Public Forums

Housing and sustainability

16 March 2010

Time: 6:00pm - 7:00pm

Henry Cisneros is a well known advocate for the poor and disadvantaged in the United States with an ongoing interest in public policy and politics. He will speak at the New South Wales Parliament House as a special guest of the Minister for Housing, the Honourable David Borger MP.

American cities: A 21st century urban agenda

17 March 2010

Time: 5:30pm - 7:00pm

State and Federal governments in the US have grappled for decades with urban issues such as urban regeneration and affordable housing. As Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton Administration, Henry Cisneros was at the centre of these efforts. Mr Cisneros will talk about the challenges facing urban areas in the US today. Drawing on direct experience with the current White House team, he will discuss the shape of the Obama Administration’s new urban agenda.

Why the clash of civilizations is wrong

25 March 2010

Time: 5:30pm - 7:00pm

One of America’s leading political scientists, Cornell University's Peter Katzenstein, is particularly interested in the relevance of cultural categories for the analysis of world politics. In his lecture for Sydney Ideas he offers a critique of the Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilization theory that conflict between distinct groups based on religion and cultural identities (eg Western, Islamic, Sinic) is inevitable, and will dominate in the post cold–war period. The emphasis on the unity and uniformity of different civilizations and hence on sharp differences among civilizations is misguided. Civilizations are better thought of in pluralist rather than unitary terms. Civilizations are unique in important respects, but equally they are embedded in a global context of interactions with other civilizations that influence them without robbing each of its distinctiveness. Instead of focusing on the clash of civilizations, we should concentrate on studying encounters and engagements among civilizations that shape their futures as much as their unique foundations do. This is the right lesson to draw from approaches as distinct as American liberalism and Chinese Confucianism.

The United States in the Middle East: 1945-2010

27 March 2010

Time: 9:30am - 4:30pm

For the past half century, the Middle East has been a vital area of the world for Australians and for Americans, and it is becoming increasingly problematic as time goes by. This vast region is clearly a confusing and complex one to us and we are only now slowly beginning to understand its peoples and its religions. The US and its allies, including Australia, are engaged in two wars in the Middle East, Iran is unstable and unpredictably threatening, Yemen is emerging as a haven for terrorists, and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians shows little sign of ending soon. Throughout the whole period, the United States has played a key role in shaping, if not controlling events. This is especially true of the Arab-Israeli conflict to which a peaceful resolution is seen by many as the key to a stable Middle East.

In this full day conference Senior Visiting Fellow in the School of History and Philosophy at the University of New South Wales Dr Ian J. Bickerton and US Studies Centre Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Jeremy Pressman will examine the factors that have influenced US policy, and discuss the role and impact of the US in the region over the past 65 years.