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Structural engineer Jon Magnusson will speak with our group about the people, airplanes, and the buildings of the WTC attack. At the time of the attack, Jon was the Chairman and CEO of Skilling Ward Magnusson Barkshire, a Seattle-based structural engineering firm that is a successor to the firm that performed the structural engineering for the WTC in the 1960’s. An expert in high-rise buildings, he served on the American Society of Civil Engineers/Federal Emergency Management Agency Building Performance Assessment Team that studied the event in the months immediately following the attack. Knowledge of the structure of the towers may help people to understand the ultimate events of that day.

While it is not possible to articulate the depth of emotion at the human loss, there may be insights not commonly reported as to exactly what happened from a physical, and physics, standpoint. Why did the towers fall? What are the right questions for society to ask? What are the implications for the future of high-rise buildings?

Jon is Senior Principal at Magnusson Klemencic Associates (the next generation successor to the WTC firm). MKA has completed projects in 48 states and 61 countries out of their Seattle office. Jon has delivered more than 300 invited lectures to groups ranging from highly technical university-level to the general public. He has also participated in more than 120 media interviews covering engineering topics – including ABC Evening News with Peter Jennings, Discovery Channel, BBC, NPR, History Channel, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Good Morning America, NBC News, and CBS News with Dan Rather. He is an Honorary Member of the national American Institute of Architects, a Distinguished Member of American Society of Civil Engineers, and a member of the both the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Construction.

Video Presentation 

Steve Roach will discuss the evolving relationship between the United States and the Peoples Republic of China. He is a senior fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute of Global Affairs and has authored the recently published book entitled Accidental Conflict – America, China and the Class of False Narratives.

Steve formerly was chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and the firm’s chief economist for the bulk of his 30-year career at Morgan Stanley, heading up a highly regarded team of economists around the world and focusing on the impact of Asia on the broader global economy. Steve has also served on the research staff of the Federal Reserve Board and was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from New York University.

Steve is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Investment Committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the China Advisory Board of the Environmental Defense Fund and the Economics Advisory Board of the University of Wisconsin.

In his new book, Accidental Conflict, Steve finds the two largest world economies in a clash of dueling and incorrect narratives that each holds about the other. Not so long ago, the U.S. and China needed each other to prop up their own flagging economies—China required external demand to support its “export-led” development strategy, while Americans relied on low-cost goods from China—but in recent years, they have undergone a trade war and a tech war. Now they face a new cold war. Both countries constantly seek economic growth, but they both have a savings problem: the Chinese have excessively high savings and low internal consumption, while Americans have little savings and high debt. In illustrating his theme of codependency, Steve breaks down the reasons behind this disparity, fed by the different “national dreams” of the two countries and the persistent “false narratives” they entertain about each other. Harkening back to the mid-1980s, U.S. officials have, for purposes of “political expediency,” often blamed China for many economic problems in the form of intellectual theft, predatory tech practices, and cyber-hacking.

The author stresses that many of these issues are overblown, and he suggests three areas of focus for conflict resolution: climate change, global health, and cybersecurity. He also suggests “re-opening foreign consulates in both countries…loosening visa restrictions for students and journalists, and restarting educational exchanges like the U.S. Fulbright Program.”

Finally, Steve delivers a thoughtful framework for moving from codependency to interdependency, involving a bilateral investment treaty and the establishment of a U.S. – China Secretariat. He concludes that “there is ample opportunity to exercise good faith.”

Video Presentation 

Mark Albertson, who is well known to DMA members as an entertaining and informative speaker and historian, will talk about the current Russo-Ukrainian War, a conflict that goes beyond the parochial confines of Putin seeking a greater Russia. It is round 3,855 in a progression that started in 1763 and is often called “The Great Game.” Today, the Great Game features the United States, Europe, Russia, China, India, and Japan.

The chessboard is the Eurasian landmass, the Middle East, Africa, and Central and South America. For these areas are where critical resources are to be found and mined: oil, gas, gold, silver, tungsten, uranium, iron ore, manganese, titanium, lithium, etc. It is this ongoing quest for resources, financial domination, and political primacy that continues to fuel conflict in the region.

Video Presentation 

World War I not only caused death and destruction to those fighting; the War’s effect on culture and thinking were catastrophic. The War marked an end to an era and, to many, the end of one of the great periods of European civilization. Psychology, culture, philosophy – all of these took dramatic turns as a result of the War. Professor Hamish’s talk will discuss the War and its ending at the Versailles Peace Conference, as well as its after-effects in the cultural, economic, and political spheres, which would ultimately result in the outbreak of global war only 20 years after the close of the “War to End All Wars.”

Hamish is an Associate Professor of History and Political Science at Capital Community College in Hartford. He has worked in some of America’s premier natural and historical sites, leading various hiking and historical programs. He has also lectured extensively in the United States, Europe, and Canada, presenting programs on wide-ranging historical topics, including Native American history, the Civil War, scientific history, social and cultural history, World War I, World War II and the American West.

Video Presentation