The next meeting of the Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council (SECWAC) will be held Wednesday, Oct. 14, at Stoneridge Retirement Community, 186 Jerry Browne Rd, Mystic, CT. The speaker will be James Clad, who is a Senior Adviser at the Center for Naval Analyses Corporation, Arlington, Va., and consults for energy, investment, and strategic advisory firms. His presentation is titled, “The World Politics of a Changing Energy Landscape” and a reception with Clad begins at 5:30 p.m. with the presentation following at 6 p.m.
A dinner follows immediately in a dining room at Stoneridge Retirement Community for a limited number of members and guests. To attend the dinner, a reservation is required – call 860-912-5718 or email [email protected] to make your reservation.
During 2002-2010, Clad served as US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Asia, as a senior counselor at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the US Agency for International Development. From 1995-2002 he held a Luce Foundation professorship at Georgetown University and was, concurrently, Director/Asia Pacific Energy at Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA).
Trained as a lawyer in New Zealand, his career has focused on Asian commercial and security affairs, broadening after 2002 to include the Middle East. In the 1980s and 1990s he wrote for the Far Eastern Economic Review, and had fellowships from St. Antony’s College, Oxford, from the Carnegie Endowment, and from Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. He also served in the diplomatic service in New Zealand.
He has authored several books on Southeast Asia and US foreign policy, most recently a volume on political geography entitled “The Borderlands of Southeast Asia”. He received the Secretary of Defense Public Service Award in 2009, and became a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2011.
Milt Walters, SECWAC’s Chairman, indicated he was delighted an expert of James Clad’s caliber was available to shed his views on the geopolitical impact of the world’s rapidly shifting energy supplies.”
All reservations must be received 24 hours prior to the program. Bring your check for the total number of your reservations at $35 for each, payable to SECWAC. Courtney Assad will collect your check when you arrive to pick up your name tag. At the same time, you will be given dinner tickets for each reservation to be collected by the serveras confirmation of your payment. Credit card payments are also being accepted.
SECWAC is a membership organization, however, guests are welcome. Call 860-912-5718 or email [email protected] to reserve a guest pass.
In November, SECWAC will host two meetings, one at a luncheon and the other in the evening, on the topic of Cybersecurity (details to follow).
SECWAC is a regional, non-profit membership organization affiliated with the World Affairs Councils of America and fosters an understanding of issues of foreign policy and international affairs impacting America through study, debate, and educational programming. Our principal activity is to sponsor 10 Speaker Series Meetings a season. We provide a forum for nonpartisan, non-advocacy dialogue between our members and U.S. policy makers and other experts on foreign relations (http://www.secwac.org).