Thursday, May 31, 2012, ARAB SPRING OR ARAB FREEZE:  Prospects for Democracy in the Arab World, Larry Diamond, author and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Co-Sponsored with the United Nations Association Sonoma County Chapter

7:30 p.m., Spring Lake Village Auditorium

5555 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa

Since the beginning of 2011, the Arab world has been seized by a series of popular uprisings seeking human dignity, political accountability, and freedom. Arab authoritarian regimes have come under challenge as never before and already several prominent autocrats have fallen. Some regimes have responded with efforts at reform, others with naked repression. What are the prospects for democratic change in the region, and the implications for U.S. foreign policy? 

Larry Diamond directs the Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, and is Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Stanford University. The founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy, he is a Senior Consultant at the National Endowment for Democracy, and has advised and lectured to the World Bank, the United Nations, and the State Department. His latest book is The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World.

Friday June 15, 2012, RUSSIA AFTER THE ELECTIONS: What Lies Ahead? Andrei Tsygankov, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, San Francisco State University.

Noon, Fountaingrove Inn, Camelot Room

101 Fountaingrove Parkway, Santa Rosa

(enter from Mendocino Avenue).

Members $25; Visitors $30

Reservations required by June 8

After two decades of post-Soviet development, Russia is again at a critically important juncture. With the Russian presidential elections behind us, several factors will determine Russia's ability to modernize its economy and political system. Among these factors, intra-elite struggle, public protest and international stability, will be especially important.

Andrei P. Tsygankov is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at San Francisco State University. He is a graduate of Moscow State University (Candidate of Sciences, 1991) and the University of Southern California (Ph.D. 2000). He has published widely in Western and Russian academia and is the author of two books, "Russia's Foreign Policy; Change and Continuity in National Identity"(2006) and "Whose World Order? Russia's Perception of American Ideas After The Cold War" (2004) as well as numerous articles. He is a regular contributor to Russia Profile's, a weekly panel of Russian experts.

Thursday, June 28, 2012,  REACHING THE NEXT BILLIONS: IT Adoption in Emerging Markets, John Davies, V.P. Intel World Ahead

 7:30 p.m. Spring Lake Village Auditorium

 5555 Montgomery Drive, Santa Rosa

Members and SLV free; Visitors $5  

John Davies, a resident of Sonoma, is Vice-President of  Intel World Ahead, a division of the Intel Corporation. This group is dedicated to socially and economically improving the lives of the next billion people around the world by working with industry, governments, and development agencies to provide easy access to the internet.

Davies, who has traveled to more than 100 countries around the world on this project, will describe his experiences and explain how the internet can change the lives of the world’s disadvantaged.

John Davies has been at Intel since 1978 and has worked in various senior engineering, marketing, and management positions. He has been Director of Marketing for the Mobile Computing Group and VP/Marketing director for the Consumer Desktop Products group. In the late 90’s, Davies was VP and General Manager of Intel Asia Pacific Region, based in Hong Kong. Davies received his B.S. in chemistry and his Ph.D. in solid state physics from the Imperial College, London University.