FIU Geopolitical Summit draws thousands

Scenes from last Tuesday’s Geopolitical Summit.

MIAMI (Feb. 26, 2009) More than 2,000 people on Tuesday attended Florida International University’s Geopolitical Summit, which brought together four of the world’s foremost foreign policy and international relations experts to discuss America’s changing role in the world.

“As President Barack Obama sets a new course for America’s foreign policy, this is the perfect time to discuss the aspirations, challenges and possibilities of our foreign policy, as well as analyze our role in the world,” said FIU President Modesto A. Maidique. “The summit underscores FIU’s commitment to international studies and to making ‘international’ a part of each student’s experience. This commitment is exemplified by our newly-created School of International and Public Affairs, whose faculty members were among the esteemed panelists at the summit.”

The one-day summit, titled “America and the Rising Powers” took place in the Graham Center Ballrooms at FIU-University Park, 11200 SW 8^th St., Miami. The summit’s presenting sponsor was the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, its corporate sponsor was AT&T and its media sponsor was The Miami Herald. The supporting sponsors were FIU’s College of Arts & Sciences, College of Business and Center for Leadership.

“The summit showcased the best of the academy: we saw high-level intellect applied to complex issues,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. “The debate was thorough and free, as it should be in our democracy.”

The summit’s featured speakers were:

Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University, director of SAIS’ International Development program and chairman of the editorial board of the magazine The American Interest.Fukuyama has written widely on issues relating to questions concerning political and economic development.


Robert Kagan, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund. Kagan writes a monthly column on world affairs for the Washington Post, and is a contributing editor at both the Weekly Standard and the New Republic. He is listed as one of the world’s “Top 100 Public Intellectuals” by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines.


Parag Khanna, director of the Global Governance Initiative and Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, one of the nation’s most respected think tanks. During 2007 Khanna served as a senior geopolitical advisor to United States Special Operations Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has coined or pioneered such terms as Geodiplomacy, Bollystan, Second World, and Multi-Americanism.


Fareed Zakaria, is editor of Newsweek International, overseeing all Newsweek‘s editions abroad. He also writes a regular column for Newsweek, which also appears in Newsweek International and The Washington Post. He is the host of Fareed Zakaria GPS, a new foreign affairs show on CNN Worldwide.

The speakers anchored plenary sessions that incorporated panel discussions made up of FIU professors. Many students also participated in the open forum.

The Geopolitical Summit also served as the official debut of FIU’s School of International and Public Affairs. Known as SIPA, the school brings together international, governmental, and social sciences with the goal of deepening understanding of an increasingly global society.

SIPA includes undergraduate and graduate programs in political science, international relations, public administration, geography, sociology, anthropology and criminal justice, as well as centers, institutes and other programs.

For more information on the summit, please visit http://summit.fiu.edu. For more information about SIPA, visit: http://international.fiu.edu.

Media contact: Madeline Baró at 305-348-2234.

-FIU-

About FIU:
Florida International University was founded in 1965 and is Miami’s only public research university. With a student body of more than 38,000, FIU graduates more Hispanics than any other university in the country. Its 17 colleges and schools offer more than 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations and law. FIU has been classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a “High Research Activity University.” In 2006 FIU was authorized to establish a medical school, which will welcome its first class in 2009. FIU’s College of Law recently received accreditation in the fastest time allowed by the American Bar Association.