Carolina Today – USC Website
University facilitates foreign policy debate with Impact ’08 conference Jan. 17
The University of South Carolina is facilitating a bipartisan political discussion by hosting a Jan. 17 event that will bring together a network of difference-makers from around the state for debate and discussion about U.S. foreign and national security policy.
“I hope that visibility would help the University expand our recognition in the region and nationally, about the strengths of our international focus.”
With the national political spotlight set to fall squarely on South Carolina in the next few weeks, Impact ’08 will have a high-profile platform from which to speak to the presidential candidates. The message: Use more diplomacy and foreign aid as non-military options, says Jason Boxt of the Center for U.S. Global Engagement, the event sponsor.
The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce and the Columbia World Affairs Council are also local sponsors. Included in the debate at Russell House University Union as a host committee are a Who’s Who of South Carolina leadership—in education, politics, business, military, non-profits, and the faith and civic communities—that is connected to many of the presidential campaigns.
Who’s coming?
But when it comes to Who’s Who, the real question is: Who among the invited presidential candidates will attend Jan. 17?
Boxt, a 1994 South Carolina graduate who is field director for Impact ’08, isn’t sure because of the ever-changing plans of the campaigns. But he says he is “hopeful” one or two candidates will show, particularly since Impact ’08 falls two days before the S.C. Republican primary—the Democratic primary is a week later, on Jan. 26.
Impact ’08 has already made stops in Iowa and New Hampshire last fall. Nine campaigns sent representatives to Iowa for a foreign policy round table—“pretty extraordinary,” Boxt says—and Joe Biden and Bill Richardson attended the event in New Hampshire; Biden made a major foreign policy speech about Pakistan.
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