Author Archives: lawac

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September 2013 Newsletter

The Los Angeles World Affairs Council is looking forward to some exciting speakers this fall, including billionaire inventor of the Tesla electric car and SpaceX rockets Elon Musk, former Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and president of the University of Southern California, Max Nikias.

Frederick Forsyth

As a former foreign correspondent for Reuters and the BBC, Forsyth says that while much factual information is available online, his most valuable research comes from one-on-one interviews with the relevant experts to his plots.

Los Angeles World Affairs Council Fiscal 2012-13 Turnaround

I am delighted to announce that the Los Angeles World Affairs Council has just finished a very successful fiscal year with an operating profit, an increase in membership and a total of 47 events that expanded into new areas and attracted very positive feedback from our members.

The Act of Killing

Joshua Oppenheimer The screening last night of “The Act of Killing”, a documentary by American filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer about the mass killings of 500,000 or more communists – and “supposed communists” – in Indonesia in 1965-66, was a riveting experience.

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Pandora’s Promise

We had a full house last night for the screening of Pandora’s Promise at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts – and a lively question and answer session afterwards with the director, Robert Stone, on what is a very controversial subject.

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Ambassador Ryan Crocker on the Arab Spring

Ambassador Ryan Crocker, who has spent most of his four-decade-long career in the US Foreign Service dealing with the Middle East and Central Asia, gave a very perceptive overview to LAWAC members last night of how the Arab Spring is developing across the region.

Gatekeepers

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Manhunt

Greg Barker, the film maker, showed the moral complexities of the intelligence community’s work, and through the characters interviewed he presented the arguments both for and against the “enhanced interrogation techniques” that have since become so controversial./portals/0/MoviePosters/Manhunt.jpg

Sicily’ at the Getty Villa

Thank you for coming to our event at the Getty Villa last night. It was a charmed setting for a fascinating exhibition that showed how Sicily acted as a cultural bridge between ancient Greece and Rome.