Wednesday, Apr. 24, 2019 – Wednesday, Apr. 24, 2019

08:00 AM – 09:30 AM
US/Central

In collaboration with the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations and World Affairs Council of Greater Houston

Following the end of the Cold War in 1989, the world experienced the deepest peace in history. Though wars broke out during that period, they were relatively small-scale and infrequent compared to previous periods. In his new book, The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth, Professor Michael Mandelbaum, foreign policy expert and Professor Emeritus at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, examines that period in detail. He describes how and why peace was established before falling apart as three major countries — Vladimir Putin's Russia, Xi Jinping's China, and the Shia clerics' Iran — began pursuing aggressive nationalist policies driven by the fear of uncertain economic growth. Professor Mandelbaum further explores prospects for the revival of peace in the future, especially the necessity of free elections and religious, economic, and political liberty throughout the world.

Join Asia Society Texas Center for a conversation with Professor Mandelbaum on The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth.

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Schedule

Wednesday, April 24, 2019
8 a.m. Registration and Light Breakfast
8:30 a.m. Program

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About the Speaker

Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. He has also taught at Harvard and Columbia Universities and at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis and served as Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. A contributor to such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, and The London Observer, Professor Mandelbaum served for 23 years as the associate director of the Aspen Institute Congressional Project on American Relations with the Former Communist World. He serves on the Board of Advisors of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington-based organization sponsoring research and public discussion on American policy toward the Middle East.

Professor Mandelbaum is the author or co-author of numerous articles and essays and of sixteen books: The Nuclear Question: The United States and Nuclear Weapons 1946-1976 (1979); The Nuclear Revolution: International Politics Before and After Hiroshima (1981); The Nuclear Future(1983); Reagan and Gorbachev (with Strobe Talbott, 1987); The Global Rivals (with Seweryn Bialer, 1988); The Fate of Nations: The Search For National Security in the 19th and 20th Centuries (1988); and The Dawn of Peace in Europe (1996); The Ideas That Conquered the World: Peace, Democracy and Free Markets in the Twenty-first Century (2002); The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football and Basketball and What They See When They Do (2004); The Case For Goliath: How America Acts As the World’s Government in the Twenty-first Century (2006); Democracy’s Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World’s Most Popular Form of Government (2007); The Frugal Superpower: America’s Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era (2010); That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World We Invented and How We Can Come Back (with Thomas L. Friedman, 2011); The Road to Global Prosperity (2014); Mission Failure: American and the World in the Post-Cold War Era (2016); and The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth (2019). He is also the editor of twelve books.

Born in 1946, Professor Mandelbaum is a graduate of Yale College. He earned his Master’s degree at King’s College, Cambridge University and his doctorate at Harvard University.

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About the Moderator

Alan Crain is a member of the board of directors of the Asia Society Texas Center. He is also chairman of the Houston Committee on Foreign Relations, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and former chair of the board of the World Affairs Council of Houston. He is chairman of the board of directors of EP Energy and serves on the boards of three private commercial companies. He teaches corporate governance at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University and chairs the governance committee of board of the Texas Tri-Cities chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors.

He began his career with a law firm in Washington, D.C. and has been General Counsel of three Fortune 500 multinationals. Most recently, he was the Senior Vice President and Chief Legal and Governance Officer of Baker Hughes, a technology and services company operating in over 80 countries. At Baker Hughes, he had global responsibility for legal affairs, crisis management, insurance, security, compliance, risk management, and government relations. He is an independent arbitrator with experience in more than 70 cases under the rules of numerous institutions. He has been on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration for 20 years and is currently Vice Chairman. He serves on the Advisory Council of the American Arbitration Association and is a frequent speaker on complex issues arising in arbitrations. In addition to his law degree, he holds BS and MS degrees in Engineering and an MBA.

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Asia Society Texas Center Business & Policy Programs, Endowed by

Huffington Foundation

Business and Policy programs at Asia Society Texas Center are presented by Bank of America, Muffet Blake, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and United Airlines. Major support comes from Nancy C. Allen, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Nancy Pollok Guinee, and Mary Lawrence Porter, as well as The Brown Foundation, Inc. and Houston Endowment. Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Asia Society Texas Center, a dedicated group of individuals and organizations committed to bringing the best in public programming.