World Affairs Council
In early February I made a presentation before the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia entitled “Energy and the Global Economy.”Every year the Council participates in the Foreign Policy Association's ‘Great Decisions’ program, and this year had a series of speakers about Afghanistan and Pakistan; Cuba after Castro; and the U.S. and Rising Powers.I was the first week’s speaker, addressing energy – and we had a chance to cover quite a wide range of energy concerns in the talk and Q&A, including ‘peak oil’, cellulosic ethanol production, and all those other fun topics that are usually well outside my regular purview -- (except, of course, in my Energy class, where the poor students are always worried that such musings might make it onto the final exam!)We even discussed George Friedman’s ideas about space-based solar collection systems, a topic covered in his fascinating new book The Next Hundred Years.Friedman runs Stratfor, a company sometimes called “the private-sector’s CIA,” and my morning routine at the UN always included a thought-provoking Stratfor update.