In light of Tuesday's election and the ever-expanding global economy, the UCF Global Perspectives Office held a conference titled "America's Next President and the World."
The conference was held Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Student Union. About two hundred student and community members listened as speakers discussed global issues and their recommendations as to how President-elect Barack Obama should address them.
Seven speakers in all highlighted the agenda and discussed topics ranging from the global economy, U.S. international relations, human trafficking and human rights.
The speakers represented a wide range of organizations including the National Wildlife Federation, CNN, and the Center for Strategic International Relations.
The event opened with a welcome from Brandon Delanois, UCF's Student Government Association Vice President.
"Our next president, Barack Obama, will have at lot of issues to face, a lot of problems to overcome," Delanois said. "In terms of foreign policy, this forum presents an opportunity, we feel, to begin the discussion about key issues facing the United States."
A myriad topics were discussed, but a recurring theme was the United State's relationship with Asia and the Middle East. Bernard Finel, of the American Security Project performed the morning's keynote address.
Originally, James Ludes, the executive director of the American Security Project, was to perform the speech. However, upon Obama's victory, he was called back to Obama's "transition team" and was unable to give the address.
"Now, anything [Ludes] says in public or in private or anywhere is certainly attributable to President-elect Obama," Finel said. "So, he had to cancel [today's speech]."
Finel illuminated many areas of the nation's current concerns in the Middle East. He questioned who the U.S.'s allies should be in this tumultuous region and how the next president should handle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"Here I come to [the U.S.] with a message of restraint," Finel said. "It's not clear to me there is a huge benefit for the United States, being the one who twists arms, in trying to produce an agreement … because the agreement will not be universally acclaimed as peace in our time."
Former U.S. Ambassador Myles Frechette spoke on the United State's relationship with Latin America. During the speech, he recommended that the U.S., under the Obama regime, should offer economic assistance to Latin American countries.
"Our next president has an opportunity to offer cooperation that will help middle income countries in Latin America become more competitive," Frechette said. "But this assistance should be offered only after their leaders, on their own, have adopted reforms that contribute to their competitiveness."
Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, spoke on the U.S.'s relations with India and the South Asian countries.
However, she began by instructing the future administration on how it should handle the Afghanistan situation.
"It will be absolutely critical that President Obama signal immediately his willingness to dedicate the time, the resources and the leadership that is necessary to stabilize the situation [in Afghanistan]," Curtis said.
Also, Sean Snaith, UCF's Director of the Institute of Economic Competitiveness, openly showed his displeasure with the election and mocked Obama's message of hope and changed.
"I am 'hopeful' that the [economic] platform which [Obama] has laid out, particularly as it pertains to trade … will 'change,' " Snaith said.
Be the first to comment on this article!