__Democracy conference to convene in Williamsburg, scheduled to host sessions at William and Mary Hall__
p. The World Forum on the Future of Democracy will take place in Williamsburg Sept. 16 to 18 and will include a day session at William & Mary Hall.
p. The forum will be held at the Colonial Williamsburg Conference Center.
p. “The World Forum on the Future of Democracy is the culminating event of the year-long International Conference Series on the Foundations and Future of Democracy,” according to the website for the series and the forum.
p. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and former U.K. Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair are the Honorary Chairs of the Democracy Conference Series.
There is a possibility that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ’65 will attend the event, according to Charles Center Director Joel Schwartz.
p. The Sept. 17 session at William & Mary Hall is called “The Future of Democracy: Why Does It Matter?” and will be hosted by Jim Lehrer, executive editor and news anchor for the PBS show The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
p. Panelists for the first Jim Lehrer session, “Developing a Structure for Deliberative Democracy – The Framers’ Debate,” include two Pulitzer Prize authors, History Professors Gordon Wood from Brown University and Joseph Ellis ‘65 from Mount Holyoke College. Hunter R. Rawlings III, President Emeritus of Cornell University, will also sit on the panel.
p. Lehrer is also moderating a session called “Has America Kept The Founders’ Faith? Is It Working?” This session’s panelists are the Honorable Thomas Foley, 57th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, former U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr, New York Times columnist David Brooks, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs, Robert Hormat and Joan Brown Campbell, the department of religion director at Chautauqua Institution.
p. In the afternoon, the moderator will switch to Walter Isaacson, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. His session, “Are America’s Founding Principles Relevant in a Global Age?” will host panelists such as Steven Heintz, President of Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Kumi Naidoo, secretary general and CEO of CIVICUS and Choi Young-Jin, for the Republic of Korea to the United Nations.
The luncheon speaker and the public session speaker are still to be announced.
p. Mitchell Reiss, the College’s vice provost for international affairs, will be a panelist for a session Sept. 18 entitled “Terrorism and Security.”
p. Reiss was the dean of the Reves Center for International Studies at the College before becoming director of policy planning in the State Department under former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Reiss was also the envoy to Northern Ireland.
p. “His academic expertise, actually, is North Korea … He happens to be at [the College] now, but he’s … very logical for the panel,” Schwartz said.
p. The Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission, a federal commission funded by Congress, is in charge of the forum; they were in charge of the format and the invitations.
p. The College did not organize the forum, but Schwartz was asked to coordinate the involvement of students and faculty in the event.
p. Students, faculty and staff may obtain tickets for the Jim Lehrer session at William & Mary Hall at the University Center Information Desk between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. both today and tomorrow.
