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Bob Hawke: Reflections on the Australia-United States Alliance
3 May 2011
Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke AC worked with two Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush on critical global issues as diverse as the bombing of the US Embassy in Beiruit, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the creation of APEC, the end of apartheid in South Africa and bringing China into the global community. Australia's longest serving Labor Prime Minister is a loyal friend as well as a friendly critic of the US. His close relationship with Secretary of State George Shultz was a key element in shaping the trajectory post-Cold War Asia Pacific. At this event Hawke discussed his vast experience with, and views on, the US with Australia's leading political journalist Paul Kelly.
American Grace: How religion divides and unites America
18 April 2011
Leading US political scientist Robert Putnam draws on the two most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America (specially commissioned for his book, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us with co-author David Campbell of Notre Dame University), and in a dozen in-depth portraits of diverse congregations he examines the complex interaction of religion and politics over the past half-century. He provides a balanced and considered counterweight to the polemical rhetoric of how religion both contributes to and detracts from the vibrancy and stability of American democracy.
John Howard: Reflections on the Australia-United States Alliance
15 February 2011
Former Prime Minister John Howard reflected on his decade of experience in leading Australia's most important international relationship to a packed crowd at Sydney's Customs House. In conversation with Australia's preeminent print journalist Paul Kelly, Howard discussed topics from APEC and Kyoto to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and how the Howard government's close relationship with the United States had a significant impact on both countries and the world. The former Prime Minister's thoughts on the Australia-US alliance provided a unique window into the highest levels of the multi-faceted relationship between the two countries.
The Midterm Referendum on Obama
9 November 2010
A conversation with Professor James Fallows of the US Studies Centre and correspondent for The Atlantic, and Professor Morris Fiorina of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Only two years after the sky high expectations surrounding his historic election as US President, Barack Obama's Democrats suffered stunning losses in this month's midterm congressional elections. Despite getting out of Iraq, making sure the GFC did not become a second depression, and passing major health care and financial reform, the US remains mired in deep economic trouble and Obama apparently can do nothing to stop the Tea Party-catalyzed rout.
Two of the US's most experienced and distinguished political analysts discussed what happened and why, what the midterm rebuke means for the Obama presidency and American politics, and what the future holds for Australia-US relations.
Waiting for the Preacher: Obama’s America in World Religious Context
6 September 2010
A lecture by Jack Miles, Senior Fellow for Religious Affairs with the Pacific Council on International Policy and Distinguished Professor of English and Religious Studies, University of California, Irvine.
The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris
25 August 2010
Peter Beinart, Associate Professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York, and the senior political writer for The Daily Beast in conversation with US Studies Centre Associate Professor in US Politics Brendon O'Connor. Beinart portrays three extraordinary generations: the progressives who took America into World War I, led by Woodrow Wilson, who for a moment became the closest thing to a political messiah the world had ever seen. The Camelot intellectuals who took America into Vietnam, led by Lyndon Johnson, who lay awake at night in terror that his countrymen considered him weak. And George W. Bush and the post–cold war conservatives, who believed they could simultaneously bludgeon and liberate the Middle East.
Book Launch: Financial Fraud and Guerrilla Violence in Missouri's Civil War, 1861-1865
26 July 2010
US Studies Centre postdoctoral fellow Mark W. Geiger's first book is Financial Fraud and Guerrilla Violence in Missouri's Civil War, 1861-1865. The book was launched at an event at the University of Sydney hosted by former NSW premier and current member of the Centre's Board of Directors Bob Carr. Geiger's dissertation, on which the book is based, received Columbia University's Nevins Prize, awarded by the Economic History Association.
Race in America, race in Australia: A public forum featuring Glenn Loury, Waleed Aly and Bob Carr
7 June 2010
The election in 2008 of Barack Obama as the first African-American President of the United States and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations were watersheds in the history of race relations in both countries. But political and policy tensions continue to surround African-Americans and indigenous Australians in both countries and race relations in Australia and the US span broader issues in both societies including multiculturalism, immigration, security and inequality.
Glenn Loury, one of the US’s most influential African-American public intellectuals and a distinguished economist on race and inequality, and Waleed Aly, one of Australia’s most sought after voices on multiculturalism, spoke to former NSW Premier Bob Carr about these issues at this event.
China-US relations: Partners or rivals
2 June 2010
A luncheon panel discussion to celebrate the release of the second issue of American Review at the Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong. Featuring James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly magazine and Chair in Media at the US Studies Centre; Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times and Geoffrey Garrett, CEO of the US Studies Centre and Professor of Political Science at the University of Sydney; the panel discussed "China-US relations: Partners or rivals".
Peter Katzenstein: Why the clash of civilizations is wrong
25 March 2010
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.
VIDEOS & INTERVIEWS
Dr David Smith analyses how Obama's public support of same sex marriage may affect his re-election chances.
Edward Blakely discusses his new book 'My Storm' and the lessons that Australians can learn from Hurricane Katrina.
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