Council On Foreign

Clovis Maksoud, the Arab League's former chief representative to the United Nations and the United States, will address the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs at 6 p.m. March 9 at the World Trade Center.The title of Maksoud's talk will be "Global Challenges and Arab Responses."Maksoud teaches international relations at American University in Washington, where he is also director of the school's Center for the Global South. He was the Arab League representative from 1979 to 1990.Anyone wishing to attend his address should call the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs at 410- 727-2150.

WASHINGTON -- Congress is about to overreact to media and public disdain for excessive lobbying practices by banning all privately financed congressional travel. This is tantamount to reacting to a drive-by shooting with a federal law disallowing people to drive. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff has pleaded guilty to offenses that deserved to be punished. And Congress is right to place restrictions on lobbying practices. But in a global era, when our relationships with other countries are ever more central to U.S. policy, members of Congress should be traveling more, not less.

The 11th annual Baltimore Sun Foreign Policy Panel is to be held Jan. 10 in the Omni Inner Harbor Hotel, starting at 6 p.m. The Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs is the sponsor.Reservations are required. Membership in the council is open to the public. For more information, call 727-2150.

TODAY Harford school board The Harford County Board of Education will hold a business meeting at 7 p.m. in Aberdeen High School's Center for Educational Opportunity, 253 Paradise Road, Aberdeen. 410-838-7300. Howard County Council The Howard County Council will meet in legislative session at 7:30 p.m. in the Banneker Room, George Howard Building, 3430 Court House Drive, Ellicott City. TOMORROW Foreign policy address Shaun Donnelly, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for economics and business, will speak to the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs on "Economics in United States Foreign Policy" at 6 p.m. at the World Trade Center, 401 E. Pratt St. Admission is free to council members, $15 for nonmembers.

Vice President Dan Quayle will give a speech in Baltimore Sept. 19 on "American Foreign Policy." He will speak before the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs at the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor Hotel.The luncheon program will run from noon to 1:30 p.m. Reservations are required. Ticket information may be obtained by called the council at 727-2150.

Jonathan Lawley, director of the Royal African Society, will address the problems that affect Africa and threaten its stability at 6 p.m. Dec. 4 in the Constellation Room of the World Trade Center in Baltimore. Lawley's speech, which will include reflections on 52 years living and working in southern Africa and suggestions on the need to reassess aid programs for Africa, will be delivered before the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs. Founded in 1980, the council presents 20 speakers each year and sponsors three conferences for faculty and students, sharing them with the public on cable television.

William B. Quandt, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is to speak before the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs on Feb. 4 at 6 p.m. in the Stouffer Harborplace Hotel.Quandt, an expert on the Middle East, is to talk about what will happen "After the Gulf Crisis."Admission is free to council members and $10 for others. Call 727-2150.

Peter Zwack, Hungarian ambassador to the United States, is to discuss the changes that have taken place in Hungary. The talk, at Baltimore Grand Fiske Catering, 401 W. Fayette St., is to begin at 6 p.m. March 18.The Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs is the sponsor. Reservations are required. Membership in the council is open to the public. Call 727-2150.

Maryland social studies teachers will get a chance to question three representatives of the U.S. State Department at a conference sponsored by the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs Nov. 14 in the Constellation room of the World Trade Center.The Foreign Affairs Council will host the State Department representatives.E9 For more information, call Marci LeFevre at 727-2150.

John Anthony, president of the National Council on United States-Arab Relations, will talk about the Persian Gulf crisis on Nov. 20 at 6 p.m. in Stoffer Harborplace Hotel.His address is on "America and the Gulf Crisis: Why Should One Care?"Anthony, who is considered an expert on the Middle East, also is president of the Society for Gulf Arab studies and is a consultant to the U.S. government.His address is being sponsored by the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs. The public is invited.

WASHINGTON - A peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians reached with help from the United States would deprive Islamic extremists of perhaps their strongest anti-American arguments and have a therapeutic impact on the strained relations between Washington and traditional European allies such as France and Germany, regional analysts say. The Palestinian issue has always been the "Rosetta stone," the key to unlocking the puzzle, of the Arab-Israeli...

THE UNITED States should have had more troops in Iraq after the fall of Baghdad to establish order and prevent looting, says L. Paul Bremer III, who had just shown up in the Green Zone back in May 2003 to take charge of the place as American administrator. He now says he wishes he had argued that point more forcefully. This isn't exactly a brilliant new insight. Plenty of people were saying exactly that at the time, as crowds ransacked offices, stores, museums, banks, oil rigs, weapons depots and nuclear installations.

WESTERN HOWARD County Senior Center in Glenwood has plenty of interesting activities to offer local residents. On Tuesday, a group of seniors met for "Breakfast and Bingo," paying a suggested $2 contribution to enjoy the blueberry pancakes and syrup, sausage and coffee, with an hour of bingo for dessert. Betty Frey, director of the center, worked diligently cooking and serving the meals, with help from a volunteer. Aubrey Davis of West Friendship has attended the breakfast three times.

Jonathan Lawley, director of the Royal African Society, will address the problems that affect Africa and threaten its stability at 6 p.m. Dec. 4 in the Constellation Room of the World Trade Center in Baltimore. Lawley's speech, which will include reflections on 52 years living and working in southern Africa and suggestions on the need to reassess aid programs for Africa, will be delivered before the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs. Founded in 1980, the council presents 20 speakers each year and sponsors three conferences for faculty and students, sharing them with the public on cable television.

WASHINGTON -- It would be an ironic twist of history, but U.S. alarm over the explosion of drug production in Colombia could do what legions of free trade lobbyists have failed to do -- persuade Congress to expand trade preferences to Latin American countries. A soon-to-be-released bipartisan study on U.S. policy toward Colombia by the Council on Foreign Relations, an influential foreign policy interest group, concludes among other things that the U.S. government should "expand trade preferences to help Colombia's economy recover" from its current recession.

WASHINGTON -- The prestigious Chicago Council on Foreign Relations issued a survey the other day on how Americans rate the 10 American presidents since the end of World War II on their conduct of foreign policy.No. 1, astonishingly, was William Jefferson Clinton. John F. Kennedy, who stared down the nuclear barrel in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, came in second.Ronald Reagan, who achieved notable nuclear arms control pacts with the Soviet Union and, his supporters contend, forced it into bankruptcy, was third.

WASHINGTON -- It would be an ironic twist of history, but U.S. alarm over the explosion of drug production in Colombia could do what legions of free trade lobbyists have failed to do -- persuade Congress to expand trade preferences to Latin American countries. A soon-to-be-released bipartisan study on U.S. policy toward Colombia by the Council on Foreign Relations, an influential foreign policy interest group, concludes among other things that the U.S. government should "expand trade preferences to help Colombia's economy recover" from its current recession.

WASHINGTON -- Congress is about to overreact to media and public disdain for excessive lobbying practices by banning all privately financed congressional travel. This is tantamount to reacting to a drive-by shooting with a federal law disallowing people to drive. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff has pleaded guilty to offenses that deserved to be punished. And Congress is right to place restrictions on lobbying practices. But in a global era, when our relationships with other countries are ever more central to U.S. policy, members of Congress should be traveling more, not less.

NEW YORK -- A national survey astonishingly reports that a majority of Americans say that President Clinton is the greatest of America's postwar presidents -- so far as foreign policy is concerned.The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations has surveyed American opinion on foreign policy matters every four years since 1974, providing a significant and useful series of portraits of what the public, as well as a selected group of leaders concerned with foreign affairs, thinks about the country's international policies.

Clovis Maksoud, the Arab League's former chief representative to the United Nations and the United States, will address the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs at 6 p.m. March 9 at the World Trade Center.The title of Maksoud's talk will be "Global Challenges and Arab Responses."Maksoud teaches international relations at American University in Washington, where he is also director of the school's Center for the Global South. He was the Arab League representative from 1979 to 1990.Anyone wishing to attend his address should call the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs at 410- 727-2150.