UMaine Class on Global Leadership Amplifies 2009 Camden Conference
Contact: Tim Cole: 581-1882
ORONO — How does the current financial situation affect the ability of the U.S. and other global leaders’ ability to influence world affairs? It’s a question being posed by organizers of the 22nd Annual Camden Conference Feb. 20-22.
It also is a question on the minds of millions as global leadership becomes ever more important in current times of political, religious, environmental and economic turmoil. Four University of Maine professors are addressing the subject in a specially designed class based on this weekend’s two-day Camden Conference.
“With a new administration in place, succeeding the controversial tenure of the Bush administration, and with significant global challenges facing the United States and the world — including the current global recession — forums like the Camden Conference are crucial for gaining understanding and perspective for the near term future of global relations and U.S. foreign policy,” says Timothy Cole, chair of the Political Science Department and one of the UMaine professors co-teaching the class.
About 50 students, both full time UMaine students and others who have signed up expressly for the exposure to world-class speakers, administrators and policy-makers — including Brent Snowcroft, national security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush — who will attend this year’s conference.
“Global Leadership and the U.S. Role in World Affairs” is the title of the Camden Conference and the theme of the UMaine class, designed to amplify the Camden Conference topics.
“As always when I participate, I look forward to this year’s conference and our course,” Cole says. “For most of the students, attending the Camden Conference is their first exposure to speakers of this rank and experience. It’s a great learning experience all around.”
The UMaine course accompanying the 2009 Camden Conference is about what U.S. foreign policy will be and should be given the economic and political uncertainties facing the United States and the world. Like previous UMaine courses that explore in greater detail the themes and issues of the Camden Conference, this year’s class is being held on three Saturdays. The class started Feb. 7 and continues March 21 and April 4 on the Orono campus, and includes conference attendance in Camden.
The course goal is for students to gain an appreciation of the dynamics of the global system in the contemporary period and an understanding of the constraints and opportunities facing U.S. foreign policy after the Bush administration, according to Cole and Robert White, associate provost and dean of the Division of Lifelong Learning, which is offering the course.
In addition to Cole, faculty members teaching the class are G. Paul Holman, visiting associate professor of international affairs, Ngo-Vinh Long, professor of history, and Seth Singleton, professor of political science.
“This year’s Camden Conference is the 22nd in its storied history,” says Cole. “The University of Maine has offered a for-credit course to accompany the conference every year since 1996, with one sole exception. This year’s class is quite full.”
In addition to Snowcroft, who has served as a foreign policy adviser to President Barack Obama, other speakers include world-class experts on global relations, climate change, energy policy, terrorism and national security who will shed new light on some of the most critical challenges facing the new administration and the United States. Speakers include Ambassador Morton Abramowitz, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and former president Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Honorable Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and Strategies for the Global Environment. Claussen also is the former assistant secretary of state for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
Further conference details, including a complete list of speakers, are available on the Camden Conference website (www.camdenconference.org). Tickets are still available at all venues, including the live show at the Camden Opera House. Special rates are available for high school and college students, with identification, at satellite venues at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast, the Strand Theatre in Rockland and Hannaford Auditorium at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.