Speakers P
Manuel Padilla
Manuel Padilla has a BA in philosophy from Portland State University and an MA in peace, conflict, and development studies from the UNESCO Chair for the Philosophy of Peace. He has done peace work in Haiti, Chad, and Washington, DC, working with internally displaced people, immigrants, and refugees. Currently he implements reconciliation workshops in refugee contexts with the Jesuit Refugee Service, works with youth through restorative justice frameworks, and volunteers with Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon's Circles of Support and Accountability program.
Roger K. Paget
Roger Paget is Institutional Professor Emeritus of Political Economy and Asian Studies, Lewis & Clark College. Since the 1950s, Paget has made Indonesia the geographic focus of his scholarly career, the last 17 years of which were spent at Lewis & Clark College.What first entranced Paget about Indonesia were its sounds, which he heard during an undergraduate ethnomusicology class. "The music appealed to me because of its huge variety," says Paget, noting the plethora of distinct cultures on many of the 7,000-plus populated islands that, together with 10,000 or so deserted others, make up Indonesia.Recognizing the country’s myriad cultures piqued his interest in their political implications. "Indonesia, perhaps more than any other nation at that time," he explains, "seemed to have that promise of building a wonderful new nation incorporating all that diversity."
He penned his senior honors thesis on Indonesian political history and attended the U.S. Army Language School, where he earned the highest qualification as an interpreter-translator of Indonesian and Malay. For his Ph.D. in government and Asian studies, he studied under the late George Kahin, America’s foremost scholar on Indonesia. Kahin’s connections helped Paget win entrée to Sukarno, founding president of Indonesia, which led to years of translation and interpretation of Sukarno’s works. The most notable volume was the political tract "Indonesia Accuses!," Sukarno’s 1930 courtroom denunciation of Dutch colonialism, to which Paget provided valuable intellectual and political-historical context. Today, Paget calls Indonesia "a second home," and plans to continue his frequent visits and consultant work there in retirement.
Sergio Palleroni
Sergio Palleroni is an architect, professor, and Fellow at the new Center for Sustainable Practices and Processes at Portland State University. His projects demonstrate how architecture and design build community and contribute to the cause of solving urgent social problems. Highlights include a solar-powered kitchen for a school in a Mexican squatter community, a straw-bale adult education center for Native Americans in South Dakota, and a Seattle public garden accessible to the elderly.
Palleroni is internationally known for his social and environmental designs. He is founder and director of BaSiC Initiative, a social outreach and service learning program using college students to build projects all over the world. A native of Argentina, Palleroni received his Bachelors in Architecture from the University of Oregon and a Masters from MIT and has been a tenured professor at the University of Washington and the Luce Foundation Visiting Professor in Sustainable Development at the University of Texas, Austin. He has worked and been a consultant on sustainable architecture and development in the developing world since the 1970s both for not-for-profit agencies and for governmental and international agencies such as UNESCO, the World Bank, and the governments of China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Taiwan.
Arvind Panagariya
Arvind Panargariya is the Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy and Professor of Economics at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. A leading authority on the economy of India, he has been the chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and has also work with the world Bank, IMF, WTO, and UNCTAD. He holds a PhD in Economics from Princeton. According to Fareed Zakaria (Editor of Newsweek International) Prof Panagariya has written "the definitive book on the Indian economy," in which he "puts to rest myths and settles debates with balance and fairness."
George Papandreou
Raised with Greek politics in his blood, yet very much a product of his multicultural upbringing, George Papandreou followed in the footsteps of both his grandfather and father to become the Prime Minister of Greece from 2009-2011. Around the world, Papandreou has deployed ‘Green Diplomacy,’ calling for the protection of the environment. He has pledged to rebuild the Greek economy using green technology as an engine for sustainable development and job creation ‐ transforming Greece into the “Denmark of the South.” Above all, George Papandreou is a firm believer in all‐inclusive democracy. He has championed human rights at home and abroad, and has actively sought to maximize citizen participation in governance through information technologies. His leadership of PASOK has ushered in a new era of accountability and transparency in government. Public participation played a major role in Papandreou’s term as Prime Minister, including the Greek public as he sought to radically change the course of the Greek economy amidst a European financial crisis.
Christian Parenti
Christian Parenti is a contributing editor at The Nation and a visiting scholar at the Center for Place, Culture and Politics, at the CUNY Grad Center. He has reported extensively from Afghanistan, Iraq and various parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
John Parker
John Parker writes about globalisation without economic policy. He has previously been bureau chief in Washington, Moscow and Brussels for The Economist; assistant editor, business editor, Europe editor and books and arts editor for The Economist and features editor for the Financial Times.
Dr. Trita Parsi
Dr. Trita Parsi is author of Treacherous Alliances-The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel, and the United States, and the recipient of the Council on Foreign Relations' 2008 Arthur Ross Silver Medallion. He is a frequent commentator on Gulf issues for public television.
Trita Parsi
Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, is the author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran and the United States and, most recently, A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama’s Diplomacy With Iran, which was published in January by Yale. Parsi’s articles on Middle East affairs have been published in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, and the Nation, among other publications. He is a frequent guest on CNN, PBS’s Newshour with Jim Lehrer, NPR, the BBC, and Al Jazeera.
Žygimantas Pavilionis
Žygimantas Pavilionis became ambassador of Lithuania to the United States on Aug. 5, 2010.Born on August 22, 1971, in Vilnius, Pavilionis grew up with parents who prized higher education. He attended college at Vilnius University, where he earned a master’s degree in philosophy and postgraduate diploma in international relations. Ambassador Pavilionis joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993 and was instrumental in helping Lithuania achieve accession into NATO and the European Union. Pavilionis was then promoted to lead the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ European Integration Department from 2002-2004. Most recently, he served as ambassador-at-large and chief coordinator for Lithuania’s presidency of the Community of Democracies, as well as chief coordinator for the Transatlantic Cooperation and Security Policy Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Pavilionis and his wife, Lina Pavilioniene, have four sons.
Ambassador Edward Peck
Edward Peck is a retired career United States diplomat whose thirty-two years of service included: Chief of Mission in Baghdad during the Carter Administration and Deputy Director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan Administration. He was Deputy Director of Covert Intelligence Programs for the State Department, served as Foreign Service Officer in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt and was Ambassador in Mauritania. Peck currently provides consulting services to governments, businesses and educational institutions around the world.
Enrique Peñalosa
Enrique Peñalosa is an influential thinker in the design of livable cities, with a particular interest in the relationship between urban design and sustainability, mobility, equity, public space, and well-being. As mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, between 1998 and 2000, Peñalosa implemented profound changes that transformed the seven-million-inhabitant city—many of them the first of their kind in the Americas, including: a 300-kilometer network of bicycle paths; more than 100 kilometers of pedestrian-only streets and greenways; and, perhaps, the best bus system in the world.
Shimon Peres
Polish-born Israeli statesman Shimon Peres served twice as the prime minister of Israel before being elected as the country's ninth President in 2007. He has also served as the leader of the Israel Labour Party multiple times. In 1993, Peres helped negotiate the peace agreement the Oslo Accords with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat; the three men were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1994.
John Perkins
As Chief Economist at a major international consulting firm, John Perkins advised the World Bank, United Nations, IMF, U.S. Treasury Department, Fortune 500 corporations, and countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.His books on economics and geo-politics have sold more than 1 million copies, spent many months on the New York Times and other bestseller lists.
Lawrence Pintak
Lawrence Pintak is the founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. A former CBS News Middle East correspondent, he has been called the foremost chronicler of the interaction between the Arab and Western media. His books and articles focus on America's relationship with the Muslim world, the role of the media in shaping global perceptions and government policy, and the future of journalism in a digital/globalized world.
James Pond
James Pond is the Founder and Executive Director of Transitions, an organization restoring the lives of young girls rescued from sex trafficking through the power of a dream. After 8 years in the Marine Corps and 10 years in corporate America, James and his family gave up their lives in the United States and began working to combat sex trafficking in Southeast Asia.
Dr. John Prados
John Prados is a national security analyst based in Washington, DC, who focuses on presidential power, international relations, intelligence and military affairs. A senior fellow and project director with the National Security Archive, he leads both the Archive’s Iraq Documentation Project and its parallel effort on Vietnam. Prados is the author or editor of more than a dozen books on topics ranging from national security to the American presidency and diplomatic history; his most recent is Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945-1975. In his spare time he designs board strategy games. Prados holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Henry Precht
Henry Precht was chief of the Iran Desk at the US State Department during the years of the Revolution and the hostage crisis. He also co-chaired the Gulf 2000 project at Columbia University which studies security and strategic developments in the Persian Gulf.
Clyde Prestowitz
Clyde Prestowitz is founder and president of the Economic Strategy Institute. He has played key roles in achieving congressional passage of NAFTA and in shaping the final content of the Uruguay Round, as well as providing the intellectual basis for current U.S. trade policies toward Japan, China, and Korea. Before founding ESI, Prestowitz served as counselor to the Secretary of Commerce in the Reagan Administration, where he led U.S. trade and investment negotiations with Japan, China, Latin America, and Europe. He has served as vice-chairman of President Clinton’s Committee on Trade and Investment in the Pacific and sits on the Intel Policy Advisory Board and the U.S. Export-Import Bank Advisory Board. He regularly writes for leading publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fortune, and Foreign Affairs and is the author of the best-selling book on U.S.-Japan relations, Trading Places, and co-author and editor of several other books on international trade and business strategy including Asia After the Miracle; Powernomics; Bit by Bit; The New North American Trade Order; Rogue Nation; and Three Billion New Capitalists.
Robert D. Putnam
Robert D. Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the British Academy, and past president of the American Political Science Association. He has received numerous scholarly honors, including the Skytte Prize, the most prestigious global award in political science, and the National Humanities Medal, the nation’s highest honor for contributions to the humanities. He has written fourteen books, translated into more than twenty languages, including Bowling Alone and Making Democracy Work, both among the most cited publications in the social sciences in the last half century. His 2010 book, co-authored with David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, won the American Political Science Association’s 2011 Woodrow Wilson award as the best book in political science. He has consulted for the last three American presidents, the last three British prime ministers, the last French president, prime ministers from Ireland to Singapore, and hundreds of grassroots leaders and activists in many countries. His latest book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, on the growing class gap among American young people, was published in March 2015.