeting big corporations, pushing for a coal phase-out in Germany, stopping LNG expansion, or taking back TikTok from the far right. Though born in Germany, Helena grew up partly in Massachusetts, where she attended elementary and middle school. Transatlantic dialogue has deeply shaped her activism and convinced her that learning the stories of movements around the world is necessary to inspire action at home.
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Reimagining US Grand Strategy
Wednesday, October 30 - 7:00 pm - KAM Library 4th Floor Rotunda
Presented by Christopher Preble
Senior Fellow and Director, Reimagining US Grand Strategy Program
Preble will discuss the goals of the Reimagining US Grand Strategy, a program that "aims to strengthen U.S. foreign policy by testing assumptions, reassessing conventional wisdom, and exploring innovative methods of non-military engagement." The research done by his team of scholars "challenge(s) prevailing assumptions surrounding US foreign policy" and proposes policy options "that go beyond the use of force and coercion." Preble will offer a "reimagined" set of foreign policy perspectives that provide for the realities a changed new world order that the US no longer dominates. He argues that the US must embrace more "diplomacy, trade, and cultural agreements" if it wishes to maintain its own security.
Christopher Preble's research focuses on the history of US foreign policy, contemporary US grand strategy and military force posture, alliance relations, and the intersection of trade and national security. Prior to joining the Stimson Center, he served as Co-Director of the Atlantic Council’s New American Engagement Initiative. Preble was vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute from 2011 to 2020, and director of foreign policy studies from 2003 to 2011. In addition to his work at the Stimson Center, Preble co-hosts the “Net Assessment” podcast in the War on the Rocks network. He has taught history and political science St. Cloud State University, and Temple University. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Preble was a commissioned officer in the US Navy, and served aboard the USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) from 1990 to 1993. He graduated from George Washington University in 1989 and received a PhD in history from Temple University in 2002.
Preble is the author of four books, including Peace, War, and Liberty: Understanding U.S. Foreign Policy (Cato Institute, 2019); and The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free (Cornell University Press, 2009). He co-authored, with John Glaser and A. Trevor Thrall, Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America’s Broken Foreign Policy even Worse and How We Can Recover (Cato Institute, 2019), and he has also co-edited several other books and monographs, including A Dangerous World? Threat Perception and U.S. National Security (Cato Institute, 2014), with John Mueller. His work has appeared in major publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, Survival, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs. (See https://www.stimson.org)
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Britain in the New World Order
Tuesday, November 19 - 7:00 pm - KAM Library 4th Floor Rotunda
Presented by Dr. William Henderson
International Associate and former director of the Alworth Institute for International Studies
The UK Government is preparing its policy towards the emerging, new, world order. The current approach is still broadly within the framework established under the Conservatives. Two clear exceptions - the policy towards Israel and diplomatic relations with the EU - indicate that there are further changes to come. Policy reviews have been commissioned. Further, the U.K. cannot be anything abroad until it has sorted out public expenditure. Peace shifted resources away from military expenditure into social welfare. War in Europe and elsewhere means not only coping with a changed international situation but also with a changed domestic one - a classic guns versus butter dilemma. Nor is it a matter of indifference, to policy makers, who wins the Presidential election. Dr. William Henderson will share his analysis of these issues and offer his professional opinion of what is to come as the UK grapples with the new world order.
Henderson was the Director of the Alworth Institute from February 2006 until December 2009. He continues to contribute to the ALworth Institute as an International Associate and by returning to UMD to offer lectures that share his expertise on politics in the United Kingdom and its positions in the international system. He also provides unique presentations for the INternational Travel Talks series. Before his time at UMD, he was Director of the Centre for Lifelong Learning in the University of Birmingham, UK and now holds the title of Emeritus Professor. He has published work on the political and economic development of Botswana, once considered sub-Saharan Africa's economic success story. He also worked on the language of economics discourse (a topic that grew out of his experience of teaching economics in the medium of English to students in Africa) and on the intellectual history of economics and of economic development. He has published works on pioneering 19th century women economics educators; on John Ruskin, David Hume, Adam Smith and on the history of development economics. He holds a D. Phil in African Studies from the University of Sussex (UK) and has spent time living and working in Botswana, Ghana and Zimbabwe.
Henderson has a diverse set of interests and life experiences. He continues to monitor, as a concerned and informed citizen, political and economic life in the United Kingdom. He has no party-political affiliations and strives to be objective and independent in his assessments. He currently lives in Folkestone, on the English Channel, next door to a partly ruined Henry VIII castle, and spends a significant part of each year in Italy and Poland as well as a limited time in France.