For Man's Vast Future: The Impact of Early Atlanticist Thinkers on his Formative Years

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An address by Dr. Paul Rich, President of the Policy Studies Organization; Senior Professor in the Department of International Relations and History at the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico; Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University; past President of the International Society Phi Beta Delta; Chancellor of the General Grand Chapter of Phi Sigma Omega; and Chair of the Library Committee of the American Political Science Association. July 18, 2008.
 

Hosted by the Streit Council at the Cosmos Club, Washington, DC

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Summary

 

On the evening of July 18, 2008, the Streit Council hosted its second annual board dinner at the Cosmos Club in Washington , DC . This year's guest speaker was Paul Rich, President of The Policy Studies Organization and senior professor in the Department of International Relations and History at the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico. His talk focused on the impact of early Atlanticist thinkers on his formative years while studying at a British boarding school.

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Dr. Rich's career has revolved around the establishment and nurturing of universities outside of the United States. In Saudi Arabia, he was an Adviser to the Ministry of Higher Education and Professor at the University of Riyadh - now King Saud University. He then spent more than a decade in the Emirate of Qatar as the head of supervisory training programs at the Ministry of Education and Culture and adviser to the Crown Prince.

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Dr. Rich's recent research and scholarship analyzes the role of voluntary organizations in democratization and civil society. In particular, he is one of the world's most widely published scholars on Freemasonry and kindred groups. Not all his work concerns secret societies, and his other books include: a lengthy analysis of the rise and fall of the British rule in the Middle East; the invasions of the Gulf; two volumes on the history of the British Empire, Elixir of Empire and Chains of Empire; and a new three-volume edited collection of recent work on world policy studies.

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Opening remarks were made by Dick Henry, President of the Streit Council, whose animated vision of the past showed that the idea of Atlantic Union, much like the European Union, may not be as unlikely as some see it today. Paul Rich was introduced by Bruce Shine, Chairman of the Board.

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