SYMPOSIUM ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (S.I.R.)
In an older S.I.R., in the 1990's, LWV of Weston produced this graphic for sale at Yale...topic then was Sub-Sahara Africa.

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Symposium on International Relations 2012
Coming May 14, 2012, Tuesday, at Sacred Heart University
"Globalizing the Media:  Where In The World Is The Truth?"  Click below for program, driving directions and details.

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2011 SIR flyer including details of location and how to get there, as well as registration and cost
SYMPOSIUM ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS ("S.I.R.")
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 (8:30am to 12:30pm) NEW LOCATION (see map below)
YALE WEST CAMPUS IN ORANGE, 141 FRONTAGE ROAD, BUILDING B-25 (just below and facing the biggest building ["A-21"])
LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF CONNECTICUT EDUCATION FUND, INC.

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LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF CONNECTICUT EDUCATION FUND, INC.

Save the Date:  Wednesday, April 28, 2010, 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Alumni Hall, Carl Hansen Student Center
Quinnipiac University
275 Mount Carmel Avenue
Hamden, Connecticut

The League of Women Voters of Connecticut Education Fund’s 41st Symposium on International Relations...

Women’s Participation in Society and Government: A Global Perspective - Part I

Speakers:

Wassane Zailachi, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco
Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol-Banoum, Director of Women’s Studies, Lehman College
Sylvie I. Cohen, Deputy Director, Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations

Moderator:

Nancy Ruther, MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University

The SIR is sponsored by League of Women Voters of Connecticut Education Fund, Inc., in cooperation with the Albert Schweitzer Institute, Quinnipiac University; and the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University; and is supported by attendees at the event who purchase tickets and those local Leagues who sponsor students and teachers from area high schools.

General Admission:

Adults: $25 thru mail-in registration deadline on April 20
Adults: $30 mail-ins after April 20 and at the door
Students: $10

Before April 20 please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you want to have your tickets mailed to you.

For further information, contact our office.  Phone: 203-288-7996  Fax: 203-288-7998

1890 Dixwell Avenue, Suite 203, Hamden, CT 06514-3183
Phone (203) 288-7996   Fax (203) 288-7998   e-mail lwvct@lwvct.org   Web site www.lwvct.org

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S y m p o s i u m   o n   I n t e r n a t i o n a l   R e l a t i o n s   ' 0 9

"B.R.I.C." - Brazil, Russia, India and China
http://www.lwvct.org/members/CT%20VOTER/LWVCTFallVoter2008.pdf


Dollar's days of dominance may end
Washington Times
Patrice Hill
Tuesday, September 29, 2009

World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick warned Monday that, with foreign economic powers rising quickly on the world stage, time is running out for the privileged role enjoyed by the American currency.

The dollar's status as the world's reserve currency has given the U.S. prestige and privileges that are unique in the world, lifting living standards by enabling Americans to borrow cheaply and consume far more than they produce with little consequence for decades.

"The United States would be mistaken to take for granted the dollar's place as the world's predominant reserve currency," Mr. Zoellick said in a speech to Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies in Washington. "Looking forward, there will increasingly be other options to the dollar."

Mr. Zoellick, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, noted that the world economic order established after World War II, with the United States and a handful of European countries largely dominating, is quickly coming to an end.

China is expected to displace Japan within months as the world's second-largest economy. And the U.S. and other developed nations formally recognized the growing influence of China and other major emerging countries last week by designating the Group of 20 economic powers, which includes such countries, for the first time as the world's main economic decision-making body in what analysts view as a landmark development.

"Bretton Woods is being overhauled before our eyes," said Mr. Zoellick, referring to the postwar economic summit in New Hampshire that elevated the U.S. and its dollar to the predominant role it has today and established the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to nurture world development and growth.

In the first significant change in those institutions in decades, China, Russia, India, Brazil and other major emerging countries were guaranteed greater power in the IMF and World Bank at the G-20 summit, with increases in their voting shares of at least 5 percent and 3 percent, respectively. Mr. Zoellick said the fast succession of changes in world economic governance this year were forced by the worst financial crisis and global recession in modern times.

But a new world currency regime will not happen overnight, he said. "This time, it will take longer than three weeks in New Hampshire. It will have more participants." And the United States could act to slow the erosion of the dollar, he said, referring to the dollar's decline recently on fears that the U.S. will print money to pay for its enormous budget deficits.

"U.S. prospects depend on whether it will address large deficits, recover without inflation, and overhaul its financial system," Mr. Zoellick said. "The United States has a history of recovering from setbacks."

The World Bank chief's views mirror the behind-the-scenes-talk last week at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh, where the influence of nations such as Russia who want a new reserve currency system is on the rise. The G-20 included a veiled reference in its communique to the need for the U.S. to pursue noninflationary policies and lower budget deficits to support the dollar's reserve role.  Russia, China and other emerging nations that have been the most vocal about replacing the dollar also have been in the forefront of shifting some of their sizable central bank reserves into other currencies, principally the euro. But most of these countries still retain the lion's share of their reserves in dollars.

Worldwide, central banks have been slowly shifting some of their dollar reserves into euros and other currencies, but nearly two-thirds of currency reserves remain in dollars. Moreover, two-thirds of international trade is conducted in dollars, largely because oil and other key commodities needed in every country are priced in dollars.

China, which has the world's largest reserves estimated at nearly $2 trillion, keeps most of its reserves in dollar-denominated securities such as short-term Treasury bills, analysts say. China has expressed growing uneasiness with the decline of the dollar, which has fallen 16 percent since March against the euro, resuming a downward trend since 2002 that was interrupted briefly by the financial crisis. But even these qualms have not prompted China to diversify in any major way.

China has been dabbling at arranging more international transactions in its own currency, the yuan, as well as purchasing gold and a kind of reserve currency issued by the IMF known as special drawing rights. So far, however, these represent only token departures from its dollar-dominated reserve strategy, analysts say.

For these and other reasons, most foreign exchange analysts say, the dollar is nowhere close to being supplanted as a reserve currency.

"This is mostly saber-rattling and political posturing," said Jeffrey Nichols, senior economic adviser at Rosland Capital. "Countries like China - while talking tough - have a strong interest in maintaining a stable dollar and an undervalued yuan to support exports to the U.S. and a growing economy with high employment at home." China will have to keep adding dollars to its reserves to achieve those economic goals, he said.

Karl Schamotta, an analyst at Custom House, a Canadian foreign exchange firm, said any serious move by China to diversify its estimated $1.5 trillion of dollar reserves could be devastating for the U.S. currency, but no one expects that.

"For now, the Chinese government is the largest stakeholder in the value of the dollar," he said. "As many things have changed dramatically over the last two years and economic power is rapidly shifting eastward, the United States still holds the balance of power and is not likely to give it up for some time yet."

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Was the S.I.R. Committee on to something?  You bet!
Dollar Lower After Mixed US Data, Russian Comments
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 11:38 a.m. ET
June 16, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) -- The dollar fell Tuesday after the U.S. government released a mixed batch of economic data, even while an official statement from the ''BRIC'' summit had no explicit mention of the buck.

Earlier, Russian officials had called for the creation of new reserve currencies in addition to the dollar and said the country may invest part of its currency holdings in bonds issued by Brazil, China and India.

''These proposals are based upon growing concern over the creditworthiness of the United States and the stability of the dollar amidst aggressive U.S. monetary and fiscal stimulus,'' said Michael Woolfook, senior currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon.

However, as Brazil, Russia, India and China -- the so-called BRIC group -- met in Russia, its official statement didn't refer to the dollar, relieving some fears of a formal anti-dollar proclamation stemming from the earlier comments.

The 16-nation euro rose to $1.3916 in New York morning trading from $1.3788 late Monday, while the British pound gained to $1.6460 from $1.6342.

The dollar was lower at 96.60 Japanese yen from 97.65 yen.

Meanwhile, reassuring data from the Commerce Department on wholesale prices and home construction released Tuesday helped tamp down fears of inflation and bucked up hopes of a recovery in the housing market.

The Commerce Department said that wholesale prices inched up only 0.2 percent in May from April. Prices paid by businesses have fallen 5 percent over the past year. The government also said home construction surged 17.2 percent last month.

But the Federal Reserve's report that industrial production dropped 1.1 percent in May was worse than had been estimated by analysts. Matthew Strauss, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital in Toronto, said the decline was also broader than had been expected, and not just limited to the autos sector.

While the BRIC statement had no specific reference to the dollar or the United States, instead appealing more broadly for more diversity in global financial institutions, President Dmitry Medvedev had earlier told a regional summit on Tuesday that the creation of new reserve currencies in addition to the dollar is needed to stabilize global finances.

Medvedev's economic adviser Arkady Dvorkovich also said Russia may convert some of its dollar-based reserves into bonds issued by the other BRIC countries if they reciprocate in kind. He, like Chinese officials have done, also pushed for bigger inclusion of the Russian ruble, Chinese yuan and gold to the International Monetary Fund's basket of currencies.

Officials from Russia, China and Brazil have said in recent weeks that they would invest in bonds issued by the IMF to diversify their dollar-heavy currency reserves.

China is Washington's biggest foreign creditor, holding an estimated $1 trillion in U.S. government debt. The four BRIC countries together make up almost a third of foreigners' total Treasury holdings as of April 2009, according to the Treasury Department.

The Treasury on Monday said that foreigners, including China and Japan, the two biggest buyers of U.S. government debt, cut their Treasury holdings in April -- triggering worries that foreign central banks and sovereign funds will no longer be willing to fund the U.S. government's ballooning deficits.

The dollar's status as the primary reserve currency has helped protect the U.S. government from paying more for its borrowings.

However, Dvorkovich urged for any action on a new global reserve asset to take place slowly, and Medvedev has long pushed for new reserve assets. Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said over the weekend that the dollar's status as the world's main reserve currency wasn't likely to change soon. Kudrin has been one of several top Russian officials raising concerns about the dollar in recent months.

In other trading, the dollar dropped to 1.0831 Swiss francs from 1.0928 francs late Monday, and dipped to 1.1300 Canadian dollars from 1.1337.

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Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report from Yekaterinburg, Russia

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Save the date - April 23, 2009
LOCATION:  Quinnipiac University
S.I.R. 2009 - interested?  Call LWVCT office:  203 - 288-7986 or do it online here...
REGISTRATION AND DIRECTIONS

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NEW location - not at Yale University Law School (however, still co-sponsored with Yale Center for International and Area Studies)
S.I.R.2006, Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Click for link to complete LWVCT form, including directions.

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S.I.R. 2004

35th SYMPOSIUM ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Connecticut Education Fund, Inc. in cooperation with the Yale University Center for International and Area Studies and the University of New Haven College of Arts and Sciences

Perspectives on Nation-Building