BRATTLEBORO — On Friday, Feb. 21, at 118 Elliot in downtown Brattleboro, Windham World Affairs Council will present a debate titled “Can Democracy Be Saved? (and Why Bother?)”
Two prominent residents of Walpole, N.H., Ambassador Adrian Basora and Dr. Andrew Wilking, will debate this question of urgent concern. After their debate, there will be ample time for questions and dialogue.
Basora is a trustee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute and co-chairs its Eurasia Program and its Project on Democratic Transitions. He served as U.S. Ambassador in Prague and worked closely with Czech and Slovak leaders during their transitions to democracy.
In addition, he served at the National Security Council where he helped design the U.S. programs of support for the post-communist transitions to democracy. His Foreign Service career also included assignments in Latin America, Romania, France, and Spain.
Basora is the principal author of the 2017 volume entitled Does Democracy Matter? The United States and Global Democracy Support. The work provides the conclusions of 11 scholars from widely different backgrounds who ask whether the U.S. should support democracy beyond its own borders and, if so, how it should do so.
Wilking, in addition to his medical career, has long been a student of history with special interests in American and English history. He specialized in pediatrics and pediatric rheumatology and spent most of his career at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He recently retired, becoming professor emeritus of pediatrics.
The public is invited to join what promises to be a lively and thought-provoking evening. There will be coffee, tea, and conversation starting at 7 p.m., and the debate will begin at 7:30 p.m.
For more information about this and other WWAC events, visit www.windhamworldaffairscouncil.org.