Below is a chronological listing of upcoming programs and events.  To see programs/events of a specific type, click on the sub-menu item to the left.

Mary-Charlotte Domandi, the host of Santa Fe Radio Cafe on public radio KSFR 101.1, will interview Lynne Olson on Thursday, March 11th.  The show airs from 8:00 am to 9:00 am and can also be heard live on the web.  A podcast will be available after the show airs. Also, listen to Lynne Olson’s February 3rd interview on NPR.  She is scheduled for an interview on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Wednesday evening, March 3rd.

Dine Out This Spring and Participating Restaurants Will Support CIR Programs

Beginning March 16 and running through June 23, CIR will be the beneficiary of once a month donations from local restaurants.  But the final donation is based on the number of diners who attend, so we need your participation.  Gather your friends, whether CIR members or not, and enjoy dinner, drinks or just light hors d’oeuvres on one of the dates shown below.  You’re certain to greet CIR friends doing the same in a social setting that will help support CIR’s mission.  Eat your way to promoting Engagement in World Affairs!  Reservations highly recommended. 

Tuesday, March 16
Osteria d’Assisi
986-5858
58 South Federal Place
Downtown Santa Fe across from the Federal Building
Dinner from 5:00 pm

Tuesday, April 20
Capitol Grill
471-6800
3462 Zafarano Drive
In the San Isidro Plaza directly across from the Regal Santa Fe Stadium 14 movie theatres
Dinner from 5:00 to 9:00 pm

May – date and location to be determined

Wednesday, June 23
Vanessie
982-9966
434 W. San Francisco St.
Four blocks from the plaza and 1 block west of the Hilton Hotel; parking in lot or on Water Street
Dinner from 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm

Location:  St. John’s College, Great Hall

Talk:  A Special Time in the Special Relationship—The United States and Great Britain

By:  Lynne Olson, freelance writer and former correspondent

Cost:  $15 for CIR Members/$20 for non-members
Co-sponsored by Santa Fe Council on International Relations and St. John’s College

Following her presentation, Olson will join in a panel discussion with Stanley Cloud and Mike Peters of St. John’s College, moderated by John Andrews.  The panel will entertain questions from the floor.

Lynne Olson has been a reporter and writer since shortly after her graduation from the University of Arizona.  She worked for the Associated Press in the U.S. From 1971 to 1973 and in 1974 became AP’s first woman correspondent in Moscow.  In 1976, Olson returned to Washington, where she covered Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign.  In 1977, Olson joined the Washington bureau of the Baltimore Sun, where she covered national politics and eventually the White House.  In 1981, she became a freelance writer.  She has written for numerous publications and taught journalism for five years at American University in Washington.

Olson and her husband, Stanley Cloud, are co-authors of The Murrow Boys, which was named one of the best books in 1996 by Publishers Weekly.  Olson’s second book, Freedom’s Daughters, is the first comprehensive history of women in the civil rights movement.  Published by Scribner in February 2001, it won a Christopher Award in 2002.  Olson joined with Cloud again to write A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II, published by Alfred A. Knopf in September 2003.

Olson’s fourth book, Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in April 2007.  Drawing wide critical acclaim, it was named one of the top 10 books of 2007 by New York Times book reviewer William Grimes and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize in history.

Her latest book, Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour, will be published by Random House in February 2010.

St. John’s campus bookstore will have in stock two of Olson’s books:  Citizens of London (to be released February, 2010) and Troublesome Young Men (published April, 2007).  The bookstore will remain open until after the event.

Dinner Bonus:  Make plans to join us the night of this event for dinner at Osteria d’Assisi when the restaurant will make a donation to CIR based on the number of diners who attend.  That means we need your participation! Gather your friends, whether CIR members or not, and enjoy dinner, drinks or just light hors d’oeuvres with the knowledge that a portion of every dollar you spend will support CIR programs.  Reservations (at Osteria 986-5858) recommended; walk-ins accommodated as space allows.  Author, Lynne Olson, will accompany us to the restaurant.

Media Coverage:   Listen to Lynne Olson’s February 3rd interview on NPR.  She is scheduled for an interview on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Wednesday evening, March 3.  Mary-Charlotte Domandi, the host of Santa Fe Radio Cafe on public radio KSFR 101.1, will interview Lynne Olson on Thursday, March 11.  The Radio Cafe airs from 8:00 am to 9:00 am and can also be heard live on the web at www.ksfr.org.  A podcast will be available after the show airs at www.SantaFeRadioCafe.org.

Student attendance is FREE with proper identification.

Purchase your tickets by calling the Office or by using this secure website. (Note that, if purchasing tickets here, you will need to return to this page or the calendar multiple times to add tickets with differing Fee Types to your shopping cart.)

Fee Type: CIR Member Ticket ($15)Non-member/Guest Ticket ($20)

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Location:  Santa Fe Preparatory School

Speaker: Dr. Stanley Wolpert

Professor Wolpert will analyze India’s remarkable economic development, the opportunities created by the youthful majority of its population, and the challenges posed by the lagging rural sector. He will also discuss India’s strategic partnership with the United State and the terrorist threats the country faces, paying special attention to India-Pakistan relations and the long-standing conflict over Kashmir. Wolpert will consider both the nightmare scenario of nuclear conflict between these two countries as well as suicide bombings, and the prospects for peace and progress.

Stanley Wolpert is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Los Angeles where he is affiliated with UCLA’s Asia Institute. He earned his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania and has published several books including A New History of India (4th edition, Oxford University Press, 1993).  His visit to New Mexico was arranged in conjunction with the Albuquerque International Association where he will be speaking on Sunday, March 21st.

Student attendance is FREE with proper identification.

Purchase your tickets by calling the Office or by using this secure website.  (Note that, if purchasing tickets here, you will need to return to this page or the calendar multiple times to add tickets with differing Fee Types to your shopping cart.)

Fee Type: Member ($15)Non-member or Guest ($20)Student (free with ID, no ticket required)

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Have you lived or traveled abroad? Are you interested in what’s going on in the world? Why not join a group of globally-minded Santa Feans? Come to a reception and briefing on Middle East.

The Santa Fe Council on International Relations (CIR) is a non-profit member-driven organization dedicated to broader understanding of and engagement in world affairs. Members enjoy meeting foreign visitors, participating in discussions, attending lectures and other benefits. CIR counts almost 700 internationally-minded members. Shouldn’t you be one too?

This event is FREE but RSVPs are requested to the CIR Office. Please include your name, contact info and number of people attending in your group. Details and confirmation will be sent upon RSVP.

The CIR Membership Committee is planning to put together a series of potluck dinners for members, if there is enough interest.

The plan for these dinners would be that they would take place once a month at members’ homes. Members would provide their homes for groups of 7-8 people on a revolving basis. The make-up of the dinner groups would keep changing so that CIR members would get to break bread with a widening group of people.

There would be no cost involved for these dinners but participants would be asked to bring their fair share of food and drink.

Let us know if you are  interested in  these dinners.  Please email Steve Kutay, Membership Committee Chairman by March 26.

CIR will host a seminar/ workshop for invited humanities teachers, funded by a grant from the Turkish Cultural Foundation and administered by the World Affairs Council of America.
The workshop will include a historical review from the Ottoman Empire to modern Turkey and current issues in the Republic. Also, the workshop will address pedagogy and developing curriculum. CIR volunteers, using authentic recipes, are providing lunch.

From the seminar attendees, applications will be taken and four teachers will be selected for an 11 day Study Tour Of Turkey during the 2010 Summer. The four teachers from area schools will join about 25 other teachers from other world affairs councils around the country. The study tour of Turkey has been valued at $5000 per teacher and includes four and five star accommodations, all meals, all entrance fees to museums and cultural events and round trip air fare from Chicago to Istanbul. The study tour of Turkey is organized by the Turkish Cultural Foundation.

Teachers are responsible for paying a $600 fee to the Turkish Cultural Foundation and round trip airfare from Albuquerque to Chicago. We would appreciate any CIR members who can donate frequent flier miles to help the teachers off-set their travel costs. Please contact Susan with your donation at 982-4931.

At CIR, we think this project is well worth the effort to give our local teachers a first hand view of a country and culture with a fascinating history. The teachers, students and our community all benefit from this type of international activity.

Location:  Temple Beth Shalom, 205 East Barcelona Rd.

Obama and the Intelligence Community

Speaker:  Mel Goodman

$15 General Admission 
Cosponsored by CIR and Temple Beth Shalom 

He presented a popular talk in November 2008 about issues in Russia, Iran and the Middle East facing the new Obama administration.  This talk may be viewed as a follow up to that presentation.  Dr. Goodman’s long experience and involvement in national security dates from the Cold War era when he served as Division Chief and Senior Analyst for the CIA’s Office of Soviet Affairs.  From 1974 until 1976 he was a senior analyst at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and he served as an intelligence adviser to the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks in Vienna and Washington.

Dr. Goodman is currently Senior Fellow and Director of the National Security Program at the Center for International Policy.  He is also adjunct Professor of Government at John Hopkins University and was Professor of International Security Studies and Chair of the International Relations Department at the National War College. 

The author or co-author of several books, Dr. Goodman is known for three volumes on Soviet and Russian affairs:  Gorbachev’s Retreat, The End of Superpower Rivalry in the Third World and The Wars of Eduard Shevardnadze.  His 2008 book, The Failure of Intelligence, the Decline and Fall of the CIA earned highly favorable reviews for his thorough, balanced and insider’s view of U. S. intelligence efforts post WW II.  His new book, Bush League Diplomacy: Putting the Nation at Risk, has just been published.  Dr. Goodman is looking forward to speaking to the Santa Fe CIR and discussing recent events.

Student attendance is FREE with proper identification.

Purchase your tickets before the event by calling the Office or by using this secure website.

Fee Type: General Admission Ticket ($15)

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Location: Santa Fe Hilton, 100 Sandoval St.

Topic: Spheres of Influence: The United States, Latin America and the Policy

Speaker: Alexa Schirtzinger

Cost: $26/CIR Members 
         $32/Non-members & Guests

Alexa Schirtzinger is a staff writer with the Santa Fe Reporter. She has lived and worked in Spain, Uruguay, Honduras and El Salvador, where she spent two years as an agroforestry volunteer with the Peace Corps (2003-05). She has a B.A. in Environmental Geology and Spanish from Dartmouth College and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University. She has traveled extensively in every country in Central America except Belize and been lost in more small villages than she’d like to admit. Though currently settled in Santa Fe, she returns frequently to visit family and relatives in Central America. Her last visit, to Honduras and El Salvador, was in 2009.

Through CIR’s Student Outreach Support program, interested students and teachers are invited to attend World Affairs Discussion events for free.  You can donate to this fund by selecting Student Outreach Support at the bottom of the Shopping Cart. 

Purchase your tickets by calling the Office 982-4931 or by using this secure website. (Note that, if purchasing tickets here, you will need to return to this page or the calendar multiple times to add tickets with differing Fee Types to your shopping cart.)

Fee Type: Member Ticket ($26)Non-member/Guest ($32)

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Location:  Santa Fe Preparatory School

Speaker: Dr. Allen C. Lynch

Professor Lynch’s talk will reflect on the growing gap between Russia’s rising ambitions and assertiveness in the international arena, the country’s economic growth, and oil and gas wealth on the one side, and shrinking human and natural resources on the other. He will answer the broader question of whether Russia has the social and economic foundation she needs to maintain her status as a great power in the international arena.

Allen Lynch occupies the Hugh S. & Winifred B. Cumming Memorial Chair in International Affairs in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia where he also serves as Director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies. He earned his doctorate at Columbia University and is a prolific author whose his most recent book is How Russia is Not Ruled: Reflections on Russian Political Development (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Student attendance is FREE with proper identification.

Purchase your tickets by calling the Office or by using this secure website.  (Note that, if purchasing tickets here, you will need to return to this page or the calendar multiple times to add tickets with differing Fee Types to your shopping cart.)