FAS announces spring speaker lineup

The Foreign Affairs Symposium released its spring speakers line-up on Friday, which features Martin O’Malley, the governor of Maryland, and high-profile professor and public intellectual Cornel West, as well as others.

This year’s symposium, titled “Confronting Global Dissonance: The Balance between Realism and Idealism,” comprises six events focused on pertinent political issues, some topical and some timeless.

The announcement, which came over the FAS Facebook page at around 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, detailed the entire list of speakers which also includes writers from The Onion, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, founder of Kiva.org Jessica Jackley, as well as a debate entitled “Re-evaluating the NSA,” between General Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and NSA, and Georgetown Professor David Cole, who specializes in constitutional law.

The series kicks off on Feb. 19 with O’Malley.

“One of the inspirations for our symposium this year as a whole was alumna Anne Smedinghoff,” FAS Co-chair Nikhil Gupta said.

A former executive director of FAS, Smedinghoff was killed last April in a suicide bombing while delivering textbooks to Afghan schoolchildren.

“She was someone who always strove ... to make bigger change,” Gupta said of Smedinghoff. “But if you look at how she wanted to do it, it was in a really practical setting. People like her are why we’re really all in this.”

One of the bigger names in the series, West is a former professor at Harvard, Princeton and other renowned universities, as well as a philosopher, activist, and public intellectual who appears frequently on television and radio.

Much of his published work and discourse focuses on race in America, including his 1994 book Race Matters, as well as other books, academic papers, and albums.

One of the more provocative speakers chosen was Bolton, whose nomination as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. by former President Bush in 2005 was met with a fierce Democratic filibuster, and was only appointed during a congressional recess. The Economist has called him “the most controversial ambassador ever sent by America to the United Nations.”

Bolton’s outspoken views on foreign policy coupled with his abrasive rhetoric have brought him much attention since his U.N. appointment. He is known for his hardline support for U.S. military intervention around the world, including his support for the Bush administration’s actions surrounding the war in Iraq, and his vocal support for military strikes against Iran.

Bolton is also somewhat famous for his strong critical views on the U.N. itself. In 1994 he said that, “there is no United Nations ... there is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that´s the United States, when it suits our interests, and when we can get others to go along.”

He has also stated in an interview that he would reduce the U.N. Security Council to just one member.

Politics aside, Bolton’s bold pragmatism was part of what made him an attractive option to FAS as a speaker.

“The position of ambassador you would assume to be a really idealistic position…someone who is really going for a romanticized view of the world…and he is quite the opposite,” Gupta said.

Governor O’Malley, while a seemingly obvious choice, is also a particularly topical one as he is a rising star in the Democratic Party.

Widely considered one of the most successful contemporary governors, O’Malley recently signed into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland, as well as a bill allowing certain undocumented immigrants to access the same in-state tuition rates as citizens.

Due to term limits, O’Malley will be unable to run for re-election in 2014, however he is a rumored presidential candidate for 2016, and has publicly expressed ambitions for a presidential run.

The “Re-evaluating the NSA” debate will be a somewhat new innovation for this year’s symposium. Past years have featured panel discussions, but this is the first time in recent history that the symposium has featured a full-on debate.

As the director of the NSA from 1999-2005, Hayden oversaw the warrantless wiretapping programs that many objected to during the Bush administration, and is expected to address government surveillance policies as well as the current debate surrounding the Snowden leaks and current NSA activities.

“We saw an opportunity to get a really frank and open discussion on the NSA and the balance between security and privacy,” Gupta said of the choice to host the debate.

Debating Hayden will be Cole, a professor and lawyer who is a noted defender of civil liberties and litigator for First Amendment cases.

A brief spot of levity in an otherwise serious line-up, Feb. 26 will bring writers from the satirical news website The Onion to Shriver Hall, in an event co-sponsored by The Hop. They will speak about the history of The Onion, as well as current political issues.

While an unconventional choice for FAS, the move reflects the ever-growing prominence of satire in the news media.

“The nature of satire fits very well within our theme,” Gupta said. “[The writers at The Onion] really do get at the core of the issue, and in unconventional ways occasionally.

The series concludes on April 16 with Jackley, the co-founder and former CFO of Kiva.org, a microfinance website which provides small business loans to entrepreneurs in developing world.

The website is unique in that it allows anyone to lend money — as little as $25 — at a 0% interest rate and matches them with a specific development project. Kiva.org has been praised by Time Magazine and The Economist, and rated as a 4 star charity by Charity Navigator.

FAS will also be teaming up with other organizations on campus to host receptions for each event; College Democrats will be sponsoring a reception for O’Malley, College Republicans for Bolton, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs for West.