The first speaker of the day was Jeffrey Mankoff, the deputy director and fellow with the CSIS Russia and Eurasia program. He gave us a background of the Russia and Ukraine situation, starting back with the basics. He spoke about the evolution of the city of Moscow, and the expansion of Poland into Ukraine.
He explained how Ukraine became an extremely divided society and how Russia feels that Ukraine is Russian while the Ukraine wants to be independent. Mr. Mankoff also spoke about the religious divide in the Ukraine, between the Catholic and Eastern Russian Orthodox. Here's another interesting fact: The country was named after the word "ukraina" from the Old East Slavic language, which translates roughly to "borderland."
The next speaker was Carl Meacham. He spoke with us about Venezula and its oil exports. He explained how they are a price hock, meaning they aggresively raise prices and only lower them for political favors. The Columbian-based terrorist group FARC has control over most of the country's oil exports, and gains most of its support from cartels and drug buyers.
Back when the U.S. government was under Clinton, there was an initiative put in place to help with the drug problem in Columbia. This was to protect American interest in the Venezuelan oil industry. 60% of Venezuela's oil income is from America. America wanted to maintain stability with oil exports, but Venezuela wanted to maintain its FARC supported income. This information was incredibly useful in our simulation (yes...foreshadowing).
After Mr. Meacham, Ms. Carolyn Barnett spoke with us about Egypt. She spoke about the current condition of Libya. These conditions include their ports being blocked and their profits down 70%. She also talked about the effects of the new Egyptian constitution resulting from the uprisings in 2011. One of the new stipulations is that the Egyptian military can try civilians. This is interesting considering the majority of the violence in this country is towards state institutions, including the government officials, police, and even policymakers.
This day was an incredible exposure to the situations across the globe that were previously unkown to me.
He explained how Ukraine became an extremely divided society and how Russia feels that Ukraine is Russian while the Ukraine wants to be independent. Mr. Mankoff also spoke about the religious divide in the Ukraine, between the Catholic and Eastern Russian Orthodox. Here's another interesting fact: The country was named after the word "ukraina" from the Old East Slavic language, which translates roughly to "borderland."
The next speaker was Carl Meacham. He spoke with us about Venezula and its oil exports. He explained how they are a price hock, meaning they aggresively raise prices and only lower them for political favors. The Columbian-based terrorist group FARC has control over most of the country's oil exports, and gains most of its support from cartels and drug buyers.
Back when the U.S. government was under Clinton, there was an initiative put in place to help with the drug problem in Columbia. This was to protect American interest in the Venezuelan oil industry. 60% of Venezuela's oil income is from America. America wanted to maintain stability with oil exports, but Venezuela wanted to maintain its FARC supported income. This information was incredibly useful in our simulation (yes...foreshadowing).
After Mr. Meacham, Ms. Carolyn Barnett spoke with us about Egypt. She spoke about the current condition of Libya. These conditions include their ports being blocked and their profits down 70%. She also talked about the effects of the new Egyptian constitution resulting from the uprisings in 2011. One of the new stipulations is that the Egyptian military can try civilians. This is interesting considering the majority of the violence in this country is towards state institutions, including the government officials, police, and even policymakers.
This day was an incredible exposure to the situations across the globe that were previously unkown to me.