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Meeting Wednesday August 5th 2020, 9:45 am
Citizens' Centre
College Road
Northcote
Guest Speaker:
Associate Professor Stephen Hoadley
BSc (Purdue), MA (California State), PhD (California)
Topic: Pandemics and Their Influence on Geopolitics
Throughout history upsurges of diseases have compelled significant geopolitical shifts as well as economic and social changes. Only in the last century have humans appeared to prevail over diseases such as smallpox, malaria, and polio…but new ones keep attacking us! This talk reviews some of the geopolitical consequences of past epidemics from the Roman Empire to the British Empire. It then speculates that the current coronavirus will have perverse effects, in part because of the way President Trump and President Xi are managing it.
Professor Stephen Hoadley is a veteran university teacher, academic author, media commentator, and public speaker. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland. American-born and raised, he studied political science in California, earning a doctorate. He served in the US Navy, and is now an Honorary Captain in the Royal New Zealand Navy. Early in his career, he practiced journalism in Asia, and still contributes media commentary; and taught at universities in St. Louis, Hong Kong, and Kobe (Japan). He settled in New Zealand in 1972.
Steve is an Honorary Professor of the New Zealand Defence Force Command and Staff College. He is a Life Member and National Council member of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs (Wellington), and Corresponding Editor of
New Zealand International Review
(Wellington). He was formerly Contributing Editor of
Political Handbook of the World
(Washington DC).
Steve is married to Wyn, and they have two adult children and three grandchildren. He welcomes questions from the audience.
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