November 17, 2011
INTEL: Conducting Worldwide Business with Highest Integrity
Jami Grindatto
Director, Corporate Affairs, Southwestern United States, Intel Corporation
Today’s complex business world constantly poses troubling ethical and legal challenges for corporations and their employees. Corruption is a hydra-headed, corrosive force and its demands and temptations are felt everywhere. As a dynamic company with a global reach, Intel must confront these dangers on a daily basis. In order to meet the goal of conducting world-wide business while maintaining the highest possible ethical standards, Intel’s managers and workers have devised practical solutions to protect our assets and intellectual property without sacrificing our integrity or reputation. The current global economic crisis has made these efforts both more difficult and more necessary. Jami Grindatto will discuss Intel’s anti-corruption practices, illustrating them with concrete examples, and consider some of the measures Intel will be undertaking in the years ahead. He will also examine Intel’s impact on New Mexico and New Mexico’s relevance to Intel’s national and world-wide business strategy.
Crime and Punishment: Corruption, Foreign Policy and Power Politics
Dr. James Russell, the Naval Postgraduate School
For the last half century, the United States has sought to balance the competing objectives of promoting democracy and transparency while simultaneously seeking to create a global balance of power that maximizes American power and influence. Nowhere have these competing objectives come more into conflict than in the Middle East and South Asia. For decades, the United States has supported corrupt dictatorships and autocracies in the Middle East and South Asia. The US has accepted political support from these regimes while turning a blind eye to repressive political systems and corruption amongst the ruling elites. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, however, have brought the United States face to face with this contradiction that can no longer be ignored. Millions of dollars in US assistance in these countries has vanished over the last decade into the pockets of our supposed allies. How can the United States square this circle in an era of weak and failing nation states and asymmetric warfare that enables terrorist networks to threaten the US homeland?
When Good Intentions Fuel More Corruption: Market Reforms and Crony Capitalism in Latin America and Russia
Dr. Luigi Manzetti,
Southwest Methodist University
Why have corruption and crony capitalism come to dominate the economies of many Latin American countries and Russia? Why has the development of democracy in these societies been so slow and painful? In the 1990s things looked hopeful and leading experts believed that market reform would produce healthy economic systems as well as free and stable governments. But then many of the countries that experienced “market revolutions” plunged into severe crises and democratic hopes faded rapidly. What happened? Why did things go wrong? Were reforms introduced only partially and too slowly? Were there unforeseen technical problems? Is success possible? Luigi Manzetti will examine these and other questions paying particular attention to Russia, Argentina and Chile. His answers may surprise you. Could it be that political structures and processes matter more than even the best intentioned economic measures?
Special Event – Intelligence in the 21st Century:
Challenges to a Democratic Society
General Michael Hayden,
USAF Retired, former CIA Director, former Deputy Director of National Intelligence and former NSA Director
How can intelligence gathering, espionage, and secrecy be combined with transparency, accountability, and personal freedom in a democracy? This timeless question has been complicated by new technologies now available globally for information handling. These penetrate into daily life, making increased government knowledge about citizens’ private thoughts and actions possible. In times of danger the US and other democracies need to protect themselves; this can require innovative, controversial methods of collecting necessary intelligence about potential security threats. How far can agencies like the CIA go in this effort without destroying cherished liberties? The US has not yet reached a consensus on how to meet the need for transparency while maintaining the secrecy necessary for agencies like the CIA to exist. In his lecture General Hayden will explore these challenges and offer insight into how our national intelligence community addresses continuing changes in the kind of information required to keep our nation secure.
Booty Capitalism and Economic Development: The China Corruption Puzzle
by Dr. Xiaobo Lu, Columbia University
China is a country with many contradictions. It is now the world’s second largest economy yet its GDP per capita still ranks relatively low among all nations. It is ruled by a Communist Party, yet it has one of the most vibrant capitalist economies in the world. But most puzzling of all is the fact that China seems to have experienced widespread corruption while its economy has kept growing. Nor has there been a “jasmine revolution” like the ones that have overthrown the authoritarian regimes of Tunisia and Egypt due in large part to corruption of the ruling elites. In most cases, corruption would hurt the regime’s legitimacy and economic development. But why is China an exception? Dr. Xiaobo Lu will discuss patterns of corruption in contemporary China and their consequences. He will introduce the audience to one of the most significant issues (“of life and death of the Party” as the Chinese Premier put it recently) in contemporary China and help unlock an interesting puzzle in public affairs.
Fall Season Opening, Corruption: a Global Overview
Transparency International-USA Senior Legal Advisor Laura Sherman
Around the globe, corruption eats away at the fabric of human society. Corruption costs lives and deprives people of their freedom, health, and money. Corruption causes poverty, and is a barrier to overcoming it. Corruption undermines attempts to establish democracy and the rule of law; it depletes the wealth of nations. Because of corruption, hospitals are built badly or not at all; schools don’t get the books they need; needed roads are never built, and others are built where there is no need. Corruption hinders the development of fair markets, distorts competition, and deters investment. It creates circumstances where ethical companies find it hard to compete. Corruption undermines people’s trust in their political systems, institutions and leadership. Everywhere they face demands for bribes; paying them is the only way to get things done. Corruption makes it possible for domestic and international companies to ravage natural environments and carelessly exploit precious resources. And this is not simply a problem for the developing world, corruption hurts us all. Laura Sherman will describe the scope of corruption around the world and the efforts to fight it. She will discuss regional and bilateral initiatives and also will concentrate on multilateral financial institutions and international agreements. She will address the important role of civil society in the battle against corruption. Ms. Sherman will provide examples of work that has been done by Transparency International and its future agenda.
May 6, 2011
“Terrorist Groups and Terrorist Threat: A Muslim World Perspective”
Dr. Emile Nakhleh,
Former Senior Intelligence Service Officer
Former Director of the Political Islam
Strategic Analysis Program, CIA.
Al-Qa’ida and affiliated groups remain dangerous enemies. Majorities of Muslims do not support terrorism and many Muslims have been victims of terrorist acts. Al-Qa’ida has less support in Muslim countries today than it did after 9/11. Muslim leaders have denounced terrorism but have also emphasized that Muslim disagreements with the West are driven by policies, not values. Several regional franchise terrorist organizations have emerged in recent years in the greater Middle East and South Asia. It is imperative that the US and other Western countries understand the changing threat of terrorism and develop deeper knowledge of the franchise terrorist groups and how they radicalize and recruit the youth. In this concluding lecture in the series, Dr. Nakhleh will discuss the interaction between al-Qa’ida Central and regional groups and the radicalization process concentrating on the Middle East region. He will also focus on lessons learned from our “longest war” against terrorism.
April 15, 2011
Countering Terrorism: Strategy and Tactics
Ambassador Henry Crumpton
Since 9/11 the nature of terrorist threats to the United States and its allies has evolved rapidly and our efforts to deal with them have been forced to adapt to these shifts in tactics. In this talk, Ambassador Henry Crumpton will look at the changing face of terrorism, the various factors that have influenced it, and the way that these transformations have affected and will continue to affect our counterterrorism strategies.
Direct threats from al-Qa’ida have dwindled. But what individuals and groups have emerged to carry on the struggle? What are the most effective ways to counter them? What, if anything, have our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan taught us? The current turmoil in the Middle East is bound to influence our battle with terrorism. But how?
Ambassador Crumpton is eminently suited to answer these and other questions. He speaks from many years of experience at the CIA and in the State Department where he has been directly engaged in shaping American policy and practice in the struggle with terrorism.
March 30, 2011
Dinner Talk and Discussion
Unrest in the Arab World: A Rising New Arab Generation
Emile A. Nakhleh, Ph.D.
The toppling of Tunisia’s Ben Ali and Egypt’s Mubarak and the mass protests in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and elsewhere signal to Arab publics and to the rest of the world that Arab authoritarianism has run its course and that Arab peoples’ demands for justice, dignity, an end to regime corruption and repression, and a more hopeful future are changing the nature of Arab politics. This defining moment presents a challenge and an opportunity for our policymakers. Mass protests across the Arab world have come from all walks of life, have not been directed or controlled by Islamists, have focused on bread and butter issues, have demanded an end to dictatorial rule, and more importantly have been peaceful. These youth-driven protests have relied heavily on social media and satellite television such as al-Jazeera to spread their message to their own people and to the outside world. Leaderless, and without an agenda, people in the street said they wanted a better life and the regimes, failing to provide for their peoples’ well being, must go. The presentation will discuss the social, economic, demographic, and political factors that are driving the current upheaval in the Arab world and how the US could reach out to legitimate elites and civil society communities.
March 18, 2011
Weapons of Choice: Bio, Nuclear or Cyber
Bill Rhodes,
Sandia National Laboratories
If we had a vote in the matter, we would probably pull the lever next to “None of the above.” Unfortunately, we are unlikely to get a vote. Since 9/11 the world has been wondering and worrying about the prospect of terrorists employing weapons that can inflict mass destruction or disruption on America or her European allies. We know that bin Laden and his ilk are seeking various kinds of WMDs and we have every reason to believe that they would use them if they had the chance. But what is the real likelihood of their success? Which weapon would they prefer, or does it matter to them? Does their choice matter to us, or are all the options equally bad?
The Terrorist Mindset: Conflicting Perspectives on Causes, Contexts and Responses
Ed MacKerrow,
Director of the Center for Scientific Analysis of Emerging Threats, LANL
In this lecture Mr. MacKerrow takes us into the minds of twenty-first-century terrorists. Who are they exactly and what motivates them? MacKerrow will examine both the ideological and the situational forces that drive terrorists? He will show us how terrorists are radicalized and recruited to commit terrorist acts.
TERRORISM IN RUSSIA – THE FOURTH WAVE
Dr. Marina Oborotova, President, CFIS/AIA
On January 23, 2011, thirty-five people were killed and hundreds wounded when a terrorist exploded a bomb in the arrival area of Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport, the busiest in Russia. This attack, which shook the country and alarmed the world, was not an isolated event. The violent assault was one of many in the most recent wave of terrorism in Russia that began the 1990s, but it was also part of a tradition that stretches back to the mid-nineteenth century.
In this lecture, Dr. Marina Oborotova will look at the most recent wave of terrorism in Russia and place it in proper perspective. She will show how the first two waves of terrorism (1870s-1880s and 1905-1910) – part of a revolutionary struggle for freedom – were succeeded by a third wave of state controlled terrorism under Lenin and Stalin. Dr. Oborotova will devote most of her attention to the current fourth wave of terrorism. She will examine its origins in past political struggles and in the tragic history of the Caucasus, particularly Chechnya. She will describe the way that the Chechen struggle for independence and Russia’s brutal methods of suppression led to a resurgence of terrorism as a method of national struggle and how it then swung in the direction of Islamist jihad. She will compare and contrast U.S. and Russian “wars on terror,” and consider the future directions they might take.
International Terrorism since 9/11: New Trends and Lessons Learned
Dr. Paul R. Pillar, Georgetown University
The 9/11 attack so profoundly affected the American public that perceptions of international terrorism have ever since been shaped around that single event. Americans think in terms of a single group known as Al Qaeda, with a base of operations in South Asia, and posing a threat of large-scale attacks against the U.S. homeland. This perspective obscures a fuller picture even of modern Islamist terrorism, let alone international terrorism as a whole. An understanding of current terrorist threats requires a look at evolution of the threat prior to 9/11, as well as the substantial further evolution since that attack. In this introductory lecture in the series, Dr. Pillar provides a guide to thinking about international terrorism, putting Al Qaeda into context. He describes how Islamist terrorism has become organizationally and geographically more diffuse in recent years. The lecture highlights the implications of these trends for counter terrorism.
