OUR FIRST SEPTEMBER PROGRAM:
An American in Paris
Speaker: Mark Levinson, a Savannah native, author and teacher
Date: Thursday, September 6, 2018
Location: SKIDAWAY ISLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
50 DIAMOND CAUSEWAY, SKIDAWAY ISLAND
Access: Open to the public and free for members, students and accompanying family members, educators, and active military and their families. $10.00 charge for non-members.
Speaker’ Bio: Mark Levinson is a teacher. Translator. Proofreader. Linguist. Author. Speechwriter. Former co-chair of the Education and Training Committee at AmCham France and Board member of the Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO). After receiving his degree in Philosophy from York University, Toronto, in 1974, moved to France with his French fiancée and is father to two Franco-American daughters. Mark works with students, professionals in advertising and design, artists, as well as scientists. His passion for excellence in language led to the creation of a best-selling CD-ROM series for the teaching of English and later, a book entitled GOOD WORDS.
Mr. Levinson will report on more than 40 years of experience living in France and observations on issues often discussed between Americans and Europeans including politics: What is progress? What about anti-semitism? Racism? Health care: the who, what and why of successful universal health care in France or Necessity is the mother of Invention. Misconceptions and Misunderstandings in comparisons. Differences and similarities in education. How much? Money isn’t everything. Food. Language and why the three Ls (Love, Learn and Laugh) are good cardio-training practices!
OUR SECOND SEPTEMBER PROGRAM:
The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age
Speaker: James Kirchick, Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a foreign correspondent Daily Beast
Date: Thursday, September 20, 2018
Time: Membership Social at 7:30 p.m. Program at 8:00 p.m.
Location: SKIDAWAY ISLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
50 DIAMOND CAUSEWAY, SKIDAWAY ISLAND
Access: Open to the public and free for members, students and accompanying family members, educators, and active military and their families. $10.00 charge for non-members.
James R. Kirchick
Speaker’s theme:
Once the world’s bastion of liberal, democratic values, Europe is now having to confront demons it thought it had laid to rest. The old pathologies of anti-Semitism, populist nationalism, and territorial aggression are threatening to tear the European postwar consensus apart. In riveting dispatches from this unfolding tragedy, James Kirchick shows us the shallow disingenuousness of the leaders who pushed for “Brexit;” examines how a vast migrant wave is exacerbating tensions between Europeans and their Muslim minorities; explores the rising anti-Semitism that causes Jewish schools and synagogues in France and Germany to resemble armed bunkers; and describes how Russian imperial ambitions are destabilizing nations from Estonia to Ukraine. With President Trump now threatening to abandon America’s traditional role as upholder of the liberal world order and guarantor of the continent’s security, Europe may be alone in dealing with these unprecedented challenges.
Speaker’s CV:(click to view)
OUR OCTOBER PROGRAM
Thursday, October 18th John Deni, U.S. Army War College, will present: “NATO and Article 5: The Transatlantic Alliance and the Twenty-first Century Challenges of Collective Defense
Professor John R. Deni
Speaker’s Biography:
JOHN R. DENI is a Research Professor of Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational (JIIM) Security Studies at the U.S. Army War College’s (USAWC) Strategic Studies Institute (SSI). He is also an adjunct lecturer at the American University’s School of International Service. Previously, he worked for 8 years as a political advisor to senior U.S. military commanders in Europe. Prior to that, he spent 2 years as a strategic planner specializing in U.S. security cooperation and military-to-military relations. While working for the U.S. military in Europe, Dr. Deni was also an adjunct lecturer at Heidelberg University’s Institute for Political Science—there, he taught graduate and undergraduate courses on U.S. foreign and security policy, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), European security, and alliance theory and practice. With degrees from the College of William & Mary, American University, and George Washington University, Dr. Deni has spoken at conferences and symposia throughout Europe and North America. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of seven books, including NATO and Article 5, along with authoring several peer-reviewed monographs and journal articles.
