NEWS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2015
THE HOYA
A5
Chess Champion Talks BBC Head Discusses Media Russian Democracy WILL DAVIS & SYED HUMZA MOINUDDIN
LISA BURGOA Hoya Staff Writer
Russian pro-democracy activist and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov encouraged Western countries to enact assertive foreign policies against Russia in a speech in the Intercultural Center Auditorium on Thursday. The event, titled “Garry Kasparov on the Rise and Fall of Russian Democracy and Why It Matters to America and the World,” was part of Kasparov’s promotional tour for his latest book, “Winter is Coming,” a critique of the Putin regime. The Lecture Fund organized the event and distributed free copies of the book to the event’s first 150 attendees. Kasparov, who became the youngest undisputed world chess champion in 1985 at 22 years old, described the contrast between his former role as an emblem of the Soviet Union’s intellectual superiority to the West decades ago and his current dissidence against the Russian government. “When people ask me about my chess skills and how useful they are in navigating the hot waters of Russian politics, my answer is that they were absolutely useless,” Kasparov said. “Because in chess, you have strict rules with unpredictable results, while in Putin’s Russia it is exactly the opposite.” Kasparov advocated for an interventionist foreign policy in order to preserve global economic interests and protect global security. According to Kasparov, the failure of the United States and its allies to intercede on behalf of democracy in Russia could potentially manifest in greater aggression from its leader. “I’ve read enough history books to know that appeasement has killed more people than deterrence,” Kasparov said. “The lesson from history is that the weakness always provokes foreign aggression. Strength is vital in dealing with dictators, and hopefully the free world will step up to the challenge.” Kasparov criticized American foreign policy for its failure to provide a united front in quelling the expansion of Putin’s power. He said that the lack of bipartisan consensus within the United States runs contrary to the politics of the Cold War era, which saw common goals among Democrats and Republicans. “It comes down to making excuses and backing away from challenges,” Kasparov said. “Don’t tell me that Vladimir Putin is more dangerous than Josef Stalin in 1948. … Every day Putin
stays in power, the drier the political desert in Russia. And who can survive in a political desert? Only creatures like snakes and rats and scorpions.” Benjamin Forestier (MSB ’16), who organized the event as an associate board member of the Lecture Fund, said he studied Kasparov’s techniques to implement in his own gaming strategies as a chess player of 15 years. He said Kasparov’s advocacy work compelled him to pursue inviting Kasparov to campus since June. “Georgetown is a Jesuit university, and though we are supposedly men and women for others, I think the biggest risk we face as students is getting too comfortable,” Forestier said. “With Mr. Kasparov, we have somebody with a brilliant mind and extraordinary achievements who left his comfort zone, who pulled himself out of safety in order to contribute to something he believes is the greater good.” Nick Shedd (SFS ’18), who hauled his chess set to the lecture to have it signed by Kasparov, said although he had reservations about Kasparov’s foreign policy, he was swayed by his account of political oppression in Russia. “I honestly came because I saw a post on Facebook that Kasparov was signing chessboards, and I thought that was awesome,” Shedd said. “I stayed because hearing his story and getting that insider perspective about the workings in Putin’s government was very cool, and it’s something we talked about a lot in my Russian class last year.” Alejandro Perez-Reyes (COL ’17), a government and Russian double major, said Kasparov’s analysis oversimplified the current state of Russian affairs by attributing developments to Vladimir Putin alone, rather than to millions of processes, procedures and interests. “In my view, he made the Russian government synonymous with Putin’s desires, and when you think about it in context, there are Russian bureaucratic agencies — different power actors — who influence what Russia does,” Perez-Reyes said. Despite this limitation, Perez-Reyes said Kasparov offered a convincing argument in laying out a moral framework for U.S. foreign policy. “I don’t think I will ever hear that kind of experience or perspective voiced with as much moral authority,” Perez-Reyes said. “I don’t think we can forget about that and still say that U.S. foreign policy is morally justified at all, because if we do that, we are turning our backs on people who really need our help.”
Special to The Hoya & Hoya Staff Writer
BBC Worldwide North America President Ann Sarnoff (GSB ’83) emphasized the importance of reimagining content in an era of mass media consumption at the Fisher Colloquium in the Rafik B. Hariri Building on Thursday. The Georgetown University Women’s Leadership Institute organized the event, titled “The Evolution of Television.” GUWLI Director Catherine Tinsley moderated the discussion. GUWLI, which was founded in 2003, is a joint initiative between the Office of the President and the McDonough School of Business dedicated to empowering female leaders in the business sector through scientific insight and data-driven knowledge. Sarnoff, who previously worked for Nickelodeon and Dow Jones, is known for bringing an entrepreLAUREN SEIBEL FOR THE HOYA neurial and innovative spirit into the workplace. She was respon- President of the BBC Worldwide North America Ann Sarnoff (GSB sible for large marketing and sales ’83) discussed the future of television at an event Thursday. projects that diversified the BBC’s content department and currently want it, on demand. … Consumers Sarnoff further elaborated works to address the future of televi- don’t like to wait for anything.” upon her own principles of leadsion and content consumption. With the amount of choice ership and building an efficient Sarnoff said that her goal at modern-day consumers now have, team. She also acknowledged crethe BBC is to address millennials Sarnoff said that there is a new ativity as the center of all innovaand the way they are constantly emphasis on being first to market tion and progress in her industry. redefining the concept of televi- with higher-quality products. “I also believe, in order to bring sion and media. “[Consumers] want more exclu- innovation into a culture, that “Millennials are the cord-cut- sive programming that you won’t you should reward failure and ters because they grew up on the see on any other service,” Sarnoff punish inaction,” Sarnoff said. Internet, watching things on their said. “Netflix is a prime example “Celebrating and learning what computers and on smartphones,” of this trend. … This changes our we do wrong allows better deciSarnoff said. “The state of televi- economics as content providers sions going forward. Through sion is in a very exciting state of because now we have a different this attitude, I was able to help influx because at companies such as way to monetize shows. Not only spire my teams to make progress BBC, we are content creators.” can we sell to traditional cable and and think creatively.” According to Sarnoff, this rei- network providers, but also these William Treanor (COL ’19) said magining of television is indica- services for first windows.” he appreciated Sarnoff’s insights tive of the growing power of comAnother key point of the conver- on both the television market panies such as Netflix, Hulu and sation was the progress of content and the role creativity plays in Amazon, especially as major tele- consumption in developing coun- her leadership. vision providers have begun sell- tries. According to Sarnoff, the evo“It was incredibly interesting ing their shows directly to these lution of television has not been to see how the shows we watch sites as a form of direct release. equal in all countries as states often on TV or Netflix represent such Referring to this growth in the lack the infrastructure to adapt to a small fraction of the worldwide quantity and means of distribution data-intensive television practices. market and reflects the decisions of television, Sarnoff acknowledged Sarnoff said content produc- made by a small group of individthe importance of consumer choice ers are still seeing rapid develop- uals,” Treanor said. and demand in an age in which ments in these countries, in spite Joseph Stabile (SFS ’19) said consumers have increasing liberty of the lack of infrastructure. that Sarnoff offered a unique to change content providers quickly. “Video is very data-intensive perspective on the issue of con“A lot of British programming and hard to get across networks … tent consumption as a female … is high quality, and we feel very so it really is about the infrastruc- media executive. confident that as television con- ture,” Sarnoff said. “Developing “I found it really interesting to tinues to evolve on multiple plat- countries develop the infrastruc- hear her position on the evoluforms, [BBC content] will rise to the ture and leapfrog the Western tion of television as technology top,” Sarnoff said. “But all consum- way of rolling out television net- advances [and] her insights as a ers now have ultimate choice to works, jumping straight into the woman in a high-ranking busichoose what to watch when you on-demand content.” ness position,” Stabile said.
Balance the books. Meet student leaders. Make best friends.
Visit the newest restaurants. Design a website. Write the most shared blog post. Fix our grammar.
BECOME A PART OF A TRADITION THAT’S 95 YEARS IN THE MAKING.
JOIN
Come to our open house Sunday, Sept. 13 from 8 to 10 p.m. in Leavey 421 to find out more about joining Georgetown’s newspaper of record. Apply by Monday, Sept. 14 at 5 p.m.
FIND THE APPLICATION AT thehoya.com/join