What does the world admire about America? Science and technology, higher education, consumer products — but not, it seems, freedom and democracy. These ideals are in global retreat, contends Martha Bayles, in part because American “soft power” is itself retreating from the hostile propaganda from terrorist groups and authoritarian regimes. Bayles has explored this problem in 20 different countries and offers some striking insights.

In a turbulent world, she believes Americans cannot afford to turn inward. But neither can the U.S. rely entirely on its economic and military "hard power," says Bayles. It must also use "soft power." But to do that successfully, we need to understand how difficult—how "hard"—the use of soft power has become, in a world where U.S. adversaries are highly skilled in using propaganda and deploying 21st-century media.

Bayles is a nationally known cultural critic and the author of Through a Screen Darkly: Popular Culture, Public Diplomacy, and America’s Image Abroad (Yale 2014). A regular contributor to the Boston Globe, Weekly Standard, American Interest, and Claremont Review of Books, she is currently a visiting fellow at Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and an associate professor of the practice of the humanities at Boston College. (Photo credit: Kris Brewer)

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View Video: YouTube with Martha Bayles

The second annual Dreier RoundTable (DRt) will focus on the constitutional roots of political conflict in American politics. A panel of experts, including former Congressman David Dreier '75, Tom Campbell, dean of the Dale E. Fowler School of Law at Chapman University, and Thomas Mann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution will deliberate competing visions of the Constitution, how they contribute to our current polarized politics, and contrast this with the work of James Madison, the chief architect of the Constitution. Can building a consensus on the Constitution help us to find our way out of the gridlock of hyper-partisanship, and improve trust in American institutions like Congress, the Presidency, the courts, and administrative agencies? Zachary Courser, research director of the Dreier RoundTable and visiting assistant professor of government at CMC, will moderate the discussion.

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Henri Cole has published nine collections of poetry, including Middle Earth, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. He has received many awards for his work, including the Jackson Prize, the Kingsley Tufts Award, the Rome Prize, the Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Lenore Marshall Award. His most recent collection, Nothing to Declare, was published by last spring. He teaches at Claremont McKenna College.

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Mathematics occupies a unique place among the vast variety of academic disciplines: it can be classified as both an art and a science. Its natural symmetry, elegant logic, and intrinsic beauty of arguments and constructions make it appear as a very sophisticated art form. Equally compelling, deep and seemingly abstract mathematical ideas prove to be exceptionally applicable. In modern times, the process of mathematical discovery is at the heart of both fundamental intellectual pursuit and technological innovation.

CMC mathematicians professors Asuman Aksoy P'07, Lenny Fukshansky, Blake Hunter, and Chiu-Ken Kao will explore some of the remarkable problems and ideas in several branches of modern mathematics, such as analysis, applied mathematics, statistics, and number theory. These, among other areas in math, significantly impact human activity, from natural sciences to engineering and computer science, digital communications to artificial intelligence, and many others. The panelists will also incorporate their work and research into the discussion.

View Video: YouTube with Math for the New Millennium

Michael W. McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is a leading authority on freedom of speech and religion, the relation of individual rights to government structure, originalism, and various other aspects of constitutional history and constitutional law.

The framers of the United States Constitution had many models to draw on for the executive of the new American republic—most of them bad, says McConnell. But in the 240 years since the founding of the U.S., he believes we have drifted toward an understanding of the executive power none of the original framers imagined—whether for starting war or for administering peace. In his Athenaeum talk, McConnell will argue that it is time for us to think about the limits, if indeed there are any.

Professor McConnell's Athenaeum talk is the inaugural lecture of the Charles Lofgren Program in Constitutionalism through the Salvatori Center at CMC.

View Video: YouTube with Michael McConnell

Ted Rall is the first American political cartoonist to break out of the underground weekly newspaper scene into major mainstream newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and the Los Angeles Times. He is also an award-winning author and columnist whose works include groundbreaking journalism from Afghanistan and Central Asia, political polemics, and seminal graphic novels.

Rall won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for his cartoons in 1995 and 2000. In 1996 he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. In 2011 Rall won the Alternative Weeklies Award and was a finalist in the Scripps-Howard Journalism Awards for the daily cartoon blog he filed from the front lines of the war in Afghanistan. In 2008-09 he was elected President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoons, the first and only of his generation of "young Turk" alternative cartoonists to be chosen by his colleagues for the position.

Rall is the editor-in-chief of SkewedNews.net, as well as an author, columnist and war correspondent. He is a former staff editorial cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. His most recent books are Snowden and After We Kill You, We Will We Welcome You Back as Honored Guests.

Mr. Rall's Athenaeum talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Public Writing and Discourse. 

View Video: YouTube with Ted Rall

Adrienne Martin is the Akshata Murty '02 and Rishi Sunak Associate Professor of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College. She is the author if How We Hope: A Moral Psychology (2014) and several journal articles on moral emotions. She is currently writing a book examining interpersonal hope, Hope in Humanity, and editing The Routledge Handbook of Love in Philosophy. If a promise seems to invite trust, yet is binding even on an untrustworthy individual, Martin explores when and why trusting and promising come together, and come apart.

Professor Martin's Athenaeum presentation is part of her installation ceremony as the Akshata Murty '02 and Rishi Sunak Associate Professor of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

View Video: YouTube with Adrienne Martin

As the first of a two-part panel discussion sponsored by CMC’s public art committee and the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies, this session will explore the relationship between art, architecture, and the campus. Internationally recognized artists, curators, and scholars will join curator Philipp Kaiser and Professor Robert Faggen to explore these themes and formally launch Claremont McKenna’s public art initiative.

Panelists include Miwon Kwon, professor of art history, UCLA; Oscar Tuazon, artist in sculpture, architecture and mixed media; Jorge Pardo, artist in sculpture; and Rochelle Steiner, writer, curator, and public art producer and former dean of USC's Roski School of Fine Arts.

This event is sponsored by the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies.

NOTE: This program will start with a reception at 5 p.m. Dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m. The formal program will begin at 6 p.m. The presentation by the panelists will be followed by a moderated discussion and a Q & A.

Debórah Dwork is the Rose Professor of Holocaust History and director of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University. She is a leading authority on university education in this field, as well as in her area of scholarship, the Holocaust. Her award-winning books include Children With A Star, Auschwitz, and Flight from the Reich. The recipient of many prestigious fellowships, Dwork is a member of the U.S. delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Dwork is currently engaged in two projects. Saints and Liars focuses on Americans — Quakers, Unitarians, secular people, Jews — who traveled to Europe to aid and, step by step, engaged in rescuing people targeted by Nazi Germany and its allies.

In her Athenaeum talk, Dwork asks: To whom did hidden Jewish children belong at war’s end? Who made that decision? And how did the children experience the paths others determined for them?

Professor Dwork’s Athenaeum presentation is sponsored by the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights.

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Steve McGann '73 is a retired U.S. ambassador and a senior advisor of the Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy at the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, D.C. His principal responsibilities at NDU include developing curriculum for implementation of the U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security, the Joint Land Air Sea Strategic Program (JLASS), as well as lecturing on State-Defense Coordination. He previously served as the United States Ambassador to the Republics of Fiji, Nauru, Kiribati, and the Kingdom of Tonga and Tuvalu (2008-11). McGann was assigned as Chargé d’Affaires (ad interim) of the United States Embassy in Dili, Timor-Leste (2014). His achievements center on democracy-building, law enforcement cooperation, maritime security, humanitarian assistance, disaster response and the expansion of U.S. diplomatic presence in the Pacific. McGann is a graduate of CMC and serves on the College's Board of Trustees.

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View Video: YouTube with Steven McGann '73