Author: Christopher Grotke

The Windham World Affairs Council will present its annual Galbraith Lecture on November 3, 2022 at Brooks Memorial Library at 7:00 pm with Ambassador Peter Galbraith. Recently returned from Ukraine and Moldova, Galbraith will provide an update on the military and political situation in Ukraine and assess the future prospects in his talk entitled “The Ukraine War: What now? What next? and How does it End? The event will be held in person and online. Registration is required at Eventbrite at: https://bit.ly/3eKLCMq (a QR code is included below). Masks are required. The event is free but a donation of $10 to support WWAC is suggested.

Galbraith will consider the war’s implications for Ukraine, for Russia and Putin, for the peace of Europe, and for our ability to meet existential global challenges like climate change. He will discuss the danger that Russia might use nuclear weapons and how the world might respond. And he will discuss possible outcomes and settlements. 

Few American diplomats have had as much direct experience in war time diplomacy as Ambassador Galbraith. Serving as the first US ambassador to Croatia, he negotiated the 1995 peace agreement that ended that country’s war and was part of the team that negotiated the Dayton peace Accords for Bosnia. Working for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was on the front lines of the Soviet War in Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq War, the Sri Lanka Civil War, the first Gulf War and the 1991 Kurdish uprising. His last diplomatic posting was as an Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations in Afghanistan. In recent years, he has been a regular visitor to Northeast Syria where he advises the Syrian Democratic Forces on negotiation strategy and, separately, is reuniting Yazidi women kidnapped by ISIS with their children born as a result of rape. 

Ambassador Galbraith is an esteemed member of the Windham World Affairs Council. The annual Galbraith Lecture honors his father, John Kenneth Galbraith, who was an important author of more than 30 books including The Affluent Society, a public intellectual and economist who believed the economy should work to fulfill the needs of the people.  Short audio pieces on John Kenneth Galbraith narrated by journalist Joyce Marcel and Peter Galbraith can be heard on the Brattleboro Words Trail at: https://brattleboro.stqry.app/en/story/28717.

Ambassador Galbraith is a Vermonter who served two terms as a Vermont State Senator from Windham County from 2011 to 2015, and was a candidate for Governor of Vermont in 2016. He is the author of two critically acclaimed books on the Iraq War, including the prescient bestseller The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End. He was an assistant professor of International Relations and Economics at Windham College in Putney, Vermont, from 1975 to 1978. Later, he was Professor of National Security Strategy at the National War College in 1999 and between 2001 and 2003. In addition to his books, Ambassador Galbraith has written extensively for a range of publications including The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Guardian.

For 60 years, WWAC has gathered an eclectic range of individuals with international experience to help create free community events and facilitate youth outreach through programming such as developing PeaceJam at Brattleboro Union High School. WWAC is part of the national World Affairs Councils of America and relies entirely on the support from membership dues and donations by those who attend our events. WWAC holds a monthly, fourth Wednesday board meeting (5-6pm) and members and friends ‘Salon’ (6-7pm) at 118 Elliot in Brattleboro. WWAC encourages you to join us: Student memberships are free, individuals are $35/year, family memberships are $50/year and life memberships are $500. Join online at https://www.windhamworldaffairscouncil.org/membership-application/ or mail a check to WWAC, PO Box 1105, Brattleboro, VT 05302. Find out more at: WWW.WINDHAMWORLDAFFAIRSCOUNCIL.ORG

QR Code for registration:

The Windham World Affairs Council (WWAC) presents a presentation by David Barton Bray entitled: ‘Mexico’s Community Forest Enterprises: Success on the Commons and the Seeds of a Good Anthropocene’ on Friday, 7 Oct, 2022 — 7:00 – 8:30 pm at the Centre Congregational United Church of Christ at 193 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301. The presentation will focus on the content from his newest work in Mexico and his latest book,“Mexico’s Community Forest Enterprises: Success on the Commons and the Seeds of a Good Anthropocene”, published in 2020. It will respond to the question: How do we protect our global commons in ways that provide seeds of hope in the Anthropocene? The talk will begin promptly at 7:00 PM with Bray’s presentation, followed by ample time for questions and discussion from the audience. The talk will be held in the Salon room of the Congregational Church, which is adjacent to the main sanctuary. This talk is free, but donations are suggested, and everyone is welcome to attend.

David Barton Bray is a professor in the Earth and Environment Department at Florida International University (FIU). He carries out research on community forest management in Mexico and Central America and pursues interests in natural resource and ecosystem management in Latin America and globally.

Bray is the lead editor of the book “The Community Forests of Mexico” (University of Texas Press, 2005) and is widely published in academic journals such as Conservation Biology, World Development, Land Use Policy, and Forest Policy and Economics and in journalistic outlets such as the New York Times and the Miami Herald. He has been invited to give presentations on research by himself and colleagues for high-level Chinese forestry officials in Beijing, the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City, the Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources of Mexico, and at Yale University, among other venues. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Ecologic, a Cambridge, MA NGO and an advisor to several forest community organizations in Mexico and is currently developing research and action projects with forest community organizations in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Bray was chair and associate professor in the Environmental Studies Department at FIU from 1997 to 2002. He received his PhD from Brown University in 1983 in Anthropology; he also has a master’s degree in Anthropology from Brown and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. From 1983 to 1986 he was assistant director and visiting assistant professor at the Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University. From 1986 to 1997 he was foundation representative with the Inter-American Foundation, a U.S. government foreign assistance agency, in Arlington, VA. With the IAF he worked in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay 1986-1989 and in Mexico 1989-1997. From 1992 to 1998 he was a member of the Tropical Ecosystems Directorate of the US Man and the Biosphere Program. In 1997 he left the IAF to take up the position at FIU.

Since 1997, he has received research funding from the Fulbright Program, the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Tinker Foundation, and the US Agency for International Development. He has also consulted for the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

WWAC is the smallest member of the national World Affairs Councils of America (two in Vermont, the other in Burlington) and relies entirely on the support of the public to provide these free and public events. Support is derived primarily from membership dues paid annually by those who attend our events. Members also join the board of the WWAC to enjoy a regular meet n’ greet SALON at 118 Elliot the fourth Wednesday monthly. Windham county is an eclectic collective of individuals with a high level of international engagement and experience. If you are one of these people, the WWAC encourages you to join as a member to get to know this interesting and active group of international thinkers. Student memberships are free, individuals are $35/year, family memberships are $50/year and life memberships are $500. Join online at https://www.windhamworldaffairscouncil.org/membership-application/ or mail a check to WWAC, PO Box 1105, Brattleboro, VT 05302.

The Windham World Affairs Council has been exploring international issues locally for over 60 years.

Here’s an article in the Brattleboro Reformer about the organization: A mission ‘to bring out the truth’: Windham World Affairs Council turns 60.

Mark your calendar! Ambassador Peter Galbraith will also deliver his annual ‘Galbraith Lecture’ on Wednesday, November 3rd, 7pm at Brooks Memorial Library.  More details to follow.